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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When the first author of a source has the same surname as another first author in your reference list (but they are not the same person), you should include their initials in your citation even if the date of publication differs, for example:
(J. M. Taylor & Neimeyer, 2015, p. 45)
(T. Taylor, 2019, p. 7)
Note that this only applies to the first author in a citation.
If the first authors of two sources share the same surname and initials, your citation should use the standard (Author, Year, p. ) format as initials will not aid your reader in identifying the correct item on your reference list. In this case, if it is necessary to clarify that these are two different people (to avoid confusion, for example) you can include the first name of the first author in the narrative citation, for example:
Sarah Williams (2019, p. 16) stated that... whereas Shonda Williams (2020, p. 9) argued that...
However this is not essential if you do not need to clarify that they are different people. You can simply use (Williams, 2019, p. 16) and (Williams, 2020, p. 9).
Your references for these sources would be done as normal whichever option you use. Do not use full first names in the reference.
If multiple authors within a citation share the same surname, initials are not required, for example:
(Chen & Chen, 2019, p. 6)
If you have multiple sources which are by authors with the same surname and initials, and published in the same year, please see our guidance here.