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Thesis and Dissertation Appendicies – What to Include

• By DiscoverPhDs
• August 12, 2020

An appendix is a section at the end of a dissertation that contains supplementary information. An appendix may contain figures, tables, raw data, and other additional information that supports the arguments of your dissertation but do not belong in the main body.

It can be either a long appendix or split into several smaller appendices. Each appendix should have its own title and identification letters, and the numbering for any tables or figures in them should be reset at the beginning of each new appendix.

Purpose of an Appendix

When writing the main body of your dissertation, it is important to keep it short and concise in order to convey your arguments effectively.

Given the amount of research you would have done, you will probably have a lot of additional information that you would like to share with your audience.

This is where appendices come in. Any information that doesn’t support your main arguments or isn’t directly relevant to the topic of your dissertation should be placed in an appendix.

This will help you organise your paper, as only information that adds weight to your arguments will be included; it will also help improve your flow by minimising unnecessary interruptions.

Note, however, that your main body must be detailed enough that it can be understood without your appendices. If a reader has to flip between pages to make sense of what they are reading, they are unlikely to understand it.

For this reason, appendices should only be used for supporting background material and not for any content that doesn’t fit into your word count, such as the second half of your literature review .

What to Include in a Dissertation Appendix

A dissertation appendix can be used for the following supplementary information:

Research Results

There are various ways in which research results can be presented, such as in tables or diagrams.

Although all of your results will be useful to some extent, you won’t be able to include them all in the main body of your dissertation. Consequently, only those that are crucial to answering your research question should be included.

Your other less significant findings should be placed in your appendix, including raw data, proof of control measures, and other supplemental material.

Details of Questionnaires and Interviews

You can choose to include the details of any surveys and interviews you have conducted. This can include:

• An interview transcript,
• A copy of any survey questions,
• Questionnaire results.

Although the results of your surveys, questionnaires or interviews should be presented and discussed in your main text, it is useful to include their full form in the appendix of a dissertation to give credibility to your study.

Tables, Figures and Illustrations

If your dissertation contains a large number of tables, figures and illustrative material, it may be helpful to insert the less important ones in your appendix. For example, if you have four related datasets, you could present all the data and trend lines (made identifiable by different colours) on a single chart with a further breakdown for each dataset in your appendix.

Letters and Correspondence

If you have letters or correspondence, either between yourself and other researchers or places where you sought permission to reuse copyrighted material, they should be included here. This will help ensure that your dissertation doesn’t become suspected of plagiarism.

List of Abbreviations

Most researchers will provide a list of abbreviations at the beginning of their dissertation, but if not, it would be wise to add them as an appendix.

This is because not all of your readers will have the same background as you and therefore may have difficulty understanding the abbreviations and technical terms you use.

Note: Some researchers refer to this as a ‘glossary’, especially if it is provided as an appendix section. For all intended purposes, this is the same as a list of abbreviations.

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How to Format a Dissertation Appendix

In regards to format, you can include one lengthy appendix or structure it into several smaller appendices.

Although the choice is yours, it is usually better to opt for several different appendices as it allows you to organise your supplementary information into different categories based on what they are.

The following guidelines should be observed when preparing your dissertation appendices section:

• Each appendix should start on a new page and be given a unique title and identifying letter, such as “Appendix A – Raw Data”. This allows you to more easily refer to appendix headings in the text of your main body should you need to.
• Each appendix should have its own page numbering system, comprising the appendix identification letter and the corresponding page number. The appendix identification letter should be reset for each appendix, but the page number should remain continuous. For example, if ‘Appendix A’ has three pages and ‘Appendix B’ two pages, the page numbers should be A-1, A-2, A-3, B-4, B-5.
• The numbering of tables and figures should be reset at the beginning of each new appendix. For example, if ‘Appendix A’ contains two tables and ‘Appendix B’ one table, the table number within Appendix B should be ‘Table 1’ and not ‘Table 3’.
• If you have multiple appendices instead of a single longer one, insert a ‘List of Appendices’ in the same way as your contents page.
• Use the same formatting (font size, font type, spacing, margins, etc.) as the rest of your report.

Example of Appendices

Below is an example of what a thesis or dissertation appendix could look like.

Referring to an Appendix In-Text

You must refer to each appendix in the main body of your dissertation at least once to justify its inclusion; otherwise, the question arises as to whether they are really needed.

You can refer to an appendix in one of three ways:

1. Refer to a specific figure or table within a sentence, for example: “As shown in Table 2 of Appendix A, there is little correlation between X and Y”.

2. Refer to a specific figure or table in parentheses, for example: “The results (refer to Table 2 of Appendix A) show that there is little correlation between X and Y”.

3. Refer to an entire appendix, for example: “The output data can be found in Appendix A”.

Appendices vs Appendixes

Both terms are correct, so it is up to you which one you prefer. However, it is worth noting that ‘appendices’ are used more frequently in the science and research community, so we recommend using the former in academic writing if you have no preferences.

Where Does an Appendix Go?

For a dissertation, your appendices should be inserted after your reference list.

Some people like to put their appendices in a standalone document to separate it from the rest of their report, but we only recommend this at the request of your dissertation supervisor, as this isn’t common practice.

Note : Your university may have its own requirements or formatting suggestions for writing your dissertation or thesis appendix. As such, make sure you check with your supervisor or department before you work on your appendices. This will especially be the case for any students working on a thesis.

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The term rationale of research means the reason for performing the research study in question.

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Formatting your thesis: Appendices & supplemental material

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Introduction, materials included in appendices, supplementary material or research data files, order of appendices, appendix headings, formatting help.

Appendices provide supplementary information to the main thesis and should always appear after the references/bibliography. If you are unsure about whether content should be included in the thesis or in an appendix, consult with your supervisor. The thesis and appendices must be uploaded in a single file.

For more information about appendices, please see the Thesis Template Instructions .

Note: Signatures, personal phone numbers, or personal email addresses (ones that contains part of a person’s name) must be redacted from your thesis. This means that the text is fully removed, and cannot be copied & pasted out of the document.

If including copyrighted materials as appendices, see Copyright at SFU .

Examples of material included in appendices are as follows--also refer to Formatting Help .

• interview questions
• participant letters / forms  
• surveys / questionnaires (if not your own work, these require copyright permission)
• supplemental tables / figures / graphs / image

Supplementary material or research data files associated with your thesis can also be uploaded to your library submission record. We recommend publishing such files to Summit (the SFU Research Repository) as they will be available alongside your thesis. This is preferred to hosting such files externally or on personal cloud storage.     

Temporary instructions : Contact  [email protected] if you wish to upload such files with your thesis submission -- please do not upload them to the Thesis Registration System at this time. Data Services will require basic descriptive information for each of your files and will also help you organize your research data appropriately pending publication.  

If you are including supplementary material or research data files in your submission, you must include an appendix within your thesis document which contains an overall description of the supplementary material or research data files, authorship credits, and file name(s). This assists in “linking” your thesis document to any additional files, as well as providing further information and context about the file(s). The maximum file size for each file is 2GB. If you have a larger file size, please contact  [email protected] .  

Appendix examples: 

• video file example
• data file example

Note : if your Ethics approval requires that supplementary material or research data files be destroyed after a certain period, then such files cannot be published to Summit (the SFU Research Repository). Please contact  [email protected] to identify other possible solutions in this case.  

Accepted supplementary material or research data file types: 

aac, cif, csv, docx, dta, epub, exe, gdb, geojson, gif, iso, jp2, jpg, jpeg, json, kml, kmz, las, mp3, mp4, mpv, odt, pdf, png, pptx, py, qgs, qgz, r, rar, rmd, rtf, shp, tex, tif, tiff, txt, wav, xlsx, zip 

It is recommended to use the best file formats  to allow for data files to be openly accessible for the long term, so that they remain usable through software upgrades and changes in the computing environment. See the Research Data Management (RDM) website  for more information about the handling and organization of data during your research.

Appendices appear in the order in which they are introduced in the text.  

You may include one appendix or a number of appendices.

If you have more than one appendix, you would letter each accordingly (i.e., Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.). Write your appendix headings in the same manner as your chapter headings.

• Transfer the text and re-format using the template styles as necessary, or 
• Convert the documents into images and insert them into your document, one image per page.

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APA Citation Style 7th Edition

• APA Style Overview
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What goes into an Appendix?

Where is an appendix placed, labeling the appendix, formatting the appendix.

• Evaluating Sources This link opens in a new window
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"Material that supplements the content of the paper, but would be distracting or inappropriate to include in the body of the paper is to be placed in an appendix." This includes "materials that are relatively brief and that are easily presented in print format" ( Publication Manual of the APA: 6th edition , section 2.13; Publication Manual of the APA: 7th edition , section 2.14). Examples include "mathematical proofs, lists of words, a questionnaire used in the research, a detailed description of an apparatus used in the research, etc" ( Purdue OWL .)

An appendix (or appendices) follow the reference list. Use the following order for your paper:

• Abstract ( if required, start on a new page, numbered page 2)
• Text (start on a new page, numbered 3)
• References (start on a new page)
• Tables (start each on a new page)
• Figures (start each on a new page; include caption on page with figure)
• Appendices (start each on a new page)
• If only one appendix, label it Appendix
• If more than one appendix: label each one with a capital letter (Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.) in the order in which it is mentioned in the text
• Each appendix must have a title
• In the text, refer to appendices by their labels:

"produced the same results for both studies (see Appendices A and B for complete proofs)."

• Begin each appendix on a separate page
• At the top of the page, center the word Appendix and the identifying capital letters (A, B, etc.) in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.
• Center the title of the appendix using uppercase and lowercase letter on the next line
• Begin the text of the appendix flush left, followed by indented paragraphs.

A sample appendix is below:

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Thesis / dissertation formatting manual (2024).

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Appendices within Manuscript

Appendices may be included as part of the manuscript. These typically appear after the Bibliography or References section. 

• List the Appendices in the Table of Contents
• Do not restart page numbering for your Appendices. For example, if the last page of your Bibliography is 195, your first Appendix page number should be 196. 

Appendices as Supplemental Files

Electronic or audiovisual data may be included as Supplemental Files in an ETD submission. Your committee should agree that the information contained in the supplemental files is of such a character that a medium other than text is necessary.

When uploading your manuscript to ProQuest, there is a place to upload Supplemental Files separate from the main PDF upload (see screen capture below). 

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• Knowledge Base
• Dissertation
• Research Paper Appendix | Example & Templates

Research Paper Appendix | Example & Templates

Published on 15 August 2022 by Kirsten Dingemanse and Tegan George. Revised on 25 October 2022.

An appendix is a supplementary document that facilitates your reader’s understanding of your research but is not essential to your core argument. Appendices are a useful tool for providing additional information or clarification in a research paper , dissertation , or thesis without making your final product too long.

Appendices help you provide more background information and nuance about your topic without disrupting your text with too many tables and figures or other distracting elements.

We’ve prepared some examples and templates for you, for inclusions such as research protocols, survey questions, and interview transcripts. All are worthy additions to an appendix. You can download these in the format of your choice below.

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Table of contents

What is an appendix in a research paper, what to include in an appendix, how to format an appendix, how to refer to an appendix, where to put your appendices, other components to consider, appendix checklist.

In the main body of your research paper, it’s important to provide clear and concise information that supports your argument and conclusions . However, after doing all that research, you’ll often find that you have a lot of other interesting information that you want to share with your reader.

While including it all in the body would make your paper too long and unwieldy, this is exactly what an appendix is for.

As a rule of thumb, any detailed information that is not immediately needed to make your point can go in an appendix. This helps to keep your main text focused but still allows you to include the information you want to include somewhere in your paper.

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An appendix can be used for different types of information, such as:

• Supplementary results : Research findings  are often presented in different ways, but they don’t all need to go in your paper. The results most relevant to your research question should always appear in the main text, while less significant results (such as detailed descriptions of your sample or supplemental analyses that do not help answer your main question), can be put in an appendix.
• Statistical analyses : If you conducted statistical tests using software like Stata or R, you may also want to include the outputs of your analysis in an appendix.
• Further information on surveys or interviews : Written materials or transcripts related to things such as surveys and interviews can also be placed in an appendix.

You can opt to have one long appendix, but separating components (like interview transcripts, supplementary results, or surveys) into different appendices makes the information simpler to navigate.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Always start each appendix on a new page.
• Assign it both a number (or letter) and a clear title, such as ‘Appendix A. Interview transcripts’. This makes it easier for your reader to find the appendix, as well as for you to refer back to it in your main text.
• Number and title the individual elements within each appendix (e.g., ‘Transcripts’) to make it clear what you are referring to. Restart the numbering in each appendix at 1.

It is important that you refer to each of your appendices at least once in the main body of your paper. This can be done by mentioning the appendix and its number or letter, either in parentheses or within the main part of a sentence. It is also possible to refer to a particular component of an appendix.

Appendix B presents the correspondence exchanged with the fitness boutique. Example 2. Referring to an appendix component These results (see Appendix 2, Table 1) show that …

It is common to capitalise ‘Appendix’ when referring to a specific appendix, but it is not mandatory. The key is just to make sure that you are consistent throughout your entire paper, similarly to consistency in capitalising headings and titles in academic writing.

However, note that lowercase should always be used if you are referring to appendices in general. For instance, ‘The appendices to this paper include additional information about both the survey and the interviews.’

The simplest option is to add your appendices after the main body of your text, after you finish citing your sources in the citation style of your choice . If this is what you choose to do, simply continue with the next page number. Another option is to put the appendices in a separate document that is delivered with your dissertation.

Remember that any appendices should be listed in your paper’s table of contents .

There are a few other supplementary components related to appendices that you may want to consider. These include:

• List of abbreviations : If you use a lot of abbreviations or field-specific symbols in your dissertation, it can be helpful to create a list of abbreviations .
• Glossary : If you utilise many specialised or technical terms, it can also be helpful to create a glossary .
• Tables, figures and other graphics : You may find you have too many tables, figures, and other graphics (such as charts and illustrations) to include in the main body of your dissertation. If this is the case, consider adding a figure and table list .

Checklist: Appendix

All appendices contain information that is relevant, but not essential, to the main text.

Each appendix starts on a new page.

I have given each appendix a number and clear title.

I have assigned any specific sub-components (e.g., tables and figures) their own numbers and titles.

My appendices are easy to follow and clearly formatted.

I have referred to each appendix at least once in the main text.

Your appendices look great! Use the other checklists to further improve your thesis.

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Dingemanse, K. & George, T. (2022, October 25). Research Paper Appendix | Example & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved 25 March 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/appendix/

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APA Citation Guide (7th edition) : Sample Paper, Reference List & Annotated Bibliography

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Quick Rules for APA Reference List

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Annotated Bibliographies - How To Guide with Template

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Sample paper & reference list.

• APA Sample Paper Template

This sample paper includes a title page, sample assignment page and references list in APA format. It can be used as a template to set up your assignment.

Sample Paper With Comments and Explanations

The American Psychological Association (APA) has created a sample paper that includes explanations of the elements and formatting in APA 7th ed. 

If your instructor requires you to use APA style headings and sub-headings, this document will show you how they work.

• APA Headings This sample demonstrates and describes how to use different levels of headings in APA format.

If you are adding an appendix to your paper there are a few rules to follow that comply with APA guidelines:

• The Appendix appears  after  the References list
• If you have more than one appendix you would name the first appendix Appendix A, the second Appendix B, etc.
• The appendices should appear in the order that the information is mentioned in your essay
• Each appendix begins on a new page
• APA Sample Paper Template - with Appendix

APA End of Paper Checklist

• End of Paper Checklist

Finished your assignment? Use this checklist to be sure you haven't missed any information needed for APA style.

Quick Rules for an APA Reference List

Your research paper ends with a list of all the sources cited in the text of the paper. Here are nine quick rules for this Reference list.

• Start a new page for your Reference list. Centre the title, References, at the top of the page.
• Double-space the list.
• Start the first line of each reference at the left margin; indent each subsequent line five spaces (a hanging indent).
• Put your list in alphabetical order. Alphabetize the list by the first word in the reference. In most cases, the first word will be the author’s last name. Where the author is unknown, alphabetize by the first word in the title, ignoring the words a, an, the.
• For each author, give the last name followed by a comma and the first (and middle, if listed) initials followed by periods.
• Italicize the titles of these works: books, audiovisual material, internet documents and newspapers, and the title and volume number of journals and magazines.
• Do not italicize titles of most parts of works, such as: articles from newspapers, magazines, or journals / essays, poems, short stories or chapter titles from a book / chapters or sections of an Internet document.
• In titles of non-periodicals (books, videotapes, websites, reports, poems, essays, chapters, etc), capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, and all proper nouns (names of people, places, organizations, nationalities).
• If a web source (not from the library) is not a stable archived version, or you are unsure whether it is stable, include a statement of the accessed date before the link.

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations for various books, articles, and other sources on a topic. The annotated bibliography looks like a Reference page but includes an annotation after each source cited. An annotation is a short summary and/or critical evaluation of a source. Annotated bibliographies can be part of a larger research project, or can be a stand-alone report in itself.

Types of Annotations

 A summary annotation describes the source by answering the following questions: who wrote the document, what the document discusses, when and where was the document written, why was the document produced, and how was it provided to the public. The focus is on description. 

 An evaluative annotation includes a summary as listed above but also critically assesses the work for accuracy, relevance, and quality. Evaluative annotations can help you learn about your topic, develop a thesis statement, decide if a specific source will be useful for your assignment, and determine if there is enough valid information available to complete your project. The focus is on description and evaluation.

Annotated Bibliographies: How-To Guide

• APA Annotated Bibliography Template

Below is a sample of an Evaluative Annotation:

• Annotated Bibliographies Overview of purpose and form of annotated bibliographies from the Purdue OWL.
• Writing an Annotated Bibliography Overview and examples from the University of Guelph.
• Writing an Annotated Bibliography Definition, tips, and examples from the University of Toronto.
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How to Write an APA Appendix

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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• When to Use an Appendix
• What to Include
• Basic Rules

If you are writing a psychology paper for a class or for publication, you may be required to include an appendix in APA format. An APA appendix is found at the end of a paper and contains information that supplements the text but that is too unwieldy or distracting to include in the main body of the paper. 

APA format is the official writing style used by the American Psychological Association . This format dictates how academic and professional papers should be structured and formatted. 

Does Your Paper Need an APA Appendix?

Some questions to ask about whether you should put information in the body of the paper or in an appendix:

• Is the material necessary for the reader to understand the research? If the answer is yes, it should be in your paper and not in an appendix.
• Would including the information interrupt the flow of the paper? If the answer is yes, then it should likely appear in the appendix.
• Would the information supplement what already appears in your paper? If yes, then it is a good candidate for including in an appendix.

Your appendix is not meant to become an information dump. While the information in your appendices is supplementary to your paper and research, it should still be useful and relevant. Only include what will help readers gain insight and understanding, not clutter or unnecessary confusion.

What to Include in an APA Appendix

The APA official stylebook suggests that the appendix should include information that would be distracting or inappropriate in the text of the paper.

Some examples of information you might include in an appendix include:

• Correspondence (if it pertains directly to your research)
• Demographic details about participants or groups
• Examples of participant responses
• Extended or detailed descriptions
• Lists that are too lengthy to include in the main text
• Large amounts of raw data
• Lists of supporting research and articles that are not directly referenced in-text
• Materials and instruments (if your research relied on special materials or instruments, you might want to include images and further information about how these items work or were used)
• Questionnaires that were used as part of your research
• Raw data (presented in an organized, readable format)
• Research surveys

While the content found in the appendix is too cumbersome to include in the main text of your paper, it should still be easily presented in print format.

The appendices should always act as a supplement to your paper. The body of your paper should be able to stand alone and fully describe your research or your arguments.

The body of your paper should not be dependent upon what is in the appendices. Instead, each appendix should act to supplement what is in the primary text, adding additional (but not essential) information that provides extra insight or information for the reader. 

Basic Rules for an APA Appendix

Here are some basic APA appendix rules to keep in mind when working on your paper:

• Your paper may have more than one appendix.
• Each item usually gets its own appendix section.
• Begin each appendix on a separate page.
• Each appendix must have a title.
• Use title case for your title and labels (the first letter of each word should be capitalized, while remaining letters should be lowercase).
• If your paper only has one appendix, simply title it Appendix. 
• If you have more than one appendix, each one should be labeled Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, and so on.
• Put the appendix label centered at the top of the page.
• On the next line under the appendix label, place the centered title of the appendix. 
• If you refer to a source in your appendix, include an in-text citation just as you would in the main body of your paper and then include the source in your main reference section.
• Each appendix may contain headings, subheadings, figures, and tables. 
• Each figure or table in your appendix should include a brief but explanatory title, which should be italicized. 
• If you want to reference your appendix within the text of your paper, include a parenthetical note in the text. For example, you would write (See Appendix A).

Formatting an APA Appendix

How do you format an appendix in APA? An APA appendix should follow the overall rules on how to format text. Such rules specify what font and font size you should use, the size of your margins, and the spacing of the text.

Some of the APA format guidelines you need to observe:

• Use a consistent font, such as 12-point Times New Roman or 11-point Calibri
• Double-space your text
• All paragraphs should be indented on the first line
• Page numbering should be continuous with the rest of your paper

The appendix label should appear centered and bolded at the top of the page. A descriptive title should follow and should also be bolded and centered. As with other pages in your paper, your APA format appendix should be left-aligned and double-spaced. Each page should include a page number in the top right corner. You can also have more than one appendix, but each one should begin on a new page.

Data Displays in an APA Appendix

When presenting information in an appendix, use a logical layout for any data displays such as tables or figures. All tables and figures should be labeled with the words “Table” or “Figure” (sans quotation marks) and the letter of the appendix and then numbered.

For example, Table A1 would be the first table in an Appendix A. Data displays should be presented in the appendix following the same order that they first appear in the text of your paper.

In addition to following basic APA formatting rules, you should also check to see if there are additional guidelines you need to follow. Individual instructors or publications may have their own specific requirements.

Where to Include an APA Appendix

If your paper does require an appendix, it should be the very last pages of your finished paper. An APA format paper is usually structured in the following way:

Your paper may not necessarily include all of these sections. At a minimum, however, your paper may consist of a title page, abstract, main text, and reference section. Also, if your paper does not contain tables, figures, or footnotes, then the appendix would follow the references.

Never include an appendix containing information that is not referred to in your text. 

A Word From Verywell

Writing a paper for class or publication requires a great deal of research, but you should pay special attention to your APA formatting. Each section of your paper, including the appendix section, needs to follow the rules and guidelines provided in the American Psychological Association’s stylebook.

American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). Washington DC: The American Psychological Association; 2020.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Footnotes & Appendices 

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

APA style offers writers footnotes and appendices as spaces where additional, relevant information might be shared within a document; this resource offers a quick overview of format and content concerns for these segments of a document. Should additional clarification be necessary, it is always recommended that writers reach out to the individual overseeing their work (i.e., instructor, editor, etc.). For your convenience, a student sample paper is included below; please note the document is filled with  Lorem Ipsum  placeholder text and references to footnotes and appendices are highighlighted. Additional marginal notes also further explain specific portions of the example. 

Footnotes 

Footnotes are supplementary details printed at the bottom of the page pertaining to a paper’s content or copyright information. This supporting text can be utilized in any type of APA paper to support the body paragraphs.

Content-Based Footnotes

Utilizing footnotes to provide supplementary detail can enrich the body text and reinforce the main argument of the paper. Footnotes may also direct readers to an alternate source for more detail on a topic. Though content footnotes can be useful in providing additional context, it is detrimental to include tangential or convoluted information. Footnotes should detail a focused subject; lengthier sections of text are better suited for the body paragraphs.

Acknowledging Copyright

When citing long quotations, images, tables, data, or commercially published questionnaires in-text, it is important to credit the copyright information in a footnote. Functioning much like an in-text citation, a footnote copyright attribution provides credit to the original source and must also be included in a reference list. A copyright citation is needed for both direct reprinting as well as adaptations of content, and these may require express permission from the copyright owner.

Formatting Footnotes

Each footnote and its corresponding in-text callout should be formatted in numerical order of appearance utilizing superscript. As demonstrated in the example below, the superscripted numerals should follow all punctuation with the exception of dashes and parentheses.

For example: 

Footnote callouts should not be placed in headings and do not require a space between the callout and superscripted number. When reintroducing a footnote that has previously been called out, refrain from replicating the callout or footnote itself; rather, format such reference as “see Footnote 4”, for example. Footnotes should be placed at the bottom of the page on which the corresponding callout is referenced. Alternatively, a footnotes page could be created to follow the reference page. When formatting footnotes in the latter manner, center and bold the label “Footnotes” then record each footnote as a double-spaced and indented paragraph. Place the corresponding superscripted number in front of each footnote and separate the numeral from the following text with a single space.

Formatting Copyright Information

To provide credit for images, tables, or figures pulled from an outside source, include the accreditation statement at the end of the note for the visual. Copyright acknowledgements for long quotations or questionnaires should simply be placed in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

When formatting a copyright accreditation, utilize the following format:

• Establish if the content was reprinted or adapted by using language such as “from” for directly copied material or “adapted from” for material that has been modified
• Include the content’s title, author, year of publication, and source
• Cite the copyright holder and year of copyright or indicate that the source is public domain or licensed under Creative Commons
• If express permission was required to reprint the material, include a statement indicating that permission was acquired

Appendices 

When introducing supplementary content that may not fit within the body of a paper, an appendix can be included to help readers better understand the material without distracting from the text itself. Primarily used to introduce research materials, specific details of a study, or participant demographics, appendices are generally concise and only incorporate relevant content. Much like with footnotes, appendices may require an acknowledgement of copyright and, if data is cited, an adherence to the privacy policies that protect participant identities.

Formatting Appendices

An appendix should be created on its own individual page labelled “Appendix” and followed by a title on the next line that describes the subject of the appendix. These headings should be centered and bolded at the top of the page and written in title case. If there are multiple appendices, each should be labelled with a capital letter and referenced in-text by its specific title (for example, “see Appendix B”). All appendices should follow references, footnotes, and any tables or figures included at the end of the document.

Text Appendices 

Appendices should be formatted in traditional paragraph style and may incorporate text, figures, tables, equations, or footnotes. In an appendix, all figures, tables, and other visuals should be labelled with the letter of the corresponding appendix followed by a number indicating the order in which each appears. For example, a table labelled “Table B1” would be the first table in Appendix B. If there is only one appendix in the document, the visuals should still be labelled with the letter A and a number to differentiate them from those contained in the paper itself (for example, “Figure A3” is the third figure in the singular appendix, which is not labelled with a letter in the heading). 

Table or Figure Appendices 

When an appendix solely contains a table or figure, the title of the figure or table should be substituted with the title of the appendix. For example, if Appendix B only includes a figure, the figure should be labelled “Appendix B” rather than “Figure B1”, as it would be named if there were multiple figures included.

If an appendix does not contain text but includes numerous figures or table, the appendix should be formatted like a text appendix. The appendix would receive a name and label, and each figure or table would be given a corresponding letter and number. For example, if Appendix C contains two tables and one figure, these visuals would be labelled “Table C1”, “Table C2”, and “Figure C1” respectively.

Sample Paper    

Media File: APA 7 - Student Sample Paper (Footnotes & Appendices)

• RRU Writing Centre
• WriteAnswers

Q. Do appendices come before or after references?

• 2 Academic Integrity
• 48 Academic writing
• 41 APA Style
• 33 APA Style: Formatting
• 108 APA Style: In-text citations
• 106 APA Style: References
• 18 Legal citations
• 16 Paraphrasing
• 10 Punctuation
• 25 Quotations
• 16 Writing Centre information
• 63 Writing Centre resources

Answered By: Theresa Bell (she/her/hers) Last Updated: Nov 04, 2021     Views: 129335

APA Style (7th ed.)

Appendices usually appear after the references (American Psychological Association, n.d.). If you're not sure what's expected in your course work, please check with your instructor or thesis handbook for specific instructions. See  In APA Style, What Order Should Manuscript Sections Follow?  and  What Are the APA Rules on Appendices?  for more information.

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Order of pages . APA Style.  https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/order-pages

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Appendices, References, Acknowledgements and Other Final Things

Posted by Rene Tetzner | Oct 22, 2021 | PhD Success | 0 |

4.6 Appendices, References, Acknowledgements and Other Final Things

4.6.1 Appendices

As I mentioned in Sections 1.4.1 and 3.5.3, appendices are not required in a thesis, but they are often included. If you are considering appendices for your thesis, check your university or department guidelines or discuss the idea with your supervisor to be certain that they will be received positively. It is also a good idea to revisit at this point any length or word count requirements or limitations set for doctoral theses by your university or department, because if you have already reached the upper limit, including appendices may require cutting other material, and in such situations appendices should only be considered if they are absolutely necessary. However, appendices are often preferable to extensive or overly long footnotes or endnotes or too much supplementary information in the main text of a thesis, both of which can distract readers from your main argument. For this reason, an effective strategy may be to move such material from the main text or notes into an appendix, since this sort of revision will not significantly alter the overall length or word count of your thesis. If, on the other hand, your thesis is a little shy of the minimum length requirement, you may want to add an appendix or two for supplementary information that you originally cut out of the thesis, but that could usefully be included: this can help you increase the word count to meet requirements. Your decision regarding the inclusion of appendices may also be simplified by the following information and advice.

As a general rule, appendices present subsidiary or supplementary material that is directly related to the material in the thesis itself and potentially helpful to readers, but which might prove distracting or inappropriate or simply too long were it included in the main body of the thesis or in notes (long footnotes in particular can make the layout of pages unattractive and should be avoided). An appendix is also a good format for material that is mentioned or discussed in more than one chapter, part or section of a thesis, because it helps the author avoid repetition while rendering the information readily available to readers. Appendices can contain a wide variety of material, such as texts discussed in the thesis, translations, chronologies, genealogies, examples of principles and procedures, descriptions of complex pieces of equipment, survey questionnaires, participant responses, detailed demographics for a population or sample, lists (particularly long ones), tables and figures, explanations or elaborations of any aspect of a study and any other supplementary information relevant to a thesis.

This material should not be included in an appendix simply because it is interesting and you happen to have it, however; instead, appendices should be included ‘only if they help readers to understand, evaluate, or replicate the study or theoretical argument being made’ ( Publication Manual of the APA , 2010, p.40). An appendix ‘should not be a repository for odds and ends that the author could not work into the text’ ( Chicago Manual of Style , 2003, p.27). Ideally, each appendix should have a specific theme, focus or function and gather materials of a particular type or relating to a particular topic, and it should bear a main heading that describes its content (e.g., ‘Appendix: Questionnaire 3 in Spanish and English’). If more than one theme or topic requires this sort of treatment, additional appendices should be preferred to subdividing a single long appendix, although appendices can certainly make use of internal headings and subheadings if necessary (on headings, see Section 6.1).

It is also best if appendices, like tables and figures, are able to stand on their own, so all abbreviations, symbols and specialised or technical terminology should be briefly defined or explained within each appendix, enabling the reader to understand the material without recourse to definitions and explanations in the rest of the thesis. All information in appendices that overlaps material in the main body of a thesis should match that material precisely in both content and format. Appendices can be set in the font size used in the main body of a thesis or a slightly smaller font to save space and they normally appear in the final matter before the endnotes (if there are any) or before the reference list or bibliography, although in some cases the appendices will be the last items in a thesis, so do check guidelines to determine if a specific position is required. The first appendix in a thesis usually begins on a new page, and subsequent appendices sometimes do the same, though they can run on instead with a little extra spacing between the end of one appendix and the beginning of the next. If there is only one appendix in a thesis, it will not need to be identified by a particular number or letter, but if you intend to include two or more appendices, they will need to be labelled with uppercase letters or with Arabic or Roman numerals according to the order in which the appendices are mentioned in the main text of the thesis, which should match the order of their appearance in the final matter (‘Appendix A,’ ‘Appendix B,’ ‘Appendix C’ etc., or ‘Appendix 1,’ ‘Appendix 2,’ ‘Appendix 3’ etc.). Appendices should always be referred to by these labels when they are discussed in the thesis, and each appendix should be referred to at least briefly in the main text of the thesis.

If a single table or figure makes up the whole of an appendix, the appendix label and heading are sufficient for the table or figure as well, but if an appendix contains more than a single table or figure, each table and figure will need to be numbered (and given a heading or caption), and this numbering should be separate from the tables and figures associated with the chapters of the thesis. If there is only one appendix, a capital A (for ‘Appendix’) should be used before each table or figure number – ‘Table A.1’ and ‘Figure A.2’ – but if more than one appendix is included, the specific letter or number of the appendix should be used as well as the table or figure number: ‘Table C.3,’ ‘Figure B.2,’ ‘Table II.4’ and ‘Figure IV.2.’ Please note that if you have more than one appendix in your thesis and any of those appendices contain more than one table or figure, the appendices should be labelled with letters or Roman numerals; if such appendices use Arabic numerals, it will be difficult to distinguish between tables and figures in chapters and those in the appendices (e.g., ‘Table 3.3’ could be the third table in Chapter 3 or the third table in Appendix 3, whereas ‘Table C.3’ is clearly the third table in Appendix C). Tables and figures may be embedded in appendices that also include text or they may appear at the end of each appendix, but if the university or department guidelines you are following indicate that tables and figures in general should be placed at the end of the thesis, those associated with appendices may need to appear there as well. For further information on tables and figures, see Sections 1.3 and 4.4.1.

4.6.2 Other Final Things

If you have not yet added (or revised and expanded since your proposal) any footnotes or endnotes that you intend to use for supplementary information in the thesis, now is the time to add them (see Section 3.4 above). It can be helpful to construct (or review) the supplementary notes and any appendices you plan to include at the same time so that you can decide which format is most appropriate for different kinds of material. If any ancillary lists are required – a list of abbreviations, for instance, or lists of tables and figures – these should be added at this point as well, either in the preliminary or final matter depending on university or department guidelines and/or personal preferences (see Sections 1.1.7–1.1.9). A list of abbreviations is usually arranged alphabetically by the abbreviations (rather than the full versions) with a colon between each abbreviation and its definition (see also Section 6.3):

ANOVA: Analysis of variance

CI: Confidence interval

ES: Effect size

Lists of tables and figures (on which, see also Sections 1.1.8 and 1.1.9), on the other hand, are arranged numerically according to the table or figure numbers and usually include the page number each table or figure appears on:

            Table 1: Items in Questionnaire 1    .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     67

            Table 2: Items in Questionnaire 2    .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     71

            Table 3: Items in Questionnaire 3    .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     74

Tables are usually listed separately from figures, and shortened forms of table headings and figure captions are often used in these lists, especially if the headings and captions are long (consisting of more than a single sentence, for instance), but the table and figure numbers must match exactly the labels that appear on the tables and figures themselves and the order in which the tables and figures appear in the thesis. When tables and figures are reproduced or adapted from other sources, acknowledgements of those sources are sometimes included in such lists. For general advice on constructing lists, see Section 5.5.2.

Acknowledgements of any assistance you received in writing the thesis and in some cases of any materials you used from previous publications should be added to the thesis as well (see Section 1.1.6). Acknowledgements generally appear in the front matter of a thesis, but they can instead be added to the final matter, so you will need to determine which location is most appropriate for your thesis. Credits and permissions (if necessary) for material such as images, tables and long quotations borrowed from sources sometimes appear along with the borrowed material itself instead of (or in addition to) appearing in the acknowledgements (see Section 4.4.1, for instance). Acknowledgements in theses tend to be rather informal and sometimes intensely personal when compared with the formal scholarly text used in the rest of a thesis. As a general rule, this is fine – you have, after all, had a great deal of help in achieving the monumental goal of writing your thesis and it is only natural to want to thank with enthusiasm those who assisted you. Do beware, however, of letting your prose style slip beneath the required standard.

The acknowledgements may not be part of the scholarship in your thesis, but they are there for all to read, and a thesis is a professional document, so it is wise to maintain a professional perspective. Try to avoid arbitrary shifts between the first-, second- and third-person voices (e.g., ‘I would like to thank my friend and colleague Vicky for reading each and every chapter with such painstaking care – I wouldn’t have survived this thesis without you!’) and informal usage (contractions, for instance, such as ‘wouldn’t’ in my example, the second part of which would be better as ‘– I would not have survived this thesis without her!’). Keep in mind as well that some supervisors and committee members will feel embarrassed and uncomfortable when reading overly effusive expressions of gratitude aimed at themselves – yes, they have been wonderful, but supervising your work is their job, after all – so maintaining the dignity and comfort of everyone involved, including yourself, while expressing sincere and even enthusiastic gratitude is the best approach. Focussing precisely on exactly what each individual has done that specifically assisted you in completing your thesis will help you keep your acknowledgements relevant and professional.

Any dedication you wish to include in the thesis should be added to the front matter at this point as well. More importantly, if you have not yet written your abstract and chosen your keywords, they will need to be tackled, and if you have already worked on these earlier, revising them right after you have finished drafting the entire thesis is a good strategy (see Sections 1.1.2, 1.1.3 and 4.2). Finally, you will need to add or complete all the necessary citations, quotations and references in your thesis and compile the list of references, list of works cited or bibliography that should appear at the end of the thesis (or expand the one you submitted with your proposal: see Sections 1.2.6, 1.4.3, 2.1.2 and 3.5.4). It is very late in the game indeed to be deciding upon referencing methods and styles at this point, but if that is not yet a settled matter, a consistent and effective system must be adopted and applied throughout the thesis before it is considered a complete draft, and it is always wise to check your references carefully to be sure you have met the requirements set by your university, department and thesis committee. In Chapter 7 below I discuss in detail the main methods and styles of in-text referencing as well as reference lists and bibliographies, so please refer to that chapter for specific advice on bringing your references into line with scholarly standards, especially if you do not have specific guidelines to follow. If you use direct quotations in your thesis, see also Chapter 8, where I outline the ways in which direct quotations should be presented and integrated in academic and scientific prose.

Finally, once you have the entire thesis drafted, your table of contents will need to be completed by adding page numbers for the parts, chapters and sections of the thesis (and perhaps removing the summaries you used for your thesis outline if you have not already done so: see Section 4.1), or updated and checked if you are making use of a tool such as Word’s automatic table of contents function (see Section 6.1.1 for advice on creating an active table of contents). Make sure that all page numbers in the table of contents accurately indicate the pages on which those parts, chapters and sections actually appear in the thesis, and check the table of contents carefully to ensure that all titles and headings that appear in it match the corresponding headings in the thesis exactly in terms of order, wording, numbering (if used), punctuation and usually capitalisation as well (see Section 6.1 for further information on headings). Even something as simple as line spacing is important in this final stage. Although you may have single spaced your writing while sharing it with your supervisor and the other members of your committee without earning any complaints, double spacing is usual in the main body or running text of a thesis and it also tends to make your work more legible and easier on the eyes of your readers than single spacing does. Many universities will require double spacing, so do check for that in the guidelines and perhaps pay your readers (who are also your examiners) the courtesy of using it even if it is not required.

Why PhD Success?

To Graduate Successfully

This article is part of a book called "PhD Success" which focuses on the writing process of a phd thesis, with its aim being to provide sound practices and principles for reporting and formatting in text the methods, results and discussion of even the most innovative and unique research in ways that are clear, correct, professional and persuasive.

The assumption of the book is that the doctoral candidate reading it is both eager to write and more than capable of doing so, but nonetheless requires information and guidance on exactly what he or she should be writing and how best to approach the task. The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples.

The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples. PhD Success provides guidance for students familiar with English and the procedures of English universities, but it also acknowledges that many theses in the English language are now written by candidates whose first language is not English, so it carefully explains the scholarly styles, conventions and standards expected of a successful doctoral thesis in the English language.

Individual chapters of this book address reflective and critical writing early in the thesis process; working successfully with thesis supervisors and benefiting from commentary and criticism; drafting and revising effective thesis chapters and developing an academic or scientific argument; writing and formatting a thesis in clear and correct scholarly English; citing, quoting and documenting sources thoroughly and accurately; and preparing for and excelling in thesis meetings and examinations. 

Completing a doctoral thesis successfully requires long and penetrating thought, intellectual rigour and creativity, original research and sound methods (whether established or innovative), precision in recording detail and a wide-ranging thoroughness, as much perseverance and mental toughness as insight and brilliance, and, no matter how many helpful writing guides are consulted, a great deal of hard work over a significant period of time. Writing a thesis can be an enjoyable as well as a challenging experience, however, and even if it is not always so, the personal and professional rewards of achieving such an enormous goal are considerable, as all doctoral candidates no doubt realise, and will last a great deal longer than any problems that may be encountered during the process.

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Rene Tetzner

Rene Tetzner's blog posts dedicated to academic writing. Although the focus is on How To Write a Doctoral Thesis, many other important aspects of research-based writing, editing and publishing are addressed in helpful detail.

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Frequently asked questions

Where do appendices go in an apa style paper.

Appendices in an APA Style paper appear right at the end, after the reference list and after your tables and figures if you’ve also included these at the end.

Frequently asked questions: APA Style

APA footnotes use superscript numbers and should appear in numerical order. You can place footnotes at the bottom of the relevant pages, or on a separate footnotes page at the end:

• For footnotes at the bottom of the page, you can use your word processor to automatically insert footnotes .
• For footnotes at the end of the text in APA, place them on a separate page entitled “Footnotes,” after the r eference page . Indent the first line of each footnote, and double-space them.

For both approaches, place a space between the superscript number and the footnote text.

APA Style requires you to use APA in-text citations , not footnotes, to cite sources .

However, you can use APA footnotes sparingly for two purposes:

• Giving additional information
• Providing copyright attribution

Yes, APA language guidelines state that you should always use the serial comma (aka Oxford comma ) in your writing.

This means including a comma before the word “and” at the end of a list of three or more items: “spelling, grammar, and punctuation.” Doing this consistently tends to make your lists less ambiguous.

Yes, it’s perfectly valid to write sentences in the passive voice . The APA language guidelines do caution against overusing the passive voice, because it can obscure your meaning or be needlessly long-winded. For this reason, default to the active voice in most cases.

The passive voice is most useful when the point of the sentence is just to state what was done, not to emphasize who did it. For example, “The projector was mounted on the wall” is better than “James and I mounted the projector on the wall” if it’s not particularly important who mounted the projector.

Yes, APA language guidelines encourage you to use the first-person pronouns “I” or “we” when referring to yourself or a group including yourself in your writing.

In APA Style, you should not refer to yourself in the third person. For example, do not refer to yourself as “the researcher” or “the author” but simply as “I” or “me.” Referring to yourself in the third person is still common practice in some academic fields, but APA Style rejects this convention.

If you cite several sources by the same author or group of authors, you’ll distinguish between them in your APA in-text citations using the year of publication.

If you cite multiple sources by the same author(s) at the same point , you can just write the author name(s) once and separate the different years with commas, e.g., (Smith, 2020, 2021).

To distinguish between sources with the same author(s) and  the same publication year, add a different lowercase letter after the year for each source, e.g., (Smith, 2020, 2021a, 2021b). Add the same letters to the corresponding reference entries .

According to the APA guidelines, you should report enough detail on inferential statistics so that your readers understand your analyses.

Report the following for each hypothesis test:

• the test statistic value
• the degrees of freedom
• the exact p value (unless it is less than 0.001)
• the magnitude and direction of the effect

You should also present confidence intervals and estimates of effect sizes where relevant.

The number of decimal places to report depends on what you’re reporting. Generally, you should aim to round numbers while retaining precision. It’s best to present fewer decimal digits to aid easy understanding.

Use one decimal place for:

• Standard deviations
• Descriptive statistics based on discrete data

Use two decimal places for:

• Correlation coefficients
• Proportions
• Inferential test statistics such as t values, F values, and chi-squares.

No, including a URL is optional in APA Style reference entries for legal sources (e.g. court cases , laws ). It can be useful to do so to aid the reader in retrieving the source, but it’s not required, since the other information included should be enough to locate it.

Generally, you should identify a law in an APA reference entry by its location in the United States Code (U.S.C.).

But if the law is either spread across various sections of the code or not featured in the code at all, include the public law number in addition to information on the source you accessed the law in, e.g.:

You should report methods using the past tense , even if you haven’t completed your study at the time of writing. That’s because the methods section is intended to describe completed actions or research.

In your APA methods section , you should report detailed information on the participants, materials, and procedures used.

• Describe all relevant participant or subject characteristics, the sampling procedures used and the sample size and power .
• Define all primary and secondary measures and discuss the quality of measurements.
• Specify the data collection methods, the research design and data analysis strategy, including any steps taken to transform the data and statistical analyses.

With APA legal citations, it’s recommended to cite all the reporters (publications reporting cases) in which a court case appears. To cite multiple reporters, just separate them with commas in your reference entry . This is called parallel citation .

Don’t repeat the name of the case, court, or year; just list the volume, reporter, and page number for each citation. For example:

In APA Style , when you’re citing a recent court case that has not yet been reported in print and thus doesn’t have a specific page number, include a series of three underscores (___) where the page number would usually appear:

In APA style, statistics can be presented in the main text or as tables or figures . To decide how to present numbers, you can follow APA guidelines:

• To present three or fewer numbers, try a sentence,
• To present between 4 and 20 numbers, try a table,
• To present more than 20 numbers, try a figure.

Since these are general guidelines, use your own judgment and feedback from others for effective presentation of numbers.

In an APA results section , you should generally report the following:

• Participant flow and recruitment period.
• Missing data and any adverse events.
• Descriptive statistics about your samples.
• Inferential statistics , including confidence intervals and effect sizes.
• Results of any subgroup or exploratory analyses, if applicable.

When citing a podcast episode in APA Style , the podcast’s host is listed as author , accompanied by a label identifying their role, e.g. Glass, I. (Host).

When citing a whole podcast series, if different episodes have different hosts, list the executive producer(s) instead. Again, include a label identifying their role, e.g. Lechtenberg, S. (Producer).

Like most style guides , APA recommends listing the book of the Bible you’re citing in your APA in-text citation , in combination with chapter and verse numbers. For example:

Books of the Bible may be abbreviated to save space; a list of standard abbreviations can be found here . Page numbers are not used in Bible citations.

Yes, in the 7th edition of APA Style , versions of the Bible are treated much like other books ; you should include the edition you used in your reference list .

Previously, in the 6th edition of the APA manual, it was recommended to just use APA 6 in-text citations to refer to the Bible, and omit it from the reference list.

To make it easy for the reader to find the YouTube video , list the person or organization who uploaded the video as the author in your reference entry and APA in-text citation .

If this isn’t the same person responsible for the content of the video, you might want to make this clear in the text. For example:

When you need to highlight a specific moment in a video or audio source, use a timestamp in your APA in-text citation . Just include the timestamp from the start of the part you’re citing. For example:

To include a direct quote in APA , follow these rules:

• Quotes under 40 words are placed in double quotation marks .
• Quotes of 40 words or more are formatted as block quote .
• The author, year, and page number are included in an APA in-text citation .

APA doesn’t require you to include a list of tables or a list of figures . However, it is advisable to do so if your text is long enough to feature a table of contents and it includes a lot of tables and/or figures .

A list of tables and list of figures appear (in that order) after your table of contents, and are presented in a similar way.

Copyright information can usually be found wherever the table or figure was published. For example, for a diagram in a journal article , look on the journal’s website or the database where you found the article. Images found on sites like Flickr are listed with clear copyright information.

If you find that permission is required to reproduce the material, be sure to contact the author or publisher and ask for it.

If you adapt or reproduce a table or figure from another source, you should include that source in your APA reference list . You should also include copyright information in the note for the table or figure, and include an APA in-text citation when you refer to it.

Tables and figures you created yourself, based on your own data, are not included in the reference list.

An APA in-text citation is placed before the final punctuation mark in a sentence.

• The company invested over 40,000 hours in optimizing its algorithm (Davis, 2011) .
• A recent poll suggests that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (Levring, 2018) .

In an APA in-text citation , you use the phrase “ as cited in ” if you want to cite a source indirectly (i.e., if you cannot find the original source).

Parenthetical citation: (Brown, 1829, as cited in Mahone, 2018) Narrative citation: Brown (1829, as cited in Mahone, 2018) states that…

On the reference page , you only include the secondary source (Mahone, 2018).

Popular word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs can order lists in alphabetical order, but they don’t follow the APA Style alphabetization guidelines .

If you use Scribbr’s APA Citation Generator to create citations, references are ordered automatically based on the APA guidelines, taking into account all the exceptions.

Order numerals as though they were spelled out:

• “20 tips to relax” is ordered on the “T” of “Twenty”.
• “100 cities you should visit” is ordered on the “O” of “One hundred”.

Read more about alphabetizing the APA reference page .

If the author of a work is unknown, order the reference by its title. Disregard the words “A”, “An”, and “The” at the beginning of the title.

• The privacy concerns around social media
• Teens, social media, and privacy

Yes, if relevant you can and should include APA in-text citations in your appendices . Use author-date citations as you do in the main text.

Any sources cited in your appendices should appear in your reference list . Do not create a separate reference list for your appendices.

When you include more than one appendix in an APA Style paper , they should be labeled “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” and so on.

When you only include a single appendix, it is simply called “Appendix” and referred to as such in the main text.

An appendix contains information that supplements the reader’s understanding of your research but is not essential to it. For example:

• Interview transcripts
• Questionnaires
• Detailed descriptions of equipment

Something is only worth including as an appendix if you refer to information from it at some point in the text (e.g. quoting from an interview transcript). If you don’t, it should probably be removed.

If you adapt or reproduce a table or figure from another source, you should include that source in your APA reference list . You should also acknowledge the original source in the note or caption for the table or figure.

APA doesn’t require you to include a list of tables or a list of figures . However, it is advisable to do so if your text is long enough to feature a table of contents and it includes a lot of tables and/or figures.

A list of tables and list of figures appear (in that order) after your table of contents , and are presented in a similar way.

In an APA Style paper , use a table or figure when it’s a clearer way to present important data than describing it in your main text. This is often the case when you need to communicate a large amount of information.

Before including a table or figure in your text, always reflect on whether it’s useful to your readers’ understanding:

• Could this information be quickly summarized in the text instead?
• Is it important to your arguments?
• Does the table or figure require too much explanation to be efficient?

If the data you need to present only contains a few relevant numbers, try summarizing it in the text (potentially including full data in an appendix ). If describing the data makes your text overly long and difficult to read, a table or figure may be the best option.

In an APA Style paper , the abstract is placed on a separate page after the title page (page 2).

An APA abstract is around 150–250 words long. However, always check your target journal’s guidelines and don’t exceed the specified word count.

In APA Style , all sources that are not retrievable for the reader are cited as personal communications . In other words, if your source is private or inaccessible to the audience of your paper , it’s a personal communication.

Common examples include conversations, emails, messages, letters, and unrecorded interviews or performances.

Interviews you conducted yourself are not included in your reference list , but instead cited in the text as personal communications .

Published or recorded interviews are included in the reference list. Cite them in the usual format of the source type (for example, a newspaper article , website or YouTube video ).

To cite a public post from social media , use the first 20 words of the post as a title, include the date it was posted and a URL, and mention the author’s username if they have one:

Dorsey, J. [@jack]. (2018, March 1). We’re committing Twitter to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/jack/status/969234275420655616

To cite content from social media that is not publicly accessible (e.g. direct messages, posts from private groups or user profiles), cite it as a personal communication in the text, but do not include it in the reference list :

When contacted online, the minister stated that the project was proceeding “according to plan” (R. James, Twitter direct message, March 25, 2017).

When you quote or paraphrase a specific passage from a source, you need to indicate the location of the passage in your APA in-text citation . If there are no page numbers (e.g. when citing a website ) but the text is long, you can instead use section headings, paragraph numbers, or a combination of the two:

(Caulfield, 2019, Linking section, para. 1).

Section headings can be shortened if necessary. Kindle location numbers should not be used in ebook citations , as they are unreliable.

If you are referring to the source as a whole, it’s not necessary to include a page number or other marker.

When no individual author name is listed, but the source can clearly be attributed to a specific organization—e.g., a press release by a charity, a report by an agency, or a page from a company’s website—use the organization’s name as the author in the reference entry and APA in-text citations .

When no author at all can be determined—e.g. a collaboratively edited wiki or an online article published anonymously—use the title in place of the author. In the in-text citation, put the title in quotation marks if it appears in plain text in the reference list, and in italics if it appears in italics in the reference list. Shorten it if necessary.

APA Style usually does not require an access date. You never need to include one when citing journal articles , e-books , or other stable online sources.

However, if you are citing a website or online article that’s designed to change over time, it’s a good idea to include an access date. In this case, write it in the following format at the end of the reference: Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/about-the-university/about-the-university.html

The 7th edition APA Manual , published in October 2019, is the most current edition. However, the 6th edition, published in 2009, is still used by many universities and journals.

The APA Manual 7th edition can be purchased at Amazon as a hardcover, paperback or spiral-bound version. You can also buy an ebook version at RedShelf .

The American Psychological Association anticipates that most people will start using the 7th edition in the spring of 2020 or thereafter.

It’s best to ask your supervisor or check the website of the journal you want to publish in to see which APA guidelines you should follow.

If you’re citing from an edition other than the first (e.g. a 2nd edition or revised edition), the edition appears in the reference, abbreviated in parentheses after the book’s title (e.g. 2nd ed. or Rev. ed.).

In the 7th edition of the APA manual, no location information is required for publishers. The 6th edition previously required you to include the city and state where the publisher was located, but this is no longer the case.

In an APA reference list , journal article citations include only the year of publication, not the exact date, month, or season.

The inclusion of volume and issue numbers makes a more specific date unnecessary.

In an APA journal citation , if a DOI (digital object identifier) is available for an article, always include it.

If an article has no DOI, and you accessed it through a database or in print, just omit the DOI.

If an article has no DOI, and you accessed it through a website other than a database (for example, the journal’s own website), include a URL linking to the article.

You may include up to 20 authors in a reference list entry .

When an article has more than 20 authors, replace the names prior to the final listed author with an ellipsis, but do not omit the final author:

Davis, Y., Smith, J., Caulfield, F., Pullman, H., Carlisle, J., Donahue, S. D., James, F., O’Donnell, K., Singh, J., Johnson, L., Streefkerk, R., McCombes, S., Corrieri, L., Valck, X., Baldwin, F. M., Lorde, J., Wardell, K., Lao, W., Yang, P., . . . O’Brien, T. (2012).

Include the DOI at the very end of the APA reference entry . If you’re using the 6th edition APA guidelines, the DOI is preceded by the label “doi:”. In the 7th edition , the DOI is preceded by ‘https://doi.org/’.

• 6th edition: doi: 10.1177/0894439316660340
• 7th edition: https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0894439316660340

APA citation example (7th edition)

Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. (2016). The relations among social media addiction, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in university students. Social Science Computer Review , 35 (5), 576–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439316660340

When citing a webpage or online article , the APA in-text citation consists of the author’s last name and year of publication. For example: (Worland & Williams, 2015). Note that the author can also be an organization. For example: (American Psychological Association, 2019).

If you’re quoting you should also include a locator. Since web pages don’t have page numbers, you can use one of the following options:

• Paragraph number: (Smith, 2018, para. 15).
• Heading or section name: ( CDC, 2020, Flu Season section)
• Abbreviated heading:  ( CDC, 2020, “Key Facts” section)

Always include page numbers in the APA in-text citation when quoting a source . Don’t include page numbers when referring to a work as a whole – for example, an entire book or journal article.

If your source does not have page numbers, you can use an alternative locator such as a timestamp, chapter heading or paragraph number.

Instead of the author’s name, include the first few words of the work’s title in the in-text citation. Enclose the title in double quotation marks when citing an article, web page or book chapter. Italicize the title of periodicals, books, and reports.

No publication date

If the publication date is unknown , use “n.d.” (no date) instead. For example: (Johnson, n.d.).

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (meaning “and others”) is used to shorten APA in-text citations with three or more authors . Here’s how it works:

Only include the first author’s last name, followed by “et al.”, a comma and the year of publication, for example (Taylor et al., 2018).

APA Style papers should be written in a font that is legible and widely accessible. For example:

• Times New Roman (12pt.)
• Arial (11pt.)
• Calibri (11pt.)
• Georgia (11pt.)

The same font and font size is used throughout the document, including the running head , page numbers, headings , and the reference page . Text in footnotes and figure images may be smaller and use single line spacing.

The easiest way to set up APA format in Word is to download Scribbr’s free APA format template for student papers or professional papers.

Alternatively, you can watch Scribbr’s 5-minute step-by-step tutorial or check out our APA format guide with examples.

You need an APA in-text citation and reference entry . Each source type has its own format; for example, a webpage citation is different from a book citation .

Use Scribbr’s free APA Citation Generator to generate flawless citations in seconds or take a look at our APA citation examples .

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

Yes, page numbers are included on all pages, including the title page , table of contents , and reference page . Page numbers should be right-aligned in the page header.

To insert page numbers in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, click ‘Insert’ and then ‘Page number’.

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Thesis and Dissertation Guide

• « Thesis & Dissertation Resources
• The Graduate School Home

• Introduction

Copyright Page

Dedication, acknowledgements, preface (optional), table of contents.

• List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

List of symbols.

• Non-Traditional Formats
• Font Type and Size
• Spacing and Indentation
• Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
• Formatting Previously Published Work
• Internet Distribution
• Open Access
• Registering Copyright
• Using Copyrighted Materials
• Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials
• Submission Steps
• Submission Checklist
• Sample Pages

I. Order and Components

Please see the sample thesis or dissertation pages throughout and at the end of this document for illustrations. The following order is required for components of your thesis or dissertation:

• Dedication, Acknowledgements, and Preface (each optional)
• Table of Contents, with page numbers
• List of Tables, List of Figures, or List of Illustrations, with titles and page numbers (if applicable)
• List of Abbreviations (if applicable)
• List of Symbols (if applicable)
• Introduction, if any
• Main body, with consistent subheadings as appropriate
• Appendices (if applicable)
• Endnotes (if applicable)
• References (see section on References for options)

Many of the components following the title and copyright pages have required headings and formatting guidelines, which are described in the following sections.

Please consult the Sample Pages to compare your document to the requirements. A Checklist is provided to assist you in ensuring your thesis or dissertation meets all formatting guidelines.

The title page of a thesis or dissertation must include the following information:

• The title of the thesis or dissertation in all capital letters and centered 2″ below the top of the page.
• Your name, centered 1″ below the title. Do not include titles, degrees, or identifiers. The name you use here does not need to exactly match the name on your university records, but we recommend considering how you will want your name to appear in professional publications in the future.

Notes on this statement:

• When indicating your degree in the second bracketed space, use the full degree name (i.e., Doctor of Philosophy, not Ph.D. or PHD; Master of Public Health, not M.P.H. or MPH; Master of Social Work, not M.S.W. or MSW).
• List your department, school, or curriculum rather than your subject area or specialty discipline in the third bracketed space. You may include your subject area or specialty discipline in parentheses (i.e., Department of Romance Languages (French); School of Pharmacy (Molecular Pharmaceutics); School of Education (School Psychology); or similar official area).
• If you wish to include both your department and school names, list the school at the end of the statement (i.e., Department of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine).
• A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Public Policy.
• A thesis submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the School of Dentistry (Endodontics).
• A thesis submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Department of Nutrition in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
• A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education (Cultural Studies and Literacies).
• The words “Chapel Hill” must be centered 1″ below the statement.
• One single-spaced line below that, center the year in which your committee approves the completed thesis or dissertation. This need not be the year you graduate.
• Approximately 2/3 of the way across the page on the right-hand side of the page, 1″ below the year, include the phrase “Approved by:” (with colon) followed by each faculty member's name on subsequent double-spaced lines. Do not include titles such as Professor, Doctor, Dr., PhD, or any identifiers such as “chair” or “advisor” before or after any names. Line up the first letter of each name on the left under the “A” in the “Approved by:” line. If a name is too long to fit on one line, move this entire section of text slightly to the left so that formatting can be maintained.
• No signatures, signature lines, or page numbers should be included on the title page.

Include a copyright page with the following information single-spaced and centered 2″ above the bottom of the page:

© Year Author's Full Name (as it appears on the title page) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This page immediately follows the title page. It should be numbered with the lower case Roman numeral ii centered with a 1/2″ margin from the bottom edge.

Inclusion of this page offers you, as the author, additional protection against copyright infringement as it eliminates any question of authorship and copyright ownership. You do not need to file for copyright in order to include this statement in your thesis or dissertation. However, filing for copyright can offer other protections.

See Section IV for more information on copyrighting your thesis or dissertation.

Include an abstract page following these guidelines:

• Include the heading “ABSTRACT” in all capital letters, and center it 2″ below the top of the page.
• One double-spaced line below “ABSTRACT”, center your name, followed by a colon and the title of the thesis or dissertation. Use as many lines as necessary. Be sure that your name and the title exactly match the name and title used on the Title page.
• One single-spaced line below the title, center the phrase “(Under the direction of [advisor's name])”. Include the phrase in parentheses. Include the first and last name(s) of your advisor or formal co-advisors. Do not include the name of other committee members. Use the advisor's name only; do not include any professional titles such as PhD, Professor, or Dr. or any identifiers such as “chair” or “advisor”.
• Skip one double-spaced line and begin the abstract. The text of your abstract must be double-spaced and aligned with the document's left margin with the exception of indenting new paragraphs. Do not center or right-justify the abstract.
• Abstracts cannot exceed 150 words for a thesis or 350 words for a dissertation.
• Number the abstract page with the lower case Roman numeral iii (and iv, if more than one page) centered with a 1/2″ margin from the bottom edge.

Please write and proofread your abstract carefully. When possible, avoid including symbols or foreign words in your abstract, as they cannot be indexed or searched. Avoid mathematical formulas, diagrams, and other illustrative materials in the abstract. Offer a brief description of your thesis or dissertation and a concise summary of its conclusions. Be sure to describe the subject and focus of your work with clear details and avoid including lengthy explanations or opinions.

Your title and abstract will be used by search engines to help potential audiences locate your work, so clarity will help to draw the attention of your targeted readers.

You have an option to include a dedication, acknowledgements, or preface. If you choose to include any or all of these elements, give each its own page(s).

A dedication is a message from the author prefixed to a work in tribute to a person, group, or cause. Most dedications are short statements of tribute beginning with “To…” such as “To my family”.

Acknowledgements are the author's statement of gratitude to and recognition of the people and institutions that helped the author's research and writing.

A preface is a statement of the author's reasons for undertaking the work and other personal comments that are not directly germane to the materials presented in other sections of the thesis or dissertation. These reasons tend to be of a personal nature.

Any of the pages must be prepared following these guidelines:

• Do not place a heading on the dedication page.
• The text of short dedications must be centered and begin 2″ from the top of the page.
• Headings are required for the “ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS” and “PREFACE” pages. Headings must be in all capital letters and centered 2″ below the top of the page.
• The text of the acknowledgements and preface pages must begin one double-spaced line below the heading, be double-spaced, and be aligned with the document's left margin with the exception of indenting new paragraphs.
• Subsequent pages of text return to the 1″ top margin.
• The page(s) must be numbered with consecutive lower case Roman numerals (starting with the page number after the abstract) centered with a 1/2″ margin from the bottom edge.

Include a table of contents following these guidelines:

• Include the heading “TABLE OF CONTENTS” in all capital letters, and center it 2″ below the top of the page.
• Include one double-spaced line between the heading and the first entry.
• The table of contents should not contain listings for the pages that precede it, but it must list all parts of the thesis or dissertation that follow it.
• If relevant, be sure to list all appendices and a references section in your table of contents. Include page numbers for these items but do not assign separate chapter numbers.
• Entries must align with the document's left margin or be indented to the right of the left page margin using consistent tabs.
• Major subheadings within chapters must be included in the table of contents. The subheading(s) should be indented to the right of the left page margin using consistent tabs.
• If an entry takes up more than one line, break up the entry about three-fourths of the way across the page and place the rest of the text on a second line, single-spacing the two lines.
• Include one double-spaced line between each entry.
• Page numbers listed in the table of contents must be located just inside the right page margin with leaders (lines of periods) filling out the space between the end of the entry and the page number. The last digit of each number must line up on the right margin.
• Information included in the table of contents must match the headings, major subheadings, and numbering used in the body of the thesis or dissertation.
• The Table of Contents page(s) must be numbered with consecutive lower case Roman numerals centered with a 1/2″ margin from the bottom edge.

Lists of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations

If applicable, include a list of tables, list of figures, and/or list of illustrations following these guidelines:

• Include the heading(s) in all capital letters, centered 1″ below the top of the page.
• Each entry must include a number, title, and page number.
• Assign each table, figure, or illustration in your thesis or dissertation an Arabic numeral. You may number consecutively throughout the entire work (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.), or you may assign a two-part Arabic numeral with the first number designating the chapter in which it appears, separated by a period, followed by a second number to indicate its consecutive placement in the chapter (e.g., Table 3.2 is the second table in Chapter Three).
• Numerals and titles must align with the document's left margin or be indented to the right of the left page margin using consistent tabs.
• Page numbers must be located just inside the right page margin with leaders (lines of periods) filling out the space between the end of the entry and the page number. The last digit of each number must line up on the right margin.
• Numbers, titles, and page numbers must each match the corresponding numbers, titles, and page numbers appearing in the thesis or dissertation.
• All Lists of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations page(s) must be numbered with consecutive lower case Roman numerals centered with a 1/2″ margin from the bottom edge.

If you use abbreviations extensively in your thesis or dissertation, you must include a list of abbreviations and their corresponding definitions following these guidelines:

• Include the heading “LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS” in all capital letters, and center it 1″ below the top of the page.
• Arrange your abbreviations alphabetically.
• Abbreviations must align with the document's left margin or be indented to the right of the left page margin using consistent tabs.
• If an entry takes up more than one line, single-space between the two lines.
• The List of Abbreviations page(s) must be numbered with consecutive lower case Roman numerals centered with a 1/2″ margin from the bottom edge.

If you use symbols in your thesis or dissertation, you may combine them with your abbreviations, titling the section “LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS”, or you may set up a separate list of symbols and their definitions by following the formatting instructions above for abbreviations. The heading you choose must be in all capital letters and centered 1″ below the top of the page.

Previous: Introduction

Next: Format

• SCU Library
• Library guides
• Referencing Guides

Harvard Referencing Guide

Appendix guidelines.

• An appendix (plural appendices) contain material that belongs with your paper, rather than in it. They go at the very end of your paper, after your reference list.
• The appendix can include text, tables, figures, or a combination of these.
• Each appendix starts on a separate page.
• If you have one appendix in your assessment, label the section, Appendix. If there are two or more, label each appendix with a capital letter (e.g. Appendix A, Appendix B etc).
• … showed higher participation rates (see Appendix A).
• As shown in Appendix B, the results …
• If you have written the appendix and used outside materials, just insert the citations in the text of your appendix as normal, and include the full reference in the main reference list for your paper.
• << Previous: Reference list
• Next: Books >>
• Last Updated: Mar 5, 2024 8:33 PM
• URL: https://libguides.scu.edu.au/harvard

Southern Cross University acknowledges and pays respect to the ancestors, Elders and descendants of the Lands upon which we meet and study. We are mindful that within and without the buildings, these Lands always were and always will be Aboriginal Land.

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• Writing Tips

The Appendix (How to Use One in an Essay)

2-minute read

• 30th March 2017

The appendices in an essay are not typically essential, but they can play an important supporting role. Not everyone knows how to use an appendix in academic writing , though, so we’ve prepared this handy guide.

What Is an Appendix?

An appendix (plural: appendices ) is a section at the end of a book or essay containing details that aren’t essential to your work, but which could provide useful context or background material.

In the main body of your essay, you should indicate when you’re referring to an appendix by citing it in parentheses. For example:

The interviews show that most people like ice cream (see Appendix C).

What Should Go in the Appendices?

Appendices can include many things depending on your topic. Common examples of information added to an appendix include:

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• Raw data from tests
• Technical figures, graphs or tables
• Maps, charts or images
• Letters or emails used in research
• Sample questionnaires or surveys
• Full interview transcripts

What these have in common is that you might need to refer to them in an essay without going into too much detail. For example, you might summarise the results of a test in the ‘Results’ section of a dissertation, then include the full data in appendices to ensure clarity.

How to Format Appendices

Exactly how to format appendices can vary between universities, so you should always check your style guide. Generally, though, appendices should:

• Appear at the end of your document, often after the reference list
• Be divided into sections depending on topic (e.g. separate sections for questionnaire results and interview transcripts)
• Have each appendix section start on a new page
• Be labelled with a letter or number, along with a title clarifying content (Appendix A: Instrument Diagrams, Appendix B: Test Results, etc.)
• Appear in the table of contents at the beginning of your document

Are Appendices Included in the Word Count?

Appendices are not usually included in the word count for an essay. Consequently, you can focus on key information in your work and place extra data in an appendix without worrying about the word count.

However, you should always check your style guide on this. And remember that if you rely on something in your main essay, it needs to be included there: you can’t just shuffle it into the appendices to reduce the word count !

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Important changes to our services. find out more, q. does an appendix go before or after the references/bibliography.

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Answered By: Digital Library Services Team Last Updated: Oct 06, 2016     Views: 7952

The appendix goes after the references/bibliography.

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