Bibliography Writing

Plagiarism as defined by University of Oxford (2022) is presenting someone else’s

work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work
without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in
manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition.

Even though plagiarism is not considered as a crime, the violator still needs to face
punishments or a fine. In order to avoid this, writing a Bibliography is a great help.

Bibliography according to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary (2022) as the list of the

works referred to in a text or consulted by the author in its production.

So today, we are going to discuss the appropriate way of citing sources as well as
learning the basic structure of a bibliography recommended by American Psychological
Association (APA).

The terms cite and refer (or citation and referencing) are often used to same thing
since to cite a piece of work is to provide a reference to its source.

Here are the following reasons why bibliography or referencing is important:

• Preparing bibliographies help researchers keep track of the sources they consulted or
cited for their written material and gives readers a framework of how the writers'
arguments were formed.
• Referencing allows you to acknowledge the contribution of other writers and
researcher in your work. Any university assignments that draw on the ideas, words
or research of other writers must contain citations.
• Referencing is also a way to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed
words and ideas. Give credit whenever you use:

1. Another person’s idea opinion or theory.

2. Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings – any pieces of information - that are not common
knowledge.

3. Quotations of another person’s spoken or written words.

4. Paraphrases of another person’s spoken or written words.

Below are the standard formats and examples for basic bibliographic information
recommended by the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th Edition.

As cited from Streefkerk R. (2019), in October 2019, the American Psychological Association
(APA) introduced the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual, which replaces the 6th
edition published in 2009.
In that time a lot of things have changed. Citing online material has become more common,
the use of inclusive and bias-free language is increasingly important, and the technology
used by researchers and students has changed.

The 7th edition addresses these changes by providing better and more extensive guidelines.

A. Books

• Author(s). Note: List each author's last name and initials as Author, A. A., Author,
B. B., & Author, C. C. Use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name.
• (Year).
• Title of the book. Note: For works that stand alone (e.g. books, reports), italicize
the title. Only capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and any proper nouns.
• (Edition). Note: If there is an edition or volume, include it in parentheses and use
abbreviations of ed. or vol.
• Publisher. Note: You do not need to include the publisher location or databases
where you retrieved it.

Example:

Schmidt, N. A., & Brown, J. M. (2017). Evidence-based practice for nurses: Appraisal and
application of research (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.

B. Encyclopedia & Dictionary

• Encyclopedia or Dictionary Entry in Print - Known Author

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of entry.
In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if given. Last Name (Ed.), Name of encyclopedia or
dictionary (Volume number, pp. first page of entry-last page of entry). Publisher Name often
shortened.

Example:

King, P. N., & Wester L. (1998). Hawaii. In The world book encyclopedia (Vol. 9, pp. 88-
110). World Book.

• Online Encyclopedia or Dictionary from a Website - Known Author

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of entry.
In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if given. Last Name (Ed.), Name of encyclopedia or
dictionary (edition if given and is not first edition). URL

Example:

Beck, J., & Foley, D. (2015). Music composition. In The Canadian encyclopedia.
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/music-composition

C. Magazine & Newspaper Articles

• Magazine Article from a Library Database or in Print - One Author

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication, Month Day if
Given). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Magazine, Volume Number (Issue Number),
first page number-last page number.

Example:

Abramsky, S. (2012, May 14). The other America 2012. Nation, 294(20), 11-18.

• Magazine Article from a Library Database or in Print - Unknown Author

Article title: Subtitle if any. (Year of Publication, Month Day if Given). Name of
Magazine, Volume Number (Issue Number), first page number-last page number if
given.

Example:

Syria's free army. (2012, June 11). Newsweek, 159(24).

Note: No page numbers were provided for this article.

• Magazine Article from a Website

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of article:
Subtitle if any. Name of Magazine, Volume Number (Issue Number if given), first page
number-last page number if given. URL
Example:

Freedman, D. H. (2012, June). The perfected self. The Atlantic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/06/the-perfected-
self/8970/4/?single_page=true

Note: If no volume, issue and/or page numbers are provided, skip them in the
citation.

• Newspaper articles in print:

Format:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date). Title of article: Subtitle. Title of Newspaper, page
numbers of the whole article.

Examples:

Bidey, S. (2018, January 1). Bid to curb youth crime. Townsville Bulletin, p. 13.

• Newspaper articles in online paper:

Format:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date). Title of article: Subtitle. Title of Newspaper. URL

Examples:

Davidson, J. (2018, January 9). CES 2018: Samsung vows to add artificial intelligence to
everything it does. Australian Financial Review. http://www.afr.com/

Rucker, P., & Parker A. (2018, January 8). White House struggles to silence talk of Trump’s
mental fitness. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/

D. Website or Webpage

• Page or Section from a Website Created by a Corporate or Group Author

Corporation/Group/Organization's Name. (Year webpage was last updated/published, Month

Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any). URL
Example:

Canadian Cancer Society. (2013, April 14). Cancer research.

http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-101/cancer-research/?region=on

• Page or Section from a Website Created by an Individual Author

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year webpage was last
updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any). Website name. URL

Example:

Kmec, J. (2012, March 13). Where’s the Boss? And What Counts as “Work”? The Society
Pages. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/03/13/wheres-the-boss-and-what-
counts-as-work/