Introduction

A reference list is the detailed list of references that are cited in your work. Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body.

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page “References” in bold, centered at the top of the page (do NOT underline or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.

Basic Rules for Most Sources

a) All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.

b) All authors’ names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided first).

c) Authors’ first and middle names should be written as initials.

For example, the reference entry for a source written by Jane Marie Smith would begin with “Smith, J. M.”

d) If a middle name isn’t available, just initialize the author’s first name: “Smith, J.”

Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up to and including 20 authors (this is a new rule, as APA 6 only required the first six authors). Separate each author’s initials from the next author in the list with a comma. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name. If there are 21 or more authors, use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after the 19th author, and then add the final author’s name.

e) Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.

For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.

f) When referring to the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports, webpages, or other sources, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns.

Note again that the titles of academic journals are subject to special rules. See section below.

g) Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of newspapers, and so on)

h) Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as chapters in books or essays in edited collections.