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Referencing in APA 7th Style

How to reference articles

Format

Author, N. (Year). Article title. Journal Title, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxx

 

Components

  • Author(s) surname and initial(s)
  • Year the article was published 
  • Title of the article
  • Title of the overall journal in italics
  • Volume number in italics
  • Issue number
  • Page numbers of the article
  • DOI if there is one

 

Most online journal articles will have a DOI but there are a small number that do not. If you accessed an article from LibrarySearch or a database that does not have a DOI you do not need to include a URL instead. If you accessed it from an individual journal website then include the URL if there is no DOI.

Most journal articles have page numbers, but some online only articles have an article number instead. In this case after the issue write the word Article followed by the article number.

Sometimes the print and online versions of a journal article will have different publication dates. Always use the date that matches the volume and issue, so that if someone navigated to the article by using the journal title, then going to the relevant volume and issue this would be the matching year of publication.

 

Examples

Journal article with a DOI

Tekane, R., & Potgieter, M. (2021). Insights from training a blind student in biological sciences. South African Journal of Science, 117(5), 58-64. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2021/8607

 

Journal article without a DOI accessed through LibrarySearch

Ankit, B. S.,  Nabhan, D., Chapman, R.,  Chiampas, G., Drezner, J.,  Olin, J. T.,  Taylor, D.,  Finnoff, J. T., & Baggish, A. L. (2021). Resumption of sport at the United States Olympic and Paralympic training facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach, 13(4), 359–363. 

 

Journal article without a DOI accessed on the journal's own website

Jones, D. R. (2020). A comparison of success trajectories among nontraditional students with varying abilities. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 33(4), 315-406. https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/publications/jped/archived-jped/jped-volume-33

 

Journal article with an article number instead of page numbers

Powell, B., Jardine, K. D., Steed, M., Adams, J., & Mason, B. (2020). Enhanced nursing self-awareness and pharmacotherapy knowledge-base: Peer-teaching and nursing/pharmacy interprofessional education. Medical Education Online, 25(1), Article 1814551. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2020.1814551

 

Article from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 

Ng, W. S., & Jayaram, H. (2021). Adjunctive modulation of wound healing during cataract surgery to promote survival of a previous trabeculectomy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/0.1002/14651858.‌‌CD013664.pub2

 

 

 

Please note that references from news websites are formatted slightly differently to online newspapers eg. BBC News would have a different format. Please look at the websites tab for an example of this.

 

Format

Author, N. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Newspaper Title. www.newspaper.com/article

 

Components

  • Author(s) surname and initial(s)
  • Date the article was published in the format Year, Month Day. You still just use the year in the in-text citation.
  • Title of the article
  • Title of the newspaper in italics
  • Web address if you accessed it online

 

Examples

Fleming, S. (2021, July 08). EU economy forecast to expand at fastest in 45 years: Rebound. Financial Times.‌ https://www.ft.com/content/5506964f-b50a-46a9-9605-e9a18bbfaae8 

 

Conference sessions and presentations can include paper presentations, poster sessions, and keynote addresses. You need to use the correct type of contribution in the Type of contribution component. If you can't find how the contribution is described just use [Conference session].

Conference proceedings published in a journal or a book follow the same format as articles or book chapters.

 

Format

Author, N. (Year, Month Day(s) of the conference). Title of contribution [Type of contribution]. Conference Name, Location. https://doi.org/xxx or www.website/presentation

 

Components

  • Author(s) surname and initial(s)
  • Date of the presentation in the format Year, Month Day. You still just use the year in the in-text citation.
  • Title of the contribution in italics
  • Type of contribution as described at the conference
  • DOI or web address if you accessed it online

 

Examples

Conference Session

Fistek, A., Jester, E., & Sonnenberg, K. (2017, July 12–15). Everybody's got a little music in them: Using music therapy to connect, engage, and motivate [Conference session]. Autism Society National Conference, Milwaukee, WI, United States. https://asa.confex.com/asa/2017/webprogramarchives/Session9517.html

 

Poster Presentation 

Forbes, J., Nelson, M., & Munro, E. (2019, September 3-5). Lead Research Nurse Specialist for QA and Education ‘Ensuring a continual cycle of quality and responsive education’ [Poster presentation]. RCN 2019 Research Conference, Sheffield, England, UK. https://www.rcn.org.uk/-/media/royal-college-of-nursing/documents/professional-development/research/2019-research-conference/poster-1.pdf?la=en&hash=FBC9C6A652FE5BE434B4033A8190B971

 

 

Dissertations and theses are either unpublished or published. Anything you find on a database or a university archive or repository are published works. Unpublished need to be accessed directly from the University in print form.

The format of how you reference these is slightly different so ensure you use the correct one as below.

 

Published Dissertation or Thesis Format

Author, N. (Year). Title of dissertation or thesis [Type of qualification, Name of University]. Database or Archive Name. www.database.com/dissertation

 

Components

  • Author surname and initial(s)
  • Year of publication
  • Title of the dissertation or thesis in italics
  • Type of qualification, e.g. Doctoral thesis, Master's dissertation etc.
  • Name of the University where the qualification was obtained
  • Name of the database or University archive where you accessed the source
  • Web address of the individual dissertation or thesis

 

Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis Format

Author, N. (Year). Title of dissertation or thesis [Unpublished type of qualification]. Name of University.

 

Components

  • Author surname and initial(s)
  • Year of publication
  • Title of the dissertation or thesis
  • Unpublished, the the type of qualification, e.g. Doctoral thesis, Master's dissertation etc.
  • Name of the University where the qualification was obtained

 

Examples

Published example

Dosumu, A. A. (2016). The environmental impacts and wellbeing benefits of sport: Assessing spectator and participant dominated sports in England [Doctoral dissertation, University of Essex]. University of Essex Institutional Repository Service. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/16441/

 

Unpublished example 

Haddow, M. M. (1984). The attitude and reaction of the white collar trade unions in Scotland to the introduction to the office of computerised word processing equipment [Unpublished master’s thesis]. University of Strathclyde.