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APA 7th Edition Guide: Reference Lists

Compiled by Dr. Alicia Palmer, Ed.D, M.A., M.Sc., B.Ed., Grad Cert Tech. from resources within the LibGuide Community and APA

What is a Reference List

reference list lists the sources you refer to in your writing(in text citations). The purpose of the reference list is to allow your sources to be be found by your reader. It also gives credit to authors you have consulted for their ideas. 

Reference List

Reference List

The guidelines below will help you properly format your reference list:

Begin the reference list on a new page after the text.

Place the section label "References" in bold at the top of the page, centered.

Order the reference list entries alphabetically by author.

Double-space the entire reference list (both within and between entries).

Apply a hanging indent of 0.5 in. to each reference list entry.


If you are unable to locate specific information for you citation, check out the missing reference webpage created by APA.

Websites with Detailed Help for Formatting References

To see samples of references use the drop down menu on the References Tab at the top of this guide. If what you're looking for is not provided in our samples try these two helpful sites. Of course, when in doubt refer to the manual, copies of which are available at the Circulation Desk at the UWI Mona Library. 

The Purdue Owl writing website offers basic rules for t your reference section.

The APA site offers examples of references. 

Creating References 7th ed. APA Video

Detailed tutorial offered by the APA describing the foundational concepts and specific examples.