1. Last name, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation/thesis (Publication No.

) [Doctoral
dissertation/Master's thesis, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree].

Reference List: Other Print Sources

Note: This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which
released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style can be found here.

Important Note: Because the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual heavily emphasizes
digital and electronic sources, it does not contain explicit instructions for certain less-common
print sources that earlier editions covered. For this reason, some of the examples below have
been adapted from the instructions for sources with similar attributes (e.g., the conference
proceedings example is derived from the instructions the 7th edition manual gives for citing
edited collections). Every example below that has been adapted in this way is accompanied
by a note explaining how it was adapted.

Cite your source automatically in APA

Using citation machines responsibly

Powered by

Please also note: While this resource contains many examples of citations for uncommon print
sources that we think are helpful, it may not account for every possibility. For even more
examples of how to cite uncommon print sources, please refer to the 7th edition of the APA
Publication Manual.

Entry in a Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia with a Group Author

The 7th edition of the APA manual does not provide specific guidance on how to cite physical
reference works such as dictionaries, thesauruses, or encyclopedias. Therefore, this citation,
as well as the one for an individual author of an entry in a reference work, is modeled on that of a
chapter in an edited book or anthology, both which are similar in format to reference works.

Institution or organization name. (Year). Title of entry. In Title of reference work (edition, page
numbers). Publisher name.

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. (1997). Goat. In Merriam Webster’s collegiate dictionary (10th

ed., pp. 499-500). Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

Entry in a Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia with an Individual Author

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of entry. In F. M. Lastname (ed.), Title of reference work (edition,
page numbers). Publisher.
Tatum, S. R. (2009). Spirituality and religion in hip hop literature and culture. In T. L. Stanley
(ed.), Encyclopedia of hip hop literature (pp. 250-252). Greenwood.

Work Discussed in a Secondary Source

Provide the source in which the original work was referenced:

Nail, T. (2017). What is an assemblage? SubStance, 46(1), 21-37.

[Link]

Note: Provide the secondary source in the references list; in the text, name the original work, and
give a citation for the secondary source. For example, if Deleuze and Guattari’s work is cited in
Nail and you did not read the original work, list the Nail reference in the References. In the text,
use the following citation:

Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the assemblage (as cited in Nail, 2017)….

Dissertation Abstract

The 7th edition of the APA manual does not provide specific guidance on how to cite
dissertation abstracts. Therefore, this citation models that of a journal article, which is similar
in format.

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation. Dissertation Abstracts International, Vol., Page.

Angeli, E. L. (2012). Networks of communication in emergency medical services. Dissertation

Abstracts International, 74, 03(E).

Dissertation or Master’s Thesis, Published

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation/thesis (Publication No.) [Doctoral

dissertation/Master’s thesis, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree]. Database or Archive
Name.

Angeli, E. L. (2012). Networks of communication in emergency medical services (Publication

No. 3544643) [Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Note: If the dissertation or thesis is not published in a database, include the URL of the site
where the document is located.

Dissertation or Master’s Thesis, Unpublished

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation/thesis [Unpublished doctoral dissertation/master’s

thesis]. Name of Institution Awarding the Degree.
Samson, J. M. (2016). Human trafficking and globalization [Unpublished doctoral dissertation].
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Federal or State Statute

Name of Act, Public Law No. (Year). URL

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Publ. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119
(2010). [Link]

Report by a Government Agency or Other Organization

Organization Name. (Year). Title of report. URL

United States Government Accountability Office. (2019). Performance and accountability

report: Fiscal year 2019. [Link]

Report by Individual Authors at Government Agency or Other Organization

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of report. Organization Name. URL

Palanker, D., Volk, J., Lucia, K., & Thomas, K. (2018). Mental health parity at risk:
Deregulating the individual market and the impact on mental health coverage. National Alliance
on Mental Illness. [Link]
Reports/Parity-at-Risk/[Link]

Conference Proceedings

The 7th edition of the APA manual does not provide guidance on citing conference
proceedings. Therefore, this citation models that of an edited collection, which is similar in
format.

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Eds.). (Year). Title of Proceedings. Publisher. URL (if
applicable)

Huang, S., Pierce, R., & Stamey, J. (Eds.). (2006). Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM
international conference on the design of communication. ACM Digital Library.
[Link]

Suggested Resources

Search the OWL

Style Guide Overview

MLA Guide

APA Guide

Chicago Guide

OWL Exercises

How do you cite a master's thesis in APA?

Author, A. A. (date). TItle of doctoral dissertation or master's thesis (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation or master's thesis). Name of Institution, Location. Give the correct full name of the
university, not its abbreviation or brand name.21 Jun 2022

How do you cite a master project?

After the publication number, add brackets with the type of project (Master's thesis, Master's
capstone project, doctoral dissertation, etc.) you are referencing. Use the language described by
the degree-granting institution to describe the project. Then, add a comma and the name of the
institution.12 Nov 2021

Citations for dissertations/master's theses should include the following:

1. Name of Author.
2. Title of dissertation/thesis (italicized)
3. Date of Publication.
4. Institution granting the degree (optional)
5. Description of the work (optional)
6. Database and URL if accessed through a database or repository

1. AUT Library
2. Library Guides
3. APA 7th Referencing Style Guide
4. Theses and dissertations

APA 7th Referencing Style Guide

 Referencing & APA style
 In-text citation
 Reference list
o Elements of a reference
o Format & examples of a reference list
 Articles
 Books
 Conferences
  Reports & grey literature
 Figures (graphs and images)
 Tables
 Theses and dissertations
o Terminology - Thesis, dissertation or exegesis?
o Published theses and dissertations
o Unpublished theses and dissertations
 Audiovisual media
o Audio works
o Films, TV & video
o Visual works
 Computer software, games & apps
 Data sets
 Lecture notes & Intranet resources
 Legal resources
 Personal communications
 PowerPoint slides
 Social media
 Specific health examples
 Standards & patents
 Websites & webpages
 Footnotes and appendices
 Frequently asked questions

Terminology - Thesis, dissertation or exegesis?

Thesis and dissertation can mean different things depending on where the degree is
awarded. Always check the title page, or subsequent pages, to determine exactly what the work
is and use the information for your reference.

Auckland University of Technology (and other NZ universities)

 Thesis is either for a doctoral or a master's degree.

 Dissertation is either for a master's or a bachelor's degree with honours.
 Exegesis is the written component of a practice-based thesis where the major output is a
creative work; e.g. a film, artwork, novel.

Other parts of the world

 In North America and some other countries, a dissertation is used for a doctoral degree
and a thesis for a master's degree.

Published theses and dissertations

Theses available in a database, a university archive or from a personal website.
Reference format

Author Date Title Source

Database Name.
URL
Author, A. Title [Doctoral or Masters thesis or dissertation, Name
(Year).
A. of the Institution].
Archive Name.
URL

Theses published online (e.g. in institutional repositories)

Miller, T. (2019). Enhancing readiness: An exploration of the New Zealand Qualified

Firefighter Programme [Master's thesis, Auckland University of Technology].
Tuwhera. [Link]
Kelly, C. B. D. (2018). The art of coffee roasting: Investigations into sensor development for the
application of controlling coffee roasting [Doctoral thesis, The University of Waikato]. The
University of Waikato Research Commons. [Link]

Theses from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global

Becker, J. C. (2013). Landscape-level influences on community composition and ecosystem

function in a large river ecosystem (Publication No. 3577776) [Doctoral dissertation, Graduate
Council of Texas State University - San Marcos]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

 Provide the name of the database for works of limited circulation

Find how to cite in text on the In-text citation page.

Unpublished theses and dissertations

Unpublished thesis or dissertations are usually sourced directly from the university in print
form.

Reference format

Author Date Title Source

Author, A. Title [Unpublished doctoral or Name of the Institution
(Year).
A. master's thesis or dissertation]. awarding the degree.

Example

Stewart, Y. (2000). Dressing the tarot [Unpublished master's thesis]. Auckland University of
Technology.
  Last Updated: Aug 25, 2022 10:36 AM
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1. USC Libraries
2. Research Guides
3. APA Style 7th Edition: Citing Your Sources
4. Thesis/Dissertation

Search this Guide

APA Style 7th Edition: Citing Your Sources

Provide guidance on APA format style based on the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

 Basics of APA Formatting

  In Text Citations
 References
o Books & eBooks
o Articles
o Thesis/Dissertation
 Standard Format
 Formatting Rules
 Various Examples
o Websites
o Audiovisual
o Conference Presentations
o Social Media
o Legal References
o Data Sets
o Reports and Gray Literature
 Paper Elements & Formatting
 Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
 Tutorials
 Additional Resources
 Reference Page

Standard Format

Unpublished Dissertations

Who When What

Title of dissertation/thesis: Use sentence case [Unpublished do
Author, A. A.
dissertation/master’s thesis].
(year).

Published Dissertations an

Who When What

Title of dissertation: Use sentence case [Doctoral dissertation,
Awarding the Degree].
Author, A. A.
(year).
Title of thesis. [Master’s thesis, Name of Institution Awarding

Adapted from American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (7th ed). [Link]
Formatting Rules
Formatting:

 Italicize the title

 Identify whether source is doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis in parentheses after the
title

Various Examples

Lope, M. D. (2014). Perceptions of global mindedness in the international

Thesis, from a commercial baccalaureate middle years programme: The relationship to student academic
database performance and teacher characteristics (Order No. 3682837) [Doctoral disertation
University of Maryland]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Andrea, H. (2014). Effective networked nonprofit organizations: Defining the behav
Dissertation, from an
and creating an instrument for measurement (Doctoral dissertation).
institutional database
[Link]
Unpublished master’s Curry, J. (2016). A guide to educating single mothers about early gang intervention
thesis and prevention (Unpublished master’s thesis). Pacific Oaks College.

See Ch. 10 pp. 313-352 of APA Manual for more examples and formatting rules

 Last Updated: Aug 24, 2022 10:50 AM

 URL: [Link]
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Academic Referencing
See also: Writing a Dissertation or Thesis
For information on how to reference this website for non-academic purposes, see the
SkillsYouNeed referencing guide.

Citing and referencing information can be daunting for students who do not understand the
principles.

There are numerous ways to reference. Different institutions, departments or lecturers may
require different styles so check with your teacher, lecturer or instructor if you are unsure.

Bad referencing is a common way for students to lose marks in assignments so it is worth taking
the time and effort to learn how to reference correctly.

Why Do We Cite and Reference?

When writing any academic essay, paper, report or assignment, you need to highlight your use of
other author's ideas and words so that you:

 Give the original author credit for their own ideas and work
 Validate your arguments
 Enable the reader to follow up on the original work if they wish to
 Enable the reader to see how dated the information might be
 Prove to your tutors/lecturers that you have read around the subject
 Avoid plagiarism

Referencing Styles

There are many different styles of referencing, including Harvard, APA (from the American
Psychological Association), Chicago and Vancouver. The Harvard referencing system is of the
most popular styles and the remainder of this article deals with this system. However, your
university may prefer the use of a different system so check with your lecturer or in your course
information as to which referencing style to use.

What is Plagiarism?
 Presenting another's ideas as if they are your own – either directly or indirectly
 Copying or pasting text and images without saying where they came from
 Not showing when a quote is a quote
 Summarising information without showing the original source
 Changing a few words in a section of text without acknowledging the original author

WARNING:
Plagiarism is a serious academic offence. You are likely to be awarded 0% for an assignment
which has evidence of plagiarism. If you continue to plagiarise then you may be excluded from
your course.

Most universities will want a signed declaration with submitted work to say that you have not
plagiarised.

Universities use anti-plagiarism software to quickly find plagiarised work. This software usually
draws on huge databases of web sources, books, journals and all previously submitted student
work to compare your work to so you will be found out.

Therefore, if you plagiarise, you are likely to be caught so don't take the risk and reference
properly.

Be Organised

When writing an essay, report, dissertation or other piece of academic work, the key to
referencing is organisation. As you go along, keep notes of the books and journal articles you
have read and the websites you have visited as part of your research process.

There are various tools to help here. Your university may be able to provide you with some
specialist software (Endnote – [Link]) or you can simply keep a list in a document or
try Zotero ([Link]) a free plugin for the Firefox browser.

What Needs to be Recorded?

Record as much information as possible in references to make finding the original work simple.

Author/s

Include the author/s name/s where possible. You should write the surname (last name) first
followed by any initials. If there are more than three authors then you can cite the first author
and use the abbreviation 'et al', meaning 'and all'.

Examples:

For one, two or three authors:

Jones A, Davies B, Jenkins C
For more than three authors
Jones A et al.

For some sources, especially websites, the name of the author may not be known. In such cases
either use the organisation name or the title of the document or webpage.

Example: SkillsYouNeed or What Are Interpersonal Skills.

Date of Publication

You should include the year of publication or a more specific date if appropriate, for journal or
newspaper articles/stories. For webpages look for the when the page was last updated. Include
dates in brackets (2020) after author information. If no date can be established, then put (no
date).

Title of Piece

Include the title of the piece; this could be the name of the book, the title of a journal article or
webpage. Titles are usually written in italics. For books you should also include the edition (if
not the first) to make finding information easier. Often when books are republished information
remains broadly the same but may be reordered, therefore page numbers may change between
editions.

Publisher Information

Usually only relevant for books, but for these you should include the publisher name and place
of publication.

Page Numbers

If you are referencing a particular part of a book, then you should include the page number/s you
have used in your work. Use p. 123 to indicate page 123 or pp. 123-125 to indicate multiple
pages.

URL and Date Accessed

For webpages you need to include the full URL of the page ([Link] etc.) and the date you
last accessed the page. The web is not static and webpages can be changed/updated/removed at
any time, so it is therefore important to record when you found the information you are
referencing.

Once you have recorded the information, you have everything you need in order to reference
correctly. Your work should be both referenced in the text and include a reference list or
bibliography at the end. The in text reference is an abbreviated version of the full reference in
your reference list.
Direct Quotes

If you are directly quoting in your text you should enclose the quote in quotation marks, and
include author information:

"Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place to another."
SkillsYouNeed (2019)

For longer direct quotations it may be neater to indent the quotation in its own paragraph.

Your reference list should then include the full version of the reference:

SkillsYouNeed (2020) What is Communication? [online] available at

[Link]/ips/[Link] (Accessed October 14 2020)

For a book you would use, in your text:

“Long before the twelfth century rhetoricians had collected quotations, particularly from
classical authors, into anthologies called florilegia…” (Clanchy, M.T, 1993)

The reference list would then include the full reference:

Clanchy, M.T. (1993) From Memory to Written Record England 1066 – 1307 Oxford,
Blackwell, p. 115

The same rules also apply when you are referencing indirectly and you have not included a direct
quote. If you have used the ideas of another source, reference both in your text at the relevant
point and in your reference list or bibliography at the end of your document.

Further Reading from Skills You Need

The Skills You Need Guide for Students

Develop the skills you need to make the most of your time as a student.

Our eBooks are ideal for students at all stages of education, school, college and university. They
are full of easy-to-follow practical information that will help you to learn more effectively and
get better grades.

Additional Information

When quoting you may sometimes want to leave out some words, in which case use … (three
dots).

"Communication is … transferring information from one place to another"

If you need to add words to a quote for clarity, then square brackets are used:

“Communication is simply the act [in communication skills] of transferring information from
one place to another.”

You can use [sic] to note an original error and/or foreign spelling, Skills You Need is a UK
site and therefore uses UK spellings:
 HARVARD REFERNCING

Author surname(s), initial(s). (Year) 'Article Title', Newspaper

Title (edition), day month, page number(s). Note: edition is used
only where applicable

Learn To Cite
Learn to cite your sources and format your paper in MLA, APA, Chicago, and other styles.

 Citing Basics
 MLA Style (8th/9th ed.)
 APA Style, 7th Edition
 Chicago Style
 Harvard Style
o Harvard Style
o What is Harvard Style?
o What You Need To Know
o Harvard Style Tutorial
 Other Styles
 Annotated Bibliographies
 How to Create an Attribution

Harvard Style

What is Harvard Style?

The Harvard referencing system is known as the Author-Date style. It emphasizes the name of
the creator of a piece of information and the date of publication, with the list of references in
alphabetical order at the end of your paper.

Unlike other citation styles, there is no single, definitive version of Harvard Style. Therefore, you
may see a variation in features such as punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, and the use of
italics.

Always check with your instructor and follow the rules he or she gives you.

 Harvard Style Guidelines

 Your class handout

 Harvard Referencing Quick Guide

From Staffordshire University

What You Need To Know

Harvard Style will affect your paper in two places:

 In-text citations in the body of your paper, and

 The reference list at the end of your paper

Rules:

 All in-text citations should be listed in the reference list at the end of your paper.
 Reference list entries need to contain all the information that someone reading your paper
would need in order to find your source.
 Reference lists in Harvard Style are arranged alphabetically by first author.
 Begin your Reference list on a new page after your text and number it consecutively.

Sample References List:

Click on the Links Below to See Additional Examples:

 Sample Paper

Paper provided by Kurt Olson

 Harvard Citation Examples

Document created by The University of Western Australia

Harvard Style Tutorial

Click on the image below to launch this tutorial that was created by the University of Leeds. The
section on Citing in Text is especially useful.