Have you been asked to use APA referencing in an essay or dissertation? Then you’ll need to know how to format an APA reference list. Check out our guide below to find out how to format a reference list in APA.
APA referencing is the citation system set out in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th Edition. In the main text, this system uses bracketed author–date citations, like this:
Formatting a reference list can seem difficult (Smith, 2020).
Every in-text citation will then point to an entry in a reference list at the end of your document. This is where you provide full publication information for the sources you have used in your research.
All APA reference lists should follow a standard format. The key rules are:
The format for entries in the reference list will depend on the source type. However, there are typically four key components to an APA reference:
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For example, we would list a book as follows:
Smith, J. (2020). Understanding APA: A guide for beginners. PI Publications.
For information on how to reference other source types in APA, see our blog.
Hopefully, the advice above will help you format your APA reference list correctly. But if you get your work proofread, as well as checking for typos, our editors will make sure your referencing is always clear, correct, and consistent. Submit a document today to see how this works.
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