Abbreviating the names of organisations and official bodies

For guidance on abbreviating the names of organisations, corporate authors and official bodies please see Organisations and abbreviations of Official Bodies in the In-Text Citations section. 

Please see the section on Parliamentary Materials for, Law Commission Reports plus Green and White Papers.

Report by an organisation:

Reference list:

If the report has a report number, include this in round brackets without italics after the report title (Report No. ). 

Group author. (Date) Title: Subtitle (Report No.   ). Publisher. URL (if accessed online).

If there is no report number omit this from element from your reference and end the title with a full stop

Group author. (Date) Title: Subtitle. Publisher. URL (if accessed online).

Office for Standards in Education. (1999). The annual report of Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools, standards and quality in education 1997/98. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. https://dera.ioe.ac.uk//167765

Where the organisation name is the same as the publisher, omit the publisher element from the reference as in the Board of Education example below.

Group author. (Date) Title. URL (if accessed online).

Board of Education Reports:

Board of Education Reports are often known by the Chair of the Committee, such as the Newbolt Report in the example below. To reference these you would cite the organisation rather than a personal name.

Board of Education. (1926). The teaching of English in England: being the report of the departmental committee appointed by the president of the Board of Education to inquire into the position of English in the educational system of England. 
http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/newbolt/newbolt1921.html.
 

Report with individual authors:

Reference list:

If the report has a report number, include this in round brackets without italics after the report title (Report No. ). 

Surname, INITIALS. (Date) Title: Subtitle (Report No.   ). Publisher. URL (if accessed online).

If there is no report number omit this from element from your reference and end the title with a full stop

Surname, INITIALS. (Date) Title: Subtitle. Publisher. URL (if accessed online).

Report with multiple authors:

If a report has multiple group authors -  separate with &

Group Author & Group Author

If multiple individual authors 

2 authors:
Surname, INITIALS., & Surname, INITIALS.
3 authors or more
Surname, INITIALS., Surname, INITIALS., & Surname, INITIALS.

For works with 20 or more authors, list the first nineteen then use an ellipsis (...) and list the name of the last author of the work (no & is required).

The issuing body will be the group author, as this is also the publisher, the source element of the reference can be omitted.

Group author. (Date) Title: Subtitle. URL (if accessed online).

Department for Education. (2013). The national curriculum in England: Framework document. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_

 

 

The Examination Board will be your group author, as this is also the publisher, the source element of the reference can be omitted.

Group author. (Date) Title of paper: Subtitle. URL (if accessed online).

Reference List:

AQA. (2014). GCSE English Literature. Paper 1 Shakespeare and the 19th Century novel. http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-8702-SMS.PDF

Where an examination board or other professional body uses an abbreviation for their name, it is appropriate to use this abbreviation in your reference list and in-text citations.  Further details about abbreviating group authors can be found on the APA Blog

Published Speeches:

Speeches can be found in a wide variety of sources, therefore the reference format you need will depend on the source type you have used, e.g  book, video documentary, website etc. **Cite as a secondary source**

If the speaker's name will not be included in the reference list, you need to make this clear by including the name in the text along with your quotation.

Dr. King declared, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed” (as cited in Smith, 2009, p. 19).

Reference List:

Smith, J. (Ed.). (2009). Well said! Great speeches in American history. E & K Publishing.

Live Speeches:

If you have attended a speech in person and this has not been published then you would reference this as an unpublished work following the guidance for a Lecture.

Surname of Speaker, Initials. (YYYY, Month Day). Title of speech (if available) [Speech]. Location of speech

Please note that legal documents follow 'The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation' as their foundation, adapted for APA.

Acts of Parliament 

Reference List

Title of Act and Year, chapter number. URL

Disability Discrimination Act 1995, c.50.  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/50

In-text citation

(Disability Discrimination Act, 1995)

If you are citing a specific section include the section information: 

(Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 s.4)

Devolved parliaments

For Acts covering Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, include the devolved nation in round brackets after the title of the act.

For Northern Ireland,

Add the jurisdiction after the title

Title of Act (Jurisdiction) Year, Chapter number. URL

Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2015, c.5.  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2015/5/schedule/18

In-text citation

(Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2015)

For Scotland,

Replace the chapter number with ASP and place in round brackets. (Act of Scottish Parliament) and the jurisdiction is placed after the title

Title (Jurisdiction) Act Year, (ASP number). URL

Pensions (Scotland) Act 2009, (ASP 1). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2009/1/contents

In-text citation

(Pensions (Scotland) Act 2015)

For Wales.

Place the jurisdiction after the title

Use nawm (for measures passed between 2007-2011 - National Assembly for Wales Measures), anaw (Acts passed between 2012-2020 - Acts of the National Assembly for Wales ) or asc (Acts passed after May 2020 - Acts of the Sennedd Cymru)

Title (Jurisdiction) Measure/Act Year, (nawm/anaw/asc number). URL

Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021, asc 4. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asc/2021/4/contents

In-text citation

(Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021)

Abbreviation of Acts in your in-text citations

After the first mention of an Act, the short title or an abbreviation can be used. If you choose to abbreviate an Act's title you must write it in full when you first mention the Act and give the full reference in your citation, e.g. Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) which could thereafter be referred to as DDA (1995)

Statutory Instruments

Include the title as it appears with any terms in round brackets.

Title (jurisdiction if appropriate) Year. SI year number. URL

The Pension Schemes Act 2021 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2021. SI 2021/572 c.38 

For devolved examples please see the Cite Them Right page here.

​UK Case Law

You do not need to include Case Law in your Reference List and they should be cited in-text only:

For the first instance cite the case in full including the court it was heard in  
Gillick v. West Norfolk Health Authority, [1986] AC 112

For all subsequent mentions use the abbreviated form:

Parenthetical citation 

(Name v. Name, Year) 

(Gillick v. West Norfolk Health Authority, 1986) 

Narrative citation 

Name v. Name (Year) 
Gillick v. West Norfolk Health Authority (1986)

 

Hansard Parliamentary Debates

Reference list:

House. (Day Month Year). (Volume number) col. number, URL

House of Commons. (12 July 2016). (613) col. 226,  https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2016-07-12/debates/16071258000001/SatsRe

In-text:

(House, Year)

(House of Commons, 2016)

Command Papers

Government publications presented to Parliament are known as Command Papers and include White Papers (government policy initiatives and proposals for legislation) and Green Papers (government consultation documents)

• Include the Command number after the title - Cmnd. 2222
• Include a description after the title if appropriate - [White paper / Green Paper]
• Papers can have individual authors or Group authors

Individual Authors
Surname, INITIALS. (Date) Title [Description]. Publisher. URL (if accessed online).

Group Authors

Group author. (Date) Title [description]. Publisher. URL (if accessed online).

United Nations and other International agreements

Charter of the United Nations 

Reference List example:

U.N. Charter art. 12, para. 3

Start your reference with the name of the agreement (in this case U.N. Charter) then provide the article number and paragraph number. No URL is needed

If you are citing the charter as a whole omit the article and paragraph number

U.N. Charter 

in-text citation examples:

Parenthetical citation: (U.N. Charter art. 12, para. 3)

Narrative citation - spell out abbreviations: Article 12, paragraph 3, of the United Nations Charter

Treaties and other International Conventions

Include the name of the treaty or convention and also the signing or approval date in the format of Month Day, Year, then the URL. 

Reference List example:

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, November 20, 1989, URL

in-text citation examples - only the year required in the date field:

Parenthetical citation: (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989)

Narrative citation:  United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

Abbreviations:

Please note that the Name of the treaty/charter/convention etc is provided as given on the document, therefore it is the U.N. Charter and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Further details concerning abbreviations can be found on the APA Blog

The APA guidelines do not give specific instructions on how to reference laws and regulations outside of the United States however the Cite Them Right website does contain guidance for EU legislation

It is always good practice to read and reference the original source of a work. If this is not possible you need to include the secondary source in your reference list, i.e the item you are using (whether it is a book, journal article or any other material) and acknowledge the original source by using the phrase (as cited in ...) in your in-text citation.

In-text:

MacGilchrist argues that ....(as cited in Brundrett & Rhodes, 2011, p. 99)

Reference List:

Brundrett, M., & Rhodes, C. (2011). Leadership for quality and accountability in education. London: Routledge.

To cite quotes from an online source where there are no visible page numbers, use paragraph numbers, where available, with the abbreviation para and include the section heading where available, for example (project introduction, para. 3).

Where the section heading is unmanageable to cite in full, use a shortened version enclosed in quotation marks, for example, use ("Mandatory Labelling," para. 4) for the heading Mandatory labelling has targeted information gaps and social objectives.

**DO NOT use the page numbers from material that you have printed out from an online source as different printers may reflect different pagination**

Use the information from the version/format you have read.

All examples are for book sources, please adapt for other source types following guidance in the relevant sections of this guide

Translated works
Use the information from the version/format you have read and acknowledge the translator.

Reference List (book example):

Surname, INITIALS, (date). Title (INITIALS, Surname, Trans.).Publisher.

Piaget, J (1969). The psychology of the child (H. Weaver, Trans.). Basic Books.

In-text:

(Piaget, 1969)

Citing your own translations

In-text

If you translate a passage from one language into another it is considered paraphrasing and not a direct quotation. Thus, to cite your translated material, all you need to do is include the author and date of the material in the in-text citation. It is helpful to include the page number in the citation as this will help any readers who do not speak the original language to find the translated passage.

Reference List:

In the reference list, provide the citation for the work in its original language and in addition to this provide an English translation of the title of the work in [square brackets] after the foreign-language title, without italics.

Further guidance and more examples can be found on the APA Blog 

 

Works written in languages other than English

It is helpful to provide an English translation of the title in square brackets. For example, an original French edition of a work by Piaget:

Use the information from the version/format you have read

Reference List (book example):

Surname, INITIALS. (Date). Title. [Translated Title]. Publisher.

Piaget, J. (1966). La psychologie de l’enfant [The psychology of  the child]. Presses Universitaires de France.

In-text:

(Piaget, 1969)

Reference List (Journal article example):

Surname, INITIALS. (Date). Article title in original language [English translation of article title]. Journal name (Transliterated if in non-roman script), volume(Issue), Page(s). DOI or Web address (If access online)

Citing a work written in another language script

Titles should be transliterated and translated into English as in the example below of a source in Arabic, where the Arabic language has been transliterated from the Arabic alphabet to the Latin alphabet. Then you also put an English translation of the title of the document in squire brackets after the transliterated title.

Najm, Y. (1966). Al-qissah fi al-adab Al-Arabi al-hadith [The novel in modern Arabic literature]. Dar Al-Thaqafah.

Further guidance and more examples can be found on the APA Blog here 

Works written in a non-Roman script

You will need to transliterate the details of sources into the Roman script. Further guidance and more examples can be found on the APA Blog 

Author(s)

For the author you would use solely the transliterated form of their name(s) and you do not include the original script in either your reference list or any in-text citations

黒澤 明 transliterated is Akira Kurosawa 

The in-text citation would be the transliterated author surname and date, e.g (Kurosawa , 2002)

Title (not journal titles, please see below)

For titles you need to use the transliterated form and include the English translation within square brackets

七人の侍 transliterated is Shichinin no Samurai,

Journal titles, please see below

For journal titles you need to use the transliterated form only, with no need to include the English translation in square brackets

An Example of a transliterated source (a film)

The final reference would look like this:

Kurosawa, A. (Director). (1954). Shichinin no samurai [Seven samurai]. Toho: Japan.

(Kurosawa, 1954)

An Example of a source in Arabic (Book)

The Arabic language has been transliterated from the Arabic alphabet to the Roman alphabet, after which you also put an English translation of the title of the document in squire brackets (after the transliterated title).

Najm, Y. (1966). Al-qissah fi al-adab Al-Arabi al-hadith [The novel in modern Arabic literature]. Dar Al-Thaqafah.

 

If the information needed to create a reference list entry is missing or unknown please follow the guidance from the APA Blog  (taken from Section 9.4 of the APA Publication Manual, 7th edition)

If you only have an approximate date, place “ca.” (short for “circa”) before the year (or years if a date range)

(ca. 1959)

Date ranges have a hyphen between them (no space)

(ca. 1959-1962)

 

For further guidance please follow the guidance from the APA Blog  (taken from Section 9.42 of the APA Publication Manual, 7th edition)

Reference List
For your reference list, include all authors with the last author name preceded by & (up to 20 authors). 
For works with 20 or more authors, list the first nineteen then use an ellipsis (...) and list the name of the last author of the work (no & is required).
Please see examples in the Books by Multiple Authors Box for further guidance

In-Text Citations
For works with 1 or 2 authors include all names in every in-text citation

Parenthetical citations use the & between surnames (for 2 authors) and before the last surname for 3 or more authors, e.g
(Brown, 2017) or (Green & Preston, 2006)
Narrative citations spell out 'and' in between surnames (for 2 authors) and before the last surname for 3 or more authors, e.g
Brown (2017) or Green and Preson (2006)

For works with 3 or more authors, use the first author surname plus et al. (not italicised) for all in-text citations. The exception to this is when doing so would lead to confusion with other citations (i.e citations with the same lead author surname and year), in which case, include all author names to make the citation clear.

Parenthetical citations 
(Green et al., 2006)

Narrative citations
Green et al. (2006)

Additional guidance on in-text citations can be found on the APA Blog

Reviews are referenced following the format for the source they are published in, with the addition of the original source information in square brackets after the review title (if there is one), e.g [Review of the book/film/TV series Book etc title, by Initial(s) Surname of author/editor/writer/director]

For reviews in books and journals provide the year of the review.

Surname, Initial(s) of reviewer, (YYYY). Title of review if there is one [Review of the book/film/TV series Book etc title, by Initial(s) Surname of author/editor/writer/director] Source information i.e Journal/Book title. DOI or URL if there is one

For reviews from websites or newspapers provide the year, month and date of the review.

Surname, Initial(s) of reviewer, (YYYY, Month Day). Title of review if there is one [Review of the book/film/TV series Book etc title, by Initial(s) Surname of author/editor/writer/director] Source information i.e Journal/Book title. DOI or URL if there is one

Book review published in a journal 

Fforde, A. (2016). [Review of the book Politics in contemporary Vietnam: party, state and authority relations, by J. London (Ed.).] Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 11(3-4), 365-372. doi: 10.1525/jvs.2016.11.3-4.365

Book review on the back or front pages of a book 

Cite as you would a chapter in a book, e.g.
Fforde, A. (2016). [Review of the book Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods, (6th ed.), by R. Yin.]  In R. Yin, Case study research: design and methods (6th ed., Back cover). Sage.

Film review published on a website

Fforde, A. (2016, March 5). [Review of the film Mary Poppins, by R. Stevenson,Dir.] Title of Website, URL
 

TV series review published on a website

Whole series

Fforde, A. (2016, March 5). [Review of the TV series Doctor Who, by R. Stevenson,Dir.] Title of Website, URL

Individual episode

Fforde, A. (2016, March 5). [Review of the TV series episode "Praxeus", by R. Stevenson,Dir.] Title of Website, URL

 

• In general when you are using an anonymous source, this will mean that they can't be retrieved as they can't be referred to directly therefore there is no need to add an entry into your reference list (giving an URL or other information would likely identify the source).
• Whether you use a pseudonym or in the case of multiple sources list them as 'School A' etc you do need to make it clear in the body of your text that these are anonymous sources and therefore would not have an entry in the reference list.
• If you need to anonymise comments from participants in a research survey then you can discuss comments and secure confidentiality by referring to participants by their role rather than their name their roles (e.g Teacher, student), or use your own code, or use pseudonyms
• You can include anonymised excerpts of a study or report in your appendix (as long as confidentiality is maintained), if so refer to the appendix in-text.

*Please note that you should not use Anon. or Anonymous in an in-text citation unless the author has specifically been stated as such in the source*

*For works where there is no author you need to start the reference with the title information instead*