APA Referencing (APA 7th edition)

In text citations

• In text citations follow the same basic format for all resources - Work the author of the work (as specified below)  and the year into the body of your work.
• Where available, page numbers must be included for direct quotations, and can also be provided for paraphrases. 
• For more information, refer to the In-text citations page of this guide.

Examples of in-text citations: 

Hassan (2019) suggests that...

OR

Short sentences are easier for readers to understand than long ones (American Psychological Association, 2019, p. 113).

Reference lists

• If a date cannot be found, use (n.d.) in the date field

• Reference lists should be arranged in alphabetical order by author. All lines after the first line in each individual reference should be indented by 1.25cm. For more information on setting out your reference list, refer to the 'Reference List Example' page of this guide.

• Where the work does not have an author, use the item's title in the author's field, followed by a full stop. 
• URLs and DOIs can be presented either as hyperlinks (usually blue font, or blue font underlined) or as plain text, not underlined.

General information

Conference proceedings can be published in various forms.

• Proceedings from a book, should be cited in the same way as a chapter in an edited book (refer to the Books (print or online) page for details. 
• Proceedings from a regularly published journal should be referencing in the same way as a journal article. 
• References for proceedings not published in books or journals should be constructed as shown below

Reference list

Author surname, Initials. (Year, month days). Paper title in italics [Conference paper]. Conference name, location. URL

Lewis, I., Watson, B., & White, K.M. (2018, October 2-4). Exploring the effectiveness of different types of humour in road safety advertising campaigns [Conference paper]. Australasian Road Safety Conference, Sydney, Australia. https://trid.trb.org/view/1603375

Additional points 

The date used for a conference proceeding should be the date for the entire conference, rather than the date of the specific presentation, as this will make it easier for readers to locate.

For conference papers accessed in print format, omit the URL.

When referencing a press release, your reference list entry should include the format of the work in square brackets following the title.

The general structure of a reference for a press release is:

Author's surname, Initials. (Year, month day). Title of the press release in italics [Press release].URL.

Oxfam Australia. (2020, April 16). G20 debt moratorium is a first step, must go further [Press release]. https://media.oxfam.org.au/2020/04/g20-debt-moratorium-is-a-first-step/

The general structure for a report is:

Author's surname, Initials. (Year, month day). Title of the report in italics (Report number if available). Publisher name. URL.

• If the author and publisher are the same, which is often the case for reports produced by organisations, omit the publisher name from your reference. 
• The month and date of the report should be included, if available.

Annual report

Box Hill Institute. (2018). Annual report 2018. https://www.datocms-assets.com/6783/1559092428-bhi-annual-report-2018.pdf

Report produced by a government or other organisation.

Australian Government. (2020, April 7). Impact of COVID-19 in Australia – ensuring the health system can respond. https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/04/impact-of-covid-19-in-australia-ensuring-the-health-system-can-respond-summary-report.pdf

Report produced by individual authors for a government or other organisation.

Pasco, S., & Brennan, E. (2017). Lifting our game: report of the review to achieve educational excellence in Australian schools through early childhood interventions. Department of Education and Training. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/research/Pages/publications.aspx

The reference for a review of another work (such as a book, album or film) should be based on the rules for the type of source the review is in. For example, for a review that was found in a blog, follow the general rules for referencing a blog. However, references for review should also include details of what was reviewed in square brackets after the the review title.  This should include the type of work being reviewed, its title and the name of the work's creator. For all creators other than authors of books, include also an abbreviation of their role in the work (e.g. Dir. for director, Ed., for editor)

A book review published in a newspaper online would look something like this:

O'Brien, K. (2020, April, 16). A magical world where sharks come to the rescue [Review of the book Sharks in the time of saviours, by K.S. Washburn]. The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/a-magical-world-where-sharks-come-to-the-rescue-20200408-p54if7.html

Theses and dissertations are referenced differently depending on whether they have been published or not.

Published thesis

Author's surname, Initials. (Year). Title of the thesis in italics [Thesis type, Institute awarding the degree]. Name of the database or archive where the thesis can be found. URL.

Lui, Y. (2018). Discrete element modelling of geocell-reinforced railway ballast and experimental examination of geocell failure mechanisms [Doctoral thesis, University of Adelaide]. Adelaide Research & Scholarship. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/117672

Unpublished thesis

Author's surname, Initials. (Year). Title of dissertation in italics [Unpublished XXX thesis]. Name of Institute awarding the degree.

Ryan, R.G. (2020). Daytime HONO, NO2 and aerosol distributions from MAX-DOAS observations in Melbourne [Unpublished doctoral thesis]. University of Melbourne.