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APA Style

What are References?

The Reference list appears as its page at the end of a research paper. It lists all of the resources cited with in-text citations within the text of the paper. Its purpose is to provide the reader with enough information to retrieve the source material cited in the paper.

An APA reference is composed of four elements:

  • Author:  Who created the work?  It can be an individual or a group author.
  • Date:  When was the work published?
  • Title:  What is the name of the work?
  • Source:  What information is needed to retrieve the work?

Learn more about the elements of an APA reference in the following Academic Writer quick guide.

Reference Page Formatting

Listed below are formatting rules that you should keep in mind when creating your reference list:

  • The reference list begins on its page following the text of the paper
  • References are centered and bolded at the top of the page
  • Entries are listed in alphabetical order according to the first word in the reference
  • Double-space the entire list; do not add extra space between entries
  • Use a hanging indent for entries that require more than one line
  • List authors by last name first and middle initials; do not include titles or professional degrees
  • Titles should be capitalized using sentence cases. This means capitalizing only the first letter of the first word in the title and subtitle, except proper nouns/terms, as you would when writing a sentence.
    • Titles of works that stand alone (e.g., books, journals, reports, webpages) are written in italic sentence case. Example: Typographic design: Form and communication.
    • Titles of works that are part of a greater whole (e.g., journal articles, book chapters, dictionary entries) are written in sentence case without italics. Example: Baseline characteristics and outcomes of 1591 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 admitted to ICUs of the Lombardy region, Italy.

Spend some time in these Academic Writer quick guides on creating APA references and listing them alphabetically.

Hanging Indent

A hanging indent is an APA guideline for formatting your reference page. What does a hanging indent look like? The first line of your reference citation will line up with the left margin, and each line after will be indented one-half inch from the left margin. It is the opposite of a standard paragraph where you indent the first line.

To see how to create a hanging indent in Microsoft Word, visit the following FAQ: