Reference Services

Referencing

Referencing is about acknowledging the ownership of resources used in your academic writing and provides information necessary to identify and retrieve the work cited in the text.

Reference list vs. Bibliography

• A reference list lists only the sources you refer to in your writing.The purpose of the reference list is to allow your sources to be found by your reader. It also gives credit to authors you have consulted for their ideas.  All references cited in the text must appear in the reference list, except for personal communications (such as conversations or emails) which cannot be retrieved.
• A bibliography is different from a reference list as it lists all the sources used during your research and background reading, not just the ones you refer to in your writing.

There are many different referencing styles. At Muni university most faculties usethe American Psychological Association (APA) 7^th edition reference style.

What is APA?

APA referencing style is an author-date referencing system published by the American Psychological Association. There are two components in the APA referencing style: in-text citations and their corresponding reference list entries. With anything that you have read, used and referred to in your academic writing, you must:

• acknowledge in text (i.e. in the work / assignment/ essay you are writing)
• include in your reference list (i.e. the list at the end of your work of all the sources you refer to)

Author-Date citation system

In-text citations appear in the body of the work (or table, figure etc.). They enable readers to locate the corresponding entry in the reference list. In-text citations are usually presented in the following two ways:

• Parenthetical citation: The author and date appear within parentheses. Example: The issue was described in more detail (Kumar, 2014).
• Narrative citation:The author appears in the text with the date in parentheses.Example: Kumar (2014) describes the issue in more detail…

General rules for in-text citations

• When citing a work with a single author provide the author’s family name and year of publication.
• When a work has two authors, always cite both family names every time the reference occurs in the text.
• When a work has three or more authors, cite only the family name of the first author followed by et al. and the year of publication.
• When using exact words that an author has used, you must enclose these in double quotation marks “ ” and supply an in-text citation, including page number(s).
• In your writing, you must acknowledge each author or source of information (whether print or online) either by paraphrasing or using a direct quote.

Referencing style – APA 7th: Books and book chapter

The way in which authors are formatted for both in-text and end-text references is the same across all formats. Here below are examples of how to cite books using APA Style.

Using indirect references cited in another secondary source

If you use the ideas of an author which you did not directly read yourself, but saw referred to or cited in another publication, this is considered an indirect reference and needs to be treated as a secondary source.

Note:The APA7 Publication Manual advises that it is better academic practice to find and read the original text – especially if you are referring to significant portions of the author’s ideas.Here below are examples of how to citesecondary source using APA Style.

Referencing style – APA 7th: Journal and newspaper articles

The way in which authors are formatted for both in-text and end-text references is the same across all formats. The same principles used in bookson citing single authors, two or three authors applies to journal article authors. In the reference list, the journal title is italicised and capitalised every word. The volume number, issue numbers, and page numbers are included where applicable.

Here below are examples of how to cite Journal and newspaper articles using APA.

Note:  In APA7 your end-text reference list must list surnames and initials for up to the first 20 authors, with an ampersand (&) before the last author. If 21 or more authors, list the first 19, insert an ellipsis […] and the last author’s name, without an ampersand.    Your in-text formatting stays the same for 3 authors or more as per the example above.

Referencing style – APA 7th: Reports, theses and grey literature

Here below are examples of how to citeReports, theses and grey literatureusing APA.

APA Examples: Web sources

APA examples: Conference papers

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

You will need to confirm with your Unit Coordinator whether you are permitted to use Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT in your assessments.   Please check your unit outline to confirm if there are any specific guidelines for referencing AI for your unit.  If it is used ALL the content that is generated must be referenced.

APA has provided guidelines for referencing generative AI content / text output in APA7: