Webpages and Social Media
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Web pages with author
Entry in reference list
Author, A. (Date). Title of page. Retrieved from web address.
For example - reference list
Greenblatt, S. (2002). A special letter from Stephen Greenblatt. Retrieved from http://www.mla.org/scholarly_pub.
For example - in text citation
Greenblatt (2002) argues that…
OR
…was argued (Greenblatt, 2002)
Style notes
- Because not all internet sources have title and copyright pages, the elements can be difficult to find. In general, include the same elements, in the same order, as would be needed for a reference to a fixed-media source, and add as much electronic retrieval information as needed for others to locate the sources you cited.
- The abbreviation (n.d.) is used if no publication date is available.
- Use the home page URL rather than more specific addresses which may have changed, except when citing articles from sites such as media sites or government agencies, in which specific articles may be hard to locate.
- The date when an electronic resource was retrieved is only needed if the content being cited is likely to be changed or updated. If this is the case, add the date you accessed the page after the web address.
- Specific formats can be included in brackets immediately after the title, e.g., [Lecture notes] or [Video webcast].
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Web pages with no author
Entry in reference list
Title of page. (Date). Retrieved from web address.
For example - reference list
UK terror threat reduced to "substantial." (2011, July). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14111281
For example - in text citation
Use the first few words of the reference entry.
…the overall threat has gone away ("UK terror threat," 2011).
Citing an entire website:
You Are Not So Smart is a website that exposes almost universal behavioural irrationalities (http://youarenotsosmart.com/).
Style notes
- Because not all Internet sources have title and copyright pages, the elements can be difficult to find. In general, include the same elements, in the same order, as you would for a reference to a fixed-media source, and add as much electronic retrieval information as needed for others to locate the sources you cited.
- Use the home page URL rather than more specific addresses which may change, except when citing articles from sites such as media sites or government agencies, where it may be difficult to locate specific articles.
- The date an electronic resource was retrieved is only important if the content you are citing is likely to be changed or updated. If this is the case, add the date after the web address.
- The abbreviation (n.d.) is used if no publication date is available.
- Specific formats can be included in brackets immediately after the title, e.g., [Lecture notes] or [Video webcast].
- When citing an entire website, you only need to provide the web address in parentheses in the text. An entry in the reference list is not needed.
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Blog posts and comments
Entry in reference list
Blog post:
Author, A. A. [or Alias] (Year, Month day). Title [Blog post]. Retrieved from Web address
Comment on a blog:
Author, A. A. [or Alias] (Year, Month day). Re: Title of original blog [Blog comment]. Retrieved from Web address
Video blog:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month day). Title [Video file]. Retrieved from Web address
For example - reference list
Blog post:
Kraus, L. (2010, July 1). Great animation on motivation [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.leekrausonline.com/
Comment on blog:
JRK. (2010, July 1). Re: Great animation on motivation [Blog comment]. Retrieved from http://www.leekrausonline.com/2010/07/great-animation-on-motivation.html#comments
Video blog:
Pirillo, C. (2007, August 2). What is a blog? [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXUIHT5USWc/
For example - in text citation
Kraus (2010) mentions that even for basic cognitive tasks, higher incentives lead to poorer performance.
OR
…even for basic cognitive tasks, higher incentives lead to poorer performance (Kraus, 2010).
Style notes
- The name of the author should be stated as on the message. Nicknames or aliases are acceptable if that was what was used by the blogger.
- Titles of blog entries are not italicised.
- When citing a comment on a blog, give the name or alias of the commenter, the date of the comment, and put Re: before the title of the original blog. Give the web address specific to the comment.
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Facebook & Twitter post
The APA Style Guide to Electronic References shows how to format references for a broad range of electronic sources.
Entry in reference list
Screen name OR Author, A. [screen name] (Year, Month day). Whole post if short; a truncated version if long. [Tweet] OR [Facebook status update]. Retrieved from exact web address
For example - reference list
G@GuardianBooks (2011, July 12). Strong showing for Irish writers on Frank O'Connor short list: http://gu.com/p/3vfpa/tf [Tweet]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/#!/GuardianBooks/status/90782203549724672
Julia Gillard (2011, July 4). Addressing climate change starts with the science [Facebook status update]. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/juliagillard/posts/187438061311334
OR
Gillard, J. [Julia Gillard]. (2011, July 4). Addressing climate change starts with the science [Facebook status update]. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/juliagillard/posts/187438061311334
For example - in text citation
Julia Gillard committed her government… (Gillard, 2011).
Irish writers are bucking the trend… (G@GuardianBooks, 2011).
Style notes
- Use the screen name as it appears on the page. If, e.g., you were citing the screen name BarackObama, you would alphabetise it in the Reference List under B, without inserting a space. Julia Gillard would be alphabetised under J.
- BUT the APA blog also suggests, when the real name is clear, giving the real name in the Reference List followed by the screen name in brackets, and in the text citation just using the surname and the year. Choose what is better for your specific citation.
- Give the year, month and day, but not the time; if there is more than 1 post from the same author on the same day, distinguish them by adding a, then b, after the year, e.g., (2011a, July 13), then (2011b, July 13).
- If no date can be established, put (n.d.) If the date is reasonably certain but not recorded, you can put, e.g., (ca. 2007).
- Twitter posts are often short enough to provide the whole tweet in the title position, including a URL if relevant. Facebook updates may need to be truncated. They are not italicised.
- Give a description of the form in brackets immediately after the name of the thread, e.g., [Tweet] or [Facebook status update].
- To obtain the exact URL, click the date/time underneath the post to be taken to an individual update page with its own URL.
- In-text citations are more easily managed parenthetically.
- Because personal and friends-only Facebook pages are not retrievable by everyone, references to these pages should be handled as personal communications.
- A group Facebook page can be cited like a section in a larger work, e.g., When I was your age, Pluto was a planet. [ca. 2009]. In Facebook [Group page]. Retrieved December 16, 2009, from http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2207893888
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Online forum post
Message posted to a newsgroup, online forum or discussion group
Entry in reference list
Author. A. [or Alias.] (Year, Month day). Title of discussion thread [Online forum comment]. Message posted to Web address
For example - reference list
Mr Creosote. (2011, July 12). Re: Why the NBN needs to happen [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1736055
For example - in text citation
Mr Creosote (2011) argues that…
OR
…to remain competitive (Mr Creosote, 2011).
Style notes
- Include author's full name if available; otherwise use the screen name.
- After the date, as title, give the name of the discussion thread or the subject line of the message. Titles are not italicised.
- Give a description of the form in brackets immediately after the name of the thread, e.g., [Electronic mailing list message]
- Provide the address for the archived version of the message.
- Include as much information as possible, e.g., message number or identifier.
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Online reference work
Entry in reference list
Author, A. (Date). Title of article or segment. In A. A. Editor (Ed.), Title of encyclopedia (xxth ed.). doi: xxxxxxxxxx [OR: Retrieved from web address]
No author or editor or date:
Title of entry. (n.d.). In Title of reference work (xxth ed.). doi: xxxxxxxxxx [OR: Retrieved from web address]
Reference work cited as a whole:
Editor, A. A. (Ed.). Title of reference work (xxth ed.). doi: xxxxxxxxxx [OR: Retrieved from web address]
For example - reference list
Florman, Lisa. Picasso, Pablo. (n.d.). In M. Kelly (Ed.), Oxford art online. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordartonline.com
APA style. (2011). In Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Chilvers, I. & Williams, Fred. (2004). In The Oxford dictionary of art. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Fred_Williams.aspx
For example - in text citation
Chilvers (2004) describes Williams’ vision of landscape as “distinctly personal”.
OR
Williams’ vision of landscape has been described as “distinctly personal” (Chilvers, 2004).
Style notes
- In general, include the same elements, in the same order, that you would for a reference to a non-electronic source.
- If there is no author for the entry, put the title in place of the author.
- If the online version refers to a print edition, include the edition number after the title of the reference work.
- When DOIs (digital object identifiers) are available, use them for both print and electronic sources, instead of web addresses. DOI numbers are often located on the first page of an article near the copyright notice. If available, they are included in the references retrieved by Discovery.
- If no DOI is available, provide the home page URL of the journal or of the book or report publisher, not the URL of the article as retrieved from a database search. Do not place a period after the URL.
- For both free resources and subscription resources quote the web address (URL) of the resource's home page. For those supplied by the University of Melbourne through Discovery, you may need to do a quick search for the resource’s home page.
- The retrieval date need only be included if the content is likely to change, as with Wikis.
Note: APA 7th ed. was released late in 2019 and we are currently updating our support resources. Re:cite will continue to conform to APA 6th ed. requirements for semester 1 2020. This is our suggested version of the style during this period, however, you should check with your lecturer/supervisor about their version preferences. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) is available from the Library.
This is an introduction to the APA style which is widely used in the social sciences and other fields, such as education, commerce and nursing.
This guide is based on the 6th edition of the APA's style rules which are set out in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition.
APA is an author-date style with two key components:
- Citations in the text, including the name of the author and year of publication.
- Reference list at end of paper, alphabetically listing of all references used in the text.
The purpose of referencing is to acknowledge the source and to enable the reader to trace the sources. Reference data must be accurate, including specific page numbers or specific URLs (web addresses), when otherwise it might be difficult to retrieve the original text.
For more information see:
- A tutorial for beginners
- A general outline of changes from the 5th edition. For details of the changes, see APA’s tutorial
- The American Psychological Association website.
Before writing your list of references, check with your tutor or lecturer for the bibliographic style preferred by the School or Department.
Reference list notes
- References cited in the text must be listed in the reference list, and all references listed in the reference list must be cited in the text.
Exceptions: do not include in the reference list sources such as:
- Personal communications, such as letters, informal email, or private social media posts
- Classical works or major religious texts
- Web sites or Facebook orTwitter feeds when discussed as a whole.
Cite all these sources only in the text.
- Order the reference list alphabetically by author surnames:
- Where an item has no author it is cited by its title, and ordered in the reference list alphabetically by the first significant word of the title (not A or The) .
- References by the same single or multiple authors are arranged by year of publication, the earliest first, e.g.,
- Hong, B.H. & Yeung, K.L. (2001)
- Hong, B.H. & Yeung, K.L. (2009)
- References with the same first author and different second or third author are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the second author, or if the same, third, and so on, e.g.,
- Brown, J., Gold, F., & Black, L. (2007)
- Brown, J., Gold, F., & Greene, H. (2006)
- References by the same author (or by the same two or more authors in the same order) with the same publication date are arranged alphabetically by the title (excluding A or The) that follows the date. Lower case letters – a, b, c – are placed immediately after the year in parentheses.
- Smith, J.R. (2008a)
- Smith, J.R. (2008b)
References with multiple authors
- Give surnames and initials for up to seven authors. With eight or more authors, include the first six authors' names, then insert three ellipses and add the last author's name.
Formatting the reference list
- APA requires that the reference list be double-spaced
- Entries in the reference list should have a hanging indent (the second and subsequent lines of the reference must be indented five spaces.) e.g.
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington D.C: Author.
- Book titles are italicised, e.g., Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Chapter or section titles within a larger work are not italicised.
- Translated works: if you used the non-English version of a work, cite using the original title and immediately following that title, give the English translation in brackets. If you used the English translation, just cite the English translation.
- Give the publication date (the year the work was copyrighted) in parentheses, e.g., (2009). Note: APA uses parentheses (…) for standard parts of a reference, e.g., the year of publication, and brackets […] for information that you have inserted, e.g., format information such as [Audio podcast].
- Place of publication: within the United States, give the city and the abbreviation for the state, e.g., Boston, MA. Outside the United States, record the city and country, e.g., London, England, or, Melbourne, Australia.
- Journal titles in the reference list must be italicised and be given in title case; do not abbreviate titles (e.g., Journal of Immunology, not J Immunol). Article titles are not italicised.
- Inclusive page numbers for all articles and chapters in books should be included in the reference list.
- List page numbers in full (e.g., 132-135, not 132-5).
- Electronic sources: in general, include the same elements, in the same order, as you would for a reference to a fixed-media source and add as much electronic retrieval information as needed for others to locate the source.
Acceptable abbreviations in the reference list for parts of books and other publications include:
| ed. | edition |
| Rev.ed. | revised edition |
| 2nd ed. | second edition |
| Ed. ( Eds.) | Editor (Editors) |
| Trans. | Translator(s) |
| n.d. | no date |
| p. (pp) | page (pages) |
| Vol. | Volume (as in Vol. 4) |
| Vols. | Volume (as in Vols. 1-4) |
| No. | Number |
| Pt. | Part |
| Suppl. | Supplement |
| Tech. Rep. | Technical report |
In-text citations
- If more than one reference is used in a set of parentheses, the references are ordered alphabetically by author name. Separate multiple citations using a semi-colon, e.g., (Coats, 2005; McMinn, 2003; Ng, Leung, Kwok, & Chan, 2007).
- References with multiple authors: cite all authors up to five in the first in-text citation (surnames only). In subsequent citations, use the surname of the first author followed by et al. (not italicised and followed by a period) and the year.
- With six or more authors, cite only the surname of the first author followed by et al. and the year.
- Always give specific page numbers for quotations in the text and include a complete reference in the reference list, e.g.,
…(Miller, 1994, p. 276)…
OR
Miller (1994) found that, "the 'placebo effect,'… in all participants" (p. 245).
- No distinction is made between print and electronic sources when citing in text.
- If quoting the full title of a reference in the text, the first word of titles and subtitles and all other major words are capitalised and italicised e.g., When The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle was published…
- For classical, major religious and very old works not included in the reference list, give the year of the translation or version that you used, with the word trans. or version, and give section numbers rather than page numbers, e.g., (Aristotle, trans. 1931); 1 Cor. 13:1 (Revised Standard Version). When the date of the original publication is available, include that date, e.g., James (1890/1983).
- To cite a web site or a Facebook or Twitter feed as a whole or to discuss it in general, you need only to provide the site URL in parentheses in the text; there is no need for a reference list entry.
Direct quotation of sources
These notes apply to the word-for-word reproduction from another author's work.
The quote is fewer than 40 words
- If the quote is fewer than 40 words, incorporate it into the text and use double quotation marks.
- Always provide author, year, and page number or paragraph number for non-paginated material, e.g.
According to Palladino and Wade (2010), "a flexible mind is a healthy mind" (p. 147).
In 2010, Palladino and Wade noted that "a flexible mind is a healthy mind" (p. 147).
"A flexible mind is a healthy mind," according to Palladino and Wade's (2010, p. 147) longitudinal study.
- List the complete reference in the bibliography
- If the quote is at the end of a sentence, close the quote with quotation marks, cite the source in brackets after the quotation marks, and place a full stop after the bracket, e.g.
In fact, "a flexible mind is a healthy mind" (Palladino & Wade, 2010, p. 147).
The quote is more than 40 words
- If the quote is more than 40 words, display in a freestanding block of text and omit the quotation marks.
- Start the quote on a new line, and indent about half and inch (equal to a tab space or 1.27cm) from the left margin (in the same position as a new paragraph).
- If there are additional paragraphs in the same quote, indent the first line of each by half an inch (one tab space).
- Double-space the entire quotation. Cite the quoted source, page or paragraph number in brackets after the final punctuation mark.
- Use p. for a single page number (Example: p. 15) and pp. for multiple page numbers (Examples: pp. 125-126).
- If citing an online source without page numbers, cite the paragraph number (Example: para. 4).
- When citing multiple authors after a quotation use the ampersand symbol '&' instead of the word 'and'.
- If the quoted source is cited and included in the introductory sentence only the page or paragraph number is required at the end of the quotation.
Example
Jones's (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style especially when it was their first time citing source. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a style manual or ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)
Block quote with author at beginning
Lyoob, Rossetti and Chen (2013) noted:
Many software providers take advantage of these developing technologies to provide new cloud computing services or transform their existing products to the cloud. Since the term cloud could refer to any infrastructure, platform or software that serves for cloud computing, every component in the cloud may be provided as a service. (p. 34)
Block quote with author at the end
Cyber threats are not the only challenge to cloud computing:
While security has been a major topic of interest, reliability is a much bigger concern. Cloud computing is based on Internet access, so a fast and constant Internet connection is critical to cloud computing solutions. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure the enterprise's connectivity to the Internet is well-established and that there are backup connections in case of connectivity failure. (Lyoob, Rosetti, & Chen, 2013 pp. 35-36)
Direct quotations of online material without pagination
- List author year and page number in brackets
- If paragraph numbers are available, use these when page numbers are absent
- Use the abbreviation para, e.g.
Basu and Jones (2007) went so far as to suggest the need for a new "intellectual framework in which to consider the nature and form of regulation in cyberspace " (para. 4).
- If a subheading is available but no paragraph or page numbers, cite the heading and the numbers of the paragraph following it, e.g.
In their study, Verbunt, Pernot, and Smeets (2008) found that "the level of perceived disability in patients with fibromyalgia seemed best explained by their mental health condition and less by their physical condition " (Discussion section, para. 1).
- If the subheading is too long and unwieldy to use (and there is no paragraph or page numbers) a short title enclosed in quotation marks will suffice, e.g.
"Empirical studies have found mixed results on the efficacy of labels in education consumers and changing consumption behaviour " (Golan, Kuchler, & Kirssof, 2007, "Mandatory Labelling Has Targeted, " para. 4).
Citations within quotations
- Do no omit citations already present in the material you are quoting. The work cited should not be listed in the bibliography either unless cited as a primary source in another part of the assignment.
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