There are many different types of references (e.g. books, journal articles, websites). Click on the type you require below to see the components of the reference with an example.
| Book | E-book | Book Chapter |
An e-book retrieved from an academic database that does not have a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is referenced as though it were the print version, as above. (A DOI is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies content and provides a persistent link to its location on the internet. DOIs can be found in database records and the reference lists of published works).
Books with a URL or a DOI can be referenced like this:
Author(s) (Surname, Initials)
(Year of publication)
Title of article
Title of journal (in italics, first letter of each word should be capitalised, except for words such as and, of, the)
Issue information (volume, issue, pages) (volume in italics)
Journal articles retrieved from databases without a DOI can be referenced like a print journal, as above.
List the first nineteen authors followed by three spaced ellipsis points (...) and then the last author's name.
“Pre-print”, “In press” and “advanced online publication” usually refer to articles that have been accepted for publication, but may not yet have been assigned to a publication volume/issue. These articles can be cited using the year of online publication and the DOI.
arXiv is a collection facility for scientific 'e-prints'. Some of them have been published and some have not. APA recommends updating your references when you're close to finishing your assignment. If you've cited a preprint that has since been published, cite the published journal article.
In the example below, you will see that the title is in italics. This is because it hasn't yet been accepted in a journal and is, therefore, considered a stand-alone work.
If the journal article has an article number instead of a page range, include the word “Article” and then the article number instead of the page range.
| Webpage | Blog | LinkedIn Profile | TikTok | Wikis |
If no date can be established, use n.d. to indicate no date in the citation and the reference.
Tips:
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Author and/or [screen name]
(Year posted, month day)
Content of the post (up to the first 20 words, in italics)
[Photograph/Video/Story]. (description of post)
Instagram.
URL
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world. It is not a scholarly source, so your lecturer may not be happy for you to use it as a source in your assignments. Scholarly assignments should generally rely on peer-reviewed and other scholarly work vetted by experts in the field. However, it may be a good starting point for you in your research to find citations to original source materials that you do want to use.
Wikipedia is a constantly changing site, so cite an archived version of the page, if you can (select 'view history' and then the date of the version you used). If it doesn't have a permanent link to an archived version of the page, include a URL for the entry and the retrieval date.
| Newspaper article (print) | Newspaper article (online) |
| Dataset | Government Publication | Company Report |
| Conference Paper (in edited book) | Conference Paper (Journal) | Conference Paper or Poster Presentation |
[Paper presentation or Poster presentation or Conference presentation]
DOI or URL
| Images, illustrations, photos (print) | Image, illustration, photo or table (online) | Photographs (online collection) | Painting | Map |
If you are citing an illustration, figure, diagram or table, start with the source in which it appeared. For example, if you are referencing an image printed in a book, you first mention the image in-text, indicating the name and creator of the image, and the book in which it can be found, along with the page details. The reference list entry will be for the whole article or book.
In-text citation:
Reference List:
In the reference list, you list the book in which the image is found:
When you include an image or photo in your text, as well as citing the source, you will also need to include a caption and list it in a Table of Figures (click here for more information). Images you created yourself don't have to be cited, but should still be included in the list of figures.
Image, illustration, photo or table (online)
Hosting service (e.g. Instagram, Flickr)
If you viewed an image in person rather than online (e.g. in a museum or gallery), the source information is different. You will need to include the name and location of the institution where you viewed the image.
Location
If you haven't seen the artwork in person and saw it online, add the website URL at the end of your reference.
It can often be hard to find accurate information about images accessed online. However, if you do need to cite an image with no author, date or title listed, there are ways around this. For untitled images, include a description of the image, in square brackets, where the title would usually go. If there is no publication date, add “n.d.” in place of the date, and add the date that you accessed the image.
| Exhibitions | Exhibition Catalogue |
When the curator is unknown, move the title of the exhibition to the author position of the reference.
| Film | Film (from streaming service) | Online Video | TV Programme | Episode of a TV Series | Radio Programme (Online) | Podcast |
Only specify how you watched a film (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HULU, etc.) when it is important to indicate a specific version. Put this information in square brackets following the word, "Film" and a semicolon.
Hosting Website
Executive Producer(s) (Executive Producer(s)).
(Years - it aired, use present if still airing).
Title (in italics) [TV series].
Production Company;
Broadcaster name
(Series number, episode number) (in round brackets)
Name of announcer
(Year, Month Day of broadcast).
Title of programme (in italics)
[Description i.e. Radio broadcast].
Name of site that published the broadcast
URL of broadcast
Name of host (Host)
(Dates) Provide the span of years during which the podcast aired here; if ongoing give the year of first broadcast and word “- present”.
Title of podcast (in italics)
[Audio or Video Podcast]
Publisher/production company
URL
For specific ‘Podcast episodes’, provide the precise date on which the podcast episode first aired. Supply the episode number after the episode title, if available, in brackets. Indicate the type of podcast episode in square brackets, e.g. [Audio podcast episode] or [Video podcast episode]. Write the word “In” and then the title of the podcast in italics. Give the Publisher or Production company and the URL.
| Lecture Notes | Lecture Notes or Powerpoint slides (Online) | Recorded lectures/Talks | Open educational resource |
Notes you took during a lecture or class handouts that are not posted online are not retrievable by someone else, so do not belong in your reference list. Instead, you treat them like personal communication and just refer to them in your text.
Title of item [Class handout or PowerPoint slides]. (in italics).
Platform or Institution (e.g. ATU).
URL
Name of Speaker
(Date) (in round brackets) (Provide as specific a date as possible; in the example, only the year and month are available.)
Title of video (in italics)
[Video]
TED Conferences
URL
When the TED Talk is on YouTube, list the owner of the YouTube account (here, TED) as the author to aid in retrieval. Credit YouTube as the publisher of the TED Talk and then provide the URL. When the speaker is not listed as the author, integrate their name into the narrative if desired:
Author (Surname, Initial(s))
(Year of publication)
Title of course (in italics)
[MOOC]
Site that holds the course
URL
A lecture from an online course cites the instructor for the particular lecture in the author part of the reference and the names of all the lecturers in the source element. The URL given should be to the main page of the course.
| Music on CD or Vinyl | Music Streaming |
Generative AI tools are pieces of software that generate information automatically based on questions or suggestions entered by the user. They include ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot, among others. Tools can produce text, code, graphics, and other forms of information. Generative AI systems that deal with text are also known as Large Language Models, or LLMs, and they continually create a 'knowledge base' of information by using prior inquiries or prompts as a data source. Generative AI technologies can be interesting to use since they can quickly give or create content, but they have limitations when used in academic work because the outputs may not be completely accurate. Generative AI sometimes produces erroneous or non-existent citations and references. To guarantee that the references and citations supplied by AI tools are legitimate, the user must verify each of these references.
Using generative AI tools to create something and then passing it off as your own violates academic integrity and is regarded as an unfair method of research. Your work should be created from your own research and learning. However, if you do decide to go ahead and use GenAI tools to help you in your writing and research, you really need to indicate that you have done so and what methods you used.
According to the APA style blog (2024), because quoting text from a chat session in a generative AI site is more similar to presenting the results of an algorithm, give due credit to the algorithm's creator by including a reference list entry and the relevant in-text citation. If you have a shareable URL, please mention it in the reference list. In the absence of a shareable URL, add the chat session with the AI tool as an appendix and refer readers to it when mentioning the AI-generated content.
Shareable URLs are created by some AI technologies, such ChatGPT and Gemini, so that other readers may view the content of their chat sessions. It is important to remember that these URLs are not the URL from the browser window used to generate the response but a 'sharable URL' from the platform. If you are unsure how to get a sharable URL for the platform you are using, search the web for 'How to get a sharable link for a response from X platform'. Additionally, browser plugins that create shareable URLs for chat sessions include ShareGPT and A.I. Archives.
In-Text Citation example using the structure: (Name of AI Creator, Year response was generated):
A summary response on the impact of Irish nationalism on W.B. Yeats’ writing from a GenAI tool (Google, 2025) suggested some interesting avenues for discussion…
Full Reference example using the structure:
Google. (2025). Gemini (Version 1.5 Flash) [Large language model]. https://g.co/gemini/share/67958fbafbf4
If the final output of the AI is only available to you (using ChatGPT in a chat, for instance), then cite this as a software program’s (or algorithm’s) output. Check with your lecturer if you must attach a copy of this as an appendix to your work.
In-Text Citation example using the structure: (Name of AI Creator, Year response was generated):
When asked by the author, ChatGPT responded to the prompt “What is the nature-nurture debate?” as a “longstanding discussion in psychology, biology, and philosophy about the relative influence of genetics (nature) and environmental factors (nurture) on human development and behavior” (OpenAI, 2025; see Appendix 1 for the full transcript).
Full Reference example using the structure:
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (July 18 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
AI-generated Digital Images
The APA Style team has not yet published any official guidance on citing AI-generated images.
The general format for citing an image in APA is:
Following this and recommendations for referencing large language models (as above), here is an example of how you might include and cite an AI-generated image in your assignment:
In-text citation:
(Canva, 2025)
Figure 1
Example of an AI-generated image
Note. Image generated using the prompt "Library on the moon," by Canva, AI Image Generator, 2025 (https://www.canva.com/ai-image-generator/).
Full reference example:
Example with Unshareable URL:
Canva & Magic Media. (2025). Canva AI Image Generator (Magic Media) [AI image generator]. https://www.canva.com/ai-image-generator/
Example with Shareable URL:
OpenAI & DALL-E. (2025). Image Creator (DALL-E 2) [AI image generator]. https://chatgpt.com/share/67b6f6eb-8998-800c-bad1-c99bcee8de59
References
McAdoo, T. (2024, February 23). How to cite ChatGPT. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt