SCHOOL OF SPORT, HEALTH,

and APPLIED SCIENCE

APA Style

School of Sport, Health, and Applied Science

St Marys University
Waldegrave Road, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham TW1 4SX
C/SHE/Q/APA
1
Switchboard 020 8240 4000 Fax 020 8240 4255
www.smuc.ac.uk

APA Referencing Style

The School of Sport, Health, and Applied Science has adopted the
referencing guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA) for
the submission of all undergraduate and postgraduate work.
Details as to the referencing style can be found in:
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6 th
Edition)
ISBN-10: 1433805618
Further information can be found at:
http://www.apastyle.org/
The website contains a number of different resources for learning APA style
including a free PowerPoint tutorial.

The following referencing guide contains a summary as to the key aspects of

APA style. This guide only covers the most common referencing
scenarios and academic sources that are commonly referenced. The
APA manual contains a much more complete description as to the style,
including the rules for citing a large number of different sources and for less
common citations. Where any disagreement exists between this guide and
the APA manual, the APA manual should be considered to represent the
definitive guidelines.

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A) Reference citations in TEXT

The style used is the author-date method of citation i.e. only surname of the
author and the year of publication are inserted into the text as appropriate.
Find a variety of ways of incorporating the authors into the text rather than
always putting them in brackets at the end of sentences. Examples of different
procedures can be found below.

1. One work by a Single Author

Where a work has only one author, the in-text citation should be in one of the
following formats:
1a)

In a recent study of reaction times Smith (1997) discovered that...

Or alternatively you may write

1b)

Smith (1997) compared the reaction times and found that

Where the author and year themselves form part of the discussion in the text
the following would apply:
1c)

In 1997, Smith carried out a study on reaction times and concluded....

2. One work by Multiple Authors

Where a work has two authors, both names should be cited every time the
reference occurs in the text:
2a)

Holder and Martin (1974) discovered that hamstring length was found
to influence flexibility.

Or alternatively you may write:

2b)

Hamstring length was found to influence flexibility (Holder & Martin,

1974).

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Where a work has three, four or five authors cite all the authors the first time
the reference occurs:
2c)

Turner, Fraser and Lee (1998) found this to be the case in an elderly
population.

Or
2c)

This was found this to be the case in an elderly population (Turner,

Fraser, & Lee, 1998).

In later citations, list only the first authors surname, then add et al. to
represent the other authors.
2e)

Turner et al. (1998) found this to be the case in an elderly population.

(N.B. with a full stop after al even though it is in the middle of a
sentence)

Remember you could also write:

2f)

this was found to be the case in an elderly population (Turner et al.,

1998)
(N.B. now you must include a comma before the year as before)

Where a work has six or more authors cite only the first authors surname
and et al. both the first time the citation occurs and for all subsequent
citations.

3. Multiple Citations
At times there may be several sources of information that support a statement
you want to make. In this instance it is appropriate to reference all the
information you have gathered.
Multiple citations are listed in the order that they appear in the reference
list, that is alphabetically:

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3a)

Research has shown that psychological interventions may enhance

performance (Brown & Green, 1996; Jones et al., 1998; Smith, 1995).
(N.B. note the use of semi-colons between different citations rather
than commas)

Works by the same authors (in the same order) should be arranged in
ascending chronological order by the year of publication:
3b)

therefore, coaches must implement biomechanical testing in order for

performance to improve (Abraham, 2001; Lockey, 2001; Smith, 1995,
2001)

Note multiple works by the same author with the same year of publication
require the use of subscripts. For more detail, consult the APA Publication
Manual.

4. Specific parts of a source

Direct Quotations
Do not use direct quotes unless absolutely essential. Where they are used,
page numbers should be given.
... the beginning of the end for the ankle joint (Jarvis, 1994, p. 133)

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B: The Reference List

At the end of any piece of academic work there should be a list of references.
This provides the information necessary to identify and retrieve each source.
The list should contain only the sources that have been cited in the text
and vice versa - all the sources cited in the text should appear in the
reference list. This differs from a bibliography in that a bibliography may
include sources for further reading that have not actually been referred to in
the text. Do not give a bibliography even if you are asked to do so by your
other department or this is what you did at school.
References should be listed in alphabetical order by authors surname and
not numbered or given any other kind of key. Please follow the guidelines
below accurately, including commas, full stops, colons, underlining etc.
1. Book

Give author surname, initials, date (in brackets), title (in italics), where
published: publisher in that order.
Lockey, R. A., & Goodwin, J. E. (1995). Science and practice of strength
training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Note that the second and subsequent lines of the reference are indented.
This hanging indent is created using the ruler at the top of the page in
Microsoft Word.

2. Chapter in Book

The authors surname comes first but for the editor, initials come before
surname.
Stephenson, D. G., Lamb, G. D., Stephenson, G. M. M., & Fryer, M. W.
(1996). Mechanisms of excitation/contraction coupling relevant to
skeletal muscle fatigue. In S. C. Gandavia & R. M. Enoka (Eds.),

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Fatigue: Neural and muscular mechanisms (pp. 45-56). New York:

Plenum Press.

3. Journal Article (Papers or Abstracts)

Note the journal title and volume are in italics.
3a)
Hickson, C. J., & Staerck, A. D. (1997). The biomechanics of the hammer
throw. Journal of Exercise Science, 28, 376-384.
3b)
Cumine, A. J., Edwards, D. E., Dancy, P., & Foote, A. (1998). Self- and
spouse ratings of anger and hostility as predictors of coronary heart
disease. Health Psychology, 12, 201-207.

4. Electronic Media

Use these as a last resort try to use sources that are reliable, i.e. books and
journals.
Use the WEB critically, remember anyone can write anything on the web and it
does not have to be peer reviewed. This means information found here does
not have the same credibility as information in journal articles and books.
The reference style used will depend upon the source refer to the APA guide
for more detail.
E.g. Online newspaper article:
Bohling, C. (2002, December 10). Imagine your way to success. The St.
Marys Informer. Retrieved from http://www.stmarysinformer.co.uk

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A few key points on APA Style

In-text references:

1.
2.

APA Style
Dont italicize et al.
Use ampersand in parenthetical citations (Goodwin, Legg, &
Lockey, 1998)
(Also note additional comma)

3.

For 3, 4 or 5 authors list all authors the first time cited, then use
first author and et al. For 6 or more authors just use first author
and et al.

4.

Multiple in-text citations in reference list order (i.e. alphabetical)

Reference list

1.

APA Style
Space between author initials A. C.

2.

Use ampersand in author list Goodwin, J. E., & Lockey, R. A.

(Also note additional comma)

3.

Hanging indent.

4.

Journal volume in italics (not bold).

5.

Internet sources included in reference list.

(Also note form of reference varies depending on the particular
source)

6.

Title of a book is not capitalized.

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