APA 7
APA 7th Edition is the most commonly used referencing style here at the University of Portsmouth. Below you will find general guidance on how to reference and cite using APA 7th Edition, as well as examples for the specific sources you are likely to use in your assignments.
Your department or lecturer may prefer you to reference sources differently from the guidance given here. Always follow the requirements of your department or lecturer.
External visitors are welcome to use this guide, but note that your institution's requirements may differ from those suggested here.
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The reference list at the end of your work provides the information necessary to identify and find each source cited. You should only include items in your reference list which you have cited in your work - do not include background reading.
You should arrange entries in your reference list in alphabetical order by the surname of the first author followed by the initials of the author's given name.
Alphabetise letter by letter.
When alphabetising surnames, remember that "nothing precedes something". Brown, J. R., comes before Browning, A. R., even though I comes before J in the alphabet. For example:
Singh, Y., comes before Singh Siddhu, N.
Villafuerte, S. A., comes before Villa-Lobos, J.
I've got two items by the same author published in different years. Should I list the earliest or the latest work first?
References with the same authors in the same order are arranged by year of publication, the earliest first. For example:
Pinar, N. (2003).
Pinar, N. (2005).
Hayward, J. A., & Saunders, B. (1997).
Hayward, J. A., & Saunders, B. (1999).
What about items published by one author and multiple second or third authors?
One-author entries come before multiple-author entries beginning with the same surname (even if the multiple-author work was published earlier). For example:
Allen, B. R. (2004).
Allen, B. R., & Edwards, T. (1999).
What about items published by the same first author and different second or third author?
References with the same first author and different second or third authors are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the second author or, if the second author is the same, the surname of the third author, and so on. For example:
Banting ,F. S., & Burkinshaw, O. H. (2007).
Banting, F. S., Carling, J., Freeman, V., & Martin, L. (2006).
Hawkins, D., Fisher, A., & Brown, G. (1999).
Hawkins, D., Fisher, A., & Sands, G. (1999).
What if my author has more than one publication in a year?
When an author, corporate author, editor or group of authors/editors, has more than one publication in the same year, you should add a lower case letter to the date in your reference, for example:
Harding, S. (1986a). The instability of the analytical categories of feminist theory. Signs, 11(4), 645-664.
Harding, S. (1986b). The science question in feminism. Cornell University Press.
If you are using multiple sources without a publication date by the same author, you can do the same thing but with (n.d.). In this instance you should include a dash before the lower case letter. It would look like this: (n.d.-a).
When arranging these sources in your reference list, you should do so alphabetically by title, disregarding the words 'A', 'An' or 'The' at the beginning. If the title starts with a number, you should treat this as if it was spelled out for the purposes of order, but retain the original spelling in the reference. For example, '20' would be treated as if it said 'twenty'.
This should only be used when the author or group of authors is identical, and where the year of publication is the same.
If an author has worked with two colleagues to produce two articles in the same year but those two co-authors are different for each article, you do not need to do this.
What if the name of an organisation or group author starts with 'A', 'An' or 'The'?
Ignore the three non-significant words 'a', 'an' and 'the' if they appear at the beginning of an author name for the purposes of alphabetising. You should still include them in the reference (and citation) but ignore them when sorting your list into alphabetical order. For example:
The Smithsonian Institution. (n.d.). Our organization. https://www.si.edu/about/administration
would appear in a reference list as if it started with Smithsonian.
What about items with no identifiable author?
List the items alphabetically in title order.
Ignore the three non-significant words 'a', 'an' and 'the' if they appear at the beginning of a title for the purposes of alphabetising. You should still include them in the reference (and citation) but ignore them when sorting your list into alphabetical order. For examples of this in practice, please see our guidance here.
If the title starts with a number, you should treat this as if it was spelled out for the purposes of order, but retain the original spelling in the reference. For example, '20' would be treated as if it said 'twenty'.