Citing sources – author-date (APA style)
(Used for: Business & Economics; Psychology; Sociology; Education;
Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences).
APA style is an author-date system, using the author's family name and the year of
publication to identify the sources used. An alphabetical list of references provides full details
of all the cited materials on a separate page.
In-text citations

Citations should always include the author's surname (family name) and the date of
publication. These are often placed at the end of the sentence with the full stop coming
after the brackets. For example:
The history of educational innovations is far from encouraging (Nord, 1986).
 If the surname of the author forms part of the text it should be followed immediately by the
year of publication in brackets. For example:
Ford (2012) states that...
 If the citation contains more than one work it should appear as
...our social history (Henman, 2002; Palmer & Short, 2002).
Note the semi-colon separating the citations.
 Works by two authors appear in the text as:
Palmer and Short (2000) contend...
If, however, the authors’ names are within brackets, an ampersand (&) is used:
This relationship has been shown to be significant (Palmer & Short, 2000).
 If a work has three to five authors, you should name all authors in the first citation, then you
can simply use the first author followed by the expression 'et al.' (and others).
[first citation] Goldschmidt, Junghagen and Harris (2003) note…
[then subsequent citations]…as identified in the previous study (Goldschmidt et al., 2003).
Note the full stop after al. (it is an abbreviation of ‘alia’), and the need for an additional
comma if the reference is in brackets.
 If the citation is for six or more authors, every citation to the source should include only the
surname of the first author, followed by ‘et al.’ and the year:
Zhang et al. (2005) show that….
The follow-up study (Zhang et al., 2005) confirmed this finding.
 If the citation is for a direct quote, the page number or numbers must be given:
As Swales (1990, p. 42) states ‘the propensity for early categorization can lead to failure’.
 When quoting a source which was cited by another author:
Tang (2003, as cited in Goodkin, 2010) proposes that...
Ward and Declan (1988) cited Farrow (1968) as finding…
Note that only the source you actually read should appear in the reference list.
List of references
Notice details such as hanging indents, punctuation, abbreviations, italics and use of
capitals in the following basic examples. For other types of reference materials refer
to the APA Guide
 Basic format for a book
Family name, initial(s). (Year). Title of book. Location of publication: Publisher.
McIlroy, D. (2003). Studying at university (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University
 Basic format for a journal article
Family name, initial(s). (year). Name of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue
number), page numbers of the article. doi (preferred) or URL of journal (if no
doi available).
Mellers,
B.
A.
(2000).
Choice
and
the
relative
pleasure
of
consequences. Psychological Bulletin,
126(6), 910–924. doi: 10.1037//0033-2909.126.6.910
McGrath, B. J. & Huntingdon, A. D. (2007). The health and wellbeing of adults
working in early
childhood education. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 32(3), 33-38.
Retrieved from http:www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au
 Technical/Government report (online)
Give author name if available, or producing authority if no author is specified, year,
Name of report, minimal capitalisation, (report number if available). Retrieved from
URL. [See reference list below for print example].
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). Childhood education and care (No. 4402.0).
Retrieved
from http://www.abs.gov.au
 Online resource (if author name not available)
Article name. (publication date). In Title of work (Edition). Retrieved from URL
Panadeine
forte
(Paracetamol-Codeine).
(2013,
February).
In MIMS
Online (Australian ed.).
Retrieved from https://www.mimsonline.com.au
Example reference list
Ansari, A. (1999). Langevin modes of analysis of myoglobin. Journal of Chemical Physics,
110 (3).
Retrieved from
http://ojps.aip.org/journals/doc/vol_110/iss.html
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). Childhood education and care (No. 4402.0).
Canberra, ACT: Author.
Bechara, A., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. R. (2000). Emotion, decision making and
the orbitofrontal cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 10(3), 295–307.
doi:10.1093/cercor/10.3.295
Goldschmidt, S., Junghagen, S. & Harris, U. (2003). Strategic affiliate marketing,
Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Palmer, G.R. & Short, S.D. (2000). Healthcare and public policy: An Australian analysis (3rd
ed.).South Yarra: Macmillan.