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APA bibliographies

What is a bibliography?

A bibliography is a list at the end of your work that gives the details of all the sources you have used. This is to enable anyone who reads your work to be able to go to the original source for themselves if they want to.

How should I order my bibliography?

Your bibliography should be in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname. You do not need to break the list up into different types of sources, your bibliography should be one long list.

How should I format my bibliography?

The following information, when available, should be included in each reference in your bibliography:

  • Sources are always listed alphabetically by the author’s last name
  • Author’s first, and middle names if provided, should be written as an initial, followed by a full stop
  • Name any authors included on a work up to 20 authors
  • Use & (rather than ‘and’) for multiple named authors
  • Works by the same author should be listed by date in the bibliography
  • Any lines after the first line of each entry should be indented; this is called a hanging indent. Details of how to format a hanging indent are available on our FAQ page.

Examples

Books

Lastname, F. N. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (edition number if needed). Publisher Name. DOI (if available).

Reber, R. (2019). Psychology: The basics. Routledge.

Book with an editor or editors:

Lastname, F. N. (Ed). (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (edition number if needed). Publisher Name. DOI (if available).

Banyard, P., Dillon, G., Norman, C. & Winder, B. (Eds.). (2024) Essential Psychology (4th edition). Sage.

Journal articles:

Lastname, F. N., & Lastname, F. N. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Vol.(Issue), page numbers. DOI.

Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Development and validation of the active empathetic listening scale. Psychology & Marketing, 23(2), 161-180. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20105.

Website (with an author):

Lastname, F. N. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site Name. URL.

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist. Medium. https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01.

Website (with a corporate author):

Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site Name. URL.

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (2019, November 21). Justice served: Case closed for over 40 dogfighting victims. https://www.aspca.org/news/justice-served-case-closed-over-40- dogfighting-victims.

For other source types see examples page, or contact the library for help.

Where do I find all the details I need for my bibliography?

With printed sources, you may need to look in the following places for the information you need:

  • Front cover
  • Title page
  • The back of the title page
  • Contents or editorial page if a magazine
  • Back page

For online sources it should be a bit easier to find information – but you may need to scroll all the way to the bottom of a page to find full details such as date and author.

Author

Use surname (also known as family name or last name), followed by initials. Where no author / creator is named, use the corporate author, e.g. the organisation responsible for the resource being published, for example BPS, or BBC.

Year

For a book, look for the most recent copyright date, this can be found in the small print, usually a few pages in from the start or end of the book (called the copyright page). If it is a book from the library, look on the library catalogue for the book’s full details, including the date.

Webpages can be particularly difficult when trying to find a publication date. Try scrolling down to the bottom of the webpage to look for the copyright date for the whole site, and use this date instead.

If you still cannot find a date, you can use (n.d.), e.g. (MIND, n.d.), but use this option with caution – can you be sure that the information is up-to-date and reliable if no publication or copyright date is given?

If in doubt, ask your librarian!

Title

When referring to the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports, webpages, or other sources, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle, (the first word after a colon or a dash in the title) and proper nouns. For example:

Titles of books should be italicised, however, see examples for other sources.

  1. Gross, R. (2020). Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour.

Edition

You only need to include this information for books or ebooks which are a 2nd edition or onwards. This is usually clearly printed on the front cover or title page of the book.

Publisher

The name of the publisher can be found:

  1. Inside the front pages of a printed book (on the copyright page)
  2. On the back or spine of a printed book
  3. On the library catalogue entry for a book or ebook

What should my bibliography look like?

Here’s a sample bibliography – note that all references are listed alphabetically by surname in one long list.

Bibliography

Banyard, P., Dillon, G., Norman, C., & Winder, B. (2024). Essential psychology (4th edition). Sage.

Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e

Breakwell, G.M., Wright, D. B., & Barnett, J. (2020). Research methods in psychology (5th edition). Sage.

Flores. A., Strode, D., & Haider-Markel, D.P. (2025) Political psychology and the study of LGBTQI+ groups, politics, and policy: Existing research and future directions. Political Psychology. 1(46), 213-249. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12989

Gaines, S. (2020). Personality psychology: The basics. Routledge.

Mills, K. (Host). (2021, June). The history of LGBTQ psychology from Stonewall to now, with Peter Hegarty. [Audio podcast episode]. In Speaking of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/stonewall.

Thestrup, K. (2010). To transform, to communicate, to play—The experimenting community in action. In E. Hygum & P. M. Pedersen (Eds.), Early childhood education: Values and practices in Denmark. Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Washington Post [@washingtonpost]. (2019, December 3). News is all around us #frozen #newsroom #newspaper [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@washingtonpost/video/6765886712896818437

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What is a bibliography? How should I order my bibliography? How should I format my bibliography? Where do I find all the details I need for my bibliography? What should my bibliography look like?
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