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).
Here is a selection of Academic Writing guides to assist you with Referencing
A really useful resource for checking difficult references is the American Psychological Association APA Blog.
Click on this link http://blog.apastyle.org/ and type your query in the search bar on the top right of the page.