Round brackets (parentheses).
Abbreviating a term within the text:
The abbreviation must be written out in full the first time.
Example:
First time: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a term used to encompass several conditions...
Second time: One of the symptoms of COPD is breathlessness.
NOTE: Abbreviations should generally only be used for recognised terms and must be able to be understood by the reader.
(APA manual, 2020, p. 189)
Abbreviating the author in a citation within the text:
When abbreviating a group author within the text, the abbreviation is placed with the year in round brackets.
Example:
"Ministry of Health, 2019 states that ..." becomes "Ministry of Health (MoH, 2019) states that..."
(APA manual, 2020, p. 268)
Square brackets
Abbreviating a term within the in-text citation:
Square brackets are used to abbreviate groups or corporate authors or to add information within citations.
First use includes both the full name and the abbreviation.
Example: Health in New Zealand is delivered by a complex set of groups (Ministry of Health [MOH], 2019).
Second and subsequent citations use the abbreviation only.
Example: These groups include 20 local boards (MOH, 2016).
Note: In the reference list, the group or corporate author are written out in full.
(APA manual, 2020, p. 160).
Example:
(Weller, 2009)
Weller, B. F. (Ed.). (2009). Bailliere's nurses dictionary: For nurses and health care workers (25th ed.). Elsevier.
(APA manual, 2020, p. 324).
When the work is being regularly updated (unstable), use n.d. as the publication date and include the retrieval date.
If the work is stable, omit the retrieval date.
Unstable example:
(Merriam-Webster, n.d.).
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from https://www.merriam-
webster.com/
Stable example:
Note: Include the source of the material
(Salta, 2019).
Salta, E. N. (Ed.). (2019). The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Summer 2019 ed.). Stanford University.
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/
(APA manual, 2020, p. 324).