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APA referencing elements

This page describes what to do when there are multiple or missing parts (elements) of an APA reference list or in-text citation:

  • Reference within a source (secondary source)
  • 2+ authors
  • No author / group author
  • Identical author and publisher
  • Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
  • No year of publication
  • City of publication
  • 2+ cities of publication
  • No city of publication
  • Publisher
  • No page numbers
  • No season, volume, or issue number
  • Retrieval dates

The general format of in-text citations and reference lists are covered on those pages.

New to referencing? See the introduction to referencing.

APA Interactive

Create customised interactive examples of APA references and in-text citations with this online tool.

Reference within a source (secondary source)

Many academic books and journal articles quote earlier books or articles on the same topic. If you cannot access the original source (it is out of print, or unavailable through the library), you can cite the secondary source instead. See secondary sources for the correct method to cite this.

2+ authors

When a source that has two authors is cited in-text, both authors are included every time the source is used.

If the authors' names are part of a sentence, the word "and" is used:

According to Samson and Daft (2005), the …

If the authors' names are in brackets or the reference list, the symbol "&" is used instead:

… from the influence of pressure groups (Samson & Daft, 2005).

If there are three or more authors, some of their names are replaced by "et al." (an abbreviation of the Latin et alia, meaning “and others”).

(McDuff et al., 2017)

James, K., Milson, S., Lawton, F., & McBean, S. (2018). Quantitative analysis for beginnners. Rata Press.

Note: APA uses serial commas. This means with a list of three or more items, commas are used between each item, including before the "and" or "or" signalling the last item.

In the reference list, include the surnames and initials of up to and including 20 authors. For works with more than 21 authors, use an ellipsis (…) between the 19th and final author. There should be no more than 20 names:

McDuff, C., Smith, J., Kensington, K., Jones, S., Coughlan, S., Bortolin, L., Witte, M., Scott, A., Newport, A., Jensen, K., Wutzler, J., van Staden, I., McLean, J., Bergsma, G., Dowman, B., Petrie, K., Higgens, D., McCloud, R., Jessop, L., …Duncan, P. (2017). An introduction to quantitative analysis in finance. Houghton.

6th editionThe earlier (6th) edition of APA formats this differently. See 6th vs. 7th for details.

Authors In-text citations Reference list
1-2 All authors All authors
3-20 First author and "et al." All authors
20+ First author and "et al." First 19 authors, then an ellipsis (…) then the last author.

For example, Cunningham, Nikolai, and Bazley (2004) would be referenced as follows.

All in-text citations:

(Cunningham et al., 2004)

In the reference list:

Cunningham, B. M., Nikolia, L. A., & Bazley, J. D. (2004). Accounting: Information for business decisions (2nd ed.). Thomson/South-Western.

If two different sources would become identical because the list of authors has been shortened with "et al." (i.e., they have the same year and the same first author), enough authors are added to the in-text citation to differentiate them:

Jensen, Yan, Jessop, Chen, Patel, and Michaels (2010)

Jensen, Yan, Khan, Chen, Patel, and Michaels (2010)

Both these citations shorten to (Jenson et al., 2010) so enough authors are added to in-text references distinguish them:

(Jenson, Yan, Jessop, et al., 2010)

(Jenson, Yan, Khan, et al., 2010)

Note that "et al." is plural and means "and others" so it cannot stand for just one name. As such, when you have added sufficient authors to distinguish a source from another source published in the same year with some of the same authors, and only the final author is different, then give all the authors in the citation:

Singh, Shaw, Tuhoro, and Westbrook (2020)

Singh, Shaw, Westrupp, and Wereta (2020)

No author / group author

If no author is named, the source may be written by a group or organisation. This is often true for collaborative or official works from government departments, corporations, or other organisations.

In this case, use the group in the author position, both in the in-text citation and in the reference list:

…matching New Zealand's curriculum documents (Ministry of Education, 1996).

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: Early childhood curriculum. Learning Media.

Sometimes the group author is also the publisher. See identical publisher and author below for details.

If there is no group author, the title should be moved to the author position. This method is often used for newspaper / magazine articles and encyclopædia entries with no identified author.

The first few words of the title are used in the in-text citation. If it is a book or web page title, put it in italics. If it is an article or chapter title, or an entry title in an encyclopædia, put it between quotation marks:

(“Beehive updating job,” 2007)

The full title is used in the reference list:

Beehive updating job wins award. (2007, October 29). Dominion Post, p. A5.

EndNote fields: If you are using Endnote, insert a comma at the end of group/corporate authors in the Endnote library to ensure it is displayed correctly.

For information on and help with Endnote see:

  • Endnote
  • Endnote@Massey

Identical author and publisher

When citing a group author, the publisher and author's names are often identical. In these cases, simply omit the publisher details to avoid repetition.

Radio New Zealand. (2005). Annual report 2004/2005.

6th editionThe earlier (6th) edition of APA formats this differently. See 6th vs. 7th for details.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

The Digital Object Identifier is a unique number allocated to an online publication. It is often used to identify online journal articles and other online documents.

If an online document has a DOI, use it instead of the URL address. Start the DOI link with https:// or http://. Do not end the URL with a full stop as this may affect the functionality of the link:

Gelkopf, M., Ryan, P., Cotton, S., & Berger, R. (2008). The impact of “training the trainers” for helping tsunami-survivor children on Sri Lankan disaster volunteer workers. International Journal of Stress Management, 15(2), 117–135.
https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.15.2.117

The DOI will usually appear as part of the source's copyright information or online citation. You can also look up a DOI at http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/

Include a DOI for all works that have one, even if you used the print version. If a print work does not have a DOI, however, then do not include a URL in the reference.

6th editionThe earlier (6th) edition of APA formats this differently. See 6th vs. 7th for details.

No year of publication

Years of publication can be found in many places.

  • For books and other print publications, use the copyright date if possible.
  • Massey Library's catalogue lists a year of publication for each book in its collection.
  • Web pages sometimes display a “last updated” date; the year can be used for the year of publication.

If no year is available, use "n.d."; (meaning “no date”), both in the in-text citation:

The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage (n.d.) defines …

…to hold in awe (New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, n.d.).

and in the reference list:

New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (n.d.). 100 Maori words every New Zealander should know. http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/tereo-100words

City of publication

The 7th edition of the APA publication manual does not require the place of publication to be given.

6th editionThe earlier (6th) edition of APA formats this differently. See 6th vs. 7th for details.

Publisher

Write the publisher name(s) as shown on the work. Do not include legal terms (e.g., Inc. or Ltd.).

If multiple publishers are given, then separate the publishers with a semi-colon and list the publishers in the order they appear in the source:

Houghton; Milford Press.

No page numbers

Some sources, particularly web pages, do not have page numbers indicated. Most of the time, it is enough just to cite the author and the year of publication.

If you have to cite a particular part of an unpaginated source, use "para" or "¶" to indicate which paragraph is being cited:

(Benson, 2006, para. 2)

If you are citing a longer source with chapters or sections, use the section title before the paragraph number:

(Benson, 2006, Discussion section, para. 2)

No season, volume, or issue number

If a journal does not use seasons, volume or issue numbers, simply omit the detail from the reference.

6th editionThe earlier (6th) edition of APA formats this differently. See 6th vs. 7th for details.

Retrieval dates

If the source is likely to change (e.g., dictionary and encyclopaedia entries, social media posts, maps generated online, a website likely to be updated) then it is recommended you include a retrieval date. This tells the reader that the source they retrieve may be different from the version you used. If needed, the retrieval date goes before the URL:

Retrieved July 12, 2019 from https://example.com

6th editionThe earlier (6th) edition of APA formats this differently. See 6th vs. 7th for details.

References and further reading

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). [Massey Library link]

Disclaimer

These pages are provided as a guide to proper referencing. Your course, department, school, or institute may prescribe specific conventions, and their recommendations supersede these instructions. If you have questions not covered here, check in the style guide listed above, ask your course coordinator, or ask at Academic Q+A.

Page authorised by Director - Centre for Learner Success
Last updated on 26 February, 2020

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