What is Referencing?
Referencing is a standardised method of acknowledging sources of information and ideas of other people that you have used in your own work and a way of uniquely identifying those sources. When you are writing an assignment, essay, or report you need to read from a wide range of sources, such as books, journal articles and reports. All sources, both published and unpublished must be referenced.
Referencing is an essential part of academic writing at university to:
- acknowledge the work of other writers;
- enable other researchers to trace your sources;
- demonstrate the depth of your research;
- support your arguments or opinions put forward in your work, and;
- avoid plagiarism
Making a reference to these sources is called citing. You can cite in the text and at the end of your paper. References in-text are known as in-text citations.
References at the end of your paper are known as end text referencing or the reference list. This is where you reference the full publication details of each item according to the APA style.
There is a difference between a reference list and a bibliography. A reference list is a list of all the sources cited in your work, whereas a bibliography is a list of all the works that you used to research your topic, including the works you did not cite in your assignment.
APA Style
APA Style is the referencing and writing style set by the American Psychological Association, and it has been adopted across the majority of courses at ECU. It is an (author, date) style of referencing that consists of two parts:
- In-text Citation – a short citation (author, date) contained within the text of your assignment, AND
- End-text Reference – the full citation details of each in-text citation used in the text of your assignment. End-references are included in a list of References at the end of your work.
End-Text References
End-Text References
Every in-text citation should have a corresponding citation in the end-text reference list. Every work in the end-text reference list should have a corresponding in-text citation. Personal communications are an exception to this rule.
The end-text reference list provides full citation details of a work based on the following four elements required for referencing:
- Who: who produced the work (i.e. details of the author)
- When: when was the work produced (i.e. date of publication)
- What: what is the work we are referring to (i.e. title of the work)
- Where: where did this work come from (i.e. publisher or online source)
This means that all end-text reference list citations have the following format as their underlying structure:
Author, A. A. (year). Title. Source.
Titles in End-Text References
There are two forms of capitalisation used in reference list entries: sentence case and title case.
- Sentence case capitalises only the first word of a title or subtitle, and any proper nouns or acronyms - as you would when writing a sentence. This type of capitalisation is used for most titles in end-text references in APA style referencing.
- Title case capitalises the main words of a title, and any words of four letters or more. This type of capitalisation is used for the title of a journal or other periodicals (such as a newspaper), as well as for referring to works in the text (see the 'Titles in text' tab in the In-Text Citations section below).
Place of Publication
Follow the name of the city with the name of the country. For books published in the United States, follow the name of the city with the state (using the official two-letter US Postal Service abbreviation). End with the name of the publisher. For example:
- New York, NY: Harper & Row.
- Washington, DC: Author.
- Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- London, England: Wildwood House.
- Melbourne, Australia: Puffin.
Reference Elements
Reference Elements
Learn about the four reference elements of an APA Style reference: the author, date, title, and source.
Academic Writer
© 2016 American Psychological Association.
Missing Reference Elements
Missing Reference Elements
Learn how to write references when information is missing, including a missing author, date, title, or source.
Academic Writer
© 2016 American Psychological Association.
In-Text Citations
Authors
Sample in-text and end-text reference citations are outlined throughout this Library Guide and in the APA Style Central Database.
It is important to take note of the following general rules.
Authors can be individual people or a group (such as corporations, associations, government agencies).
- Personal authors: For individual people, the information you provide in a citation about an author depends upon the number of authors.
- Single author: When citing a single author in an in-text citation, insert the surname of the author.
- Two authors: Where there are two authors, both surnames should be used:
- Davidson and Porter (2012) demonstrated that . . .
- It has been demonstrated that . . . (Davidson & Porter, 2012).
- Three, four, or five authors: Where there are three, four, or five authors, all surnames should be used the first time the in-text reference appears in the document. For all subsequent citations, include only the surname of the first author followed by “et al.”
- First mention:
- Smith, Grierson, Malthus, and Nicholson (2015) found . . .
- According to evidence . . . (Smith, Grierson, Malthus, & Nicholson, 2015).
- Subsequent mention:
- Smith et al. (2015) suggest . . .
- The study concluded . . . (Smith et al., 2015).
- First mention:
- Six to seven authors: Where there are six or seven authors, use the first surname only followed by et al.
- According to Abercrombe et al. (2008) . . .
- It was shown that . . . (Abercrombe et al., 2008).
- Eight or more authors: Where there are eight or more authors, use the first surname only followed by et al. in the in-text reference. For the end-text reference, include the first six authors, followed by an ellipsis ( . . . ) then the last author’s name.
- In-text:
- According to Owen et al. (2014) . . .
- It was shown that . . . (Owen et al., 2014).
- End-text:
-
Owen, A., Dufes, C., Moscatelli, D., Mayes, E., Lovell, J., Katti, K., . . . Stone, V. (2014). The application of nanotechnology in medicine: Treatment and diagnostics. Nanomedicine, 9(9), 1291-1294. doi:10.2217/NNM.14.93
-
- In-text:
- Corporate authors: For a group, the name of the group is written in full the first time they occur in an in-text citation.
- If you wish to abbreviate names, write the name in full the first time that it occurs, and place the abbreviated form in brackets. In subsequent citations, you can then just use the abbreviation.
- First mention:
- (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2014).
- Subsequent mentions:
- (ABS, 2014).
- (ABS, 2014).
- First mention:
- If you wish to abbreviate names, write the name in full the first time that it occurs, and place the abbreviated form in brackets. In subsequent citations, you can then just use the abbreviation.
- More than one work by the same author in the same year: If there is more than one work by the same author, the end-text references are to be listed in date order. If the author has more than one work in the one year, use lower case letters of the alphabet.
- (Jones, 2016a, 2016b)
- (Jones, 2016a, 2016b)
- Two authors with the same surname: If two authors being cited in text share the same surname, use their initials in all citations:
e.g. This was confirmed by J. J. Smith (2012), who.....
R. A. Smith (2009) considered.....
- Formatting Names With Multiple Parts:
If the surname is hyphenated, include both names and the hyphen in the reference list entry and in-text citation.
If the surname has two parts separated by a space and no hyphen, include both names in the reference list entry and in-text citation.
If the surname includes a particle (e.g., de, de la, der, van, von), include the particle before the surname in the reference list entry and in-text citation.
If the surname includes a suffix (e.g., Jr., Sr., III), include the suffix after the initials in the reference list entry but do not include it in the in-text citation.
If the surname includes a particle (e.g., de, de la, der, van, von), keep the author’s original capitalisation even in reference list entries:
de Haan, A. D., Deković, M., & Prinzie, P. (2012). Longitudinal impact of parental and adolescent personality on parenting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 189–199. doi:10.1037/a0025254
However, capitalise the name if it (a) begins a sentence or (b) is the first word after a colon when what follows the colon is an independent clause.
See APA style blog entry: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2017/05/whats-in-a-name-two-part-surnames-in-apa-style.html
Quotations
It is important to take note of the following general rules regarding quotations:
- All direct quotations from a work should be reproduced word for word, keeping the original spelling and internal punctuation (even where it is incorrect).
- Short direct quotations must be followed by a reference to the page number or specific location of the quote in the original work in the following format (author, date, page number).
- If you are adding information to a quote, adding emphasis, correcting errors, or clarifying ambiguous place names, identify this by using square brackets [ ].
- If you are omitting parts of a quote, use an ellipsis (. . .) to indicate that you have removed material. Use the ellipsis (. . .) at the beginning or end of a quotation if you are not quoting a complete sentence.
Short quotations of fewer than 40 words are incorporated within the text of your work, and are enclosed with “double quotation marks”.
- Use one of two formatting options for the citation:
Include author/s, year and page number after the quote in parentheses followed by punctuation or separate author/s, year and page number, for example:
In fact, “a flexible mind is a healthy mind” (Palladino & Wade, 2010, p. 147).
According to Palladino and Wade (2010), “a flexible mind is a healthy mind” (p. 147).
Long quotations of 40 words or more are displayed in block format without quotation marks. Block format means that the quote should start on a new line and be indented from the left margin. Long (block) quotes should be double spaced.
- Provide the author/s, year and page number/s after the final punctuation, using one of two formatting options for the citation:
Use one of two formatting options for the citation:
Provide the author’s, year and page number/s in parentheses after the quotation’s final punctuation. i.e. citation follows the full stop.
For further information and examples see the APA style blog post on Block Quotations and the APA Style Central database tutorial on Direct Quotations and Paraphrasing.
Provide the author and year in the narrative and include the page number/s in parentheses after the quotation’s final punctuation.
Direct Quotations and Paraphrasing
Direct Quotations and Paraphrasing
Learn how to cite and format direct quotations and block quotations, make and indicate changes to direct quotations, and cite paraphrased material.
Academic Writer
© 2016 American Psychological Association.
Titles
APA Style has special formatting rules for the titles of the sources you use in your paper, such as the titles of books, articles, book chapters, reports, and webpages.
The formatting of the titles of sources you use in your paper depends on two factors: (a) the independence of the source (stands alone vs. part of a greater whole) and (b) the location of the title (in the text of the paper vs. in the reference list entry).
Titles: whole works that stands alone (e.g. book, report): Use italics for all stand-alone titles, in text and end references.
e.g. In text (capitalise main words): Gone With the Wind
Reference list (sentence case): Gone with the wind
Titles: part of a whole work (e.g. chapter)
e.g. In text (inside double quotation marks, capitalise main words). “Longitudinal Impact of Parental and Adolescent Personality on Parenting”
Reference list (sentence case): Longitudinal impact of parental and adolescent personality on parenting
From the APA Style blog "How to Capitalize and Format Reference titles in APA Style" .
Secondary Sources
If you wish to use a quote from an author referred to in another source that you've read (secondary source), you only list the secondary source in the reference list. Name the original source in the text of your paper, and cite the secondary source in parentheses, for example: Allport’s diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003).
Note: Use this type of reference sparingly - only if the original (primary) source is unavailable.
Secondary Sources
Learn how to use and cite secondary sources, that is, sources that discuss or cite material originally presented in another, or primary, source.
Academic Writer
© 2016 American Psychological Association.
Citing Specific Parts of a Source
To cite a specific part of a source, indicate the page, chapter or paragraph (for online material without page numbers). Use abbreviations for page/s (p. or pp.) and paragraph (para.), but not chapter, which should be written in full (Chapter), for example:
Chapter in an authored book, in text citation: (Baum, 2016, Chapter 3)
Note: If referencing a chapter from an edited book, use the format for a chapter from an edited book (see Book references).
Citing References in Text
Citing References in Text
Learn how to cite references in the text, including how to implement the basic formats, cite multiple works, achieve clarity, and format references with missing author and/or date information.
Academic Writer
© 2016 American Psychological Association.