Author variations - APA 7th referencing - UniSkills

The author variations below apply to all reference types (books, journal articles, websites, etc.).

For reference list entries:

Author surnames (last names) are followed by a comma and space and then initials for their first and middle names, e.g. Jane Smith appears as Smith, J.
Put a full stop after each initial and a space between the initials, e.g. Lee, S. A.
Include a comma after each author and use an ampersand (&) before the last author, e.g. Khan, M. G., & Gibbons, J. P. (See 21 or more authors for a variation to this.)
List authors in the order they appear on the source you are referencing.

No author

If no personal author is given, check to see if an organisation has acted as the author. Where there are no authors and you are sure that your source is credible, follow the guidelines below:

Use the title of the work in place of the author in the in-text citation and in the reference list
If the title is too long, shorten it in the in-text citation
If the title is italicised in the reference also italicise it in the in-text citation
If the title is not italicised in the reference list entry, use double quotation marks around it in the in-text citation
Use headline style capitalisation (all major words start with a capital letter) for the title for in-text citations and in the text of your assignment
Arrange in the reference list alphabetically by the first word of the title (other than A, An, In or The)

In-text citation

(In the Former Capital, 2020). OR The article In the Former Capital (2020) suggests…

(“A Higher Education Return,” 2016). OR In the article “A Higher Education Return” (2016)…

Reference list

In the former capital of pro-slavery America, Confederate statues are coming down. (2020, July 2). SBS News. https://sbs.com.au/news/in-the-former-capital-of-pro-slavery-america-confederate-statues-are-coming-down

A higher education return. (2016, August 18). The Australian. https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/higher-education-return/docview/1811922139/se-2?accountid=10382

Organisation as author

Write the organisation name in full in-text and in the reference list
Where multiple departments are listed, use the organisation most responsible for the information as the author. In government documents particularly, the hierarchy is often displayed, for example: Government of Western Australia, Department of Health, Royal Perth Hospital. The smallest department is usually primarily responsible for the content (in this case Royal Perth Hospital)
Optional abbreviation: Organisation names can be abbreviated in-text if: the organisation is well-known by the abbreviation (e.g. WHO); it helps avoid long and cumbersome citations; or it will be cited at least three times in the paper. Organisation names should be written in full in the first in-text citation and may be abbreviated thereafter, as shown in the example below.

In-text citation

(World Health Organization, 2018). OR The World Health Organization (2018) reports…

Optional abbreviation - First in-text citation

(World Health Organization [WHO], 2018). OR The World Health Organization (WHO, 2018) reports…

Optional abbreviation - Subsequent in-text citations

(WHO, 2018). OR WHO (2018) highlights…

Reference list

World Health Organization. (2018). Global status report on road safety 2018. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241565684

One or two authors

List author(s) in every in-text citation
Spell ‘and’ if you include two authors as part of the sentence (outside of brackets) in your assignment

In-text citation

(Lane & Catling, 2016).

Lane and Catling (2016) found that…

Reference list

Burns, T. (2015). Philosophy and poetry: A new look at an old quarrel. The American Political Science Review, 109(2), 326-338. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055415000076

Lane, R., & Catling, S. (2016). Preservice primary teachers’ depth and accuracy of knowledge of tropical cyclones. Journal of Geography, 115(5), 198-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221341.2016.1153133

Three to 20 authors

For in-text citations, cite only the surname of the first author followed by et al. (meaning and others)
When multiple works with three or more authors shorten to the same in-text citation, to avoid ambiguity write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references and abbreviate the remaining names to et al. For example: (Smith, Jones, McDonald et al., 2019) (Smith, Jones, Black et al., 2019)
Include all authors in the reference list

In-text citation

(Habary et al., 2017).

Habary et al. (2017) suggested that…

Reference list

Habary, A., Johansen, J. L., Nay, T. J., Steffensen, J. F., & Rummer, J. L. (2017). Adapt, move or die - how will tropical coral reef fishes cope with ocean warming? Global Change Biology, 23(2), 566-577. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13488

21 or more authors

For in-text citations, cite only the surname of the first author followed by et al. (meaning and others)
When multiple works with three or more authors shorten to the same in-text citation, to avoid ambiguity write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references and abbreviate the remaining names to et al. For example: (Smith, Jones, McDonald et al., 2019) (Smith, Jones, Black et al., 2019)
In the reference list entry, list the first 19 authors followed by an ellipsis (…) then the final author’s name

In-text citation

(Naghavi et al., 2017).

Naghavi et al. (2017) suggested that…

Reference list

Naghavi, M., Abajobir, A. A., Abbafati, C., Abbas, K. M., Abd-Allah, F., Abera, S. F., Aboyans, V., Adetokunboh, O., Afshin, A., Agrawal, A., Ahmadi, A., Ahmed, M. B., Aichour, A. N., Aichour, M. T. E., Aichour, I., Aiyar, S., Alahdab, F., Al-Aly, Z., Alam, K., . . . Murray, C. J. L. (2017). Global, regional, and national age-sex specific mortality for 264 causes of death, 1980-2016: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. The Lancet, 390(10100), 1151-1210. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32152-9