Curtin University leaves the choice of referencing style to each unit. The Library's UniSkills referencing hub lists five guides, APA 7th, Chicago 18th Author-Date, AGLC, IEEE and Vancouver, and the Library tells students to check the unit outline for the style they must use. Harvard is not among the five.
EdCitation is not affiliated with Curtin University; this follows its public library guide, checked on 2 October 2026. Our guide to referencing at Australian universities sets Curtin beside nine others. EdCitation publishes this guide; near the end, Curtin's own examples go through its free Cite a source and Verify references, with the results quoted.
Which referencing style does Curtin University use?
Whichever one your unit outline sets. Curtin University Library (n.d.-o) lists five styles but no faculty table; each style's introduction says where it is mostly used, as gathered here.
| Style | Built on | Curtin's description of where it is used | Curtin page |
|---|---|---|---|
| APA 7th | Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition | "Many subject areas" | Curtin University Library (n.d.-d) |
| Chicago 18th Author-Date | Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition | "A broad range of subject areas" | Curtin University Library (n.d.-j) |
| AGLC 4 | Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th edition | Law, in footnotes | Curtin University Library (n.d.-a) |
| IEEE | The IEEE's own referencing guide | Electrical engineering, computer science and other technical fields | Curtin University Library (n.d.-l) |
| Vancouver | AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition | Medical fields | Curtin University Library (n.d.-q) |
What the law page and the printable guides add
No Curtin page we found assigns a style to a faculty or school. The law page in the Library's Research Toolkit says to check the unit outline for the style you must use, explains AGLC, and adds that non-law units may ask for another style (Curtin University Library, n.d.-n). Each style's introduction tells anyone publishing a journal article or PhD thesis to follow the official manual, since Curtin's examples are written for assessments.
Each guide also comes as a printable PDF; Curtin University Library (2026) dates the 70-page APA 7th one 16 July 2026, with the same sections as the web pages. The Chicago guide covers author-date only and sends anyone told to use footnotes to the Chicago Manual of Style's own quick guide (Curtin University Library, n.d.-j). EdCitation builds neither Chicago notes nor AGLC; both are written by hand.
Is there a Curtin Harvard referencing style?
No. Harvard is not among the hub's five styles (Curtin University Library, n.d.-o), so a search for "Curtin Harvard referencing" finds no Curtin rulebook. If a unit outline asks for Harvard, ask the unit coordinator which version, with an example to copy. EdCitation's Harvard follows Cite Them Right (see our Harvard referencing guide); Australian versions differ in punctuation and author lists.
What does Curtin's APA 7th guide ask for?
Curtin teaches APA 7th from the Publication Manual, 7th edition, for assessments, adding Australian material the manual leaves out; see also APA 7 in-text citations.
Citing in your sentences
Curtin University Library (n.d.-c) sets these:
- Three or more authors: the first surname and et al. every time, (Thomas et al., 2018).
- Two authors joined by "and" in your sentence but "&" in brackets, as the examples show.
- A group author's short form, introduced once as (World Health Organization [WHO], 2018) and used alone after that: (WHO, 2018).
- First authors who share a surname keep their initials in every citation, (B. Johnson, 2017), even across different years.
- A source quoted in another: "as cited in" with the page of the source you read, and only that source in the list.
- A quotation takes a page or another locator: "para.", a section name, a timestamp (1:55:51) or a slide number, (Richardson, 2015, slide 9). Over 40 words, an indented block quotation without quotation marks, cited after the final full stop.
Setting out the list
Curtin University Library (n.d.-h) asks for:
- Up to 20 authors, all named with "&" before the last; 21 or more, names 1 to 19, an ellipsis, then the last name, and no "&".
- Sentence case for titles, except journal names, which take headline capitals.
- A DOI written as https://doi.org/…, or the URL when there is none, as live links or plain text but the same throughout.
- A new page headed "References", bold and centred, double spaced throughout, each entry hanging 1.27 cm.
- Works by one author in one year lettered by title (2014a, 2014b); undated works as n.d.-a and n.d.-b, placed before the dated ones.
Habits in Curtin's examples
Three habits show only in the examples. Page ranges take a plain hyphen, 799-813, in all but one APA example we read; the guide states no rule on the dash. A Library ebook keeps its Ebook Central address, as in Curtin's Social psychology example (Curtin University Library, n.d.-b). For a web page, a site's copyright year is never the page's date, a "last updated" date may be used, the site name goes when it repeats the author, and a retrieval date is added only for changing content such as a Wikipedia entry (Curtin University Library, n.d.-i).
Australian law, Indigenous Knowledges and AI
- Acts and cases. Curtin notes that the APA manual does not cover Australian legal materials and adapts AGLC instead: Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA) followed by the URL, and cases as Shea v. News Ltd. (2015) WASC 1 (Curtin University Library, n.d.-f).
- Indigenous Knowledges. Knowledge shared directly by an Indigenous person, used with permission, is cited as a personal communication that also names the community or language group: (I. Cumming, Whadjuk Noongar, personal communication, July 1, 2021). Personal communications never go in the list (Curtin University Library, n.d.-g).
- Generative AI. Where a unit allows it, a chat is listed with its title in italics, "[Generative AI chat]", the tool and the chat's URL; see also citing ChatGPT and AI tools.
What does a finished Curtin APA 7th list look like?
Four real sources from Curtin's own example pages, set exactly as Curtin sets them. In the text:
Arkoudis et al. (2019) ask whether Australian higher education does enough for international students. The federal department lists the protections that apply while those students study (Department of Education, 2026). A systematic review examines the long-term effects of alcohol on anxiety in adults (D’Aquino et al., 2024). Haider and Sundin (2022) write on the paradoxes of media and information literacy, which inside brackets becomes (Haider & Sundin, 2022).
Under "References", bold and centred, double spaced, with hanging indents:
Arkoudis, S., Dollinger, M., Baik, C., & Patience, A. (2019). International students’ experience in Australian higher education: Can we do better? Higher Education, 77(5), 799-813. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0302-x
D’Aquino, S., Kumar, A., Riordan, B., & Callinan, S. (2024). Long-term effects of alcohol consumption on anxiety in adults: A systematic review. Addictive Behaviors, 155, Article 108047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108047
Department of Education. (2026, April 16). During your studies in Australia. Australian Government. https://www.education.gov.au/international-education/during-your-studies-australia
Haider, J., & Sundin, O. (2022). Paradoxes of media and information literacy: The crisis of information. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003163237
The department's page reads "Last modified on Thursday 16 April 2026", which Curtin's rule allows; Curtin's own example, written earlier, has 2025. D’Aquino and colleagues' article number takes the place of pages, and the list names all four authors of each article, though the text shortens them to et al.
Which EdCitation style matches Curtin's, and what needs changing?
APA 7th, Chicago author-date, IEEE and Vancouver each have a counterpart in EdCitation; AGLC and Chicago footnotes do not. The changes below are the ones our runs on 2 October 2026 called for.
| Curtin asks for | Start in EdCitation's | Then fix by hand |
|---|---|---|
| APA 7th | APA 7 | Hyphens in page ranges, as in Curtin's examples; journal names as the journal prints them; a web page's author and site corrected in the form; the Ebook Central address for a Library ebook. |
| Chicago 18th Author-Date | Chicago 18 author-date | Page ranges in full with a hyphen, as Curtin prints them; check the author list against Curtin's rule of six. |
| IEEE | IEEE | Hyphens in page ranges; no full stop after the DOI, as in Curtin's examples. |
| Vancouver | Vancouver | Drop the month and day; full page ranges; "doi:" with no space and no final full stop; delete "[Internet]", "[cited …]" and "Available from:"; book titles in headline capitals. |
| AGLC 4 | Not built | Write it from Curtin's AGLC guide. |
| Chicago footnotes | Not built | Write them from the Chicago quick guide Curtin points to. |
Curtin's Chicago examples print every page in a range, 1856-1863, and list up to six authors, then three and et al. (Curtin University Library, n.d.-k). Its IEEE examples end at the DOI with no full stop (Curtin University Library, n.d.-m). Its Vancouver follows the AMA Manual of Style, with superscript numbers (Curtin University Library, n.d.-p); EdCitation's follows the National Library of Medicine, hence the longest row. Our Vancouver referencing guide covers the NLM version.
Six steps from source to Curtin list
- Open the unit outline and note the style. EdCitation's free Check your paper can pull it, with the assignment's other rules, into a checklist, each rule beside its sentence.
- Paste each DOI, title, PubMed ID or page address into Cite a source and pick APA 7, Chicago 18 author-date, IEEE or Vancouver to match.
- On a web page, fix what was read from it (author, date, site name) in the form, before the entry is made.
- Work down the table above, holding each entry against the matching Curtin example.
- Put the finished list through Verify references; open the source behind any "check this" and decide there.
- Set the page out as Curtin's checklist asks: "References" bold and centred, everything double spaced, a 1.27 cm hanging indent.
How did EdCitation handle Curtin's own examples?
Cite a source is the best tool for starting a Curtin list, for one reason: each entry comes from a record, never from composition. It reads the publisher's record, or the web page itself, sets the entry in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver, and screens the source for retraction. A chatbot's reference shows no source; every entry below traces to a record, and the checks caught two slips in Curtin's own examples. Neither tool needs an account, and both are free. EdCitation never writes a word of a student's paper: it hands over the record behind each reference, and the reading, the thinking and the writing stay with the student. We ran five DOIs and a government page on 2 October 2026.
What Cite a source returned
For DOI 10.1007/s10734-018-0302-x, APA 7 returned Curtin's example word for word, except for the dash in "799–813". For 10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108047, APA matched Curtin's example exactly, and so did APA for the book DOI 10.4324/9781003163237.
For 10.1080/09638280701669508, one of Curtin's Vancouver examples (Curtin University Library, n.d.-r), it ended "Disabil Rehabil. 2008 Jan;30(23):1803-11. doi: 10.1080/09638280701669508." where Curtin prints "2008;30(23):1803-1811. doi:10.1080/09638280701669508". For the book it added "[Internet]" and "[cited 2026 Oct 2]. Available from:".
For 10.17061/phrp2741730, APA returned "Eades, S., & Banks, E. (2017)" with the journal as "Public Health Research and Practice", where Curtin prints "Eades, S. J." and "Public Health Research & Practice". The publisher's record holds neither, so check the article's first page.
For the Department of Education's page, the details read from it gave the department as author and the date, 16 April 2026, but no site. With the site set to "Australian Government" in the form, APA gave:
Department of Education. (2026, April 16). During your studies in Australia. Australian Government. https://www.education.gov.au/international-education/during-your-studies-australia
What Verify references found
We pasted nine entries copied from Curtin's guides, in APA, Chicago, Vancouver and IEEE. Verify references answered:
- Arkoudis and colleagues and Eades and Banks in APA, the 21-author Steinmetz entry with its ellipsis, Lee and colleagues in Vancouver, and Fowler and colleagues in IEEE: verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches."
- Curtin's 2025 entry for the Department of Education page: verified, "The page is at this address, and its title matches."
- The coral reef article from Curtin's journals page: "check this", "The DOI and title are right, but the first author differs. Check the names." That page spells the author "Habray" (Curtin University Library, n.d.-e); the record, and Curtin's reference-list page, have Habary.
- Yonkers and colleagues in Chicago: "check this", "No registry holds the DOI 10.1176/appi.ajp.158.11.185. The work is on record with the DOI 10.1176/appi.ajp.158.11.1856." Curtin's Chicago example lost the DOI's last digit, and it also has a stray comma in "Yonkers, Kimberly, A.".
- Shea v. News Ltd.: "could not check", "The site at this address turns automated readers away, so the page could not be read here. Open it in a browser and check it is the page meant." It says so rather than calling the case missing.
Copy Curtin's pattern, not its slips. When the whole paper is ready, upload it to References from a file (Pro, $8 a month; see pricing): it checks each reference and pairs each in-text citation with its entry in the list.
Quick questions
Does Curtin University use Harvard referencing?
Curtin Library publishes no Harvard guide; its five are APA 7th, Chicago 18th Author-Date, AGLC, IEEE and Vancouver. If a unit outline asks for Harvard, ask the unit coordinator for the version and an example.
How do I know which style my Curtin unit wants?
Read the unit outline, which names it. Curtin's pages place AGLC in law, IEEE in technical fields and Vancouver in medical fields, and describe APA 7th as used in many subject areas.
Does Curtin's Vancouver differ from EdCitation's?
Yes. Curtin's Vancouver follows the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition, with superscript numbers, "doi:" with no space, and three authors then et al. above six. EdCitation's Vancouver follows the NLM, so fix the date, page range and DOI by hand.
Will EdCitation produce AGLC footnotes for a Curtin law unit?
No. The six styles in EdCitation's Cite a source are APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver. Write AGLC 4 footnotes, and Chicago notes, by hand from the guides Curtin points to.
Does EdCitation write any part of my Curtin assignment?
No. EdCitation finds sources, builds references from their records and checks lists; everything you argue and every sentence you hand in is yours.
References
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-a). AGLC referencing: Introduction. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/aglc/introduction/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-b). APA 7th referencing: Books. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/books/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-c). APA 7th referencing: In-text citations. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/in-text/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-d). APA 7th referencing: Introduction. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/introduction/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-e). APA 7th referencing: Journal & news articles. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/journals/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-f). APA 7th referencing: Legislation & standards. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/legislation/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-g). APA 7th referencing: Other sources. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/other/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-h). APA 7th referencing: Reference lists. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/reference-lists/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-i). APA 7th referencing: Websites. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/websites/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-j). Chicago 18th Author-Date: Introduction. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/chicago18/introduction/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-k). Chicago 18th Author-Date: Reference lists. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/chicago18/reference-lists/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-l). IEEE referencing: Introduction. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/ieee/introduction/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-m). IEEE referencing: Reference list format. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/ieee/reference-list/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-n). Legal research: Referencing. Research Toolkit. https://researchtoolkit.library.curtin.edu.au/searching/legal-research/referencing/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-o). Referencing. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-p). Vancouver referencing: In-text citations. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/vancouver/in-text/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-q). Vancouver referencing: Introduction. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/vancouver/introduction/
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.-r). Vancouver referencing: Reference list examples. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/vancouver/reference-list/
- Curtin University Library. (2026). APA 7th referencing [Printable guide, PDF]. UniSkills. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/assets/docs/APA-7th-referencing-printable-guide-UniSkills.pdf