APA 7th referencing guide: How to reference sources in your reference list

A reference list contains details only of those works cited in the text. If sources are included in the list of references but are not cited in the text then this type of list is called a ‘bibliography’. Most assignments require a reference list, not a bibliography (check your assignment/module guidance). The reference list is arranged alphabetically by author or organisation name. It is recommended to include a space between each reference, and there is no need to number or use bullet points.

Note that in APA 7th, the location of the publisher is no longer required.

Required elements:

Family name of author, Initials. (Year).Title of book. Publisher.

Examples:

Book with a single author

Oliver, D. (2003). Constitutional reform in the United Kingdom. Oxford University Press.

Book with multiple authors

Slapper, G. & Kelly, D. (2006). The English legal system. Cavendish.

Book with multiple editors

Sullivan, D.H. & Fidell, E. R. (Eds.). (2002) Evolving military justice. Naval Institute Press.

Book with multiple editions

Cruttenden, A. (2014). Gimson's pronunciation of English. (8^th ed.). Routledge.

Chapter from an edited book

Magg, J. (2002). Judicial review of the Manual for Courts Martial. In Sullivan, D.H. & Fidell, E.R. (Eds.), Evolving military justice (pp.1-41). Naval Institute Press.

Required elements:

Family name of author, Initials. Year (in brackets). Title of book (in italics). DOI

Example:

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000

If the book does not have a DOI and is an ebook from an academic research database, end the book reference after the publisher name. Do not include database information in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book.

NB: the page numbers you need to include in the reference list are the page range of the article (not the pages you may have referred to in the in-text citation).

Required elements:

Family name of author, Initials. Year (in brackets) Title of article. Full Title of Journal (in italics), Volume number (Issue number), page number(s). DOI.

Example:

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

• If a journal article has a DOI, include the DOI in the reference.
• If the journal article does not have a DOI and is from an academic research database, end the reference after the page range (for an explanation of why, see the database information page). The reference in this case is the same as for a print journal article.
• If the journal article does not have a DOI but does have a URL that will resolve for readers (e.g., it is from an online journal that is not part of a database), include the URL of the article at the end of the reference.

Journal article with an article number

Required elements:

Family name of author, Initials. (Year) Title of article. Full Title of Journal (in italics), Volume number, (issue number), Article number

Example:

Jerrentrup, A., Mueller, T., Glowalla, U., Herder, M., Henrichs, N., Neubauer, A., & Schaefer, J. R. (2018). Teaching medicine with the help of “Dr. House.” PLoS ONE, 13(3), Article e0193972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193972

If the journal article has an article number instead of a page range, include the word “Article” and then the article number instead of the page range.

A full set of examples for your reference list is available from APA Style: Reference examples and Chapter 10 of the APA Publication manual, 7th ed.