guidance for APA referencing and citation

GUIDE FOR APA REFERENCING AND CITATION

APA is one of many referencing styles used in academic writing.  APA stands for American Psychological Association. APA is one of many referencing styles used in academic writing. 

WHY NEED REFERENCING

1)      Morally & legally it’s important to acknowledge someone else’s ideas or words you have used in your research or assignment. It helps to eliminate the copyright obligation on assignment or research paper.

2)      Referencing enables the reader of assignment to locate the source of the information correctly.  They can verify the information or read further on the topic according to need. 

There are two main parts to referencing: 

1.      Citing in text, in text citation or text citations: Indicate as a source of information within your assignment that you have used to write your assignment. It shows the support of your ideas, arguments and opinions. 

2.      Reference list: The second part of the reference is the construction of a reference list. The reference list shows the full details of each of the details presented in the alphabetical list on each separate page, at the end of your assignment.

How to give citation and referencing?

7 W’s for referencing

When creating the reference list entry for an information source you need to identify and record specific details.  It might be useful to remember these Ws! 

• Who – wrote /edited it – author or editor 
• When was it written – date 
• What is it – title of book, title of the article & serial/journal, title of the web document
• Where was it published (Books) – place of publication– usually city & country and publisher’s name
• Where was the article located (Serial/journal) - volume number, issue number and page numbers of the article  
• Where you located it (Internet sources) - URL – web address   

v  One or more authors

When citing in text within an assignment, use the author/s (or editor/s) last name followed by the year of publication.

 Citation example:  Water is a necessary part of every person’s diet and of all the nutrients a body needs to function, it requires more water each day than any other nutrient (Whitney & Rolfes, 2011). or  Whitney and Rolfes (2011) state The body needs many nutrients to function, but highlight that water is more important than any other nutrient.

Reference list entry: 

Whitney, E., & Rolfes, S. (2011). Understanding nutrition (12th ed.). Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.  

v  Three, four or five authors:

 If research or book has three (3), four (4) or five (5) authors, cite all authors the first time and after citing first time, next time include only the last name of the first author followed by the words et al. (‘et al.’ is Latin for ‘and others’) 

Citation Example: 

Research can be called a systematic way of generating new knowledge or a way of validating existing knowledge. (Watson, McKenna, Cowman & Keady, 2008). 

Deciding on a research method requires the researcher to carefully consider the problem or area of ​​research. (Watson et al., 2008). 

Reference list entry: 

Watson, R., McKenna, H., Cowman, S., & Keady, K. (Eds.). (2008). Nursing research: Designs and methods. Edinburgh, Scotland: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier. 

v  Six or seven authors:

 If a research or book has six (6) or more authors, cite only the last name of the first author followed by et al. each time you refer to this work. 

Citation Example: 

(Watson et al., 2008). 

Reference list entry:  When a source of information has up to seven (7) authors, include all names in the reference list. 

Mikosch, P., Hadrawa, T., Laubreiter, K., Brandl, J., Pilz, J., Stettner, H., & Grimm, G. (2010). Effectiveness of respiratory-sinus-arrhythmia biofeedback on state-anxiety in patients undergoing coronary angiography. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(5), 1101-1110.