A reference list lists only the sources you refer to in your writing.
The purpose of the reference list is to allow your sources to be be found by your reader. It also gives credit to authors you have consulted for their ideas. All references cited in the text must appear in the reference list, except for personal communications (such as conversations or emails) which cannot be retrieved.
A bibliography is different from a reference list as it lists all the sources used during your research and background reading, not just the ones you refer to in your writing.
Title | Include the title 'References' (one word, beginning with a capital letter, centred, and not in italics | |
Indent | Hanging indent your references (space bar in 5 - 7 spaces for the second and subsequent lines of each reference) | |
Space between references | In general double-space between references | |
Ampersand | Use for 2 - 6 authors, use "&" before the final author | |
One author, two publications | Order by year of publication, the earlier one first. Same year of publication for both - add 'a' and 'b' after the year, inside the brackets. Include this in the in text citation. example: Baheti, J. R. (2001a). | |
URLs | Remove the underlines from URLs so that any underscores ( _ ) can be seen | |
Same first author, different second author | Order alphabetically by second or subsequent authors | |
Upper case letters (capital letters) |
Journal title - use headline style; i.e. capitalise all the words, except articles and prepositions Book title or article title (in a journal, magazine or newspaper) - use sentence style; i.e. capitalise the first word of the title, and subtitle (after the colon), and any proper names |
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Place of publication |
USA publishers give the city in full and the abbreviation for the state. Publishers outside the USA: Give the city in full and the country in full |
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Page range |
Use an en dash, NOT a hyphen, for page ranges: e.g. 21–27. No gaps between the page numbers and the en dash. How to add an en dash in Microsoft Word, if using a full PC keyboard: Hold the Control key and type the minus sign on the small numeric keypad.
NB: If your keyboard will not produce an en dash, it is acceptable to use a hyphen instead. See the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (2010, p. 97) for more detail on the use of hyphens and dashes in APA style. |
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Use of square brackets |
If format, medium or description information is important for a resource to be retrieved or identified, use square brackets after the title to include this detail:
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One author (a book chapter)
Easton, B. (2008). Does poverty affect health? In K. Dew & A. Matheson (Eds.), Understanding health inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. 97–106). Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press. |
One author, multiple works published in the same year
Rush, E., McLennan, S., Obolonkin, V., Cooper, R., & Hamlin, M. (2015a). Beyond the randomised controlled trial and BMI--evaluation of effectiveness of through-school nutrition and physical activity programmes. Public Health Nutrition, 18(9), 1578–1581. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980014003322 Rush, E. C., Obolonkin, V., Battin, M., Wouldes, T., & Rowan, J. (2015b). Body composition in offspring of New Zealand women: Ethnic and gender differences at age 1–3 years in 2005–2009. Annals Of Human Biology, 42(5), 492–497. |
Two authors (a journal article with doi)
Li, S., & Seale, C. (2007). Learning to do qualitative data analysis: An observational study of doctoral work. Qualitative Health Research, 17(10), 1442-1452. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307306924 |
Three authors
Barnard, R., de Luca, R., & Li, J. (2015). First-year undergraduate students’ perceptions of lecturer and peer feedback: A New Zealand action research project. Studies In Higher Education, 40(5), 933–944. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2014.881343 |
Four to seven authors
Szcz Ę Sna, A., Nowak, A., Grabiec, P., Paszkuta, M., Tajstra, M., & Wojciechowska, M. (2017). Survey of wearable multi-modal vital parameters measurement systems. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 526. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47154-9_37 |
More than seven authors
Kasabov, N., Scott, N. M., Tu, E., Marks, S., Sengupta, N., Capecci, E., . . . Yang, J. (2016). Evolving spatio-temporal data machines based on the NeuCube neuromorphic framework: Design methodology and selected applications. Neural Networks, 78, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2015.09.011 |
Click the type of resources on the left column to find more reference examples.
Go to the In-text citation page to learn how to do in-text citations.
References |
Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2009). The business writer’s handbook. New York, NY: St Martin's Press. |
Best, A. (2004). International history of the twentieth century. Retrieved from http://www.netlibrary.com |
Easton, B. (2008). Does poverty affect health? In K. Dew & A. Matheson (Eds.), Understanding health inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. 97-106). Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press. |
Flesch, R. (n.d.). How to write plain English. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.mang.canterbury.ac.nz/writing_guide /writing/flesch.shtml |
Global warming. (2009, June 1). Retrieved June 4, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming |
Li, S., & Seale, C. (2007). Learning to do qualitative data analysis: An observational study of doctoral work. Qualitative Health Research, 17, 1442–1452. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307306924 |
Radio New Zealand. (2008). Annual report 2007-2008. Retrieved from http://static.radionz.net.nz/assets /pdf_file/0010/179676/Radio_NZ_Annual_Report_2008.pdf |
Read, E. (2007, November 1). Myth-busting gen Y. New Zealand Management. Retrieved from http://www.management.co.nz |
A secondary citation is where you are citing information or quotes the author of your reference has taken from source that you have not read.
In-text citation:
Seidenberg and McClelland’s study, conducted in 1990 (as cited in Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993), shows that ... |
... as some studies show (Seidenberg & McClelland, as cited in Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993). |
Reference list entry:
Coltheart, M., Curtis, B. Atkins, P., & Haller, M. (1993). Models of reading aloud: Dual-route and parallel-distributed-processing approaches. Psychological Review, 100, 589–608. |
DOI
DOI = digital object identifier
Doi in your reference list entry:
New!
A new citing format for DOI was introduced by APA in March 2017. The new format includes https and the prefix doi.org: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2016.11.001
Example:
Oppenheimer, D., Zaromb, F., Pomerantz, J. R., Williams, J. C., & Park, Y. S. (2017). Improvement of writing skills during college: A multi-year cross-sectional and longitudinal study of undergraduate writing performance. Assessing Writing, 32, 12–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2016.11.001 |
NOTES:
Articles retrieved from library databases may include ezproxy.aut.ac.nz in the DOIs. This ezproxy information should be removed.
For example:
https://doi-org.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/10.1093/pubmed/fdv045
The correct URL for this DOI is:
https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdv045
URL
If there is no DOI for a online journal article or an e-book, include a URL in your reference.
Use the URL of a journal home page for journal articles without DOI
Finding a journal homepage URL:
You could do a Google search for the journal title (within double quotation marks), e.g. "new zealand management magazine" to find the journal's homepage
Or, go to the Library database Ulrichsweb, search by the journal title or the journal's ISSN to find the journal record. On the journal record page, find the journal URL for your reference.
Journals without a home page and no DOI:
This can happen to some discontinued journals, or journals archived in an archival database only.
Use a URL of a library database:
Resources retrieved from a library database, without a DOI:
If you use electronic resources without DOI, such as an ebook or a data set or a journal without a website, from a library database, You are required to include the URL of the database homepage in your reference.
Example:
An ebook "Small town sustainability: economic, social,and environmental innovation".
The URL on the ebook page is:
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/lib/AUT/detail.action?docID=1121624