Final Year Project

Referencing Guidelines

Applicable from Spring 2023 onwards

 Referencing guidelines

When using the American Psychological Association (APA) format 7th edition, follow the
author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of
publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998).
Regardless of how they are referenced, all sources that are cited in the text must appear in the
reference list at the end of the paper.

General rules for in-text citations

Work by one author

The APA manual recommends the use of the author-date citation structure for in-text citation
references. This structure requires that any in-text citation (i.e., within the body of the text) be
accompanied by a corresponding reference list entry. In the in-text citation provide the surname of
the author. Example:
As Ahmed (2016) mentions...
(Ahmed, 2016)

Work by two authors

Name both authors between the phrase or in parentheses at the end of sentence each time you cite
the work. Use the word "and" between the authors' names if you cite within the text or use the
ampersand (&) if you cite in parentheses. Example:
Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...
(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

Work by three or more authors

List only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, even the first, unless doing
so would create ambiguity between different sources. Example:
(Kernis et al., 1993)
Kernis et al. (1993) suggest…

Organization as an author
If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the name of the organization in
the phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source, just as you would an
individual person. Example:
According to the American Psychological Association (2000),

Two or more works in same parentheses

When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, order them the same way they
appear in the reference list (viz., alphabetically), separated by a semi-colon. Example:
(Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)

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If you cite multiple works by the same author in the same parenthetical citation, give the author’s
name only once and follow with dates. Example:
(Smith, 1995, 2002)

Authors with same last name

To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last names. Example:
(E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998)

Two or more works by same author in same year

If you have two sources by the same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with
the year to order the entries in the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-
text citation. Example:
Research by Berndt (1981a) revealed strong correlations. However, a parallel study (Berndt,
1981b) resulted in inconclusive findings.

Personal communication
For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person communication, cite the
communicator's name, the fact that it was personal communication, and the date of the
communication. Do not include personal communication in the reference list.
(Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).
If using a footnote to reference personal communication, handle citations the same way. Example:
1. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal
communication, November 3, 2002).

Electronic sources
If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date
style. Example:
Kenneth (2000) explained…

Unknown author or unknown date

If no author or date is given, use the title in your phrase or the first word or two of the title in the
parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date"). Example:
Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with tutoring
("Tutoring and APA," n.d.).

In-text citation capitalization, quotes, and italics/underlining

● If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or
making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to
the author and year of publication and not the page number in your in-text reference.
● On the other hand, if you are directly quoting or borrowing from another work, you should
include the page number at the end of the parenthetical citation. Use the abbreviation “p.” (for
one page) or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing the page number(s). Use an en dash for

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 page ranges. For example, you might write (Jones, 1998, p. 199) or (Jones, 1998, pp. 199–
201).
● Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials
● In your References list, only the first word of a title of article or book will be capitalized:
Writing new media.

Short Quotations
You can introduce a short quotation that includes the author's last name followed by the date of
publication in parentheses. Examples:

According to Jones (1998), "students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was
their first time" (p. 199).

She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not
offer an explanation as to why.

Long Quotations
Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block of typewritten lines
and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin,
i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new
margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from
the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout, but do not add an extra blank line before or
after it. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.

Summary or paraphrase
If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author
and year of publication in your in-text reference and may omit the page numbers. APA guidelines,
however, do encourage including a page range for a summary or paraphrase when it will help the
reader find information in a longer work.

Reference list guidelines

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary
for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you
cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must
be cited in your text.
Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this
page "References" in bold, centered at the top of the page. All text should be double-spaced
just like the rest of your essay.
Basic Rules for referencing
● All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-
half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.

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 ● All authors' names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided first).
● Authors' first and middle names should be written as initials.
o For example, the reference entry for a source written by Jane Marie Smith would
begin with "Smith, J. M."
o If a middle name isn't available, just initialize the author's first name: "Smith, J."
● Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up to and
including 20 authors. Separate each author’s initials from the next author in the list with a
comma. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name. If there are 21 or more
authors, use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after the 19th author, and then add the final
author’s name.
● Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each
work.
● For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries
in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
● When referring to the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports, webpages, or other
sources, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle, the first
word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns.
● Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of newspapers,
and so on).

Basic form of an APA reference

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume
number (issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Academic Journals

Single Author
Last name first, followed by author initials. Example:

Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Duke University Press.

Two Authors
List by their last names and initials. Separate author names with a comma. Use the ampersand (&)
instead of "and." Example:

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next big five inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a
hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117-143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000096

Three to twenty authors

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 List by last names and initials; commas separate author names, while the last author name is
preceded again by ampersand.

Nguyen, T., Carnevale, J. J., Scholer, A. A., Miele, D. B., & Fujita, K. (2019). Metamotivational
knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in goal-relevant task performance.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(5), 879-899.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000166

More than twenty authors

List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the first 19 authors’ names,
use an ellipsis in place of the remaining author names. Then, end with the final author's name (do
not place an ampersand before it). There should be no more than twenty names in the citation in
total.

Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D. C., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R., DelSole, R.,
Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H., Gottschalck, J., Metzger, E. J., Barton, N. P.,
Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R., . . . Kim, H. (2019). The subseasonal experiment
(SubX): A multimodel subseasonal prediction experiment. Bulletin of the American
Meteorological Society, 100(10), 2043-2061. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0270.1

Organizations as authors
Group authors can include corporations, government agencies, organizations, etc; and a group may
publish in coordination with individuals. Here, you simply treat the publishing organization the
same way you'd treat the author's name and format the rest of the citation as normal. Be sure to
give the full name of the group author in your reference list, although abbreviations may be used
in your text.
Entries in reference works ( e.g. dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias) without credited
authors are also considered works with group authors.

Merriam-Webster. (2008). Braggadocio. In Merriam-Webster’s Advanced Learner’s English

Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.

When a work has multiple layers of group authorship (e.g. The Office of the Historian, which is a
part of the Department of State, publishes something), list the most specific agency as the author
and the parent agency as the publisher.

Bureau of International Organization Affairs. (2018). U.S. contributions to international

organizations, 2017 [Annual report]. U.S. Department of State. https://www.state.gov/u-s-
contributions-to-international-organizations

Two or more works by the same author

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 Use the author's name for all entries and list the entries by the year (earliest comes first). List
references with no dates before references with dates.

Urcuioli, P. J. (n.d.).
Urcuioli, P. J. (2011).
Urcuioli, P. J. (2015).

Two or more works by the same author in the same year

If two works have the same publication date, organize them in the reference list alphabetically by
the title of the article or chapter.

Berndt, T. J. (2004a). Children’s friendships: Shifts over a half-century in perspectives on their

development and their effects. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 50(3), 206-223.

Berndt, T. J. (2004b). Friendship and three A’s (aggression, adjustment, and attachment). Journal of
Experimental Child Psychology, 88(1), 1-4.

Article in print journal

Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13.

Note: APA 7 advises writers to include a DOI (if available), even when using the print source.
The example above assumes no DOI is available.

Article in electronic format

As noted above, when citing an article in an electronic journal, include a DOI if one is associated
with the article.
Please note: Because online materials can potentially change URLs, APA recommends providing
a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), when it is available, as opposed to the URL. DOIs are an attempt
to provide stable, long-lasting links for online articles. They are unique to their documents and
consist of a long alphanumeric code. Many—but not all—publishers will provide an article's DOI
on the first page of the document.

Article from an online periodical with doi assigned

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Vol.(Issue), page
numbers. DOI

Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Development and validation of the active
empathetic listening scale. Psychology & Marketing, 23(2), 161-180.
https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20105

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Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented digital
research with service-learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International
Engagement, 6(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979

Unpublished works
You may find yourself needing to cite a dissertation or a manuscript that has not yet been formally
published. To correctly classify the work, describe the work and put that description in square
brackets. Be sure the date you list is the year the work was completed, whether it’s the final version
or not.

Unpublished manuscript
Barkley, S., Chen, M., & McDonald, P. (2018). The effects of sodium on children’s health
[Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Biology, University of Cincinnati.

Manuscript in preparation
Glass, A. (2019). How avocados changed America [Manuscript in preparation]. Department of
Sociology, Michigan State University.

Manuscript submitted for publication

Jones, R. (2019). Walt Whitman and the American Dream [Manuscript submitted for publication].
Department of English, University of Mississippi.

Article in a magazine
Peterzell, J. (1990, April). Better late than never. Time, 135(17), 20–21.

Article in a newspaper
Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The Country Today,
1A, 2A.

Basic format for books

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name.
DOI (if available)

Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press.

Edited book with an author or authors

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (E. Editor, Ed.).
Publisher. DOI (if available)

Leitch, M. G., & Rushton, C. J. (Eds.). (2019). A new companion to Malory. D. S. Brewer.

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Malory, T. (2017). Le morte darthur (P. J. C. Field, Ed.). D. S. Brewer. (Original work published 1469-
70)

Article or chapter in edited book

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor
(Eds.), Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (pp. pages of chapter). Publisher. DOI (if
available)

Armstrong, D. (2019). Malory and character. In M. G. Leitch & C. J. Rushton (Eds.), A new companion
to Malory (pp. 144-163). D. S. Brewer.

Multivolume work
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (Vol. #). Publisher.
DOI (if available)

David, A., & Simpson, J. (Eds.). (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature: The Middle Ages
(8th ed.,Vol. A). W. W. Norton and Company.

Conference proceedings
Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Eds.). (Year). Title of Proceedings. Publisher. URL (if
applicable)

Huang, S., Pierce, R., & Stamey, J. (Eds.). (2006). Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM international
conference on the design of communication. ACM Digital Library.
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1166324&picked=prox
Other print sources

Dictionary/Thesaurus
Institution or organization name. (Year). Title of entry. In Title of reference work (edition, page
numbers). Publisher name.

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. (1997). Goat. In Merriam Webster’s collegiate dictionary (10th ed.,
pp. 499-500). Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

Dictionary/Thesaurus with an author(s)

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of entry. In F. M. Lastname (ed.), Title of reference work (edition, page
numbers). Publisher.

Tatum, S. R. (2009). Spirituality and religion in hip hop literature and culture. In T. L. Stanley (ed.),
Encyclopedia of hip hop literature (pp. 250-252). Greenwood.

Published dissertation or thesis

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Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation/thesis (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation/Master’s
thesis, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree]. Database or Archive Name.

Angeli, E. L. (2012). Networks of communication in emergency medical services (Publication No.

3544643) [Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Dissertation/thesis from a database

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation or thesis (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation or
master’s thesis, Name of Institution Awarding Degree]. Database Name.

Duis, J. M. (2008). Acid/base chemistry and related organic chemistry conceptions of undergraduate
organic chemistry students (Publication No. 3348786) [Doctoral dissertation, University of
Northern Colorado]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Laws
Name of Act, Public Law No. (Year). URL

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Publ. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010).
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-111publ148/pdf/PLAW-111publ148.pdf

Report by Government agency or organization

Organization Name. (Year). Title of report. URL

United States Government Accountability Office. (2019). Performance and accountability report:
Fiscal year 2019. https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/702715.pdf

Report by individual authors of government agency

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of report. Organization Name. URL

Palanker, D., Volk, J., Lucia, K., & Thomas, K. (2018). Mental health parity at risk: Deregulating the
individual market and the impact on mental health coverage. National Alliance on Mental Illness.
https://www.nami.org/About-NAMI/Publications-Reports/Public-Policy-Reports/Parity-at-
Risk/ParityatRisk.pdf

Webpage or online content

If the page names an individual author, cite their name first:

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist. Medium.

https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01

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 Online news article
Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Publication. URL

Richards, C. (2019, December 9). Best music of 2019: Lana Del Rey sings lullabies about the end of
America. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/best-music-
of-2019-lana-del-rey-sings-lullabies-about-the-end-of-america/2019/12/06/6e82c5ec-15d8-11ea-
a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html

Electronic or kindle books

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book. Publisher. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Publisher. URL (if applicable)

Data sets
Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group (Year). Title of dataset (Version No.) [Data set]. Publisher. DOI
or URL
Grantmakers in the Arts. (2019). Arts funding trends, United States, 1994-present (ICPSR 37337)
[Data set]. National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture.
https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NADAC/studies/37337

Qualitative data and online interviews

If an interview is not retrievable in audio or print form, cite the interview only in the text (not in
the reference list) and provide the month, day, and year in the text. If the interview transcript is
published in an online periodical, like a magazine, cite the interview the same way you would cite
the medium where it is published, as shown below:

Schulman, M. (2019, December 8). Peter Dinklage is still punk rock. The New Yorker.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/peter-dinklage-is-still-punk-rock

If it is an audio file or transcript published in a database, credit the interviewee as the author and
use the following model:

Paynter, W. (1970, September 17). Interview with Will Paynter [Interview]. Studs Terkel Radio
Archive; The Chicago History Museum. https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/interview-will-
paynter

Blog post
Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of post. Publisher. URL

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Axelrod, A. (2019, August 11). A century later: The Treaty of Versailles and its rejection of racial
equality. Code Switch, NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/08/11/742293305/a-
century-later-the-treaty-of-versailles-and-its-rejection-of-racial-equality

Streaming video
Last Name, F. M. [Username]. (Year, Month Date). Title of video [Video]. Streaming Service. URL

Lushi, K. [Korab Lushi]. (2016, July 3). Albatross culture 1 [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AMrJRQDPjk&t=148s

Personal communication
Any communication that cannot be directly retrieved by a reader is considered “personal
communication.” Emails, phone conversations, text messages, and social media messages are all
examples of personal communication. You do not include personal communication in your
reference list; instead, parenthetically cite the communicator's name, the phrase "personal
communication," and the date of the communication in your main text only.
(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2019).
If you reference personal communication in a footnote, as is common practice in certain fields and
publications, you can document it in the same way.
1. P. Smith (personal communication, November 3, 2019) also claimed that many of her students
had difficulties with APA style.

What is Reference Management Software?

Reference management software aids students and research-oriented professionals sourcing
others’ material and citing it accurately and efficiently. Reference management software provide
multiple options for citation format, generates citations for various material such as books,
websites, journals, etc. and organizes your research. Most commonly used reference management
software are:
● Zotero
● Mendeley
● EndNote
The following videos may serve as a guidelines for learning about reference manager tools.
https://youtu.be/hTuvzb74X64 Zotero Tutorial
https://youtu.be/zh_Xqjn4B80 Mendeley Tutorial
https://youtu.be/7e6-6QkcYm0 Endnote Tutorial

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