APA References Page Overview

Unless instructed otherwise, double-space your References page. Align the first line of each entry to the left margin and indent subsequent lines a half inch (usually one tab). Alphabetize all reference list entries by the last name and first author for each work.

Although not all-inclusive, source citations on a References page include the following basic elements, with some variation:

Author

• List only first initials (and middle, if specified) and last names.
• List authors in the order they are presented in the source. For two to twenty authors, separate names with commas and insert an ampersand before the last author’s name, even if there are only two authors. For twenty-one or more authors, include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis (but no ampersand), and then add the final author’s name.
• For the authors of a source listed at the beginning of the citation, start with the last name, followed by a comma, followed by the initial(s). Follow this order for all authors of a work.
• For translators or editors listed within a reference citation, start with the initials, each followed by a period, then the last name(s).
• For corporate, organizational, or departmental “authors,” list the company, organization, or department name as the author, and spell out the full name without abbreviations.
• If there is no author provided, start the citation with the title of the work.
• Alphabetize your list of sources by the author’s last names.

Year of publication (or copyright year for books)

• List the year of publication of the work you are using; if it is a reprinted copy, use the original publishing date and the reprint publishing date. Enclose the date of publication in parentheses, followed by a period.
• If there are several works published by the same author within a year, first check to see if they have more specific dates. Works with only a year should be listed before those with a more specific date.
• List specific dates chronologically. If two works have the same publication date, organize them in the reference list alphabetically by the title of the article or chapter.
• If references with the same date are identified as parts of a series (e.g., Part 1 and Part 2), list them in order of their place in the series. Then assign letter suffixes to the year. Refer to these sources in your essay as they appear in your reference list. (For example, (1992a) and (1992b) will differentiate between two works published by the same author in 1992.)
• If no publication date is provided, such as for Web pages, use the notation n.d.

Title

• Use the title listed on the title page of a book or the first page of an article.
• If titles are on two lines, or there are two parts to a title, write them out on one line separated by a colon (:).
• Write out all words, such as writing “and” rather than using the ampersand (&).
• Italicize titles of independent publications, such as books, journals, movies, etc.—any work that is not published within or as part of another work. No italicization, underlining, or quotation marks are needed for shorter works—journal articles or essays.
• Only capitalize the first word in the title and the first word of a subtitle (the first word after a colon).
• Use the full journal title, despite its length.

Original source

• For non-book resources, specify where the work was originally published, e.g., in what journal or anthology, and any relevant information on where it can be found, i.e., on what pages, volume, issue, article number, DOI or URL.
• Write full page numbers. Do not leave out digits because they are repeated, e.g., write 330-335, not 330-5.
• When referencing a republished work, include the original date of publication at the end of the reference list entry. (https://libguides.wintec.ac.nz/APA7/republished)

Digital Object Identifier (or URL)

• For print and non-print sources, specify the digital object identifiers (DOIs) where possible.
• DOIs provide a stable link to a digital copy of a document. Include a DOI for all works that have a DOI, regardless of whether you used the online version or the print version.
• If a print work does not have a DOI, do not include any DOI or URL in the reference.
• If an online work has both a DOI and a URL, include only the DOI.
• If an online work has a URL but no DOI, include the URL in the reference as follows:
  • For works without DOIs from websites (not including academic research databases), provide a URL in the reference (as long as the URL will work for readers).
  • For works without DOIs from most academic research databases, do not include a URL or database information in the reference because these works are widely available. The reference should be the same as the reference for a print version of the work.
  • For works from databases that publish original, proprietary material available only in that database (such as the UpToDate database) or for works of limited circulation in databases (such as monographs in the ERIC database), include the name of the database or archive and the URL of the work. If the URL requires a login or is session-specific (meaning it will not resolve for readers), provide the URL of the database or archive home page or login page instead of the URL for the work.
  • If the URL is no longer working or no longer provides readers access to the content you intend to cite, follow the guidance for works with no source.
• The preferred format of the DOI has changed over time. Although older works use previous formats (e.g., “http:/dx.doi.org/” or “doi:” or “DOI:” before the DOI number), standardize DOIs into the current preferred format for all entries.
• Follow the current recommendations of the International DOI Foundation to format DOIs in the reference list, which as of this publication is as follows: https://doi.org/xxxxx
• The string “https://doi.org/” is a way of presenting a DOI as a link, and “xxxxx” refers to the DOI number.
• Sources from the web that do not have a DOI (such as a blog and some multimedia) require a URL.

Go to the APA Citation Guide for more specific information about formatting citations for different kinds of sources in your References page.