LibGuides: Education Library: Referencing Guide APA 7th: How to Format your Reference List

Formatting your Reference List

The reference list must appear at the end of your text and should only include material cited within your work (it is not a bibliography of all works consulted)

The reference list should begin on a new page titled References.
This should be at the top centre of the page and written in bold.

Each source you cite in the text must appear in the reference list

Each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text. In text citations are included in the word count

References should be listed in alphabetical order

Guidance on how to alphabetise sources starting with non significant words such as “a,” “an,” and “the” can be found on the APA Blog

Multiple references by the same author should be listed in date order with the earliest publication listed first. References with no date (n.d.). are listed first and (in Press) are listed last. For dated references, those with only a year are listed before specific dates i.e (2020) to be listed before (2020, March 14)

Multiple references by the same first author but different subsequent authors should be listed by surname in alphabetical order starting with the Lead author and then the second author. If the second author is the same, use the third author etc.
Please note that any references where the first author is the sole author, should be placed first (regardless of date) before any references by that same first author but different subsequent authors.

Sources by the same author(s) with the same publication date need to have the suffixes a,b,c etc after the date. (2021a) This should be included in both the in-text citations and the reference list. Place in alphabetical order by title, disregarding the word 'A' 'An' and 'The' For references with no date add a hyphen before the suffix in the in-text citation. (n.d.-a)

Double spacing should be used and further guidance can be found in section 2.21 of the APA 7th Manual
Indentation: The first line is flush left, and all subsequent lines are indented by 0.5 inches

Only capitalise the first word of the title. For journal articles, capitalise each word of the journal title (excluding of, the etc) but not the article title

Retain the spelling used in the original source for direct quotes and in the reference list (e.g. colour/color)

List the author(s) name(s) exactly as they appear in the source, including hyphenated surnames and two-part surnames, retaining any preferred capitalisation e.g. hooks, b for bell hooks and van der Waal, P. N.

Do not include titles, position/ranks or academic achievements to authors names. There are two important exceptions to this rule where titles are included:

Religious leaders like the Pope. e.g. Pope Francis
Nobility. e.g. The Prince of Wales

Example Reference List showing common source types

Need help?

Stuck with referencing? The Library Team are happy to help with all of your referencing queries!

Email: library@educ.cam.ac.uk

Or you can book a 1:1 appointment with a member of the Library Team

Unsure which source type to use?
Sometimes the distinctions between source types can be ambiguous, in which case consistency is the most important thing. If a source could be defined as more than one source type then a judgement is needed to choose which format to use and you then need to be consistent throughout your work to make sure all other similar sources are referenced the same way.

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Cambridge LibGuides

Education Library: Referencing Guide APA 7th: How to Format your Reference List

Reference List - general guidance

Formatting your Reference List

Example Reference List showing common source types

Need help?

Using Zotero?