APA Referencing Guide

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APA Referencing Overview

A Guide to APA Referencing

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is a widely used author-date system of referencing and bibliographic citation. The following guide covers some of the basic explanations and examples of this referencing style.

In-text citation: referencing sources within the text

While writing any academic document, you need to acknowledge the sources used in your writing. Whenever you write any quote, or when you use someone else's ideas, opinions or theories in your own document, you must acknowledge the sources. Some cases of citing sources within your paper are given below:

-If you use the name of the author(s) in your writing, place the year of publication of the work in parentheses after the author's name.

For example:

Mullane (2006) conducted research into the effect of"¦

-If you refer to a work, place the author's last name and the year of publication of the work in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

For example:

The research conclusively proved a correlation between the results (Mullane, 2006).

-If you are directly quoting less than 40 words, enclose the lines by double quotation marks within the text. The year of publication of the work along with the page number(s) of the information should also be provided in parentheses

For example:

Mullane (2006) referred to this correlation as a "statistical anomaly" (p. 118), contributing....
or
It was found that the correlation was a "statistical anomaly" (Mullane, 2006, p. 118).

-If the used quotation is greater than 40 words, it should be displayed in a double-spaced, indented block (1.3 cm) without quotation marks.

For example:

Mullane (2006) stated that:
If any similar qualitative research is to be undertaken in the future, then stringent controls should be put in place to ensure such statistical anomalies do not occur through lack of methodological rigor, particularly through corruption of data inadequately stored and processed. (p. 66)

Reference list citation

A reference list includes details of the sources cited in your paper. It is mentioned on a separate page at the end of your assignment paper and is entitled as References.' All sources must be ordered alphabetically by surname. Following are some of the examples of citing different sources using APA referencing style:

Citing a book

Remember the following format while citing a book:
Author, A. (Year of Publication). Title of work. Publisher City, State: Publisher.

For example:

Andreasen, N. C. (2001). Brave new brain: Conquering mental illness in the era of the genome. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Citing print journals

The format for citing print journals is quite similar to that of books. However, in case of three or more authors, names should be mentioned on first citation, and the first author's name should be cited in-text followed by 'et al.' All authors should be named in the order of the credit in the original work. In case there are eight or more authors, their work is cited according to the following format:

Last name, First initial. (Year). Article Title. Journal name, Volume (Issue), Page/s.

For example:

Woolley, T., & Raasch, B. (2005). Predictors of sunburn in north Queensland recreational boat users. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 16(1), 26-31.

Citing government reports

The following format is used while citing government reports in APA style:

Author, A. A. (year of publication). Title of publication (Report number). Retrieved from 'website address' or publisher information

For example:

Department of Health and Aging. (2012). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance framework 2012 report. Retrieved from http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/oatsih-hpf-2012-toc

Citing University course materials

The following format is used for citing university course materials:
Author, A. A. (publication date). Title of handout [Class handout]. Place of Publication: Publisher.

For example:

Woodworth, M. (2006). Psychopaths [Class handout]. Kelowna, Canada: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Citing website content

Information from websites can be cited by using the given format:

Author, A. A. & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of work. Retrieved from URL

For example:

Huges, L., & McMichael, T. (2011). The critical decade: Climate change and health. Retrieved from Huges, L., & McMichael, T. (2011). The critical decade: Climate change and health. Retrieved from http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/uploads/1bb6887d6f8cacd5d844fc30b0857931.pdf

Citing thesis and dissertations

You need to follow the given format of APA referencing for thesis or dissertations:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of thesis or dissertation (Doctoral dissertation or Master's thesis). Retrieved from Name of database. (Accession or Order no.)

For example:

Bozeman, A. Jr. (2007). Age of onset as predictor of cognitive performance in children with seizure disorders. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Proquest Dissertations and Thesis. (UMI 3259752)

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