APA Checklist

Acronyms

    • You can use acronyms in your essay/report as long as your express the complete term (followed by the acronym in brackets) the first time you refer to it in text. After this, you need only include the acronym. For example:

      • For patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), exercise capacity is severely limited in these situations (Smith & Bloggs, 2013). Furthermore, studies have shown that individuals living with COPD have decreased quality of life in relation to ....

    • If you are going to cite an organisation that has a common abbreviation more than once in your essay, you can format this as follows:

    • First citation: A recent report (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014) highlighted five factors that contribute to increased economic burden in relation to healthcare in third world nations.

    • Subsequent citations: Similar trends have also been noted in studies conducted internationally (WHO, 2014).

    • Commonly recognised abbreviations include:

    • World Health Organization (WHO)

    • National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

    • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

    • American Psychological Association (APA)

    • Australian Psychological Society (APS)

Author names

    • For in text citations: only cite the author last name and the year of publication. As a general rule, author initials are not included.

    • For the reference list: the author last name and initials must be included. In general, the author last name will be included first, followed by the initial(s).

    • The only exception to this is when you reference a chapter from an edited book. In this instance, the chapter authors are listed first (by author last name then initials) whereas the editor details are listed with initials first followed by last name. For example:

    • List authors in the order in which they appear in the source. Never re-order the listing of publication authors for any reason.

Sources with the same author with different years

In the reference list, include the works by the same author starting with the earliest work first.

For example:

Sources with the same author with the same year

When you have multiple sources by the same author published in the same year, a lowercase letter is added to the year to distinguish one work from another.

    • References are arranged alphabetically according to the title.

    • Examples of how to cite and reference such works are listed below.

In-text citation:

Other factors shown to impact the management of stress and anxiety in adolescents with chronic illness are gender, socio-economic status, and illness severity (Smith, 2008a).

Smith (2008b) stated that ……..

Reference list entry:

Rules for different numbers of authors

    • Provide the last name and initial for up to 20 authors in your reference list

    • More than twenty authors, provide the last name and initial of the first nineteen, then add an ellipses, and provide the last name and initial of the last author

    • For example:

Electronic sources in your Reference list – DOI or URL?

    • A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a permanent electronic link that enables easy identification and retrieval of electronically sourced information

    • A DOI is commonly attached to journal articles and usually appears on the first page of the article

    • APA 7 rules stipulate one format for the DOI as follows:

    • http://doi.org/10.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    • A URL is a hyperlink to digital information on the internet

    • Use the DOI if there is one

      • Format: http://doi.org/10.xxxxxxxxxxx

      • There is no full stop at the end of the DOI

    • Use the URL if there is no DOI and the reference is not from a library database

      • Format: http://www.xxxxxxxxxxxxx

      • There is no full stop at the end of the URL

Font size and type

    • Times New Roman 12 point font should be used throughout your assignment set

    • No different types or font sizes should be used anywhere, including your headings

    • Make sure to double check your header and footer format as sometimes the default setting for these can be set at a different font type and size.

Hanging indent

All references should have a hanging indent:

    • The first line of each reference is left aligned with all subsequent lines are indented five to seven spaces - or one tab space.

Headings

Headings are generally used more in research reports than in essays. The following rules should be followed to format headings if used.

NOTE:

    • In general, if you are using headings in an essay, format them using the Level 2 heading guidelines

    • Refer to the table below.

NOTE: In title case, most words are capitalised.

Paragraph indents

Each new paragraph should be indented 5-7 spaces or one Tab space. This is how you signify that you have started a new paragraph. There should be NO additional spaces between paragraphs or assignment sections

In-text citations

Include citations directly after you refer to or discuss information from a source in your paragraph. Do NOT simply list citations at the end of the paragraph.

In text:

    • Use and when citing two authors within the text:

    • For example: Salas and D’Agostino (2020)

    • Use & when citing two authors in brackets:

    • For example: (Salas & D’Agostino, 2020)

    • Use et al. when citing three or more authors both within the text or within brackets:

    • For example:

    • Martin et al. (2020)

    • (Martin et al., 2020)

When citing multiple sources within a bracketed area, make sure that you have ordered your sources alphabetically by first author.

    • For example: (Baker et al., 2009; Johnson & Leelan, 2013; Swarovski et al., 2014).

    • Include a citation(s) directly after you refer to or discuss information from a source in your paragraph. Do NOT simply list the citation(s) at the end of the paragraph.

In-text citation and Reference list consistency:

Have you cross-checked your in-text citations to make sure they match up with your reference list?

    • Everything cited in your document needs to have a corresponding reference on the reference list

    • Everything included on the reference list needs to be cited in-text.

Italics

    • Make sure you have used italics appropriately

    • The following parts of your references should be in italics:

      • Name of Journal and volume (for journal articles)

      • Book title (for books)

      • Title of report in grey literature: for example:

      • government or corporate report title, press release title, white paper title, fact sheet/brochure title,

      • Conference paper title

      • Thesis title

      • Photograph title.

    • Do not italicise titles of documents that stand alone on websites: for example:

    • a document or article that is not published by a scholarly journal or a research/government source

    • Try to avoid using such unreliable sources.

Line spacing

    • Double line spacing should be used throughout your assignment

    • This includes the Reference list

    • Refer to the Annotated example.

Page numbers

    • Page numbers should be inserted in the upper right-hand side of the page header flush against the margin

    • Page numbers should to start at number 1 on the Title Page and should be formatted with just the page number

    • Refer to the Annotated example.

Punctuation

    • Check that you have used spacing and punctuation appropriately.

Full stop:

    • Insert ONE space after full stops that separate parts of a reference

    • For example:

    • Smith, I. B., Baker, J. S., & Colman, O. (2013).

et al.

    • Punctuate et al. as follows:

      • Wilson et al. (2011) reported …

      • Wilson et al.’s (2011) study demonstrated …

      • In a recent study (Wilson et al., 2011) demonstrated that…

Serial Comma:

    • Use a comma between elements in a series of three or more items

    • Be aware of the placement of commas and spacing after full stops when listing author names

    • For example:

      • Examining height, width, and depth demonstrated that…

      • (Bidgood, Alexander, & Samuel, 2005)

      • It was noted by Bidgood, Alexander, and Samuel (2005) that ...

      • Bidgood, J. C., Alexander, T., & Samuel, P. (2013).

Quotations

    • As a general rule try to paraphrase rather than quote

    • Ensure you always include the page number with your citation when you quote directly from a source

    • Place double quotation marks around the quoted text

    • Avoid overuse of direct quotations

    • For example:

    • Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one

    • domain does not translate to high performance along another” (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).

Sentence capitalisation

    • In general words are in lowercase unless it is a proper noun

    • Capitalise

      • First word in a complete sentence

      • First word after a colon if what follows the colon is a complete sentence

      • For example:

      • The statement was emphatic: Further research is needed.

      • Titles of your sources – journal article title, book title, report title

Use of numbers in text

    • Numbers between zero and nine are spelled out in words within the body of your work – five, seven, nine, etc.

    • Numbers from 10 are entered as numerals: 12, 467, 953, etc

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