Swansea University
REFERENCING ACCORDING TO THE APA 6th STYLE: A BRIEF
GUIDE
When you work on an assignment you will read widely and “borrow” the ideas and
words of experts on the subject. It is essential that you always give complete and
accurate references whenever you refer to the work of others from books, journals,
web pages, reports etc. Examiners will deduct marks for incomplete or inaccurate
referencing.
Why is referencing important?
To enable the reader to follow up the references and find the book or journal article
in a library.
To enable the examiner or supervisor to check the accuracy of the information.
To demonstrate to the examiner that you have read widely a range of opinions.
To avoid plagiarism (using someone else’s ideas as your own.)
What should I reference?
Anything you refer to in your work, whether in quotation marks or not. If you have
used an idea from someone else, you need to acknowledge it.
No need to reference “common knowledge”, i.e. knowledge which is found in many
sources and is undisputed.
Try to avoid secondary quoting. Use the original if you can find it.
Styles
There are four different styles in use for undergraduates at Swansea University. APA
6th is an example of an Author-Date style and is used by many but not all of the
colleges. Check to see which style you should use.
Important things to remember
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Give full details of each item you use in an alphabetical reference list at the
end of your assignment
In the reference list, all lines of each reference are double spaced and after
the first are indented ( to do this: position your cursor at the beginning of the
second line and press CTRL and the Tab key simultaneously).
Link the two authors’ names with and when cited outside parentheses. Link
with an ampersand (&) inside parentheses.
Look at the full APA guide if you can’t find the answer in this short guide.
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March 2014
PUBLICATION
TYPE
Book (one or
two authors)
IN-TEXT
CITATION
(Milner &
O’Byrne,
2009)
FULL REFERENCE
NOTES
Milner, J., & O’Byrne, P. (2009).
Assessment in social work (3rd ed.).
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Last name + initials for
author’s name.
Use & (not and) to link
authors.
Italicise title.
Include one place of
publication only
(usually the first listed)
followed by publisher’s
name.
NB: For 6 or more
authors see the full
APA guide.
OR
Publication with
3-5 authors
Edited book
Chapter in a
book
...Milner
and
O’Byrne
(2009)
First cite:
(Stewart,
Piros, &
Heisler,
2011)
Subsequent
cites:
(Stewart et
al., 2011)
(Cash &
Smolak,
2011)
(Benton,
2011)
OR
Journal article
...Benton
(2011)
(Palmer &
KoenigLewis,
2011)
OR
Stewart, S. D., Piros, C. D., &
Heisler, J. (2011). Running money:
Professional portfolio management.
New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Cash, T. F., & Smolak, L. (Eds.).
(2011). Body image: A handbook of
science, practice, and prevention
(2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Benton, D. (2011). Diet, behaviour
and cognition in children. In D.
Kilcast & F. Angus (Eds.),
Developing children’s food
products (pp. 62-81). Cambridge:
Woodhead.
Abbreviate editor(s) as
Ed. or Eds.
Palmer, A., & Koenig-Lewis, N.
(2011). The effects of preenrolment emotions and peer
group interaction on students’
satisfaction. Journal of Marketing
Management, 27, 1208-1213. doi:
10.1080/0267257X.2011.614955
No italics for article
title, but italicise the
journal title and
volume number.
Include volume
number (27 in this
case).
Only include issue
number if each issue
begins with page 1,
e.g 27(3).
If the volume is
continuously
numbered the issue
number is not needed,
e.g 27
Include page numbers
and DOI number (if
available).
No publisher or place
of publication is
needed.
...Palmer
and KoenigLewis
(2011)
Author and title of
chapter precede
editors and title of
book.
Note use of In.
Pagination required.
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PUBLICATION
TYPE
Book review
IN-TEXT
CITATION
(Nagorski,
2013)
FULL REFERENCE
NOTES
Nagorski, A. (2013).The totalitarian
temptation [Review of the book The
devil in history: communism,
fascism and some lessons of the
20th century, by V.Tismaneanu].
Foreign Affairs, 92, 172-176.
Nagorski is the writer
of this review.
If the review is untitled,
place the material in
brackets immediately
after the year and
keep the brackets.
Web site
(Scientific
Committee
on Tobacco
and Health,
1998)
Scientific Committee on Tobacco
and Health. (1998). Report of the
Scientific Committee on Tobacco
and Health: Part one: The scale of
the smoking problem. Retrieved
from
http://www.archive.officialdocument
s.co.uk/document/doh/tobacco/part
-1.htm
If no personal author
named use name of
body responsible for
authorship.
Give date on which
you retrieved the
information only if the
information is likely to
change or be updated.
Online official
publication
(National
National Audit Office. (2005). UK
Audit Office, sport: supporting elite athletes.
2005)
(House of Commons Papers HC
182; SE/2005/9). Retrieved from
http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/
nao_reports/04-05/0405182.pdf
If no personal author
named use name of
body responsible for
authorship.
Include any important
series numbers.
Include URL.
Page numbers
If you are quoting or are using ideas from a specific page or pages of a work,
the in-text citation should include the page number(s).
If you are referring to only one page of a book, type p. before the page number
e.g. (Milner & O’Byrne, 2009, p. 20).
If you are referring to more than one page of a book, type pp. before the page
numbers e.g. (Milner & O’Byrne, 2009, pp. 20-32).
If you are quoting from an ebook which does not display page numbers, name the
major sections (often the chapter, section, and paragraph number). This is an
example of a direct quotation: One of the author’s points is that “people don’t rise
from nothing” (Gladwell, 2008, Chapter 1, Section 2, para. 5).
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Direct quote in-text citation examples
You can include direct quotes in the following ways, depending on your sentence
structure:
Discussing data collection, Matthews and Ross (2010) note that “it is a
practical activity, one that has to be carried out with time, spatial and resource
constraints” (p.181), and therefore needs careful consideration.
Or when the quote ends the sentence:
Careful consideration is needed with data collection as “it is a practical
activity, one that has to be carried out with time, spatial and resource
constraints” (Matthews & Ross, 2010, p.181).
Further information and advice
Working with Endnote and EndnoteWeb
Choose the Bibliographic Style – APA 6th if using Endnote software.
On Blackboard
Log in to your subject Library Support module to find more information.
On the web
American Psychological Association. (2012). The basics of APA style. Retrieved
from http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-tutorial.aspx
[Slides 13-25 are particularly useful for citing and references]
The APA Style Blog (http://blog.apastyle.org/ ) covers many tricky item types – use
the Search or browse by Category.
Books in the Library
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association. [full manual]
Schwartz, B. M., Landrum, R. E., & Gurung, R. A. R. (2012). An easyguide to APA
style. Los Angeles: Sage.
[Chapter 7 is useful for in-text citations. Chapter 10 is useful for giving full references
in the reference list]
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March 2014