Writing References

Aneela Ramzan
In Text Citations
 In Text Citation
◉ The author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in
the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998).
◉ One complete reference for each source should appear in the reference list at the
end of the paper.
 Including Page Numbers
◉ If you are directly quoting or borrowing from another work, you should include the
page number at the end of the parenthetical citation.
◉ Use the abbreviation “p.” (for one page) or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing
the page number(s).
◉ Use an en dash for page ranges. For example, you might write (Jones, 1998, p.
199) or (Jones, 1998, pp. 199–201).
◉ Regardless of how they are referenced, all sources that are cited in the text
must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
Reference List
 References
◉ Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper.
◉ It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source
you cite in the body of the paper.
◉ Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise,
each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.
 Formatting
◉ Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay;
label this page "References" in bold, centered at the top of the page (do NOT
underline or use quotation marks for the title).
◉ All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.
◉ All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented
one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next big five inventory (BFI-2): Developing and
assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and
predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117-
143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000096
Basic Rules
 Author Names
◉ All authors' names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided first).
◉ Authors' first and middle names should be written as initials.
◉ For example, the reference entry for a source written by Jane Marie Smith would
begin with "Smith, J. M.”
◉ If a middle name isn't available, just initialize the author's first name: "Smith, J."
 Author Names
◉ Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up
to and including 20 authors (this is a new rule, as APA 6 only required the first six
authors).
◉ Separate each author’s initials from the next author in the list with a comma.
◉ Use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name.
◉ If there are 21 or more authors, use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after the 19th
author, and then add the final author’s name.
 Alphabetical Order
◉ Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author
of each work.
◉ For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the
entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
◉ When referring to the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports, webpages, or
other sources, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and
subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns.
◉ The titles of academic journals are subject to special rules.
Basic Rules for Articles in Academic Journals
 Punctuation
◉ Present journal titles (name of the journal) in full.
◉ Italicize journal titles (name of the journal).
◉ Maintain any nonstandard punctuation and capitalization that is used by the journal
in its title.
○ For example, you should use PhiloSOPHIA instead of Philosophia, or Past &
Present instead of Past and Present.
◉ Capitalize all major words in the titles of journals.
◉ This differs from the rule for titling other common sources (like books, reports,
webpages, and so on) described above.
○ This distinction is based on the type of source being cited. Academic journal
titles have all major words capitalized, while other sources' titles do not.
◉ Capitalize the first word of the titles and subtitles of journal articles, as well as
the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and any proper nouns.
◉ Do not italicize or underline the article title.
◉ Do not enclose the article title in quotes.
○ So, for example, if you need to cite an article titled "Deep Blue: The
Mysteries of the Marianas Trench" that was published in the
journal Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication, you would write
the article title as follows:
■ Deep blue: The mysteries of the Marianas Trench.
○ ...but you would write the journal title as follows:
■ Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication
 Article Title, Only capitalize first letter
Javed, O. (2019). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in
students. Pakistan Journal of Psychology, 23(1), 23-
30.
Journal Name, Italics, Capitalize each word
Referencing Authors
 Single Author
◉ Last name first, followed by author initials.

Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Duke
University Press.
 Two Authors
◉ List by their last names and initials. Separate author names with a comma. Use the
ampersand instead of "and."

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next big five inventory (BFI-2): Developing and
assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and
predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117-
143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000096
 Three to Twenty Authors
◉ List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, while the last
author name is preceded again by ampersand. This is a departure from APA 6,
which only required listing the first six authors before an ellipsis and the final
author's name.
Nguyen, T., Carnevale, J. J., Scholer, A. A., Miele, D. B., & Fujita, K. (2019).
Metamotivational knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in
goal-relevant task performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
117(5), 879-899. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000166
 More than Twenty Authors
◉ List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the first 19
authors’ names, use an ellipsis in place of the remaining author names. Then, end
with the final author's name (do not place an ampersand before it). There should be
no more than twenty names in the citation in total.
Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D. C., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R.,
DelSole, R., Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H., Gottschalck, J.,
Metzger, E. J., Barton, N. P., Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R., . . .
Kim, H. (2019). The subseasonal experiment (SubX): A multimodel
subseasonal prediction experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological
Society, 100(10), 2043-2061. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0270.1
 Unknown Author
◉ When the work does not have an author move the title of the work to the beginning
of the references and follow with the date of publication.
◉ Only use “Anonymous ” if the author of the work is signed “Anonymous.” This is
a new addition to APA 7.
◉ Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (11th ed.). (2003). Merriam-Webster.
◉ NOTE: When your essay includes parenthetical citations of sources with no author
named, use a shortened version of the source's title instead of an author's name.
Use quotation marks and italics as appropriate. For example, parenthetical
citations of the source above would appear as follows: (Merriam-Webster's, 2003).
 Two or More Works by the Same Author

◉ Use the author's name for all entries and list the entries by the year (earliest comes
first). List references with no dates before references with dates.
Urcuioli, P. J. (n.d.).
Urcuioli, P. J. (2011).
Urcuioli, P. J. (2015).
 Two or More Works by the Same Author

◉ When an author appears both as a sole author and, in another citation, as the first
author of a group, list the one-author entries first.

Agnew, C. R. (Ed.). (2014). Social influences on romantic relationships: Beyond the

Agnew, C. R., & South, S. C. (Eds.). (2014). Interpersonal relationships and health:
Social and clinical psychological mechanisms. Oxford University Press.
 Two or More Works by the Same Author

◉ References that have the same first author and different second and/or third authors
are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the second author, or the last name
of the third if the first and second authors are the same.

Arriaga, X. B., Capezza, N. M., Reed, J. T., Wesselman, E. D., & Williams, K. D.
(2014). With partners like you, who needs strangers?: Ostracism involving a
romantic partner. Personal Relationships, 21(4), 557-569.
Arriaga, X. B., Kumashiro, M., Finkel, E. J., VanderDrift, L. E., & Luchies, L. B.
(2014). Filling the void: Bolstering attachment security in committed
relationships. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(4), 398-405.
 Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same
Year

◉ If you are using more than one reference by the same author—or the same group
of authors listed in the same order—published in the same year, first check to see
if they have more specific dates (this recommendation is new to APA 7).
◉ Works with only a year should be listed before those with a more specific date.
◉ List specific dates chronologically.
◉ If two works have the same publication date, organize them in the reference list
alphabetically by the title of the article or chapter.
 Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same
Year

◉ If references have the same date, or if date is unavailable, then assign letter
suffixes to the year. Refer to these sources in your essay as they appear in your
reference list, e.g.: "Berndt (2004a) makes similar claims...“

Berndt, T. J. (2004a). Children’s friendships: Shifts over a half-century in perspectives