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APA (7th Edition) Referencing Guide

Guide to APA citation style using the 7th Edition of the APA Style Manual.

Date of publication

In-Text Citations

For in-text citations, give only the year of publication:

Narrative citation: As Brown (2019) noted...

Parenthetical citation: (Brown, 2019).

If two or more works are published by the same author with the same year, add a letter after the year in accordance with the order in the reference list. See the information regarding "same author ... same year" in Setting out the Reference List.

Reference Lists

APA 7th requires complete dates where possible, for works that are frequently published or likely to be updated, but if you cannot find a complete date, give as much information as you can find.

The date format is YYYY, Month DD or YYYY, Season.

  • (2019, April 12-14)
  • (2014, Spring-Summer)
  • (2015, January)
  • (2018)

NB: Dates with months/days/seasons are only applicable for certain reference types (such as web pages, blogs, magazines and newspapers). Check the proper date format for the type of material you are using.

No date

If there is no date use 'n.d.' (for 'no date') in both the in text citation and the reference list.

In text:

In the late 1950s, white Australians became more aware of indigenous living conditions reported in the news (National Museum Australia, n.d.).

The civil rights movements started to gain momentum in Australia as "events in the late 1950s brought the sufferings of the few into the living rooms of the many" (National Museum Australia, n.d.).

In the reference list:

National Museum of Australia. (n.d.). The fight for civil rights. https://indigenousrights.net.au/civil_rights

Regarding reference list order:

If you have several works by the same author, and one of the works has no date but the other works are dated, (n.d.) is treated as the oldest work for ordering your references

If you have multiple citations from the same author which also do not have a date, you will follow the same instructions as you would if there was a date: order the citations in your reference list alphabetically by title, and place an "a", "b", etc after the date.

National Museum of Australia (n.d.-a). Nelson the Newfoundland's dog collar. https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/collection/highlights/nelson-the-newfoundlands-dog-collar

National Museum of Australia. (n.d.-b). Newcastle bakery cart. https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/collection/highlights/newcastle-bakery-cart

Using n.d. for open-dated sources:

In APA 7th edition, it is recommended to use n.d. for sources that are constantly changing, such as social media pages and updating services. When using n.d., for open-dated sources you will need to included a "Retrieved" date.

E.g.:

James Cook University Library [JCU Library]. (n.d.). Library and Information Services [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved June 11, 2019, from https://www.facebook.com/JCULibrary

Retrieved dates

Some reference types require a retrieval date in the reference list, because the work might changed or be removed.

The retrieval date goes before the URL or the DOI and follows the pattern below:

Retrieved Month DD, YYYY, from URL/DOI

This should be the last date you checked to make sure the information was still current and accessible.

E.g.:

James Cook University Library [JCU Library]. (n.d.). Library and Information Services [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved June 11, 2019, from https://www.facebook.com/JCULibrary

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Creative Commons Licence
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License. Content from this Guide should be attributed to James Cook University Library. This does not apply to images, third party material (seek permission from the original owner) or any logos or insignia belonging to JCU or other bodies, which remain All Rights Reserved.

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