APA Referencing: A Quick Guide

While conducting research, information of various kinds is acquired, assimilated, and transformed from different sources. It may be primary or secondary, qualitative, or quantitative in nature or a combination of all of them. The objective of the research is to create new bodies of knowledge. However, it is essential for all ethical researcher, scholar or academic in any field to acknowledge the “giants” on whose shoulders one stands. Past works related to your research must therefore be attributed due credit and acknowledgement either by reproducing prior research in verbatim (in quotes) or in a paraphrased form. In either format, appropriate citation or reference to the original document must be produced within the text as well as in the bibliography section of the paper. Additionally, formatting styles establish a standard in the organization of written communication.

Presentation of the details of the original work can vary depending upon the style adopted.

Broadly, there are five styles of referencing that are used while citing research:  

1. APA Style: American Psychological Association (APA) style
2. MLA Style: Modern Language Association (MLA) style
3. Chicago Manual of Style
4. IEEE Style: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) style
5. AMA Style: American Medical Association (AMA) Style

Among the above-listed types of referencing styles, APA style is the most used in social sciences, business, and nursing. Over the years, there have been many editions that have been updated with the latest 7th edition introduced in October 2019.

APA citations and reference list have numerous detailed aspects that require great attention as, from the placement of punctuation marks, capitalization and italicization of titles and names would differ with the source type. Some of the basic formatting styles have been presented below with illustrative examples to help reference in the bibliography section. 

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1. How to APA reference when the source is from a periodical?

Newspaper article

Surname, A.A. (Year, Month). Title of the article. Title of the Newspaper, 1A, 2A.

Online newspaper article:

Surname, A.A. (Year, Month Date). Title of the article. Title of the Newspaper. URL

Magazine article:

Surname, A.A. (Year, Month). Title of the article. Title of the Newspaper,14(3), 12-16.

Note: Volume number 14 is italicized, and issue number is not italicized and is placed within the parenthesis.

Journal article (Print form):

Surname, A.A. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, 14(3), 12-16.

Electronic journal article:

Surname, A.A. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, 14(3), 12-16. URL

2. How to APA reference when the source is from a book?

Book:

Surname, A.A. (Year of publication). Title of the book: Subtitle of the book. Publishing House. DOI (if available)

Edited book (No author):

Surname, A.A. (Ed.). (Year of publication). Title of the book: Subtitle of the book. Publishing House. DOI (if available)

Surname, A.A., & Surname, B.B. (Eds.). (Year of publication). Title of the book: Subtitle of the book. Publishing House. DOI (if available)

Edited book (With author):

Surname, A.A. (Year of publication). Title of the book: Subtitle of the book. (B.B. Surname, Ed.). Publishing House. DOI (if available)

Chapter or article in an edited book:

Surname, A.A., & Surname, B.B. (Year of publication). Title of the chapter.In C.C. Surname, & D.D. Surname (Eds.), Title of the book: Subtitle of the book(pp. pages of the chapter). Publisher. DOI (if available)

Book with multiple editions and volume:

Surname, A.A. (Year of publication). Title of the book: Subtitle of the book (8^th ed., Vol.2)Publishing House. DOI (if available)

3. How to APA reference other print sources?

Report by government agency or private organization:

Organization/Agency Name. (Year). Title of the report. URL

Report with authors:

Surname, A.A. (Year). Title of the report. Organization Name. URL

Government Law/statue:

Name of the Act, Law No. (Year). URL

Working paper:

Surname, A.A. (Year, Month). Title of the paper. (Working Paper No. 12). DOI (if applicable).

Surname, A.A. (Year, Month). Title of the paper. (Working Paper No. 12). Retrieved from URL

Unpublished/ in preparation/submitted for publication manuscripts:

Surname, A.A.  (Year). Title of the manuscript [Unpublished manuscript/ Manuscript in preparation/ Manuscript submitted for publication]. Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania. 

Conference paper:

Surname, A.A. (Ed.). (Year). Proceedings of the 8^th international student conference on climate change. Publisher. URL

Note: While there are no specific guidelines provided for conference proceedings by the 7^th edition APA citation manual, a similar template can be followed.

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4. How to APA reference electronic sources?

Webpage or online content:

In case the name of the author is given-

Surname, A.A. (Year, Month Date). Title of the page. Site name. URL

When only the name of the organization is provided-

Organization Name. (Year, Month Date). Title of the page. Site name. URL

When author’s name is to be mentioned and the content of the page is likely to change then- Title of the page. (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved August 20, 2020 from URL

Wikipedia article:

Title of the article. (Year, Month Date). In Wikipedia. URL

Note: Year, moth and date details can be accessed from the “View history” link placed at the top right corner of the Wikipedia article. The URL given should also be of the version of the article cited by you.

Dissertation/thesis:

Surname, A.A.(Year). Title of the dissertation/thesis (Publication No. 23345) [Doctoral dissertation, Name of the Awarding Institution]. Database Name.

Data set:

Surname, A.A. or Organization Name. (Year). Title of the dataset (Version No.7) [Data set]. Publisher Name. URL

Graphical data:

Surname, A.A. or Organization Name. (Year). Title of the image [Google Map of New York]. Retrieved Month date, Year, from URL

Note: Provide retrieval details when publication date is not available.

 Lecture notes/ PowerPoint presentation:

Surname, A.A. (Year, Month Date). Title of the presentation [Lecture notes, PowerPoint slides]. Publisher. URL

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The above list was an attempt to guide you to through some of the commonly used APA 7 referencing formats and styles. Guidelines are also provided for less cited sources such as interviews, TV series, podcasts, YouTube videos, tweets, Facebook page, and Instagram  photograph  or videos among others that have not been included in this list.

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