# Coventry University referencing: APA 7 and CU Harvard guide

**Which referencing style does Coventry University use?** Coventry University uses APA 7th edition for most students and OSCOLA, 5th edition, for law. Its own CU Harvard style is only for students who began their course before 1 September 2020. In Coventry's APA, et al. starts at three authors in the text, every author up to 20 is listed, and only pages that change regularly take a retrieval date.

Published 2026-10-02 by EdCitation. https://edcitation.com/newsletter/referencing-at-coventry-university

Coventry University references in APA 7th edition. Law students use OSCOLA, and the university's own Harvard variant, CU Harvard, now applies only to students whose course began before 1 September 2020. If you searched for Coventry University Harvard referencing, check your start date first: for most courses the answer is APA.

We read each Coventry page cited here on 2 October 2026: the library's APA guide, A–Z, quick guide, sample essay and switch guide, and the 2017 CU Harvard guide from the Centre for Academic Writing (CAW). EdCitation is not affiliated with Coventry University; this follows its public library guide, checked on 2 October 2026.

This guide comes from EdCitation. Its closing sections test our free [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) and [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) on sources a Coventry student would cite, and print what came back, slips and all.

## Which referencing style does Coventry University use?

APA 7th edition, unless you study law or began before September 2020. Centre for Academic Writing (2026) names APA 7th as the university's main style, and the switch guide, Coventry University Library (2023b), settles each case:

| Who you are | Style | Page it comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Course started on or after 1 September 2020 | APA 7th edition, required | Which style should I use? |
| Course started before 1 September 2020 | CU Harvard or APA 7th, one style per assignment | Which style should I use? |
| Law | OSCOLA, 5th edition since 1 September 2026 | OSCOLA guide |
| PhD | Ask your supervisor; APA 7th as the fall-back | Which style should I use? |
| Coventry University London | APA 7th edition | Which style should I use? |
| Building an APA entry from a DOI or a web page | [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa), free | EdCitation |

The library's OSCOLA guide, Coventry University Library (2026d), dates the move to the 5th edition. OSCOLA is not one of the six styles EdCitation's Cite a source produces, so Coventry law students write their footnotes from the library's OSCOLA pages. How other UK universities divide their styles is in [referencing at UK universities](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/referencing-at-uk-universities).

### Can you still use CU Harvard?

Only if your course began before 1 September 2020: the library's CU Harvard site says the guide "should only be used by returning students" (Coventry University Library, 2026b). The switch guide expected taught students to have "largely phased out" Harvard by August 2023, and keeps it online for part-time PhD students, who may finish a thesis begun in it. You may move to APA at any time, but never mix the two in one assignment.

## What are Coventry's APA 7 rules?

Coventry follows the APA *Publication Manual*, 7th edition. Its Introduction to Referencing page, Coventry University Library (2026c), and its A–Z, Coventry University Library (2026a), add the detail:

| Rule | Coventry's form | Page it comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| In the text | (Tuccitto, 2017) or Launer (2022) | Introduction |
| Page numbers | p. or pp.; always for a quotation, and suggested for a paraphrase unless your module leader says otherwise | Introduction |
| Two authors | & in brackets, "and" in a sentence, a comma before & in the list | Introduction |
| Et al. | From three authors, with a plural verb: Willey et al. (2023) compare | Introduction |
| Authors in the list | All of them up to 20; with 21 or more, names one to 19, three dots, the final name | Introduction |
| Capitals | Sentence case and italics for books, reports and web pages; journal names in title case | Introduction; sentence case FAQ |
| DOI | A link, https://doi.org/…; no link for a database article without one | A–Z: Journal articles |
| Retrieval date | Only for a page that changes, before the address: Retrieved February 28, 2025, from | A–Z: Websites |
| Secondary source | (Tang, 2005, as cited in Khan, 2024); only Khan in the list | Introduction |
| Lecture slides | [PowerPoint slides]. Aula. with the Aula home page link | A–Z: Lectures |
| Generative AI | Only with permission: OpenAI. (2024). *ChatGPT* (Apr 30 version) [Large language model]. | A–Z: AI |
| UK legislation | Human Rights Act 1998, with no brackets and no link | A–Z: Acts of Parliament |
| Starting point | [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa), with the hand changes listed further down | EdCitation |

There is no "Available at:" and no accessed date for a stable page: those belong to Harvard. [APA 7 in-text citations](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/apa-7-in-text-citations) covers citing in the sentence at greater length.

### Where Coventry's examples drift from its rules

Follow the rule, not the example, in five places:

- **Retrieval dates.** The tip asks for Month Day, Year; the London Stock Exchange example prints "Retrieved 28 March, 2024".
- **Page ranges.** Hyphens in the A–Z (95-117), en dashes on the introduction page (203–234). Keep one.
- **Subtitles.** The FAQ capitalises the first word after a colon (Coventry University Library, 2026e); the sample essay prints "Strategies for mitigation of climate change: a review" (Coventry University Library, n.d.).
- **The comma before &.** Required even for two authors, yet the data set example reads "Leland, J. & Kickstarter".
- **Initials.** The report example names "Russell, H., & E. Smyth, E.", one initial too many.

## How is CU Harvard different, for students who began before September 2020?

CU Harvard is the CAW's own variant, set out in its 2017 guide, version 4.0 (Centre for Academic Writing, 2017). It differs from APA, and from Cite Them Right Harvard, mainly in punctuation. Page numbers are the guide's printed ones:

| Rule | CU Harvard form | Page |
| --- | --- | --- |
| In the text | (Wikes 2006), with no comma | 9 |
| Page numbers | After a colon: (Wikes 2006: 19-20) | 9 |
| Et al. | More than three authors, in the text only; the list names everyone | 10, 20 |
| Book | Dudley, P. R. (2001) *Wavelets in Computing: An Efficient Means of Conducting Research*. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press | 18 |
| Online source | [online] after the title, then available from, the address in angle brackets and the access date in square brackets: [20 July 2006] | 24–25 |
| DOI | DOI: 10.1111/cico.12002 | 24 |
| End of each entry | No full stop | 8, 34 |

Article titles go in single quotation marks followed by a full stop, and the guide's examples capitalise every main word. Chen and Pang's article, set like the guide's DOI example:

> Chen, H. and Pang, N. (2022) ‘Sustaining the Ecosystem of Higher Education in China: Perspectives from Young Researchers’. *Perspectives in Education* 40(3), 95-117. DOI: 10.18820/2519593X/pie.v40.i3.7

Starting from the Cite Them Right entry that EdCitation's [Harvard](https://edcitation.com/cite/harvard) produces, raise the capitals, make the comma after the title a full stop, delete "pp." and the comma after the journal, write "DOI: " for "Available at: https://doi.org/", and drop the final full stop.

## What does a Coventry APA reference list look like?

Here are four real sources in Coventry's APA form, the citations first:

> O’Connor (2020) examines skateboarding and religion. Chen and Pang (2022) report young researchers' perspectives on sustaining higher education in China, and a Global Burden of Disease analysis projects diabetes prevalence to 2050 (Ong et al., 2023). Students who spend most of the year at their university address should register with a GP near it (NHS, 2026).

**Reference list**

> Chen, H., & Pang, N. (2022). Sustaining the ecosystem of higher education in China: Perspectives from young researchers. *Perspectives in Education, 40*(3), 95–117. https://doi.org/10.18820/2519593X/pie.v40.i3.7
>
> NHS. (2026, August 13). *Getting medical care as a student*. https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/getting-medical-care-as-a-student/
>
> O’Connor, P. (2020). *Skateboarding and religion*. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4
>
> Ong, K. L., Stafford, L. K., McLaughlin, S. A., Boyko, E. J., Vollset, S. E., Smith, A. E., Dalton, B. E., Duprey, J., Cruz, J. A., Hagins, H., Lindstedt, P. A., Aali, A., Abate, Y. H., Abate, M. D., Abbasian, M., Abbasi-Kangevari, Z., Abbasi-Kangevari, M., Abd ElHafeez, S., Abd-Rabu, R., . . . Vos, T. (2023). Global, regional, and national burden of diabetes from 1990 to 2021, with projections of prevalence to 2050: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. *The Lancet, 402*(10397), 203–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01301-6

### What each entry shows

- **Chen and Pang:** one initial each, as the journal's page names them; Coventry's example prints two.
- **Ong et al.:** 795 authors in the publisher's record, so 19, three dots and the last. Coventry's own example lists a different nineteen and ends with Belete, M. A., not the record's last author, Vos, T.

## Which EdCitation style matches Coventry's APA, and what needs fixing by hand?

APA 7, the same edition Coventry teaches, so most entries from EdCitation's [APA style](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) need nothing. On 2 October 2026 these needed fixing by hand:

| What Cite a source gave | What Coventry's APA wants |
| --- | --- |
| … (one ellipsis character) before the last of 21 or more authors | Three spaced full stops, . . ., as Coventry prints them |
| NHS website. … nhs.uk. | NHS, entered in the form, with no site name |
| Springer International Publishing, for O’Connor | Palgrave Macmillan, the imprint Coventry's example names |
| (2023) for Coventry's Benitez and López-Fidalgo article, its online date | (2024), the print issue's year, as the A–Z has it |

## What did EdCitation's tools return on Coventry's sources?

For a Coventry reference list, EdCitation is the best tool there is, since every entry begins as the publisher's record of the work and nothing is composed; a chatbot cannot promise that. It matters here because Coventry's quick guide leaves accuracy to the student: whatever made the references, "it is your responsibility" (Coventry University Library, 2023a). Paste a DOI, a PubMed ID, an ISBN, a title or a page's address into [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) and the reference returns ready-made in any of six styles, APA 7 included, with a check for retraction; it is free, and nobody has to sign up. The writing is never EdCitation's: its work is finding, citing and checking sources, and the essay stays wholly the student's own.

### Four sources through Cite a source

For 10.18820/2519593X/pie.v40.i3.7, APA 7 returned:

> Chen, H., & Pang, N. (2022). Sustaining the ecosystem of higher education in China: Perspectives from young researchers. *Perspectives in Education*, *40*(3), 95–117. https://doi.org/10.18820/2519593X/pie.v40.i3.7

Nothing to change. For the Lancet DOI it gave the record's first 19 names, ending "Abd-Rabu, R., … Vos, T. (2023).", with everything else correct: only the dots change. For the book DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4:

> O’Connor, P. (2020). *Skateboarding and religion*. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4

Replace the publisher with the imprint. For the NHS page's address, the details read from the page gave:

> NHS website. (2026, August 13). *Getting medical care as a student*. nhs.uk. https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/getting-medical-care-as-a-student/

With NHS entered as author and site in the form, it became the worked example's entry. None of the four was flagged as retracted.

### Verify references on Coventry's own lists

The library's sample essay says some of its information was invented for the demonstration. We pasted its twelve references, unchanged, into [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references). Nine came back verified, such as Fried (2022): "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." The others:

- **Department for Solar Power (2023), the invented report:** "could not check": "The page at this address did not answer. Check it in a browser." EdCitation never shows that as "not found".
- **Dessler (2022), 3rd edition:** "check this": "A record with this title exists, but it was published in 2011, not 2022." It matched a 2011 record of an earlier edition, not the third: our fault. Check the year on the copyright page.
- **Robock (2020) in *The Bridge*:** "not found": "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference." The article is real; we found no DOI for it.

Seven A–Z entries went in next. Five were verified, Ong among them. Russell and Smyth drew "check this": "The publisher's record lists ESRI first, and your entry opens with Russell. Check the order of the authors." The record does list the institute as an author, but the entry's real slip, "E. Smyth, E.", went unflagged. Mankiw and Taylor's *Economics* could not be checked.

Coventry's introduction page asks that every in-text citation match an entry in the list. On Pro, $8 a month ([pricing](https://edcitation.com/pricing)), [References from a file](https://edcitation.com/tools/references-from-a-file) takes the uploaded paper and pairs each citation with its entry.

## How do you reference at Coventry, step by step?

1. Work out your style from the date your course began. If the brief names a style, EdCitation's free [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check) pulls that rule, with the brief's other requirements, into a checklist.
2. For each journal article, book or web page, run its DOI, ISBN or address through [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) on APA 7.
3. Fix what the table of hand changes lists, add lecture slides, AI output and legislation from Coventry's A–Z templates, and put a page number on every quotation.
4. Paste the whole list into [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references). Compare each "check this" with the source itself, and open every "could not check" address in your browser.
5. Bring anything left over to a library referencing workshop or a CAW single-question drop-in (Centre for Academic Writing, 2026).

## Quick questions

### What referencing style does Coventry University use?

APA 7th edition for most courses, and OSCOLA, 5th edition, for law. CU Harvard is only for courses begun before 1 September 2020.

### How is CU Harvard different from Cite Them Right?

In punctuation: no comma before the year, a colon before the page, "[online] available from" with the address in angle brackets and the access date in square brackets, and no final full stop.

### When does et al. start in Coventry's APA?

At three authors, in the text only. In the reference list, write out all authors up to 20; with 21 or more, give names one to 19, three dots and the final name.

### Do Coventry APA references need an accessed date?

Only a page that changes regularly, such as a share price, takes "Retrieved" and a date before the address. A stable page and a DOI take none.

### Can EdCitation build Coventry APA references?

Yes, for published sources: [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) takes APA 7 entries from the publisher's record; check the imprint, a web page's author and the dots in a list of 21 or more authors. It does not build OSCOLA.

## References

- Centre for Academic Writing. (2017). *The Coventry University guide to referencing in Harvard style: Guidelines and glossary* (Version 4.0) [PDF]. Coventry University. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=33326810](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=33326810)
- Centre for Academic Writing. (2026). *Referencing support*. CAW LibGuides at Coventry University. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/CAWhomepage/referencingsupport](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/CAWhomepage/referencingsupport)
- Chen, H., & Pang, N. (2022). Sustaining the ecosystem of higher education in China: Perspectives from young researchers. *Perspectives in Education, 40*(3), 95–117. [https://doi.org/10.18820/2519593X/pie.v40.i3.7](https://doi.org/10.18820/2519593X/pie.v40.i3.7)
- Coventry University Library. (n.d.). *Example of essay using APA* [Word document]. Referencing in APA. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=35398802](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=35398802)
- Coventry University Library. (2023a). *APA quick referencing guide* [PDF]. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=35298201](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=35298201)
- Coventry University Library. (2023b). *Which style should I use?* Changes to referencing at Coventry University Group. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/c.php?g=680766&p=4866978](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/c.php?g=680766&p=4866978)
- Coventry University Library. (2026a). *A–Z referencing examples*. Referencing in APA. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/apa/AZ](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/apa/AZ)
- Coventry University Library. (2026b). *The CU guide to referencing in Harvard style website*. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/cuharvard](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/cuharvard)
- Coventry University Library. (2026c). *Introduction to referencing*. Referencing in APA. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/apa/Intro](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/apa/Intro)
- Coventry University Library. (2026d). *OSCOLA*. [https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/oscola](https://libguides.coventry.ac.uk/oscola)
- Coventry University Library. (2026e). *What are sentence case and title case?* Coventry University Libraries: Ask Us. [https://libanswers.coventry.ac.uk/faq/289802](https://libanswers.coventry.ac.uk/faq/289802)
- NHS. (2026, August 13). *Getting medical care as a student*. [https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/getting-medical-care-as-a-student/](https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/getting-medical-care-as-a-student/)
- O’Connor, P. (2020). *Skateboarding and religion*. Palgrave Macmillan. [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4)
- Ong, K. L., Stafford, L. K., McLaughlin, S. A., Boyko, E. J., Vollset, S. E., Smith, A. E., Dalton, B. E., Duprey, J., Cruz, J. A., Hagins, H., Lindstedt, P. A., Aali, A., Abate, Y. H., Abate, M. D., Abbasian, M., Abbasi-Kangevari, Z., Abbasi-Kangevari, M., Abd ElHafeez, S., Abd-Rabu, R., . . . Vos, T. (2023). Global, regional, and national burden of diabetes from 1990 to 2021, with projections of prevalence to 2050: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. *The Lancet, 402*(10397), 203–234. [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01301-6](https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01301-6)