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Referencing styles - a Practical Guide

APA

American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style

Used by: Education, Language & Linguistic Science, Psychology

Introduction to APA referencing style

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is used in psychology, health and the social sciences. This guide has been fully updated to APA Style 7th edition. Check your department requirements for which version to use.

In-text citations

Information from sources in the text is shown with in-text citations that include the author's surname and the publication year (and a page number in some situations). These can appear after the information, or integrated into the sentence:

Passive tutorials (Anderson & Wilson, 2009) or text-based resources (Sachs et al., 2013) can be as effective as interactive resources.
Parramore (2019) discusses online active learning in more depth...

The in-text citation examples given throughout this guide use the (Neville, 2010) version.

Reference list

The reference list at the end of the document includes the full details of each source so the reader can find them themselves. The list is organised alphabetically by author surname. 

The information to include depends on the types of source - see the examples on this page.

Useful resources

Guidance for all source types

Questions about referencing?

Contact your Faculty Librarians if you have any questions about referencing.

Commonly used sources

Examples of in-text citations and reference list entries for key source types.

Use these examples alongside the information given in the 'Guidance for all source types' box. Pay particular attention to the guidance on formatting for one, two or more authors.

Further sources

Examples of in-text citations and reference list entries for other source types.

Use these examples alongside the information given in the 'Guidance for all source types' box. Pay particular attention to the guidance on formatting for one, two or more authors.