Referencing a brief guide to APA 6

It is important to acknowledge sources used in researching your subject so that you can:

show familiarity with the literature

help the reader to follow up your sources
avoid any accusations of plagiarism (i.e. of directly lifting chunks of other peoples work, which can be a
disciplinary offence)

References should be:

Correct : write down the full reference at the time you make notes from a book or an article and double
check every detail
Complete : never omit page numbers (especially when making a direct quotation), volume numbers, or
date. Remember you are guiding your reader to the source you used
Consistent : stick to the same style punctiliously throughout

NB. Music staff prefer music students to use guidance from the Associated Board publication Music in words.
There are two steps in referencing referring to the sources youve used in the body of your assignment , and
bringing those sources together in a complete alphabetical Reference List at the end. Only include sources you
have cited in the text in your Reference List some tutors welcome a separate bibliography of works consulted,
but you would need to check.

General principles
Reference list in your Reference List, all references should be arranged alphabetically by authors surname.
Authors in the Reference list One author - Surname, followed by initials, e.g. Green, A.T.
Two authors Surname, initials. Separate authors names with a comma and link with ampersand, rather than
and, e.g. Jones, J., & Smith, C.A.
Three to six authors List all authors. Separate authors names with a comma. Use an ampersand, rather than
and before the final author, e.g. Thoburn, J., Chand, A., & Procter, J.
Seven or more authors List first six authors, separating authors names with a comma. After the sixth, use
three ellipses and then include the final author, e.g. Brown, A., Smith, B., Black, C., Jones, D., White, E.,
Bryce, F. & Green, G.

Citing within the text

In your text, cite the author and date of publication as follows:
Murray (2011) gives an overview of the problems of thesis writing.

YOUR
LIBRARY
YOUR
LEARNING

Or
In 2011, Murray demonstrated that
Or
Writing should be aimed at different types of readers: Writers should have a range of audiences,
including readers who understand and are sympathetic with their struggle. (Murray, 2011, p.88).
If quoting an author directly (rather than summarising), be sure to use quotation marks and exact page reference,
as above. For a long passage (40 words or more), indent the whole extract slightly to the right and omit quotation
marks.
Audience and purpose are the key in any act of communication: everything you say and do not
say is shaped by your analysis of the audience, or reader, and your purpose in communicating
with them. For a thesis writer, audience and purpose are, literally, complex, i.e. there appears to be
more than one audience. (Murray, 2011, p.88).
If you shorten a quote, indicate the removed section by substituting a sequence of three dots
Writing can be shared as a gift (Murray, 2011, p.88).
There may be response to questions such as What do you hear me saying? but no evaluations are
necessary. (Murray, 2011, p.88).

Citing more than one author within the text

Two authors Cite both each time a reference is made within the text, e.g. Jones and Smith (2010) stated
that
Three to five authors Cite all authors the first time that an item is referenced. For subsequent mentions, use
the first author followed by et al.
First citation Thoburn, Chand and Procter (2005) stated
Second and subsequent citations Thoburn et al. (2005) stated
Six or more authors use first author followed by et al. Stewart et al. (2009) found that

Publication date if no publication date is given, write n.d. in parentheses, e.g. Smith, J. (n.d.).
Pagination convention is to precede page numbers for book chapters and newspaper articles with p. (for
one page) and pp. (for more than one) but to omit this for journal articles.

Italicisation italicise book titles and journal titles, but NOT chapter titles or article titles. For journals, italicise
volume number, BUT NOT part number, hence 13(1).

Punctuation look at the following list of examples to follow punctuation rules, e.g. full stops after date, at
end of title and after publisher etc.

Indentation indent second and subsequent lines of a reference.

Secondary citation
To cite something you have not seen directly, but have read about, you must cite the text you have actually seen,
not the one that someone else has mentioned, e.g.
There is evidence that parenting styles have a profound effect on childrens development (Baumrind, as
cited by Cole & Cole, 2001)
In other words, you have read a work by Cole and Cole, who are quoting from another work by Baumrind,
therefore you would cite Cole and Cole rather than Baumrind. However, be sparing with this type of indirect
citation if carried to extremes, e.g. quoting a government report from a newspaper description, this can look
merely as if you lacked motivation to get hold of the original.

EXAMPLES
Books
In the Reference List, cite a book as follows: Author (surname first, followed by initials), Date of publication in
brackets, Title of book in italics, Edition (if one is given), Place of publication and then Publisher.
Author

Title

Edition

Publisher

Murray, R. (2011). How to write a thesis (3rd ed.). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Publication date

Place of publication

Chapters in edited books

Cite in your text the author of the chapter; in the Reference List: Author of the chapter, Date of publication, Title of
the chapter in normal font, Editor(s) of the book, Title of the book in italics; Page numbers of the chapter, Place of
Publication and Publisher.
Chapter author

Publication date

Chapter title

Book editors

Book title

Moorhouse, H.F. (1994). From zines like these? In G. Jarvie & G. Walker (Eds.), Scottish sport in the
making of the nation (pp. 173-194). Leicester: Leicester U.P.
Indent 2

nd

line

Page nos.

Place of publication

Publisher

Citing different chapters by different authors from the same book requires separate entries under each chapter
author in the Reference List.

Articles in journals and newspapers

In the Reference List use the formula: Author of article, Date of publication, Title of the article in normal font, Title
of the journal in italics, Volume in italics, Part number in brackets in normal font, and finally Page numbers.

Authors

Publication date

Article title

Journal title

Sutton, L. & Stack, N. (2013). Hearing quiet voices: Biological children's experiences of fostering. British
Journal of Social Work, 43(3), 596-612.

Indent 2

nd

line

Volume & part

Page nos.

Denholm, A. (2013, April 25). Literacy drop-off between primary and secondary. The Herald, p. 3.
For an anonymous newspaper article, in the Reference List:
Watchdog bans stutter cure advert. (2009, December 9). The Herald, p. 7.
In your text, in the absence of an author, use a short form of the title if the full form is unwieldy eg (Watchdog,
2009).

Electronic sources
In your text the same principles apply as for printed documents though page numbers may need to be replaced
by paragraph numbers or by subheadings, if these are available.
In the Reference List, the format is much the same as for a printed source, but add the web address (URL), and
ignore the place of publication and publisher. With edition 6 of APA, it is no longer necessary to put the date that
a document was retrieved.
Web documents
Queens University, Stauffer Humanities & Social Sciences Library. (2011). Evaluating web sources.
Retrieved from http://library.queensu.ca/inforef/tutorials/qcat/evalint.htm
[NB do not add punctuation after a URL (e.g. do not terminate it with a full stop) in case this is wrongly
construed as an integral part of the address]
Weaver, B. and NcNeill, F. (n.d.). Giving up crime: Directions for policy. Retrieved from the Scottish
Consortium for Crime and Criminal Justice website
http://www.scccj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/SCCCJ-giving-up-crime-content.pdf
[NB it can be useful to spell out the institutional affiliation of the author if this is not otherwise clear]
Web Article
Fahmy, E. (2009). Tackling youth exclusion in the UK. Social Work and Society 6(2). Retrieved from
http://www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/59/361
[NB some ejournals are single incremental databases; others still batch articles into issues.]

Discussion list
Batty, S. & Jackson, K. (2006, December 15). Faint speech amplifier for use in vehicle. [Online forum
comment]. https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=SLT-LIST-UK;10b1e19.06
[NB some lists do not archive material in such cases referencing services little purpose. If there is a
message number give it after the thread title]
Emails
Some sources advise citing emails with the addresses of sender and recipient ; this raises important security
issues, so it is recommended you use the same format as for a traditional letter, by citing in the text, e.g. J. Smith
th
(personal communication, 9 September 2010) and not including an entry in the Reference List.
Website generally
Try to avoid citing a whole site, but if you must do this, give it in the text only (not also in the Reference List),
undated eg Biz/ed is a useful source of teaching materials (http://www.bized.co.uk/)
Print or electronic?
We suggest that if you cite a facsimile of a paper original, e.g. a journal article or Act of Parliament, (usually in
PDF format), you cite it as if it was the printed original.

Other aspects of reference layout

Reference works no obvious author
Chambers biographical dictionary. (1984). Edinburgh: Chambers.

Government/organisation reports no obvious personal author

Scottish Executive (2003). Research strategy for health and healthcare. Edinburgh: Author.
Shelter. (1992). The Shelter-MORI housing poll. London: Shelter.
Committee on Alternatives to Prosecution. (1993). Keeping offenders out of court. London: HMSO.

Acts of Parliament
Education (Scotland) Act 1996, ch.43.
Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, asp 4.
NB the title of the Act alone is sufficient, without further publication details, except that the convention is then to
rd
add for Westminster legislation the chapter number [1996 Ch43 43 Act of 1996] ; or the asp number (Acts of
the Scottish Parliament) for Scottish legislation.

Conference proceedings
Webb, N.L. (1993). Mathematics education reform in California. In R. Andrews (Ed.), Science and
mathematics education in the United States: Eight innovations : Proceedings of a conference, Paris,
1991 (pp. 143-156). Paris: OECD.

Theses
Logan, J.L. (1974). The training of teachers for further education in Scotland. Unpublished M.Ed. thesis,
University of Glasgow.

Unpublished work
Do not include in the Reference List (unless publicly available, for example, in an archive); in the text put, e.g.
John Brown (personal communication, January 30, 2007) stated that

Lecture notes
Opinion varies on the advisability of citing lectures you have attended as part of your course; it is probably a good
idea to avoid this wherever possible. As the data is not published in the accepted sense, it should not be included
in the Reference List in the text put e.g. There is a widespread belief in the voluntary sector (Gordon
Mackie , BACE2 lecture, University of Strathclyde, October 14, 2010) that

Putting your references in order

References should be arranged alphabetically by surname but :
More than one reference by an author in one year : distinguish by adding a, b, c to the date, e.g. in the text
Wragg (1999a) found
In the Reference List this would appear as
nd

Wragg, E.C. (1999a). Introduction to classroom observation. (2

ed.). London: Routledge.

Joint authorship. Put works where author is sole author before where the same writer is a joint author, so
Wragg, E.C. (2001). Assessment and learning in the primary school. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Wragg, E.C. (2003). Education education education. London: Kogan Page.
Wragg, E.C. & Brown, G. (2001). Explaining in the primary school. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Further guidance
For further guidance, consult the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (D 820-4(09)
PUB) or the site at http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm may be useful.
Alternatively e-mail Irene Stirling, HaSS Faculty Librarian, at i.e.stirling@strath.ac.uk
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