Professional Documents
Culture Documents
When writing a piece of work you may need to refer, in your text, to material
produced by other authors. This procedure is called citing or quoting references. All ideas,
statements, opinions, conclusions, and so forth, taken from another authors work must be
cited, whether the work is directly quoted, paraphrased or summarised. Failing to
acknowledge sources will be considered as plagiarism.
Consistency and accuracy are important to enable the reader to identify and locate the
material that you have referred to. The referencing system adopted by the Department of
Psychology and Counselling for acknowledging and referencing sources in all academic
writing, including essays, projects, reports, and so on, is that established by the American
Psychological Association (APA). The British Psychological Society has also adopted the
APA format as their standard.
The material in this guide is based on the current rules and guidelines for the formal
APA system of in-text citations and entries in the reference list. These rules and guidelines are
set out in the sixth edition of the reference book Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association 2009.
The same set of rules should be followed each time you cite a reference. This guide
contains examples of sources commonly used by students. If your source does not appear in
this guide, you may ask your personal tutor or your lecturer.
NOTE: If you are providing publication for scholarly journals you should check the
referencing format that they require.
Dr Sandhi Patchay
September 2011
Each source cited in the text must appear in the reference list. Likewise, each entry in the
reference list must be cited in your text.
Pagination: the References section begins on a new page at the end of your text.
Heading: References with no quotation marks, no underlining, and so on, centred on the
first line.
Spacing: double-space throughout the references section for journal style reports (like for
the rest of the text).
Note: for space saving reasons the text in this guide is single-spaced.
Format of reference list: All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list
should be indented one-half inch (approximately 1.3 cm or five spaces) from the left
margin. This is called hanging indentation.
Do not put in italics, underline, or put quotations marks around the titles of journal
articles or essays in edited collections.
When referring to a work that is NOT a journal (e.g. book, article, Web page) put in
capital only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a
colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalise the second word in a
hyphenated compound word.
Authors:
- Entries in the reference list should be in alphabetical order of the surname of the first
author of each work.
- Authors are listed in the exact same order as specified in the source, using surnames
first and initials. Separate the surname and initials by a comma.
- Different authors names in one entry are separated by commas in the reference list.
- Separate authors names cited in the same parentheses in-text with semi-colons.
Example: Recent studies (Author A, 2003; Author B, 2004; Author C, 2004)
However dates concerning the same author should be separated by commas.
Example: Several studies (Author A, 1997, 2001, 2004; Author B, 2004)
- Use & instead of and when listing more than one author of a single work in
parentheses in your text and in the reference list.
- Conversely, use and instead of & in your text.
- When there are 7 or more authors, list only the first 6 authors in the references section
and then use et al. and dont forget the full stop after al.
- If no author is given for a particular source, in place of author begin with the title of
the work. Alphabetise according to the first word of the title, disregarding the articles
a, an and the if they are the first word in the title.
Personal communications (e.g. letters, e-mails, telephone conversations, etc.) should not
be included in the reference list because they cannot be retrieved by anyone else. Make
reference to these sources in your text only.
Common abbreviations
p. for page
pp. for pages
chap. for chapter
No. for number
Pt. for part
Suppl. for supplement
ed. for edition
Ed. for editor
Eds. for editors
If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or
making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you have to make reference to
the author and only the year of publication in your text.
Examples:
Peltzer (2003) studied the relationships between magical thinking and paranormal beliefs in
an African population
In a recent study of the relationships between magical thinking and paranormal beliefs in an
African population (Peltzer, 2003)
In 2003 Peltzer studied the relationships between magical thinking and paranormal beliefs in
an African population.
Omit the year in subsequent citations after the first citation within a paragraph, unless there
is confusion with some other study cited within the paragraph or in your manuscript.
Example:
In a recent study of the relationships between magical thinking and paranormal beliefs in an
African population, Peltzer (2003) found Moreover, Peltzer claimed that
When there are two authors, both should be cited the first and subsequent times.
When there are three to five authors, you should cite all the authors first time, and
subsequently cite only the first author followed by et al. (which means and others)
Examples:
[first time]
Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, and Longo (1991) claimed that
[subsequent times]
Eagly et al. (1991) concluded
[omit the date in subsequent citations after the first citation within a paragraph]
Eagly et al. also found
When there are six or more authors, both your first and subsequent in-text citations should
include only the surname of the first author followed by et al. and the year of
publication.
However, in the reference list:
- if there are six authors give the surnames and initials of all six authors.
- if there are seven or more authors, list only the first six authors followed by et al.
3. Paraphrasing an idea
If you are paraphrasing or referring to an idea from another work, you only have to make
reference to the author(s) and year of publication in your text. The APA guidelines encourage
you to provide a page number but do not require you to do so.
4. No author
If you are citing a source, for example a Web page or a newspaper that lists no author, use
an abbreviated version or the first few words of the title of the source in double quotation
marks to substitute for the name of the author. Give the year as well.
Example (hypothetical):
Psychology students easily adopt the APA style to format research reports ("Learning the
APA style," 2004).
Give in italics the titles of periodicals, books, reports, and capitalise the first letter of all
major words.
Example:
Legal materials in APA publications are referenced according to The Bluebook: A Uniform
System of Citation (2000).
6. Short quotations
When you include quotations of fewer than 40 words in your text, enclose the quotation
within double quotation marks. Give the authors surname, the year, and the specific page
citation in the text. Then include a complete reference in the reference list.
Examples:
Crystallized intelligence has been defined as the extent to which a person has absorbed the
content of culture (Belsky, 1990, p. 125).
Belsky (1990) defined crystallized intelligence as the extent to which a person has absorbed
the content of culture (p. 125).
7. Long quotations
Place quotations of 40 words or more in a freestanding block, and do not use quotation
marks. Start the quotation on a fresh line, indented one-half inch (1.3 cm or five spaces) from
the left margin; the whole block must be indented one-half inch. If the long quotation contains
paragraphs, indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph an additional inch from the
new margin (i.e. + inch in all from the left margin). Maintain double-spacing throughout
the whole quotation. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation
mark.
Example:
Peltzers 2003 study found:
A small but significant association between magical thinking and traditional religious
belief. However, greater traditional religious belief is generally characterized by
prescriptions condemning magical beliefs and practices (e.g., those associated with
witchcraft, spiritualism, and precognition). Therefore, it appears in this African sample
that magical and traditional religious beliefs coexist. (p. 1424)
8. Personal communications
Personal communications (e.g. e-mail, letters, private interviews, etc.) should be referred to in
your in-text citations but NOT in your reference list. To cite a personal communication,
provide initials and last name of the communicator, the words personal communication, plus
an exact date in the body of your manuscript only.
Example:
M. L. Nicebloke also mentioned that his students have a guide to the APA style (personal
communication, July 8, 2004).
9. Computer software
You are not required to enter in the reference list standard software such as MS Word, Excel,
SPSS. However, in your text, you must give the name of the software and the version number
you have used.
Examples:
[In-text]
Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.0 [or PASW Statistics 18].
Analysis of data was performed using SPSS (v.16) [or PASW Statistics (v.18)].
Where available, add the DOI after the page numbers for all journal articles
Isbell, L.M. (2004). Not all happy people are lazy or stupid: Evidence of systematic
processing in happy moods. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 341
349.doi:_ _.
Huber, S., & Krist, H. (2004). When is the ball going to hit the ground? Duration estimates,
eye movements, and mental imagery of object motion. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30, 431-444, doi:__.
McCabe, R.E., Chudzik, S.M., Antony, M.M., Young, L., Swinson, R.P., & Zolvensky, M.J.
(2004). Smoking behaviors across anxiety disorders. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 18,
7-18: doi:__.
[incorrect format]
Kendrick, J. S., Zahniser, S. C., Miller, N., Salas, N., Stine, J., Gargiullo, P. M., Floyd, R. L.,
Spierto, F. W., Sexton, M., & Metzger, R. W. (1995). Integrating smoking cessation
into routine public prenatal care: The smoking cessation in pregnancy project.
American Journal of Public Health, 85, 217-222.
[correct format]
Kendrick, J. S., Zahniser, S. C., Miller, N., Salas, N., Stine, J., Gargiullo, P. M., et al. (1995).
Integrating smoking cessation into routine public prenatal care: The smoking cessation
in pregnancy project. American Journal of Public Health, 85, 217-222.
Review of a book
Machado, A., & Silva, F.J. (2003). You can lead an ape to a tool but...[Review of the book
Folk physics for apes: The chimpanzee's theory of how the world works]. Journal of
the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 79, 267-286.
Give the date, volume number and the pages as they are given, for example [2002, Spring],
[2001, October 19].
Carey, B. (2004, July 21). Study of antidepressants finds little disparity in suicide risk. The
New York Times, p. A15.
Corballis, M. C. (1999, March-April). The gestural origins of language. American Scientist,
87, 138-146.
Russell, T. (2004, Summer). What is my brain and how does it work? British Neuroscience
Association Bulletin, 48, 14-15.
Give only the secondary source in the reference list. In text, name the original work and give
a citation for the secondary source.
Example 1
If Moshmans work is cited in the article by Wharton and Grafman (1998) and you did not
read the original work of Moshman, include in the reference list only the Wharton and
Grafman reference that you actually read.
[In-text]
Moshmans illustration of reasoning (as cited in Wharton & Grafman, 1998)...
[Reference list]
Wharton, C.M., & Grafman, J. (1998). Deductive reasoning and the brain. Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, 2, 54-59.
Example 2
Suppose you read Eysenck and Keane (2000) and would like to paraphrase the following from
that book According to Masson and Graf (1993, p. 6), a memory system is a collection of
correlated functions that are served by anatomically distinct brain structures (p. 207).
[In-text, possible version]
Several definitions of a memory system have been provided, one of them being a memory
system is a collection of correlated functions that are served by anatomically distinct brain
structures (Masson & Graf, 1993, as cited in Eysenck & Keane, 2000, p. 207).
[Reference list]
Eysenck, M. W., & Keane, M.T. (2000). Cognitive psychology: A students handbook (4th
ed.). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Example 3
Whenever you cite something second hand, you must make it clear. In the two examples
given below, only the Farah reference would be placed in the reference list. Note that the year
of the original work (Levine) is included if it is given in the secondary source.
Some fact (Levine, as cited in Farah, Year)
Some fact (Levine, Year, as cited in Farah, Year)
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location:
Publisher.
About the publisher:
- As regards the location, you should always give the name of the city and also include the
state, county or country if the city is unfamiliar or if the city could be confused with another
one. Cities that are well known for publication (e.g. London, Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, New
York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago) can stand without the
country or state.
- When the publisher is a university, do not include the name of a city or state, and so on, in
the publishers location if it is already present in the name of the university.
- Do not include superfluous words like Co., Inc., Ltd., Publishers. But the words Books,
Press and Publications should be retained.
- When the author and the publisher are the same, substitute the name of the publisher with
the word Author. For example,
American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Book
- If you have read the first edition of a book, use the format:
Bruce, V., Green, P. R., & Georgeson, M.A. (1984). Visual perception: Physiology,
psychology and ecology. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
- If you have read an edition of a book other than the first edition, use the format:
Bruce, V., Green, P. R., & Georgeson, M.A. (2003). Visual perception: Physiology,
psychology and ecology (4th ed.). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Edited book
Dictionary
Colman, A. (Ed.). (2003). A dictionary of psychology (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
10
The title of the book or article replaces the author (at the beginning of the reference).
When entered in the reference list, the same alphabetical rule applies.
The in-text citation is composed of a few words of the title of the book or article (or all the
words if the title is relatively short), followed by the date of publication).
If you need to include the edition as well, then this goes immediately after the title in
parentheses (before the full stop), and only the title is given in italic.
[Reference List]
Allen brain atlas. (2004). Seattle, WA: Allen Institute for Brain Science.
New drug appears to sharply cut risk of death from heart failure. (1993, July 15). The
Washington Post, p. A12.
Hypothetical example:
Greenwich dictionary of psychology (5th ed.). (2012). London: The University of Greenwich.
[In-text]
(Allen brain atlas, 2004).
("New Drug," 1993).
Social Exclusion Unit. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. (2004). Mental health and social
exclusion report (ODPM Publication code 04 SEU 02280). London: ODPM
Publications.
Brochure
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2000). Nutrition and your health: Dietary guidelines for
Americans (5th ed.)[Brochure]. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Society for Neuroscience. (1998). Responsible conduct regarding scientific communication
(3rd ed.) [Brochure]. Washington, DC: Author.
Wundt, W. (1894). Lectures on human and animal psychology. (J.E. Creighton & E.B.
Titchener, Trans.). London: Swan Sonnenschein. (Original work published 1892)
[In-text]
Both dates should appear: Wundt (1894/1892).
[For information: The 1863 original publication of Wundt has never been translated.]
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Treisman, A. (1999). Feature binding, attention and object perception. In G.W. Humphreys, J.
Duncan, & A. Treisman (Eds.), Attention, space and action: Studies in cognitive
neuroscience (pp. 91-111 ). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Published proceedings
- Capitalise all major words of the name of the meeting as it is a proper noun.
Riesenhuber, M., & T. Poggio. (2003). How visual cortex recognizes objects: The tale of the
standard model. In L.M. Chalupa & J.S. Werner (Eds.), The Visual Neurosciences:
vol. 2 (pp. 1640-1653). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bor, R. (1999). Unruly passenger behaviour and in-flight violence: A psychological
perspective. In R.S. Jensen, B. Cox, J.D. Callister, & R. Lavis (Eds.), Proceedings of
the Tenth International Symposium on Aviation Psychology (pp. 1161-1166).
Columbus: The Ohio State University.
NOTE: The publisher in the second example above is a university. Therefore, the name of the
state is not included in the publishers location since it is already present in the name of the
university.
Unpublished proceedings
Parsons, L. M., Gabrieli, J. D. E., & Corkin, S. (1987, November). Failure to improve a skill
for mental rotation in global amnesia. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Society
for Neuroscience, New Orleans, LA.
4. Lecture Notes
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Example:
[In-text]
In an Experimental Design lecture at University of Greenwich on October 16, 2003, Dr
Sandhi Patchay explained the signal-to-noise ratio metaphor to classify and organise the
experimental design variations (S. Patchay, PSYC0042 lecture, October 16, 2003).
If the lecturer handed out a document at the lecture, then you could include that source in
the list of reference. The in-text citation remains as above.
[Reference list]
Patchay, S. (2003, October). The signal-to-noise ratio metaphor to classify experimental
designs. Outline presented in a classroom lecture at University of Greenwich, London.
If the material presented in the lecture is available online, then use the appropriate format
for the electronic version in-text and in the reference list.
5. Audiovisual sources
Producer, P. P. (Producer), & Director, D.D. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of motion
picture [Motion picture]. Country of origin: Studio or distributor.
-
Give the function of the contributors, either the producer or the director, or both.
Movie or video tape is identified by [Motion picture].
If a movie or video tape is not available in wide distribution, add the following to your
citation after [Motion picture], and also note that there is no punctuation after the
closing parenthesis.
...[Motion picture]. (Available from Distributor name, full address)
Examples:
American Psychological Association (Producer). (1992). Psychology: Understanding
ourselves, understanding each other [Motion picture]. (Available from American
Psychological Association, 750 First St, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242)
In-Tele-Com (Producer). (2003). Transitions throughout the lifespan. No. 9 Playing and
learning [Motion picture]. (Available from Resources in Training & Education Ltd.,
Cross Tress, Walton Street, Walton-in-Gordano, Clevedon, Somerset BS21 7AW,
England)
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Examples:
Pope, J. (Producer). (2004, April 13). Hawking [Television broadcast]. London: British
Broadcasting Corporation.
British Broadcasting Corporation Science (Producer). (2003). Mind of a millionaire
[Television series]. London: BBC.
Writer, W. W. (Writer), & Director, D.D. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of episode
[Television series episode]. In P. Producer (Producer), Series Title. City of origin:
Studio or distributor.
Example:
Hatton, N., & Jolly, L. (Writers), & Crayden, A. (Director). (2002). Deepest desires
[Television series episode]. In M. Bell (Producer), Human Instinct. London: British
Broadcasting Corporation.
Audio recording
- Give the function of the principal contributor(s) (e.g. speaker, narrator), the type of medium
(e.g. audio CD, cassette recording) with a number to identify it (if this is available), and the
publisher and its location.
Goleman, D. (Narrator). (1997). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ
(Cassette Recording ISBN 0722599021). London: HarperCollins.
Additional forms
Where available, add the DOI after the page numbers for all journal articles
If there is more than one article by the same author or authors, with same authors in the exact
same order, you should list the articles in order by the year of publication, starting with the
earliest.
Examples:
Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 11, 7-10.
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Berndt, T.J. (2004). Friendship and three As (aggression, adjustment, and attachment).
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 88, 1-4.
Zimmermann, P. (1999). Structure and functioning of internal working models of attachment
and their role for emotion regulation. Attachment and Human Development, 1, 5571.
Zimmermann, P. (2004). Attachment representations and characteristics of friendship
relations during adolescence. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 88, 83101.
When an author appears both as the only author and, in another citation, as the first author
with several authors, you should list the one-author entries first irrespective of the date of
publication.
Examples:
Berndt, T.J. (2004). Friendship and three As (aggression, adjustment, and attachment).
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 88, 1-4.
Berndt, T. J., & Hanna, N. A. (1995). Intimacy and self-disclosure in friendships. In K. J.
Rotenberg (Ed.), Disclosure processes in children and adolescents (pp. 5777). New
York: Cambridge University Press.
When the first author is the same in two or more multiple-author references, arrange the
names alphabetically by the second authors name. If the second author is the same then
arrange as per third author. Follow the same process if the third author (etc.) is identical.
Examples
Berndt, T. J. (1996). Exploring the effects of friendship quality on social development. In W.
M. Bukowski, A. F. Newcomb, & W. W. Hartup (Eds.), The company they keep:
friendship in childhood and adolescence ( pp. 346365). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Berndt, T. J., Hawkins, J. A., & Hoyle, S. G. (1986). Changes in friendship during a school
year: effects on childrens and adolescents impressions of friendship and sharing with
friends. Child Development, 57, 12841297.
Berndt, T. J., Hawkins, J. A., & Jiao, Z. (1999). Influences of friends and friendships on
adjustment to junior high school. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45, 1341.
Berndt, T. J., & Hoyle, S. G. (1985). Stability and change in childhood and adolescent
friendships. Developmental Psychology, 21, 10071015.
Berndt, T. J., & Keefe, K. (1995). Friends influence on adolescents adjustment to school.
Child Development, 66, 13121329.
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Berndt, T. J., Laychak, A. E., & Park, K. (1990). Friends influence on adolescents academic
achievement motivation: an experimental study. Journal of Educational Psychology,
82, 664670.
Grossmann, K. E., Grossmann, K., Huber, F., & Wartner, U. (1981). German childrens
behavior towards their mothers at 12 months and their fathers at 18 months in
Ainsworths Strange Situation. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 4,
157181.
Grossmann, K. E., Grossmann, K., & Zimmermann, P. (1999). A wider view of attachment
and exploration: Stability and change during the years of immaturity. In J. Cassidy &
P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications
(pp. 760786). New York: Guilford.
Zimmermann, P., & Becker-Stoll, F. (2002). Stability of attachment representations in
adolescence: The influence of ego-identity status. Journal of Adolescence, 25, 107
124.
Zimmermann, P., Maier, M., Winter, M., & Grossmann, K. E. (2001). Attachment and
emotion regulation of adolescents during joint problem-solving with a friend.
International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 331342.
Whenever you use more than one reference published in the same year by the same author (or
the same group of authors listed in the same order), arrange them alphabetically by the title of
the article or chapter. Then assign letter suffixes to the year. Note that the suffixes are
assigned in the list of reference.
When referring to these sources in your text, use the letter suffixes with the year so that the
reader knows which is which. For example: "Several studies (Driver & Spence, 1998a, 1998b,
1998c) have shown that..."
Examples:
Driver, J., & Spence, C. (1998a). Attention and the crossmodal construction of space. Trends
in Cognitive Sciences, 2, 254-262.
Driver, J., & Spence, C. (1998b). Crossmodal attention. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 8,
245-253.
Driver, J., & Spence, C. (1998c). Crossmodal links in spatial attention. Proceedings of the
Royal Society Section B, 353, 1-13.
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References section
A reference to an Internet source should contain the following:
- the author(s) of a document must be identified whenever possible
- a document title or description
- a date (date of publication or update or date of retrieval)
- an address, i.e. all the components of the URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
Example:
http://www.greenwich.ac.uk/lib/subjects/health/psych1.html
http = the protocol
www.greenwich.ac.uk = host name
lib/subjects/health = directory path to the document (case sensitive)
psych1.htm = file name of the document
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