Most UK students spend their degrees referencing in Harvard and never think about alternatives — until a module handbook lands with the words “APA 7th edition” in it. APA is the referencing system of the American Psychological Association, and although it is American in origin, it is firmly established in UK universities wherever the social sciences are taught. It is an author–date system like Harvard, so the logic will feel familiar, but the detail is stricter: APA has a rule for almost everything, and markers who set APA expect those rules to be followed precisely. This guide covers where you will meet APA in the UK, in-text citations for every common situation, reference list formats for journals, books, chapters, websites and reports, hanging indents, DOIs, and the mistakes that cost UK students the most marks. Where the system your course uses is Harvard instead, our Harvard referencing guide covers that in the same depth.
When do UK students actually use APA?
APA is the default style in psychology: the British Psychological Society aligns its expectations with APA, and most BPS-accredited psychology degrees require it throughout. You will also meet it in nursing and health degrees at a number of universities (others use Harvard — check), in education, social work and social sciences, criminology, and some business and marketing programmes, particularly where the reading is journal-heavy and American-influenced.
Two practical consequences follow. First, never assume: the style named in your module handbook is the one your marker will check against, and “my other module uses Harvard” is not a defence. Second, because APA is prescribed at programme level, psychology students in particular will use it for three years — it is worth learning properly once, which is what this guide is for.
The two-part system
Like Harvard, APA has two parts that must match exactly:
- In-text citations — a brief pointer (author surname and year, plus a page number for direct quotes) placed in your text.
- The reference list — full details of every source cited, at the end of your work, in alphabetical order by author surname.
Every in-text citation must appear in the reference list, and everything in the reference list must have been cited. APA calls it a reference list, not a bibliography — a bibliography can include background reading you did not cite; a reference list cannot.
In-text citations
APA offers two shapes of citation. A narrative citation makes the author part of your sentence: “Walker (2023) argues that…” A parenthetical citation puts everything in brackets at the end of the point: “…has been widely replicated (Walker, 2023).” Both are correct; good writing mixes them.
One author
- Narrative: Walker (2023) found that recall improved after spaced practice.
- Parenthetical: Spaced practice improves recall (Walker, 2023).
Two authors
The joining word changes with the shape of the citation — the detail UK students get wrong most:
- Narrative: Davies and Okoro (2022) surveyed 214 student nurses.
- Parenthetical: (Davies & Okoro, 2022) — an ampersand (&) inside brackets, “and” in running text.
Three or more authors
From the first citation onwards, give the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” — APA 7th dropped the old rule about listing everyone once:
- Narrative: Hussain et al. (2024) report…
- Parenthetical: (Hussain et al., 2024).
Note the punctuation: “et al.” takes a full stop after “al”, and the comma before the year sits outside it.
Direct quotes
Quotes need a page number (or paragraph number for unpaginated online sources). Use p. for one page and pp. for a range:
- “Memory is reconstructive, not reproductive” (Bartlett, 1932, p. 213).
- Narrative form: Bartlett (1932) famously described remembering as “an imaginative reconstruction” (p. 213).
Quotes of 40 words or more become block quotes: start on a new line, indent the whole block half an inch, use no quotation marks, and place the citation after the closing full stop.
Groups, organisations and other cases
- Organisation as author: first citation in full with the abbreviation — (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2023) — then (NICE, 2023) afterwards.
- No author: use the first few words of the title in quotation marks, with the year: (“Student Wellbeing Survey”, 2024).
- Same author, same year: distinguish with letters — (Sharma, 2023a, 2023b) — matched by the same letters in the reference list.
- Secondary citation (you read about a study in a textbook, not the original): name the original in the text and cite the source you actually read: “Piaget’s stages (as cited in Keenan et al., 2022)”. Only the source you read goes in the reference list. Use secondary citations sparingly — markers prefer to see you consult originals.
The reference list: core formats
Entries are alphabetical by first author surname, and the punctuation, capitalisation and italics below are all prescribed — APA is fussy, and the fussiness is the point.
Journal article (the most common entry you will write)
**Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal in Title Case and Italics, Volume(issue), page–page. https://doi.org/xxxx**
- Mercer, J., & Doyle, R. (2023). Simulation-based training and confidence in final-year nursing students. Nurse Education Today, 124, 105–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2023.105714
Things to notice: author initials, never full first names; only the first word of the article title and any proper nouns take capitals (sentence case), while the journal title keeps capitals on all main words (Title Case); the volume is italic, the issue is not; up to 20 authors are listed in full, with an ampersand before the last.
Book
**Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case and italics (Edition if not the first). Publisher.**
- Eysenck, M. W., & Keane, M. T. (2020). Cognitive psychology: A student’s handbook (8th ed.). Routledge.
Chapter in an edited book
**Chapter Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter in sentence case. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book in italics (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.**
- Osei, L. (2022). Attachment in adolescence. In R. Whitfield (Ed.), Developmental psychology across the lifespan (pp. 141–168). Macmillan.
Website / webpage
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page in sentence case. Site Name. URL
- Department of Health and Social Care. (2024, March 6). Adult social care workforce strategy. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/…
Omit the site name when it is the same as the author (as above, where GOV.UK is the site and the department the author — in practice the entry would end at the URL). Include a retrieval date only for pages designed to change over time, such as dashboards.
Report (NICE, NHS, government, charities)
**Organisation. (Year). Title of report in sentence case and italics (Report No. xxx if given). Publisher or site. URL**
- NHS England. (2023). NHS long term workforce plan. https://www.england.nhs.uk/…
Reports are cited like books with the organisation as author — the pattern covers most grey literature UK health and education students rely on.
Hanging indents, explained once
Every reference list entry uses a hanging indent: the first line sits flush left, and all following lines are indented by 0.5 inch (1.27 cm). It exists so the author’s surname — the thing readers scan for — stands out at the margin.
In Word: select your reference list, then Paragraph → Indentation → Special: Hanging → 0.5″ (or 1.27 cm). In Google Docs: Format → Align & indent → Indentation options → Special indent: Hanging. Never fake it with spaces or manual line breaks — the list will unravel the moment you edit anything. APA also specifies double line spacing and specific fonts for full manuscripts; for coursework, follow your university’s own presentation rules where they differ, since local rules always win.
DOIs: what they are and how to present them
A DOI (digital object identifier) is a permanent ID for a journal article. APA 7th requires it, where one exists, presented as a live link at the end of the entry: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2023.105714. Rules that trip students up:
- Use the https://doi.org/ form, not the old “doi:10.…” form.
- Do not add a full stop after the DOI or URL — it breaks the link.
- Do not break a DOI across lines with hyphens you have added.
- If an article has no DOI (older print sources), give the journal home-page URL only if you read it online as part of an academic database exception — in practice, most coursework entries simply end after the page range.
You can find a DOI on the article’s first page, its database record, or via doi.org’s search.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Why it is wrong | Do this instead | |—|—|—| | “(Davies and Okoro, 2022)” in brackets | Inside parentheses APA uses “&” | (Davies & Okoro, 2022) | | Listing all six authors in text | 3+ authors shorten from the first citation | Hussain et al. (2024) | | Quote with no page number | Direct quotes always need a pinpoint | (Bartlett, 1932, p. 213) | | Journal title in sentence case | Journal titles stay in Title Case; article titles go sentence case | Nurse Education Today | | “doi:10.xxxx” format | APA 7th uses the hyperlink form | https://doi.org/10.xxxx | | Full stop after a DOI or URL | It corrupts the link | End the entry at the link | | First names in the reference list | APA uses initials only | Mercer, J., not Mercer, Jane | | Indenting the first line of each entry | Entries use a hanging indent | First line flush, rest indented 0.5″ | | Sources in the list you never cited | A reference list contains cited works only | Remove them, or cite them in the text |
APA vs Harvard: the quick comparison
| Feature | APA 7th | Harvard (typical UK version) | |—|—|—| | Used mainly in | Psychology, nursing, education, social sciences | Most other UK subjects | | Two authors in brackets | (Davies & Okoro, 2022) | (Davies and Okoro, 2022) | | Three or more authors | et al. from the first citation | et al. (usually from first citation too, but varies) | | Article title capitalisation | Sentence case | Sentence case (usually) | | Book title capitalisation | Sentence case | Sentence case | | Journal title | Title Case, italic | Title Case, italic | | DOI | Required as https://doi.org/ link | Often required, presentation varies | | Reference list order | Alphabetical, hanging indent | Alphabetical, hanging indent varies by institution | | Governing body | One manual (APA, 7th ed.) — one rule set worldwide | No single authority — every university has its own variant |
The last row is the deepest difference. Harvard is a family of local dialects; APA is one published standard. That makes APA harder to bluff but easier to check: the Publication Manual (7th ed.) and the free APA Style website settle every argument.
Getting help with APA-referenced work
If your course runs on APA, every essay, report and dissertation chapter has to be referenced in it — including the work our team produces as study support for psychology, nursing and education students. Model answers written to APA 7th as standard, from £20 per 1,000 words, are part of our psychology assignment help and nursing services — message us on WhatsApp or email team@unitedacademichelp.uk for a free quote. To see finished, referenced work before you decide, look at our samples.
Frequently asked questions
Is APA the same everywhere, or does my university adapt it?
The style itself is fixed by the APA Publication Manual (7th edition, 2020). Universities occasionally add presentation requirements (a particular font, line spacing, or a cover sheet), but the citation and reference rules you must follow are the standard ones in this guide.
What if a source has no date or no author?
Use (n.d.) for “no date” in place of the year, and for a source with no named author, begin the citation and the reference entry with the title, moved into the author position.
Do I need a DOI for every journal article?
Where one exists, yes — most journal articles published since around 2000 have one. If there is genuinely no DOI, the entry ends after the page range for print, or with the journal’s home-page URL in the situations APA specifies.
Get the details right once
APA rewards the student who learns it early: the rules are numerous but completely consistent, and a reference list built correctly signals care before a single argument is read. Apply the formats above, check your list against your citations one final time, and the referencing marks are yours. If the assignment underneath needs support, send us the brief on WhatsApp — referencing, APA or Harvard, is always included as standard.
Try it now: build your references with our free APA referencing generator — reference list entry and in-text citation, made together.