University Library: APA Referencing 7th Edition: APA basics

What is the APA referencing style?

The American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style is commonly used at university to acknowledge the original sources used in the research and writing process. Any time you use an idea or quote from another source, acknowledge that section of text with the authors' name(s) and the year the source was published. The main components of APA referencing style are in-text and reference list end-text) citations. Please see the In-text Citations section of this guide for more detailed instructions; click on the side bar for guidance on referencing different types of materials, and the APA Sample Reference List below. The Printable Quick Reference Guide will also give you an overview of the new style.

Note for postgraduates, researchers, and academic staff: This guide has been adapted from the official Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Some local interpretations have been created in order to suit the needs of undergraduates undertaking coursework. If you are a postgraduate student, a researcher, or plan to publish your material, the Library recommends consulting the original APA Publication Manual for more detailed instructions, particularly if reproducing copyrighted works.

APA referencing: A simple introduction (1:52)
A short introduction to the 7th edition of APA.
APA two format patterns
This blog post provides insight into why the APA Style follows the pattern of author, date, title, and source.
Six steps to proper citation
Basic elements of a APA style reference
Use this guide to identify the basic reference elements (author, date, title, and source) to create complete APA style reference list entries.

Understanding and avoiding plagiarism

What “counts” as plagiarism? What is “self-plagiarism”? APA Style helps you understand and avoid both. Check out the Avoiding Plagiarism Guide and the Plagiarism topic page below to make sure you appropriately credit your sources.

Tutorials, tools, guides, and classes

Video: APA Citations 7th Edition
This video provides you a brief introduction to APA Referencing Style
Tutorial: APA Citations 7th Edition
This tutorial provides guidelines to help you properly format both in-text citations and references for books, ebooks, journals and websites.
Quiz: APA Citations 7th Edition
Take this quiz to test how much you've learnt about APA referencing.
APA Manual 7th edition: 17 most notable changes
This short video provides an introduction to the main changes in APA between 6th and 7th editions.

APA style references formatting activity
Practice exercises: Rewrite the references in correct APA style and check your answers.

Test your APA style knowledge quiz
Answer questions to test your knowledge of APA style. Check for accuracy by comparing your answers provided at the end of the document.
Academic writer tutorial: Basics of APA Style
Provides guidance on grammar, writing style, formatting and mechanics as well as in-text and reference list elements. Official resource from the American Psychological Association.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 7th ed by American Psychological Association The official source for APA Style. It is a popular style manual the in social and behavioural sciences, natural sciences, nursing, communications, education, business, and other fields.
Call Number: 808.06615 PUB 2019
ISBN: 9781433832161
Publication Date: 2019

APA style guidelines
Browse APA style and grammar guidelines by topic
APA Style blog
Written by experts from the APA, you can search this blog to find explanations for the more tricky referencing queries.
APA style guidelines - References
This guide contains commonly asked referencing questions and examples. It also includes tricky and unusual examples not included in the APA print manual such as: archival documents, letters, interviews, historical newspapers; editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), religious works etc.

APA 7th Quick Reference Guide
Quick guide to commonly used references using the APA 7th edition
APA Sample reference list
Not sure what your reference list should look like? Take a look at this example provided by the American Psychological Association.
Student paper example - APA 7th - Figures and Tables
This sample paper has been adapted to demonstrate how to display figures and tables within a document according to APA style. Please note that your course might have different formatting requirements than those presented here. Please check with your course coordinator for more information. This sample paper is not intended for those who are publishing their work (e.g. PhD candidates).

Sample papers - American Psychological Association
A collection of example papers demonstrating correct APA formatting and referencing style.

The University Library provides students with free access to EndNote and RefWorks software. Both have the same purpose: to make the management and formatting of references more streamlined. It is worth looking at both tools to determine which one could be right for you, depending on how you like to work. The Library recommends that undergraduate and coursework students use RefWorks, and higher degree by research students and academic staff use EndNote.

RefWorks is a fully cloud-based tool, meaning that there is no requirement to install or upgrade the software and users have access to the full features of the software online.
EndNote requires installation on one of your devices in order for you to access the full features of the software. APA 7th is available as a default style in EndNote X9.3.3 onwards. For other versions of EndNote, please see our EndNote Guide - Installation to see how to download APA 7th.

Workshops & events calendar
Register for one of the scheduled library skills classes.
APA 7th tutorials and webinars
Useful materials to guide beginners and more experienced users of APA in their scholarly writing.