APA Referencing Guide

American Psychological Association (APA) is an author/date referencing style that uses bracket to enclose publication year in the reference list and indent style also in the reference list. Use this link for a quick guide: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf 

Basic rules for in text citation 

Use the last name (surname) only for citations. 

Examples 

Parenthetical (bracketed) citation: (Daniel,2018 & Mary, 2020)
Narrative citation. E.g.: According to Daniel (2018), Mary (2020) and Chi (2024) … 

Use “et al.” when the authors are three and above. However, list all the authors in the reference list

Examples:

Narrative citation: Daniel et al. (2018)
Parenthetical:     (Daniel et al., 2018) 

Always include year in parenthetical citation for the same source, but for narrative citations, do not include year the 2nd or 3rd time mention in same paragraph, only include the year if it is not in the same paragraph.

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/author-date

Examples:

(Daniel et al., 2018)
Narrative citation: Daniel et al. (2018)

Examples:

(Daniel, 2018, p.20)
Daniel (2018) agreed that …. (p.20). 

Secondary citations

Secondary citations report sources in primary citations. Use only when you cannot locate primary citations. When used, cite both the primary and secondary citations but provide reference for only secondary citation. 

  Examples:

1. Information source you used is Daniel (2018)

2. Daniel (2018) is not the author of such information and so cited Mary (2016).

3. You did not consult  Mary (2016). You only consulted Daniel (2018).

4. In your citation, write: Mary (2016) as cited in Daniel (2018). This is because  Mary (2016) made the conclusion, and Daniel (2018) cited it in a work.   But in Reference list, you include only Daniel (2018). which you consulted.

 Edited Books and Book chapters 

 Always differentiate between an edited book chapter  and an authored  book chapter. Do not cite an authored book chapter as an edited book chapter. Hence when an authored book has chapters written by other authors within the book, do not recognize them in the citation as is usually done for edited books.  You should only recognize the  writer in the text, then cite book author. For more information, see: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/citing-book-chapter-written-by-other-authors 

Examples of edited Book:

Book Editor: Daniel, E.L (2018)
Book chapter written by: Mary, B.L

In text citation:
Mary (2018) argues that ...
For further information , see: https://guides.library.lincoln.ac.uk/c.php?=683973&p=4882441

 Reference:
Mary, B.L. (2018). Business Research technique. In Daniel, E.L (Ed), Research Ethics for University Students (pp.234-265). SPX Publishing, https://... 

Examples of an authored book chapter written by a different author

Book authored by Daniel, E.L. (2018) and a book chapter  written by Mary, Belinda

In text citation
Belinda asserts that  information overload should … (Daniel, 2018)

Reference
Daniel, E.L. (2018)...

E-book Reference

Take note that e-book reference is the same as print book; except that a publisher is swapped for the URL. Do not use a database in the  place of a publisher See: https://www.mendeley.com/guides/apa-citation-guide
Use the  link below for further guide on book/e-book:
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/book-references

Reference list

Always indent after the first line. For example,
Daniel, E.B., Mary, C.O., Chi, E.D & Ada, N.J. (2025). Information literacy of international
  students in UK Universities: a reflective analysis.  Mentorship Journal, 67(2), 265 -275.

Journal volumes are always in italics while issue numbers in brackets are not. please see example above.
Notice every detail in the example above, including full stop before and after the bracket, and the ampersand (full stop comma) after initials of multiple authors.

Italicize book titles and if an article, just Italicize the journal name where available.  if not any of these,  italicize the title of the work. See examples above. Also follow this link for general examples: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

Use of DOI and Website address

Do not use both doi and website address in a reference list. Use only doi if provided, otherwise use website address.
Note that Journal volumes are always in italics while issue numbers (in brackets) are not,   please see example: 67(2), 265 -275.

Where there is no publication date (year)

Where there is no publication year, use   n.d in place of year 

Example:
In text citation: Daniel et.al (n.d).
Reference list: Daniel, E.B., Mary, C.O., Chi, E.D & Ada, N.J. (n.d).

Where there is no author

Where there is no author, use the title of the work, both in text-citation and reference list.
For in text citation , shorten the title if it is too long  and enclose in double quotation mark. But for reference list, write the full title. 

Example
In text citation: ("Information overload", 2019)
Reference list:  Information Overload of Academic librarians in Uk. (2019). ABC Journal, 2(3), 13 -18.

For further information , use this link: https://libguides.swansea.ac.uk/APAReferencing/JournalsAnonymous

Social media sources

For guidance on how to cite and reference social media sources, please use the link below.
https://libguides.swansea.ac.uk/APAReferencing/SocialMedia