APA Reference Guide: Reference List

 

A Reference List or a Bibliography?
A reference list is different to a bibliography. At St Pat's, we use a reference list, which is a component of APA Reference Style.

A reference list is a list of every source you have used and cited in your assignment. If you looked at a source but did not use the information, you do not include it in your reference list.
A bibliography is a list of all sources you have come across when researching, regardless of whether you included the information in your assignment or not. 

What is a DOI?

A DOI is a Digital Object Identifier is a series of numbers, letters and symbols used to permanently identify an article or document, linking it directly to the internet. 

DOI's are mainly found on digital journal articles - look for the DOI on the header or footer of the first page of the article.

Example of DOI's:  https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-7341-8

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What is a Reference List?

A reference list is a list of every source you have cited in your assignment. For every in-text citation in your assignment, there needs to be an accompanying reference list entry (and vice versa). 

How is a Reference List formatted?

• The reference list is at the very end of your assignment. It starts on a new page immediately after the last page of your assignment
  
• The list has the heading References (centered and bold)
  
• The list is arranged alphabetically, based on the first word of the reference - do not list the references based on sources. A common mistake students make is listing all the book references together, then all the website references together, and so on. This is incorrect. Just list all your references (regardless of the source) in alphabetical order
  
• Every second and subsequent line of each reference entry is indented approximately 1cm from the left margin
  
• Use '&' to join the last two author names in a reference entry
  
• If you have more than one source with the same author and date, add a lower case letter to the date to differentiate them (eg: Smith, 2018a) and (Smith, 2018b)

Note: Any appendices appear after the Reference list.

Example of a reference list:

References
 

Attenborough, D. (2020). A Life On Our Planet. Ebury Publishing.

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). Childhood education and care (No. 4402.0). Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au

Department of Health and Ageing. (2012). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance framework 2012 report.                              Retrieved from  http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/oatsih-hpf-2012-toc

Ramsey, J. K., & McGrew, W. C. (2005). Object play in great apes: Studies in nature and captivity. In A. D. Pellegrini & P. K. Smith                   (Eds.), The nature of play: Great apes and humans (pp. 89-112). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Winter, J., Hunter, S., Sim, J., & Crome, P. (2011). Hands-on therapy interventions for upper limb motor dysfunction following                            stroke. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2011(6). doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006609.pub.2

 
Take note:

- the heading 'References' is centered and in bold
- there is a indent on the second line for each reference entry
- there are spaces between full stops and commas
- there is a full stop at the end of the reference, unless the last word of the reference is part of a URL website address, in which case there is no full stop