How to cite – examples

If the source has two authors, name them both, eg, (Whitaker & Edwards, 2010) or (Shuttleworth & Johnson, 2010). If there are three or more authors, name the first and then write et al. - an abbreviation of the Latin et alia, meaning “and others”. Make sure et al. is italicised and that there is a full stop after al., eg, (Hegland et al., 2009)

If you are using two or more sources by the same author in the same year, give alphabetical annotations, e.g. (Marks et al., 2010a), in the order you cite them in your text. If citing two or more sources by the same author in a single citation, you can give the author’s name once with the dates of all the sources, but this is not essential e.g. (Marks et al., 2010a, 2010b).

If you are citing material that is in the process of being published, cite it as in press (eg, (Carere et al., in press)).

Generally you should avoid citing webpages, but you may need to cite a webpage that provides data, a key, or software you have used in your analyses. For example, in a study surveying for insects in native grasslands you may need to cite some online keys used in identification (AllanHerbarium, 2000; Ford et al., 2009), and freeware used for statistical analyses (Hammer et al., 2001). See the APA style guide for more examples of citing electronic sources.

If you include a sentence with information about something you or someone else witnessed, follow it with (pers. obs.), an abbreviation of “personal observation”. A sentence using information from a discussion or interview with an expert can be followed with (persons initial, last name, pers. comm.), an abbreviation of “personal communication”. Do not pers. comm. lecture material. You should search for, read, and cite the original source.

To use a figure (ie, a graph, diagram, drawing or photograph) or table from the literature, cite the source in the figure legend (Figure 3). See Figure 4 for when the photograph was not taken by the author of the book/paper. If you took the photo yourself, see Figure 5.