Deakin University sets no single referencing style. Its online referencing guide offers seven, from APA7 to AGLC (Deakin University, n.d.-b), and each style page sends students back to their unit assessment information to find the one they must use. The eighth entry, Harvard, now carries a single line: "Retired February 2026."
For many Deakin students the answer is APA7, the style the Library recommends for Education and one of two it recommends for first-year Health. This guide shows how to reference at Deakin from the university's own pages: which faculty uses which style, Deakin APA7's particular rules, where Deakin's examples contradict its rules, a worked example, and what to change by hand after building an entry in EdCitation's free Cite a source.
EdCitation is not affiliated with Deakin University; this follows its public library guide, checked on 2 October 2026. For the national picture, see referencing at Australian universities.
Which referencing style does Deakin University use?
The one your unit site names. Deakin's referencing FAQs say styles differ between disciplines and units, ask students to check the unit site every trimester, and warn that some units use variations of the styles in Deakin's guides (Deakin University, 2025).
| Deakin style | Kind | Where Deakin's pages place it | Page it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| APA7 | Author-date | Recommended for all Education students; one of two options for first-year Health students | Deakin University (2026a); Deakin University Library (2026b) |
| Vancouver | Numbered | The other first-year Health option, "used particularly in Medicine" | Deakin University (2024c); Deakin University Library (2026c) |
| AGLC, 4th edition | Footnotes, for legal sources | Required by the School of Law | Deakin University Library (2026a) |
| IEEE | Numbered | No faculty named | Deakin University (2024b) |
| Chicago | Notes and bibliography, or author-date | No faculty named; the page points to the 17th edition | Deakin University (n.d.-a) |
| Oxford | Numbered footnotes | No faculty named | Deakin University (n.d.-b) |
| Numbered citation | Numbered | No faculty named | Deakin University (n.d.-b) |
| Harvard | Author-date | Retired February 2026 | Deakin University (2026b) |
What the faculty library guides add
- Education. APA 7 is recommended "for all Education students", though other styles are sometimes accepted, so the assessment guide still decides (Deakin University Library, 2026b).
- Health. First-year students are recommended APA 7 or Vancouver; after first year, styles vary by discipline (Deakin University Library, 2026c).
- Law. Deakin University Library (2026a) says the School of Law requires the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th edition.
The pages we read name no style for business, information technology or engineering; there, the unit site is the only answer.
Is Harvard still used at Deakin?
Not as a supported style. Deakin University (2026b) says its Australian Harvard guide was retired in February 2026 and tells students to use the style their unit requires, naming APA7 and Chicago author-date. The former Harvard PDF is still online but no longer maintained. If a unit still names Harvard, ask the teaching staff which version they want.
EdCitation's Harvard follows Cite Them Right, not Deakin's Australian Harvard, so moving a list to APA7 is the simpler route: Cite a source returns all six of its styles from one lookup.
What are Deakin's APA7 rules?
Deakin APA7 is based on the Publication Manual, 7th edition, with Australian examples (Deakin University, 2024a). The full guide, a 56-page PDF last updated on 19 June 2024, holds the rules; a six-page quick guide was updated on 31 July 2026 (Deakin University, 2026d).
In the text
- Family name and year, separated by a comma: (Joo, 2019).
- "and" between two names in a sentence, "&" inside brackets: Adelson and Eckert (2020), (Adelson & Eckert, 2020).
- From three authors, the first name and et al. in every citation, the first included. See when to use et al.
- A page number for every direct quotation; where a source has no pages, a section heading or paragraph number: (Department of Social Services, 2020, para. 2).
- Quotations under 40 words in double quotation marks; longer ones as an indented block without them.
- A group author in full first, with its abbreviation in square brackets, (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2017); afterwards (ABS, 2017).
Generative AI has its own rule in the quick guide of Deakin University (2026d): acknowledge any use (the tool, the month and year, how you used it, prompts and outputs in an appendix), and cite a tool only when your unit chair or supervisor agrees, as (OpenAI, 2025; see Appendix). See citing ChatGPT and AI tools.
In the reference list
- A new page headed "References", centred and bold, alphabetical, with a 1.27 cm hanging indent and double spacing.
- Every author up to 20; beyond 20, the first 19, an ellipsis and the last.
- Sentence case for article and book titles, keeping capitals for proper nouns, initialisms and acronyms; the journal name and volume in italics.
- A DOI as https://doi.org/..., never a Library database address, and no full stop after a DOI or URL.
- No "Available at" and no retrieval date, except for a source designed to change, such as a social media profile.
Web pages, government sources and the ABS
- Cite a web page by its author, usually an organisation, with the day and month where shown; use a "Date last updated" only when it belongs to that page, and never a "Date of last review".
- Italicise the page title, and leave the website out when it repeats the author.
- Name the most specific agency as author; the parent government can be the publisher.
- Each ABS publication is its own entry, with the bureau's name in full and any catalogue number in brackets.
Where do Deakin's own APA7 examples disagree?
In six places. Where an example and a rule part company, follow the rule.
- One author, several years. The full guide writes (Duff, n.d.; 2008; 2017; 2019), with semicolons. The APA Style website's page on citing multiple works separates one author's years with commas: (Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d., 2017a, 2017b, 2019).
- Three names in a sentence. The book chapter page writes "Aron, Botella and Lubart (2019)", though the guide's own rule starts et al. at three authors: Aron et al. (2019).
- Quotation marks. The rule asks for double marks, but the journals page's newer example quotes 'more uneven' in single ones (Deakin University, 2026c).
- The DOI form. The full guide asks for https://doi.org; the quick guide gives "http://doi.org/xxxxx", and the advance online example prints the broken "https://doi:10.3109/13668250.2013.874550".
- An outdated example. That advance online article now has an issue, 39(1), pages 24–34: cite the issue.
- Stray commas and dates. The Joo example reads "Joo, K. R., (2019)", with another comma before the journal; drop both. The quick guide's cover says 31 July 2026, its inner pages 26 October 2021.
How do you reference at Deakin in APA7? A worked example
A four-author article, a five-author article and an ABS release, in Deakin APA7. In the text:
Adams et al. (2021) studied the mental health of Australian medical practitioners during Covid-19. Nationally, 42.9% of people aged 16 to 85 years had experienced a mental disorder at some point in their lives (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2023); any later citation reads (ABS, 2023). Grady et al. (2019) compared the emotions shown in storybooks representing ethnic and racial groups in the United States.
Under "References", centred and bold, with hanging indents:
Adams, M. A., Brazel, M., Thomson, R., & Lake, H. (2021). The mental health of Australian medical practitioners during Covid-19. Australasian Psychiatry, 29(5), 523–528. https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562211010807
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2023, October 5). National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020-2022. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/mental-health/national-study-mental-health-and-wellbeing/2020-2022
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
Every author is listed while the text uses et al. The ABS date is the release date on the page, the website is left out because it repeats the author, and the study's name keeps its capitals as a proper noun. The address ends in 2020-2022, not "latest-release", which will move to the next release.
What are Deakin's Vancouver and IEEE rules?
Both number their sources, and Deakin sets its own author limits: six names for Vancouver, five for IEEE.
Deakin Vancouver
- One to six authors: list all; more than six: the first six, then "et al."
- Initials with no spaces or full stops, and no "and": Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL.
- Minimal capitals in article titles; abbreviated journal titles.
- Months as three letters, no spaces, shortened ranges: 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7.
- No full stop after a URL or DOI; an online article without a DOI takes [internet], a cited date and "Available from:".
Deakin's examples break two of these rules. Its Abel example writes "Public health nutrition. 2021;24(18):6015-6026", unabbreviated with a full range (Deakin University, 2024c), and the Health guide keeps "Australasian Psychiatry [Internet]" though its own note says to abbreviate from the NLM Catalog. Follow the rules; our Vancouver referencing guide has more.
Deakin IEEE
Numbers in square brackets, in order of first citation, reused for the same work. Deakin University (2024b) has the list name every author up to five; with six or more, the first author and "et al." Article titles take double quotation marks, and Deakin's template ends "month, year." before the DOI.
Which EdCitation style is closest, and what do you change by hand?
For four of Deakin's seven current styles, an EdCitation style is the right start, with these changes.
| Deakin style | Build it in | Change by hand |
|---|---|---|
| APA7 | APA 7 | Articles: add pages if the record lacks them. Web pages: enter the author and date first, restore capitals in proper names, add the [ABS]-style abbreviation at the first citation. |
| Vancouver | Vancouver | Remove the full stop after the DOI; keep one DOI spacing, since Deakin's examples show both "doi:10" and "doi: 10". |
| IEEE | IEEE | End the date with a full stop before the DOI; check lists of six or more authors against Deakin's limit of five. |
| Chicago author-date | Chicago 18 author-date | Deakin's page points to the 17th edition: ask which your unit wants, and see our Chicago author-date guide. |
| AGLC, Oxford, Chicago notes, numbered citation | Not built | EdCitation does not build these: write them from Deakin's own guides. |
Building a Deakin list, step by step
- Find the style in your unit site. EdCitation's free Check your paper reads an assignment's instructions into a checklist that includes the citation style, each rule beside the sentence it came from.
- Look each source up in Cite a source by DOI, PubMed ID, ISBN, title or web address, in the closest style.
- For a web page, correct the author, date and title before the entry is built.
- Make the hand changes in the table.
- Paste the list into Verify references and settle every "check this" at the source.
What did EdCitation return on Deakin's own sources?
Cite a source is the best place to start a Deakin list, because it never composes a reference: it fetches the publisher's record, sets it in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver, and screens the source for retraction, free and with no account. Two of Deakin's own APA7 examples came back character for character, which no chatbot guessing at a citation can promise. EdCitation never writes any part of a student's paper: it supplies the published details of each source, and every idea and sentence stay the student's own. We ran four DOIs and an ABS page on 2 October 2026.
Cite a source on four articles and an ABS page
APA 7 returned Deakin's Grady example (DOI 10.1037/ppm0000185) and its Phillips example (10.7748/ns.2019.e11312) exactly. For 10.1177/10398562211010807, APA matched the Health guide's example except for an en dash in "523–528", which Deakin's APA7 guide uses. Vancouver returned:
Adams MA, Brazel M, Thomson R, Lake H. The mental health of Australian medical practitioners during Covid-19. Australas Psychiatry. 2021 Oct;29(5):523-8. doi: 10.1177/10398562211010807.
That follows Deakin's rules; delete the final full stop. For Deakin's advance online example, 10.3109/13668250.2013.874550, APA returned the published issue: "Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 39(1), 24–34."
The ABS page itself gave a title and site but no author or date, so APA began "National study of mental health and wellbeing, 2020-2022. (n.d.)." and added "Retrieved October 2, 2026, from". With the bureau entered as author and 5 October 2023 as the date, it returned:
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2023, October 5). National study of mental health and wellbeing, 2020-2022. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/mental-health/national-study-mental-health-and-wellbeing/2020-2022
The retrieval date went, as Deakin wants, but the study's name was lowered on every run: restore its capitals by hand, and add "[ABS]" to the first in-text citation, which came back as "(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2023)".
Verify references on seven entries from Deakin's guides
We pasted seven entries exactly as Deakin prints them. Verify references answered:
- Grady, Adelson and Eckert, Joo, Trezise (with its broken "https://doi:" address), and Abel in Vancouver: verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." For Adelson and Eckert, the record has a semicolon where Deakin has a colon, and no page range, so we could not confirm Deakin's "25–30".
- Savage, 2004, with no DOI: verified, "Title, year and first author match a published record."
- The Department of Health fact sheet of 2019: "check this", "The address answers that there is no page there. Check the address." The department's site, visited the same day, said the page may have moved or been removed.
Read every "check this" yourself. For a full assignment, References from a file, part of Pro at $8 a month, checks every reference in the uploaded paper and matches each in-text citation to its entry; see pricing.
Quick questions
Does Deakin still use Harvard referencing?
No. Deakin retired its Australian Harvard guide in February 2026 and points students to their unit's style, such as APA7 or Chicago author-date.
Which referencing style should I use at Deakin?
The one your unit site names. The Library recommends APA 7 for Education and APA 7 or Vancouver for first-year Health, and the School of Law requires AGLC4.
When does et al. start in Deakin APA7?
From three authors, in every in-text citation including the first. The reference list names every author up to 20.
Can EdCitation build Deakin's AGLC, Oxford or Chicago notes references?
No. EdCitation's Cite a source builds APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver; AGLC, Oxford, Chicago notes and Deakin's numbered citation style are written by hand.
Does EdCitation write any part of my assignment?
No. EdCitation finds, cites and checks sources from published records; the assignment itself, every idea and sentence of it, is written by you.
References
- Deakin University. (n.d.-a). Chicago. https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/study-resources/referencing/chicago
- Deakin University. (n.d.-b). Referencing: Deakin guide. https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/study-resources/referencing
- Deakin University. (2024a). Deakin guide to APA7 [PDF]. https://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/31151/Deakin-guide-to-APA7.pdf
- Deakin University. (2024b). IEEE explained. https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/study-resources/referencing/ieee/explained
- Deakin University. (2024c). Journal articles (Deakin guide to Vancouver). https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/study-resources/referencing/vancouver/journal-articles
- Deakin University. (2025). Referencing FAQs. https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/study-resources/referencing/referencing-explained/referencing-faqs
- Deakin University. (2026a). Deakin guide to APA7. https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/study-resources/referencing/apa7
- Deakin University. (2026b). Harvard. https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/study-resources/referencing/harvard
- Deakin University. (2026c). Journals (Deakin guide to APA7). https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/study-resources/referencing/apa7/journals
- Deakin University. (2026d). Quick guide to APA7 [PDF]. https://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/31152/Deakin_Quick-guide-to-APA7.pdf
- Deakin University Library. (2026a). Legal referencing. Legal Referencing. https://deakin.libguides.com/legal-referencing/legal-referencing
- Deakin University Library. (2026b). Referencing styles. Referencing for Education. https://deakin.libguides.com/referencing-education/ref-styles
- Deakin University Library. (2026c). Referencing styles. Referencing for Health. https://deakin.libguides.com/referencing-in-health/referencing-styles