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Referencing and plagiarism

APA

APA is a referencing style specified in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The Publication Manual is currently in it's 7th edition so the current version of APA is APA 7th edition. APA referencing is used by the Schools of Education, Psychology, and Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Lincoln.

Like the Harvard style, APA uses the author-date style. There are two parts to APA referencing: the in-text citation, which contains the basic details about the source (i.e. author's surname and year of publication), and the reference list (which contains the full details of all the sources cited in text). The Library's APA (7th ed.) Referencing Handbook is designed to help you understand how to cite and reference sources of information using the guidance from the APA's Publication Manual. The Handbook is available in print (from the main desk in the University Library) or as a downloadable PDF. The Library also provides an online APA 7th ed. guide which has the same content as the handbook but is in a more interactive format. 

Both the Referencing Handbook and the Online Guide provide guidance and examples on how to reference the different types of information that you may need to cite and reference within your academic work; however, it is impossible to include every type of information source. If the information source that you would like to reference is not listed, please check the index. If it's not listed in the index, then select the format example that is most like your source and follow this. 

The Referencing Handbook also contains a Guide on reporting statistics in APA style which has been compiled by the MASH team.

If you have any questions about APA referencing, please contact your Academic Subject Librarian.

Short video on APA referencing

Additional resources

Introduction to APA referencing

Overview of the changes to APA referencing