Reference Style
Reference Style & Manager
APA 7th edition, step by step.
How to cite in the text, how to write the reference list, examples for each type of source, and how to use Mendeley.
01Requirements▾
Jurnal Civics uses the APA Style, 7th edition (American Psychological Association, 2020) for citations in the text and for the reference list. Use one style throughout the manuscript.
| Style | APA 7th edition, in English |
| Number of references | More than 25 |
| Sources | At least 80% peer-reviewed journal articles published in the last 10 years. The rest may be books, theses, or research reports. |
| DOI | Give every DOI that exists, as a full link: https://doi.org/... |
| Reference manager | Recommended: Mendeley (free). See section 06. |
| Book reviews | Minimal references. Give the reviewed book in full at the start. |
02Citing in the text▾
APA uses the author–date system. A citation can be parenthetical, with the name and year in brackets, or narrative, with the name in the sentence and the year in brackets.
| SITUATION | PARENTHETICAL | NARRATIVE |
|---|---|---|
| One author | (Anderson, 1983) | Anderson (1983) |
| Two authors | (Creswell & Poth, 2018) | Creswell and Poth (2018) |
| Three or more authors | (Dwee et al., 2012) | Dwee et al. (2012) |
| Group author, first citation | (Ministry of Education and Culture [MoEC], 2022) | Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC, 2022) |
| Group author, later citations | (MoEC, 2022) | MoEC (2022) |
| Several works | (Anderson, 1983; Hermann, 2008) | Anderson (1983) and Hermann (2008) |
| Same author, same year | (Smith, 2020a, 2020b) | Smith (2020a, 2020b) |
| No date | (Author, n.d.) | Author (n.d.) |
| Direct quotation | (Anderson, 1983, p. 6) | Anderson (1983) wrote that “...” (p. 6). |
| Secondary source | (Habermas, 1962, as cited in Hermann, 2008) | Habermas (1962, as cited in Hermann, 2008) |
— “et al.” is used from the first citation for three or more authors.
— Use “&” inside brackets and “and” in the running text.
— Quotations of 40 words or more are set as an indented block, without quotation marks, with the page number after the final full stop.
— Cite a secondary source only when you could not read the original. Only the source you read goes in the reference list.
— Personal communications (interviews you did not record as data, emails) are cited in the text only: (A. Rahman, personal communication, March 3, 2025).
— Do not use footnotes or endnotes for references.
03The reference list▾
— Title the list References. Include every source cited in the text, and only those.
— Order entries alphabetically by the surname of the first author. Works by the same author go by year, earliest first; same author and year get a, b, c.
— Use a hanging indent (first line flush left, the rest indented 0.5 inch / 1.27 cm).
— Authors: surname, initials. List up to 20 authors; for 21 or more, give the first 19, an ellipsis (...), and the last author.
— Titles of articles and chapters: sentence case, not italic. Titles of books, reports, and theses: sentence case, italic.
— Journal names: title case, italic. The volume is italic; the issue number in brackets is not.
— Give DOIs as https://doi.org/xxxx, with no full stop after it. Do not write “Retrieved from” or “DOI:”.
— Non-English sources: give the original title, followed by an English translation in square brackets.
— Use n.d. when there is no date, and include a retrieval date only for pages that change over time.
04Examples▾
Journal articles
Journal article with DOI
FORMAT Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxx
EXAMPLE Kusumaningrum, D. (2016). Interdependence versus truth and justice: Lessons from reconciliation processes in Maluku. Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, 20(1), 34–49. https://doi.org/10.22146/jsp.17998
In text: (Kusumaningrum, 2016)
Article with an article number
FORMAT Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Article 123. https://doi.org/xxxx
Article in a non-English journal
FORMAT Author, A. A. (Year). Original title [English translation of the title]. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxx
Books and chapters
Book
FORMAT Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book (2nd ed., if not the first edition). Publisher.
EXAMPLE Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
In text: (Creswell & Poth, 2018)
Chapter in an edited book
FORMAT Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of the book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.
EXAMPLE Hermann, M. G. (2008). Content analysis. In A. Klotz & D. Prakash (Eds.), Qualitative methods in international relations (pp. 151–167). Palgrave Macmillan.
In text: (Hermann, 2008)
Edited book
FORMAT Editor, E. E. (Ed.). (Year). Title of the book. Publisher.
Translated book
FORMAT Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book (T. Translator, Trans.). Publisher. (Original work published Year)
In text: (Author, Year of original/Year of translation)
Theses, proceedings, and reports
Thesis or dissertation from a repository
FORMAT Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the thesis [Master’s thesis / Doctoral dissertation, University Name]. Repository Name. https://xxxx
Conference paper in proceedings
FORMAT Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the paper. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of the proceedings (pp. xx–xx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx
Report by an organisation or government agency
FORMAT Organisation Name. (Year). Title of the report. https://xxxx
In text: (Organisation Name, Year)
Indonesian law or regulation
FORMAT Name of the law in Indonesian [English translation]. (Year). URL of the official source
EXAMPLE Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 20 Tahun 2003 tentang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional [Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20 of 2003 on the National Education System]. (2003).
In text: (Undang-Undang Nomor 20 Tahun 2003, 2003)
Online sources
Web page
FORMAT Author, A. A. or Organisation. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page. Site Name. https://xxxx
Newspaper or magazine article online
FORMAT Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the article. Newspaper Name. https://xxxx
05Checklist before you submit▾
1. More than 25 references, with at least 80% journal articles from the last 10 years.
2. Every in-text citation is in the reference list, and every reference is cited; names and years match.
3. “et al.” for three or more authors from the first citation.
4. Hanging indent, alphabetical order, sentence case for article titles, italic journal names and volumes.
5. Full DOI links for every source that has one.
6. Non-English titles have an English translation in square brackets.
7. No footnotes for references, and no references to sources you did not read.
06Using Mendeley▾
The editors recommend Mendeley Reference Manager (free) with the Mendeley Cite add-in for Microsoft Word, so that citations and the reference list stay consistent.
1. Install Mendeley Reference Manager and the Mendeley Cite add-in for Word, and sign in with a free account.
2. Add sources by importing PDFs, entering the DOI, or importing files from databases. Check each record: authors, year, title, journal, volume, issue, pages, and DOI.
3. In Word, open Mendeley Cite and set the citation style to American Psychological Association 7th edition.
4. Insert each citation from Mendeley Cite while you write. For a narrative citation, edit the citation to show only the year if needed.
5. Insert the bibliography at the end under the heading “References”.
6. Check the list by hand: capitalisation, italics, missing DOIs, and duplicate entries are the usual errors.
7. Before uploading the anonymised file, save a copy and convert the citations and bibliography to plain text, so that no account or author data stays in the file.
Other reference managers that support APA 7th edition may also be used.
