Enrol for an APA referencing workshop from the Workshops box on Library website homepage.
If there are no workshops currently available there is a video you can watch.
You are responsible for your own references.
Library staff will not check your references for you, but they may give you feedback and advice. You make the final call on how you write and the format.
There are a number of resources that you can use to check your references. This library guide is a good start. If you can't find the answer consult the APA 7th manual (Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 2020, Seventh edition.), or the APA blog or website.
If you are still unsure attend a workshop or watch the video tutorial. You can also check with your lecturers.
It is better to find the original work.
If you are unable to access the original source you can cite the work that refers to it. This is called a secondary citation. Refer to the secondary citations page in the in-text citation section.
You should cite it as a journal article using the format for journal articles.
The webpage citation format should only be used if there is no other reference category that fits. The same for online videos, use the video format. For social media, use the social media format. For e-books, use the e-book format.
DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier.
Most online journal articles and some books have DOIs. If a resource has a DOI it must be included in the reference. A DOI has a number that starts with 10. for example 10.1038/nature11241. In your reference include https://doi.org/ before the number to give https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11241.
D’Hont, A., Denoeud, F., Aury, JM. et al. The banana (Musa acuminata) genome and the evolution of monocotyledonous plants. Nature 488, 213–217 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11241
You can determine the type of publication from the structure of the publication.
Journal articles are shorter research papers that appear in publications with other papers usually on similar topics. A journal article may have journal in the publication name, and include a volume and issue number. Some articles may be preprint or a pre-publication release. They should still have the intended journal name.
To identify a chapter from an edited book, look for the information after the title of the chapter. If it says "In..." followed by the editor(s)' names, the title of the book, the page range and the name of the publisher, it will be a chapter in a book. Chapters in an edited book are often written by different authors.
Reports are harder to identify as they have a similar structure to some other formats such as books or websites. Look for the word 'report' in the title or the URL, though not all reports will have it. They sometimes have no publisher or the publisher is a government agency or organisation. If it is a downloadable report reference using the information in the pdf.
If you have a full journal title and need to know the abbreviated title (or vice versa), try the following tools:
You should cite your own published work as you would any other published work.
Citing a manuscript available online as informally published work ( APA manual 73-74).
For your own figures, images or tables, you do not need to include a citation or add it to your reference list. Include a heading or figure number at the top and a note underneath to explain the content. (APA manual, 7.28-7.30) You may add that it is your own work.
Find more details in the sections Citing your own table and Citing your own work.