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APA 6th Style:  Theses

UON Library guide for APA 6th

General Rules and Examples

Theses & dissertations

 

General rules:

The exact format of references to theses and dissertations is dependent upon whether the thesis/dissertation is published or unpublished, and how it is available (via a database, institutional repository).

The elements common to all references to a thesis/dissertation are:

Author Name

  • Appear first in the reference, surname first followed by a comma, then initials (do not include the full first names of author).

Thesis Title

  • Capitalise the first word of the title and sub-title (and any proper nouns).
  • The title appears in italics.

Thesis Type

  • The type of thesis ("Master's thesis", "Unpublished Master's thesis", "Doctoral dissertation", or "Unpublished Doctoral dissertations") is included in round brackets after the title of the thesis.

Layout and Spacing

  • The second and subsequent lines of each reference are indented.
  • Include a double-space between each entry in the Reference List.

Theses & dissertations in databases

 

The format for a reference to a thesis/dissertation obtained from a database is:

 

Reference list examples:

 

Theses & dissertations in NOVA

 

NOVA is the UON's institutional digital repository that promotes the research of our University by making our content accessible, searchable and discoverable by the global research community.

 

The format for a reference to a thesis/dissertation obtained from NOVA is:

Reference list examples:

Online theses & dissertations

 

General notes:

  • Most online theses will be available from a research repository hosted by an academic institution. You do not need to link directly to the full thesis - the basic URL of the repository is enough.
  • If the thesis was written for one institution but is now hosted on another website, include the name of the university in the brackets after the type of thesis. The country should also be added if the institution is not in the U.S. (e.g. Doctoral dissertation, University of Melbourne, Australia).

 

The format for a reference to a thesis/dissertation obtained online is:

Reference list examples:

 

For a thesis submitted at one institution but hosted on another site, the reference would look like the example below. In this case a PhD thesis from an English university has been posted on a Canadian research site:

 

Theses & dissertations - unpublished

 

The format for a reference to an unpublished thesis/dissertation is:

For U.S. publications include the official state abbreviation after the city. Include the country of location if the thesis comes from a non-US institution. E.g., New York, NY; Wagga Wagga, Australia; Abingdon, England.


Reference list examples:

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