- If two authors are both group authors, do not use a comma between them.
- Include up to 20 authors. If a work has more than 20, provide the first 19 authors, an ellipsis (. . .), and then the final name. Do not include an ampersand. The Quick Guide PDF has an example of a work with more than 20 authors.
Bureau of Meteorology & Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
Group authors
When the author is a group, such as a company or a government department, you should provide its full name in the end-text reference, even if it is abbreviated elsewhere. Deciding what counts as its full name can be tricky. You might need to look for an "About Us" or similar page to find out how the organisation should be credited. Visit the APA Style website for more information.
- If a webpage or report is on a government or company website, you should generally use the organisation as the author.
- Sometimes both an individual and a group seem to be the author. If there is a person listed prominently on the work (e.g. on the cover, title page, suggested citation, or the top of an article), that is usually the author; the group would then act as the 'publisher'. Use your judgment to decide who is being presented as the author, and which author would help someone else find the work using your reference.
- If multiple layers of government agencies are listed as the author, use the most specific agency as the author, and include the parent agencies in the source element as 'publisher'.
- Do not include jurisdiction (e.g. Commonwealth of Australia) unless it is needed to distinguish between two organisations that would otherwise have the same name.
The National Cancer Institute is a US-based group which is part of the National Institutes of Health, which is itself part of the Department of Health and Human Services. The author should be only the most specific group:
The full reference would include the parent bodies as the 'publisher', ordered starting from the largest level, and separated by commas:
National Cancer Institute. (Date). Title of the work. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.
Specialised roles
Some reference types, such as films or edited books, routinely credit major contributors who would not be described as the 'author' of the work. For these contributors, include their role in parentheses after their name in the end-text reference. (Do not include the role in the in-text citation.) If the role is editor, it should be abbreviated as (Ed.), or (Eds.) for multiple editors.
No author
If you can not find the author of a work, including a group or organisation that is responsible for the work, use the title in place of the author. The title spot can be left blank. (Formatting for in-text citation is available here.)
Do not cite the author as "Anonymous" unless the work was published under that pseudonym.
Italian government declares state of emergency in flood-ravaged Venice. (2019, November 15). The Age. https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/italian-government-set-to-declare-state-of-emergency-in-venice-20191115-p53ast.html
Unusual spelling & capitalisation, and titles & ranks
Use the spelling and capitalisation the author uses.
If an author's first name is hyphenated, include both initials and the hyphen if both names are capitalised.
Do not include titles and ranks, unless they are part of the author's name.
Usernames
If the real name of someone who usually publishes under a username is known, give the real name first but include the username in brackets:
Only the family name will be included in in-text citations: (Dorsey, 2020).
If only the username is known, do not put it in brackets. The username will be treated as the author's name for in-text and end-text citations, e.g. (mt2mt2, 2015).
Date: formatting and notesGive the date the item was published - usually just the year.
For some items that are published more frequently, such as webpages and newspaper articles, a more specific date is required (if available) to help the reader find the specific work you are citing.
Formatting this element
The date goes within parentheses:
No date
Note that the copyright date at the footer of a webpage is usually not the date the content was published.
If you can not find the publication date for an item, use the abbreviation for "no date":
Title: formatting and notesTitles usually do not keep the same formatting as the original source. Keep the original spelling, but capitalisation and italics in titles are standardised to fit the APA style rules.
Formatting: italics
Titles of stand-alone publications (works that are complete in themselves, like a whole book or a report) are formatted in italics in your end-text references. Titles of items that are part of a larger work (such as articles and chapters) are not in italics.
Project management: The managerial process.
Part of a greater work:
Italian government declares state of emergency in flood-ravaged Venice.
Formatting: capitalisation
There are two types of capitalisation used in APA style referencing:
- Sentence case: Most words are lowercase, except: the first word of the title, the first word of any subtitles, proper nouns (e.g. places and people), and acronyms.
- Title case: Capitalise the first word of the title, the first word of any subtitles, any major or content words, and any word with four or more letters.
Most titles in your end-text referencing will be in sentence case. If you are mentioning the title of a journal as a whole, a newspaper or magazine, an organisation's name, or a publisher, these will usually be in title case.
The role of occupation in an integrated boycott model: A cross-regional study in China.
Health Promotion Journal of Australia.
Jump to information about:
Works with an edition, report, or volume number
If a work has an edition, report, or volume number, include it in parentheses after the title. Do not put a full stop between the title and this descriptive information. This element is not in italics, even if the title is.
- Use the abbreviation "ed." for edition, and "Vol." for volume.
- Edition is written with numbers, not in superscript: use "6th ed.", not "Sixth ed." or "6 th ed." Revised edition is abbreviated to "Rev. ed."
- For reports, give the report number as it appears on the work, as in the second and third examples below.
Land management and farming in Australia, 2014-15 (Cat. No. 4627.0).
Foundation to year 10 curriculum: Language for interaction (ACELA1428).
If there is both a volume and an edition, the edition comes first.
Works with an unusual format
If the format is something unusual for an academic context (something other than books, journal articles, and reports), you can include a description of the format after the title. The description will not be in italics, even if the title is.
Guide to the wildflowers of Perth [Brochure].
Don't let me be misunderstood [Song].
Journeys towards expertise in technology-supported teaching [Doctoral dissertation, Edith Cowan University].
Works with no title
If the work has no title, use a description of the work in square brackets.
[Map showing local Perth election results in 2018].
Do not use italics for your description, even if the title would usually be in italics.
If this is a work with an unusual format (e.g. Photograph, Lecture recording, or Map), you can include the type as part of the description.
Works in another language
Before you use a work in another language as a reference for an assignment, check with your unit coordinator that this is acceptable. They might prefer that you find an English-language source so that they can check the reference for themselves.
If you are citing a work in a language other than the language of your own writing, and you read that work in its original language, you should include a translation of the title element. The translated title does not need to be literal: it should inform the reader what the work is about. The translation should be within square brackets, following the original title, and is not italicised even if the title is.
Schweriner Café-Besucher tragen Schwimmnudel-Hüte [Visitors to Schwerin cafe wear pool noodle hats for social distancing].
Nihongo no goi tokusei [Lexical characteristics of Japanese language].
All other details should be written in the original language. This will make it easier to locate the source. If the language does not use the Roman alphabet (for instance, if it is written in a language like Hindi, Mandarin, or Arabic; or in Japanese, as in the example above), you should transliterate those details into the Roman alphabet if possible.
Republished or translated works
If a work has been republished in a different year, include information about the original publication date at the end of the reference. If other creators had a significant role in creating the new edition, include information about the editor, translator, or (as below) narrator in parentheses after the title; if the type of work needs explanation, include the type in square brackets. These elements are not in italics, even if the title is. There should be no full stop between the title and extra information in the title element, or after the original publication date.
An example of this sort of work might be an ebook published in a different year to the original book, a version translated into a new language or format, or a new edition of a classic book; this is not intended for reprints of the same work by the same publisher soon after publication.
Heller, J. (2008). Catch-22 (T. White, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Hachette Audio UK. (Original work published 1961)
Both dates will appear in the in-text reference for these works: (Heller, 1961/2008).
