A short guide to

APA 6th style for referencing

LSE Library
May 2016

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 APA 6th style for referencing

Content
1. In-text citations..................................................................................................... 2
2. Reference list ....................................................................................................... 3
3. Further help ......................................................................................................... 4
4. Examples of how to reference different sources .................................................. 5

This short guide explains how to cite some of the major types of materials you are
likely to use in your academic writing. The American Psychological Association
referencing style (APA) is an author-date in-text method of citation (also known as
the Harvard method, but not the same as the Harvard style). The 6th and latest
edition was published in 2010.

1. In-text citations
 These appear in the body of your work.
 APA style uses the author-date method of referencing.
 In-text citations will mostly appear in the following format:
(author’s last name, year of publication, page numbers if needed)
E.g. In the 1980’s sales of blue jeans slowed and then declined (Smith,
2014).
 You can also include the author’s name in a sentence, leaving it out from the
brackets:
E.g. According to Smith (2014, p. 125) the sales...
 Page numbers – use p. for one page and pp. for multiple pages.
E.g. (Smith, 2014, pp. 45-49)
 Secondary referencing
When citing a source you have not read yourself, but which was mentioned in a
source you have read, use the following format:
E.g. Brown (as cited in Smith, 2014, p. 35) argues that…
Reference Smith, not Brown, in the reference list.
It is always preferred to cite the original source.
 Three or more authors
The first time you cite the source, list all the authors. Use the word "and" between
the authors' names within the text and use “&” in the parentheses.
E.g. (Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993)
Smith, Brown and Turner (2003) state that…

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In subsequent citations, only use the first author's last name followed by "et al." in
the text or parentheses.
E.g. (Kernis et al., 1993)
Smith et al. (2003) argued…
All names must be included in the reference list.
 Quotes
When quoting from a source, you must include page number(s) and enclose the
quote in phrase marks.
E.g. 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 quotes should be presented in your work as a block, indented from the left,
with a space above and below the quote, without quotation marks.
E.g. It has been argued that:

The effectiveness of celebrities as communications sources

often depends upon their perceived credibility. Consumers may
not trust a celebrity’s motives for endorsing a product or they
may question the star’s competence to evaluate the product’s
claims (Solomon et al. 2006, p.177).

This…..
 More than one source
List sources alphabetically by surname in the in-text citation in the order in which
they appear in the reference list, separating them with a semicolon.
E.g. The cyclical process (Carr & Kemmis, 1986; Dick, 2000; Kemmis &
McTaggart, 1988; MacIsaac, 1995) suggests…

2. Reference list
 The reference list should appear at the end of your work on a separate page.
 Only include references you have cited in your work.
 All references should have a hanging indent, meaning that all lines of a reference
subsequent to the first line should be indented.
E.g. Easton, B. (2008). Does poverty affect health? In K. Dew & A.
Matheson (eds.), Understanding health inequalities in
Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. 97-106). Dunedin, New Zealand:
Otago University Press.
 References should be listed alphabetically by the last name of the first author of
each work.

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 Special cases:
 For works by different authors with the same family name, list references
alphabetically by the authors’ initials.
 For multiple works by the same author in different years, list references
chronologically (earliest to latest).
 For multiple works by the same author in the same year, list references
alphabetically by title in the reference list.
E.g. Alleyne, R.L. (2001). …
Alleyne, R.L., & Evans, A.J. (1999). …
Baheti, J.R. (2001a). …
Baheti, J.R. (2001b). …
Cabading, J.R., & Wright, K. (2000). …
Cabading, J.R., & Wright, K. (2001). …
Garofalo, R. (1992). ….
Garofalo, R. (Ed.). (1988). …
The London School of Economics and Political Science. (2005). …
Mathur, A.L., & Wallston, J. (1999). …
Mathur, S.E., & Ahlers, R.J. (1998). …
Panorama. (2003). …
 When referring to Books, Book Chapters, Article Titles or Webpages, capitalise
only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, and proper nouns.
E.g. Agricultural investment and productivity: Building sustainability in East
Africa
 When referring to Journal Titles, capitalise all major words (do not capitalise
words such as ‘of’, ‘and’, & ‘the’ unless they are the first word in the title).
E.g. International Journal of Development and Sustainability
 EBooks – cite the same as print books.
 Online journal articles
For pdf files, cite them as print articles.
If a DOI (permanent digital object identifier) is provided, always include it in your
reference.

3. Further help
For further help, please get in touch with your department’s Academic Support
Librarian.

www.lse.ac.uk/AcademicSupportLibrarian

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 APA 6th style for referencing

4. Examples of how to reference different sources

Reference list In-text citation

BOOKS

One author Pilger, J. (2006). Freedom next time. London, England: Bantam. (Pilger, 2006) or … Pilger (2006)…

Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2009). The business First (Alred, Brusaw, & Oliu,
Multiple authors
writer’s handbook. New York, NY: St Martin’s Press. citation: 2009)
Subsequent (Alred et al., 2009)
citations:

Helfer, M. E., Kempe, R. S., & Krugman, R. D. (1997). The First Helfer, Kempe and
Edition other than first
battered child (5th ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago citation: Krugman (1997)
demonstrated that…
Press.
Subsequent Helfer et al. (1997)
citations: argued…

Chapter in edited book Easton, B. (2008). Does poverty affect health? In K. Dew & A. (Easton, 2008)
Matheson (Eds.), Understanding health inequalities in
Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. 97-106). Dunedin, New
Zealand: Otago University Press.

Edited book Garafalo, R. (Ed.). (1992). Rockin' the boat: Mass music and (Garafalo, 1992)
mass movements. Boston, MA: South End Press.

Translated book Laplace, P. S. (1951). A philosophical essay on probabilities. (F. (Laplace, 1814/1951)
W. Truscott & F. L. Emory, Trans.). New York, NY: Dover.
(Original work published 1814).

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JOURNAL ARTICLE

Online article Li, S., & Seale, C. (2007). Learning to do qualitative data Li and Seale (2007) …
analysis: An observational study of doctoral work.
With DOI (Digital or … (Li & Seale, 2007)
Qualitative Health Research, 17, 1442-1452.
Object Identifier)
doi:10.1177/1049732307306924
Print or no DOI Patton, M. (1997). Evaluation as a tool. Journal of Social (Patton, 1997, p. 347)
Science, 18(3), 345-356.
LEGISLATION (for non-legal purposes)

Act N/A – not recorded in the reference list Children Act 1989 or…
According to s.1 of the Children Act
1989…
Bill N/A – not recorded in the reference list Children (Access to Parents) HC Bill
(2012-13) [33]
Law report (case) N/A – not recorded in the reference list First (Chalmers v. Johns
citation: [1999] 1 FLR 39)
Subsequent (Chalmers v. Johns,
citations: 1999)
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Newspaper article Smith, T. (2003, June 23). University tuition fees: The debate. (Smith, 2003, p. 16)
The Guardian, p. 16.
or … Smith (2003, p. 16)
No author - online Nuke test inquiry doubted. (2009, April 23). The Dominion Post, (Nuke test inquiry doubted, 2009)
p. 5. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/

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OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS
First (Department for
With reference number Department for Children, Schools and Families. (2009). The
protection of children in England: Action plan: the citation: Children, Schools and
Government's response to Lord Laming (Cm 7589). Family [DCSF], 2009)
London, England: The Stationery Office. Subsequent (DCSF, 2009)
citations:
Online government Harris, J., & Grace, S. (1999). A question of evidence? (Harris & Grace, 1999)
report Investigating and prosecuting rape in the 1990s (Home
Office Research Study 196). Retrieved from
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors196.pdf
WEB PAGES

Blog post Freakonomics. (2010, October 29). E-ZPass is a life-saver (Freakonomics, 2010)
(literally) [Blog post]. Retrieved from
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/e-
zpass-is-a-life-saver-literally/
Web document Simon, J., Smith, K., & West, T. (2009). Price incentives and (J. Smith, K. Smith & West, 2009)
consumer payment behaviour. Retrieved from
http://www.rba.gov.au/PublicationsAndResearch/RDP
/RDP2009-04.html
Website – no date The College of William and Mary. (n.d.). College mission (The College of William and Mary, n.d.)
statement. Retrieved from http://www.wm.edu/about/
administration/provost/mission/index.php
Website – no author All 33 Chile miners freed in flawless rescue. (2010). Retrieved (All 33 Chile miners freed in flawless
from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39625809/ns/ rescue, 2010, para 5) or…
world_news-americas/ in All 33 Chile miners freed in flawless
rescue (2010, para 5)…

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Website – corporate British Psychological Association. (n.d.). How can psychology (British Psychological Association, n.d.,
author, no date help you. Retrieved from para 5)
http://www.bps.org.uk/psychology-public/how-can-
psychology-help-you/how-can-psychology-help-you
OTHER

Business report FAME. (2010). Company Report of Tesco PLC. Retrieved from (FAME, 2010)
http://fame.bvdep.com
Conference paper - Secker, J. (2005). Current issues in information literacy: Are we (Secker, 2005)
published making all the wrong assumptions? In A. Martin (Ed.)
(2006). Proceedings of the 4th eLiteracy Conference,
June 15-17, 2005 (pp. 23-25). Glasgow, Scotland:
University of Strathclyde.
Data Mintel. (2011). Coffee in China. Retrieved from Mintel Global (Mintel, 2011))
Markets Navigator. http://gmn.mintel.com/navigate/
Lecture notes Acemoglu, D. (2004). Understanding institutions. [PowerPoint (Acemoglu, 2004)
slides]. Retrieved from
http://cep.lse.ac.uk/events/lectures/23022004_daron_ace
moglu.ppt
Personal N/A – not recorded in the reference list J. Secker (personal communication,
communication June 6, 2015)
Thesis/Dissertation Kardefelt Winther, D. (2014) Excessive internet use: Fascination (Kardefelt Winther, 2014)
or compulsion? (Unpublished doctoral thesis). London
School of Economics and Political Science, London.

AF May 2016

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