Library Guides: APA Guide : Citing & Referencing

Basic Rules of Citation and Referencing

In-Text Citations
From APA Style
General guidelines for referring to the works of others in your work.
TIP: Using different methods (e.g., narrative, parenthetical) can add interest to your work.
Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text Citations
Information on the two formats from APA Style.
Paraphrasing
From: APA Style
A paraphrase restates another’s idea (or your own previously published idea) in your own words.
Quotations
From: APA Style
A direct quotation reproduces words verbatim from another work or from your own previously published work.

Reference Page:

References are listed on a separate page
The page is labelled References at the top, centered and in bold
Works are listed in alphabetical order, by the first word of the reference list entry
References are double spaced with a hanging indent for second lines
Sample reference lists are found below

Authors:

Author entries are in alphabetical order by the surname
For multiple works by the same author, they should be arranged by year:
- Brown, S. (n.d.).
- Brown, S. (2020a).
- Brown, S. (2020b).
- Brown, S. (2021).

Titles:

When alphabetizing by title, disregard the following words: A, An and The
In the citation, use italics and capitalize all major words for a journal title:
- Nutrition Today
- Journal of Child and Family Studies
Capitalize the first word of article titles and subtitles along with proper nouns only:
- Nutrition: A functional approach
- The changing landscape of Canada: From coast to coast

URL:

DOI and URLs are hyperlinked beginning with https
Do not add a period at the end so the link remains live

More information:

References
From APA Style
References provide the information necessary for the audience to identify and retrieve each resource cited in the work.
Reference Lists
From APA Style

Author–Date Citation
From APA Style
APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition - The author–date citation system is covered in Sections 8.10–8.36
Author Basics
From APA Style
Guidelines to format the author elements
Citing Multiple Works
From: APA Style
Citing Works With the Same Author and Date
From: APA Style
⁠When multiple references have an identical author (or authors) and publication year, include a lowercase letter after the year.

Use of Italics
From APA Style
APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition - Italics and reverse italics are covered in Sections 6.22 and 6.23

With more frequency, the typical URL in a reference is replaced by a DOI. A DOI is an assigned alphanumeric sequence given to a journal article to help identify it, thereby making it easily searchable on the internet. Example: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphys1170

Basic rules:

If there is a DOI, include it (even if you used the print version and not the electronic version of the work)
If there is both a DOI and a URL - include only the DOI
If there is no DOI and only a URL - include the URL but
- Don't include the URL for works from the Library's research databases. These are widely available and so no URL is needed
- If the work is from a database that produces original, proprietary material, include the URL as well as the name of the database. See Database Information in References for more details
- If the URL no longer works, see Missing Reference Information
Include the http or https part of the DOI in the reference and do not include a period at the end of the reference after the DOI

DOIs and URLs Rules
Formatting (hyperlinks & underline)
From APA Style
APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition - DOIs and URLs are covered in Sections 9.34 to 9.36

Steps for Creating References and In-Text Ctations

Steps for Creating a Reference
Steps for Creating an In-Text Citation

Determine the type of source you are citing. Is it a book, a journal, a website? Then, choose the type of resource from the dropdown menu under "Citation Examples" or visit the Citation Examples page
Gather information from your source that you will use to create your reference. You will need:
- Author
- Date
- Title
- Location such as URL, DOI, publisher, etc.
Using the information you have gathered above, follow along with the examples in this guide to create your reference.

Reference Examples
Examples of the most common works that writers cite are provided on this page; additional examples are available in the Publication Manual.
Elements of Reference List Entries
This page describes in detail the four elements of a Reference List, author, date, title, and source.

Determine the type of source you are citing. Is it a book, a journal, a website? Then, choose the type of resource from the dropdown menu under "Citation Examples" or visit the Citation Examples page to see an example of an in-text citation
Determine the author or authors of the work you are citing. If there is more than one author, review the APA rules for how to create an in-text citation when there is more than one author
Find the date of publication
If quoting directly from the source, include the page number

In-text citations have two formats: parenthetical and narrative:

In parenthetical citations, the author name and publication date appear in parentheses
- Example: Lily pads are critical to frog wellness and well-being (Magar, 2024).
In narrative citations, the author name is incorporated into the text as part of the sentence and the year follows in parentheses
- Example: Magar (2024) states that lily pads are critical to frog wellness and well-being.

Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text Citations
Information on the two formats from APA Style.

Chart of APA 7 Examples (Opens PDF, 97KB)
Examples of the most common resource citations in APA 7 format.

Missing Information

Sometimes the information needed to create a reference list entry is missing or unknown. When this is the case, there are various strategies to adapt the reference. In APA 7, when information is missing, you adjust the citation accordingly. For example, if there's no author, you start with the title. If there's no date, you use "n.d.".

Missing Information Table
Refer to this chart from the APA Style website for what to do when you have missing information for your citation.
APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition - Missing reference information is covered in Section 9.4.