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APA Referencing examples

Books and reference works

Author. (Date). Title of book and edition (if applicable). Publisher. DOI (if available)

  • List all authors, up to 20, where available
  • Include the year only for the date element
  • Put the title of the book in sentence case. Italicise the title. Place the edition information after the title, in parentheses, not in italics
  • The source comprises the name of the publisher for books. For a chapter in an edited book, the source is the information for the whole book.
  • Where author and publisher is the same, leave out the publisher element.

Authored book

Rosenberg, M. (2018). The screenplay tree: Movie structure made easy. Quite Nice Pictures.

Ebook

St George, J. (2016). Wild for you. Penguin Books.

Book with a DOI

Richter, K. (2019). English-medium instruction and pronunciation: Exposure and skills development. Channel View Publications. https://doi.org/10.21832/RICHTE2456

Book with edition information

Barker, M., Barker, D., Bormann, N., Roberts, M., Zahay, D., & Neher, K. (2017). Social media marketing: A strategic approach (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning.

Book where author and publisher are the same

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.).

Edited book

Stacks, D. W., Salwen, M. B., & Eichhorn, K. C. (Eds.). (2019). An integrated approach to communication theory and research (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Chapter in an edited book

Brand, J. E., De Byl, P. B., Knight, S., & Hooper, J. (2014). Mining constructivism in the university: The case of creative mode. In N. Garrelts (Ed.), Understanding Minecraft: Essays on play, community and possibilities (pp. 57–75). McFarland.

DSM

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.).

Entry in the DSM

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Anxiety disorders. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596

Group author

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Wellness. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 16, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wellness

Individual author

Dellios, R. (2019). Security Landscape. In S. Romaniuk, M. Thapa, & P. Marton (Eds.). The Palgrave encyclopedia of global security studies. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_282-1

Periodicals

Author. (Date). Title of article. Periodical information. DOI or URL (if applicable)

  • List all authors, up to 20, where available.
  • Include the year only for the date element of a journal article. For newspaper and magazine articles include the year, month and day.
  • Put the title of the article in sentence case. Do not italicise the title. Only use quotation marks if they are a part of the title.
  • The source comprises the name of the periodical (journal, newspaper or magazine) in italics, volume number (where available) in italics, issue number (where available) in parentheses and not italicised, and page range. Followed by the DOI (where available) or URL (if no DOI and if URL will work for readers).

Journal article with a DOI

Watt, B. D., O'Leary, J., & O'Toole, S. (2017). Juvenile fitness for trial: Lawyer and youth justice officer professional survey. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 24(2), 191-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2016.1220036

Journal article without a DOI

Carah, N., Brodmerkel, S., & Knaggs, A. (2012). Gruen Nation: Dissecting the show, not the business. Communication, Politics & Culture, 45(1), 60-77.

Evershed, N., Graham, C., Henson, D. F., & Patching, R. (2016, June 20). Who and what makes the most noise in Australian parliament? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/2016/jun/20/who-and-what-makes-the-most-noise-in-the-australian-parliament

Smith, P. (2020, January 16). Google to sweep up its digital cookie crumbs. The Australian Financial Review, 3.

Alter, C., Haynes, S., & Worland, J. (2019, December 23–30). The conscience. Time, 194(27–28), 32–37.

Barlow, S. (2020, February 27). Unreliable Narrator. Edge, 343(April), 26.

Webpages and websites

Author. (Date). Title of work. Site name. URL

  • Use this category if there is no other reference category that a source fits into.
  • List all authors, up to 20, where available.
  • Include all the date elements available of year, month and day. Do not put in time of day in the date element.
  • Put the title of the work in sentence case. Italicise the title.
  • The source comprises the name of the website and the URL.
  • Where author name and site name are the same, leave out the site name element.
  • Include a retrieval date only when the content is designed to change over time and the page is not archived.

American Psychological Association. (2019). APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org

Cornish, A. (2018, October 19). This 'Halloween,' Jamie Lee Curtis reckons with 40 years of trauma. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2018/10/19/658904546/this-halloween-jamie-lee-curtis-reckons-with-40-years-of-trauma

Goldsworthy. T. (2019, December 6). Explainer: why homicide rates in Australia are declining. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-homicide-rates-in-australia-are-declining-128124

ABC News. Flash flooding on Gold Coast and Brisbane sparks calls for help as storms sweep Queensland. (2020, January 18). https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-18/flash-flooding-on-gold-coast-brisbane-weather-warnings/11879432

Other examples

IBISWorld Industry Report

Reference list

Harrison, L. (2018, December). Internet service providers in Australia (Industry Report J5911). IBISWorld. https://my.ibisworld.com/download/au/en/industry/1832/1/0/pdf

In-text

Parenthetical citation: (Harrison, 2018).

Narrative citation: Harrison (2018).

Company Report from DatAnalysis Premium

Reference list

Morningstar. (2020). Village Roadshow Limited. DatAnalysis Premium. Retrieved February 28, 2020, from https://datanalysis.morningstar.com.au

In-text

Parenthetical citation: (Morningstar, 2020).

Narrative citation: Morningstar (2020).

Bloomberg database

Reference list

Bloomberg L.P. (2019). Return on capital for Hewitt Packard 12/31/90 to 09/30/08. Bloomberg Database. Retrieved December 28, 2019.

In-text

Parenthetical citation: (Bloomberg, 2019).

Narrative citation: Bloomberg (2019).

These guidelines for referencing Australian cases and legislation are derived from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation [AGLC]. Please check with your teacher or supervisor if you are unsure whether these guidelines are appropriate for your work.

Cases

Reference list

  • When a case citation uses square brackets around the year, keep this around the year in the reference list entry.

Brown v Tasmania (2017) 261 CLR 328.

Palmer v Ayres [2017] HCA 5.

In-text

Parenthetical citation: (Brown v Tasmania, 2017).

Narrative Citation: Brown v Tasmania (2017).

Case citing a page/s: (Brown v Tasmania, 2017, p. 335). / (Brown v Tasmania, 2017, pp. 335–338). 

Case citing a paragraph/s: (Palmer v Ayres, 2017, para. 14). / (Palmer v Ayres, 2017, paras. 14–16).

 

Legislation/Acts

Reference list

Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld).

Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

In-text

  • As the year forms part of the title of a piece of legislation, this appears as part of the title. For clarity, include the jurisdiction abbreviation in the in-text citation.

Parenthetical citation: (Right to Information Act 2009, Qld)

Narrative Citation: Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld).

Citing a section/s of an Act: (Right to Information Act 2009, Qld, s. 23) / (Right to Information Act 2009, Qld, ss. 23–29).

 
Jurisdiction abbreviations to use for Australian jurisdictions
Jurisdiction Abbreviation
Commonwealth Cth
Queensland Qld
Australian Capital Territory ACT
New South Wales NSW
Northern Territory NT
South Australia SA
Tasmania Tas
Victoria Vic
Western Australian Australia WA

Explore more examples

American Psychological Association. (2020). Reference examples. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

 If you need to reference something not covered in the Chapter 10, remember that all references follow the same general format of including the four elements: Author. Date. Title. Source.
Human resource management