Referencing

A Brief Guide to APA (American Psychological Association) Referencing

References in the body of the text

Normal	Surname (or committee, etc.) and year in brackets
Quoted words	Surname (or committee, etc.), year and page(s) in brackets
Secondary source	State the secondary source, not the original author(s)

References at the end of the submission

1 Put the whole collection of items in alphabetical order of the surnames (or committees, etc.). Don't separate books from journals from reports, and so on.

2 Check to see if the individual item is a book, a journal article or a chapter in an edited book. Record them in the following ways.

Books

Surname(s) (or committees, etc.) • initial(s) • year • title • place of publication • publisher

Hampson, P. J. & Morris, P. E. (1996). Understanding cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Journals

Surname(s) • initial(s) • year • title of article • title of journal • volume (and, if possible, the part) number • pages

Stukat, K. G. (1995). Conductive education evaluated. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 10(2), 154-161.

Chapters in edited books

Surname(s) (or committee, etc.) • initial(s) • year • title of chapter • In • name of editor (or committee, etc.) • Ed. (or Eds.) • title of book • page numbers of the chapter in the book • place of publication • publisher

Davidson, B. (1988). The curriculum: some issues for debate. In L. Barton (Ed.), The politics of special educational needs (pp. 161-174). London: Falmer.

It is quite common to indent the second (and subsequent) lines of references by two spaces, as this can make them easier to read. However, don't arrange references in columns (such as author, title, publisher) - journal and chapter references can not fit that format, and look naff when it's tried.

3 Ask for advice if you are not prepared to make a stab at less common references such as theses, pamphlets, newspaper articles, films and broadcasts. You will nearly always be able to compose something acceptable, though, if you can apply the rules for the three examples above. References to Internet sources are now becoming more common. Here is one approved style.

Surname(s) • initial(s) • year and day • title of main page • [WWW document] • URL
Land, T. (1997, October 21). Web Extension to American Psychological Association Style (WEAPAS) (Rev. 1.4.3) [WWW document].
URL http://www.beadsland.com/weapas/

4 Hardly ever will you need separate 'references' and 'bibliography'. References hold all sources you have mentioned, not just those whose words you have quoted. Bibliographies hold everything that has influenced your thinking, whether or not you have mentioned it in the text. As a rule, you need references, not a bibliography.