APA Referencing Examples
This guide provides the formatting advice and examples to copy for most of the main resources you'll be referencing (reference list entries and in-text examples are given).
APA Reference Formatting
This guide provides additional information on how to format your reference list and the various ways you can incorporate in-text citations into your work. It also provides extra information on the various elements of a reference, and answers some questions about some tricky referencing issues you may come across, such as how to reference images and tables within your work.
Chapters in edited books
Many nursing books are made up of chapters written by a range of individual authors and then edited by a person or persons who put it together as a book. For these you need to reference the author of the chapter as the author, but give credit to the editors in your reference list.
Format
Author's Surname(s) of chapter, Initials. (Date). Title of chapter in sentence case. In Editor's initials. Editor's Surname (Ed(s).), Title of book in italic sentence case (edition information if 2nd edition or higher., pp. page range of chapter). Name of Publisher(s).
Kozier & Erb's Fundamentals of Nursing
Reference List
Hales, M. (2021). Community health. In A. Berman, G. Frandsen, S. Snyder, T. Levett-Jones, A. Burston, T. Dwyer, M. Hales, N. Harvey, T. Langtree, L. Moxham, K. Reid-Searl, F. Rolf, & D. Stanley (Eds.), Kozier and Erb's fundamentals of nursing: Concepts, process and practice (5th Australian ed., Vol. 1, pp. 131–142). Pearson.
In-Text
... (Hales, 2021).
OR
Hales (2021) ...
Lewis's Medical-Surgical Nursing
Reference List
Goldberg, J. I., & Rosa, W. E. (2023). Pain management (M. Freeling & S. Grant, Adapters). In D. Brown, T. Buckley, R. Aitken, H. Edwards, M. M. Harding, J. Kwong, D. Hagler, & C. Reinisch (Eds.), Lewis's medical-surgical nursing: Assessment and management of clinical problems (6th Australia and New Zealand ed., pp. 92- 26). Elsevier.
In-Text
... (Goldberg & Rosa, 2023).
OR
Goldberg and Rosa (2023) ...
Wepa's Cultural Safety
Reference List
Ramsden, I. (2015). Towards cultural safety. In D. Wepa (Ed.), Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand (2nd ed., pp. 5-25). Cambridge University Press.
In-Text
... (Ramsden, 2015).
OR
Ramsden (2015) ...
Potter and Perry's Fundamentals of Nursing
Reference List
Papps, E. (2021). Acting in accordance with New Zealand regulatory frameworks. In J. Crisp, C. Douglas, G. Rebeiro, & D. Waters (Eds.), Potter & Perry’s fundamentals of nursing (6th ANZ ed., pp. 259-274). Elsevier.
In-Text
... (Papps, 2021).
OR
Papps (2021) ...
Proprietary databases
If you use a journal article from one of our research databases, you don't need to say which database it came from, you just reference it as you would a print journal, this is because the article is likely to be found in multiple places.
However, there are a few specialised nursing databases (mainly the point-of-care ones) in which the information can only be found within that database. We call these proprietary databases, and we need to reference them a little differently.
The main things to note are:
- For many of these databases, the name of the database is included in italic title case.
- If your reader is from the University of Waikato (e.g. your marker) then you can put the direct link to the document, but if the readers may not have access, then you just put the URL to the homepage of the database.
- Some of them have retrieval dates, this is because the information is often being updated and changed in those databases.
The main ones you'll be using are listed below with some examples for you to follow (remember to use the guide to help you format your entries depending on the number of authors).
(For additional information see the APA Style Guide)
Cochrane Library
Reference List
Lane, D. A., & Lip, G. Y. H. (2013). Treatment of hypertension in peripheral arterial disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003075.pub3
In-Text
... (Lane & Lip, 2013).
OR
Lane and Dip (2022) ...
DynaMed & UpToDate
Reference List
DynaMed (Condition)
DynaMed. (2022, November 7). Celiac disease. EBSCO Information Services. Retrieved March 20, 2024.www.dynamed.com/condition/celiac-disease
DynaMed (Drug)
Merative Micromedex®, DRUGDEX®, & DynaMed. (n.d.). Acetazolamide. EBSCO Information Services. Retrieved March 20, 2024. www.dynamed.com/drug-monograph/acetazolamide
UpToDate
Bordeaux, B., & Lieberman, H. R. (2020). Benefits and risks of caffeine and caffeinated beverages. UpToDate. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/benefits-and-risks-of-caffeine-and-caffeinated-beverages
In-Text
DynaMed (Condition)
... (DynaMed, 2022).
OR
DynaMed (2022) ...
DynaMed (Drug)
... (Merative Micromedex® et al., n.d.).
OR
Merative Micromedex® et al. (n.d.) ...
UpToDate
... (Bordeaux & Lieberman, 2020).
OR
Bordeaux and Lieberman (2020) ...
Lippincott Procedures & Advisor
Reference List
Lippincott Procedures
Nasogastric tube insertion, pediatric. (n.d.). Lippincott Procedures: New Zealand Instance.https://procedures.lww.com/
Lippincott Advisor
Alzheimer disease, ANZ. (2022, March 04). Lippincott Advisor: New Zealand Instance.https://procedures.lww.com/
In-Text
Lippincott Procedures
... ("Nasogastric tube insertion, pediatric", n.d.).
OR
"Nasogastric tube insertion, pediatric" (n.d.) ...
Lippincott Advisor
... ("Alzheimer disease, ANZ", 2022)
OR
"Alzheimer disease, ANZ" (2022) ...
Note: some entries in the Lippincott databases will have dates, some won't, some might have reviewed dates rather than dates where information has been introduced or updated, in this case, stick to n.d. as you would a website that has been reviewed rather than updated.
Nursing Reference Centre Plus
Reference List
Engelke, Z. K., Hanson, L., Brown, J., & Hanson, D. (2023, June 8). Educating about smoking cessation [Skill Set]. Nursing Reference Center Plus.
In-Text
... (Engelke et al., 2023).
OR
Engelke et al., (2023) ...
Websites & other online resources included official documents
The examples below are of sites and resources that can either be difficult to reference and/or are commonly used, so they provide you with a template to follow.
Best Practice Journal
These journal articles typically don't have authors, so we put the title in the author position.
When there is no author, you need to put the title in-text, but you can shorten it, as this is an unitalicised title, we put in quotation marks, and we use title case in-text (but sentence case in the reference list).
Format
Title in sentence case. (Date). Name of Journal in Italic Title Case, vol(issue), page range. URL.
Reference List
New diabetes medicines funded: Empagliflozin and dulaglutide. (2021, March). Best Practice Journal, (2), 5-13. https://bpac.org.nz/bpj-e/docs/bpj-eissue-2-mar-2021.pdf
In-Text
... ("New Diabetes Medicines Funded", 2021).
OR
"New Diabetes Medicines Funded" (2021) ...
MedSafe (Drug Data Sheets)
For these, we put the name of the pharmaceutical company that sponsors the product as the author, you can find this at the bottom of the document under "Sponsor".
Format
Pharmaceutical Company/Sponsor as Author. (Date).Title of product name in italic sentence case[Format descriptor in unitalicised sentence case]. MedSafe. URL.
Reference List
Janssen-Cilag. (2023, March 23).Topamax®:;Tablets and sprinkle capsules: Topiramate[Data Sheet]. MedSafe.https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/t/topamaxtabcap.pdf
In-Text
... (Janssen-Cilag, 2023).
OR
Janssen-Cilag (2023)...
NZ Formulary
Format
Name of Website in Title Case (Version number). (Date). Title of section name in italic sentence case. URL
Reference List
New Zealand Formulary (Version 142). (2024, April 01). Paracetamol. https://nzf.org.nz/nzf_2439
In-Text
... (New Zealand Formulary, 2024).
OR
New Zealand Formulary (2024) ...
StatPearls
See the APA Style page on StatPearls for more information.
Format
Author/s Surname/s, Initial/s. (Date).Title of chapter in sentence case: Subtitle in sentence case. Name of site/database. Retrieval date, from.URL
Reference List
Kunarathnam, V., Vadakekut, E. S., & Mahdy, H. (2025). Gestational diabetes. StatPearls [Internet]. Retrieved October 16, 2025, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545196/
In-Text
... (Kunarathnam et al., 2023).
OR
Kunarathnam et al. (2023) ...
Te Whatu Ora documents
How you reference these can change depending on the type of document.
If it is something that your reader won't be able to access as it is on the intranet, or a patient's records, for example, then you can just treat it as "personal communication".
Some guidelines and the like that are handouts or brochure type resources, we can follow the brochure format.
NOTE: When citing items from Te Whatu Ora when referring to an actual patient, make sure your patient's anonymity is intact; for example, if you say that they were at the Waikato Hospital and you describe their condition, their family etc., even if you've used a pseudonym they may still be identifiable.
Statutes / Acts
Just write these as they are, the date is included in the title, so you don't need to add it in brackets.
Format
Name of Act including the date. URL
Reference List
Children's Commissioner Act 2003.http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003/0121/latest/DLM230429.html
In-Text
... (Children's Commissioner Act 2003).
OR
...Children's Commissioner Act 2003 ...
Te Tiriti o Waitangi
If you are referencing te reo Māori treaty, then reference it as Te Tiriti o Waitangi and if you are referencing the English one then reference it as such. Use the URL to the source you used.
Reference List
Te Tiriti o Waitangi,1840,https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/te-reo-maori-version/
Treaty of Waitangi,1840,https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/english-version/
In-Text
... (Te Tiriti o Waitangi, 1840). /Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840) ...
OR
(Treaty of Waitangi, 1840). / Treaty of Waitangi (1840) ...
Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer Rights
Reference List
Health and Disability commissioner (Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer's Rights) Regulations 1996. www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1996/0078/latest/whole.html
In-Text
... (Health and Disability Commissioner (Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights) Regulations 1996).
OR
the Health and Disability Commissioner (Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights) Regulations 1996 ...
Competences for Registered Nursing (NCNZ)
Reference List
Nursing Council of New Zealand. (2022).Competencies for registered nurses.https://nursingcouncil.org.nz/Public/ncnz/nursing-section/registered_nurse.aspx
In-Text
... (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2022).
OR
Nursing Council of New Zealand(2022) ...
Code of Ethics
If you are going to use the NZNO (or any other resource that can be shorted to an acronym) multiple times in your work you can use the acronym as long as you put it in full first time you use it. So, it could look something like this:
(New Zealand Nurses Organisation, [NZNO], 2019). OR New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO, 2019) ... from then on, you can just use NZNO.
Reference List
New Zealand Nurses Organisation. (2019).Code of ethics.
https://www.nzno.org.nz/Portals/0/publications/Guideline%20-%20Code%20of%20Ethics%202019.pdf?ver=2019-06-27-094754-100
In-Text
... (New Zealand Nurses Organisation, 2019).
OR
New Zealand Nurses Organisation 2019) ...