Psychology & Counselling: APA referencing

This style uses an author-date format for the in-text citations and then the full source details are listed A-Z in the reference list.

Examples of In-text citations:

• As part of the narrative e.g. Adams (2019) argues that...
• Directly following a phrase e.g. The current guide provides an overview of APA (Adams, 2019).

If you are citing a direct quote, make sure to use "quotation marks" and to include the page number after the year: (Adams, 2019, p. 61).

If you are citing a book or article which has several authors, follow these rules:

2 authors: always cite them both (Polit & Beck, 2017)

3-20 authors: Cite the first authors’ last name followed by et al. (Perry et al., 2020)

See the following tabs for advice on creating the reference list.

Creating the reference list:

When referencing a book follow this order:

• Authors, surnames followed by initials
• Year of publication, in brackets
• Title, in italics
• Edition of book (if not first edition)
• Publisher

Example: Book, one author:

Reference list:

Smyth, T.R. (2004). The principles of writing in Psychology. Palgrave MacMillan.

When referencing an e-book follow this order:

• Authors or editors (Eds.), surnames followed by initials.
• Year of publication, in brackets.
• Title of book, in italics.
• Edition (if not the first edition)
• URL or DOI link

Example: e-book

Loschiavo, J. (2015). Fast Facts for the School Nurse: School Nursing in a Nutshell (2^nd ed.). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826128775

When referencing a book chapter follow this order:

• Chapter authors, surname first, followed by initials.
• Year of publication
• Chapter title
• In + authors of the whole book (Initials followed by surname), + Eds.
• Title of the book
• Pages of chapter
• Publisher

Example: chapter from a book

Smyth, M. J., & Filipkowski, B.K. (2010). Coping with stress. In D. French, K. Vadhara, A.A. Kaptein, & J. Weinman (Eds.), Health Psychology (pp. 271-283). Blackwell Publishing.

When referencing an article follow this order:

• Authors, surnames followed by initials.
• Year of publication, in brackets.
• Title of the article.
• Journal title, in italics.
• Volume of the journal.
• Issue of the journal, in brackets.
• Page range of the article.
• DOI of the article, if available.

Example: Journal article

Beaman, P.C., & Holt, J.N. (2007). Reverberant auditory environments: the effects of multiple echoes on distraction by 'irrelevant' speech. Applied Cognitive psychology, 21(8), 1077-1090. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1315

When referencing a webpage follow this order:

• Author surname, followed by initials OR name of organisation. Title of webpage if there's no author.
• Year of publication (in brackets).
• Title.
• URL.

Example: webpage

World Health Organisation. (2019). WHO updates global guidance on medicines and diagnostic tests to address health challenges, prioritise highly effective therapeutics, and improve affordable access. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/09-07-2019-who-updates-global-guidance-on-medicines-and-diagnostic-tests-to-address-health-challenges-prioritize-highly-effective-therapeutics-and-improve-affordable-access

A document on the web can include government reports or policy documents. They are referenced differently to a webpage:

• Authors, including initials.
• Year of publication, in brackets.
• Title, in italics.
• URL.

Example: Document on the web

Howe, C., Mercer, N. (2007). Children's social development, peer interaction and classroom learning. https://cprtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/research-survey-2-1b.pdf

Use newspaper articles as a starting point for research. They are not considered academic sources. Use the following format:

• Author surnames, followed by initials.
• Year, month and date of publication, in brackets.
• Title of article.
• Newspaper title, in italics.
• Page range OR URL, if an online article.

Example: Newspaper article:

Sisley, D. (2020, Feb 22). Can science cure a broken heart?. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/22/can-science-cure-a-broken-heart

Social media posts, such as Twitter and Facebook, are not considered academic sources. Use them as a starting point and reference to your academic research. Use the following format:

• Username or group name
• Date as year, month, day. In brackets. If there's no date put (n.d.)
• Post title, followed by type of source in [ ] brackets.
• Retrieved, followed by month, day, year,
• from URL

Example: Social Media post

Barack Obama. (2009, October 9). Humbled [Facebook update]. Retrieved May, 14, 2020, from http://www.facebook.com/posted.php? 
 id=6815841748&share_id=154954250775&comments=1#s154954250775 

APA 7th Edition apastyle.apa.org/

The University guidelines state that "presenting work generated by AI as if it were your own" is a form of plagiarism and therefore constitutes unacceptable academic practice. Full details on the University's guidelines on unacceptable practice can be found here. 

Guidance on the ethical and effective use of AI for learning is found in our LibGuide Utilising AI in the Library: A Student's Guide: What is AI?