New Zealand and Ireland both leave the referencing style to the department, but the defaults differ. In New Zealand it is APA 7: Massey University calls APA its most common style, and Victoria University of Wellington says it is used widely. In Ireland it is Harvard, in two versions: Cite Them Right at University College Dublin, University College Cork and Dublin City University, and Harvard UL at the University of Limerick and the University of Galway. This guide is published by EdCitation, whose tools build each reference from the publisher's record instead of writing it.
We took every rule here from a university library guide or policy on 27 September 2026, and link each one; if no guide we read covers a point, this page says that plainly. At the end, an article with te reo Māori in its title, one by authors with Irish-language names, and government pages go through EdCitation's free Cite a source and Verify references, and we report what came back, wrong years and missing authors too.
Which referencing style do New Zealand and Irish universities use?
The style your department or lecturer names. Auckland tells students who are unsure to ask their lecturer or tutor; Maynooth says each department decides, some let each lecturer choose, and "Do not guess" (Maynooth University Library, 2026). The guides still show a pattern:
| University | Country | Subject | Style the guide names | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auckland | New Zealand | Business and economics; law | APA; NZLSG | University of Auckland (2026a) |
| Auckland | New Zealand | Medical and health sciences | Vancouver, APA | University of Auckland (2026a) |
| Auckland | New Zealand | Engineering and design | APA, IEEE, Harvard, Chicago, MLA | University of Auckland (2026a) |
| Massey | New Zealand | Across the university | APA, "the most common" | Massey University (n.d.-a) |
| Victoria University of Wellington | New Zealand | Across the university; law | APA; NZLSG | Victoria University of Wellington (2026) |
| Canterbury | New Zealand | Education | APA 7 | University of Canterbury (2026b) |
| UCD | Ireland | Business, nursing, sociology, most engineering | Harvard | University College Dublin (2026c) |
| UCD | Ireland | Psychology, education | APA | University College Dublin (2026c) |
| UCD | Ireland | Medicine; languages; law | Vancouver; MHRA; OSCOLA Ireland | University College Dublin (2026c) |
| Trinity College Dublin | Ireland | Nursing and midwifery | APA 7 | Trinity College Dublin (2026a) |
| UCC | Ireland | Across the university | Harvard, "widely used" | University College Cork (2026) |
| Limerick | Ireland | Many departments | Harvard UL | University of Limerick (2026) |
| Any of the six styles | Either | An entry from its DOI | Cite a source, free | EdCitation |
What does APA referencing in NZ look like?
APA referencing in NZ is plain APA 7, with no national variant: the guides we read teach the manual's own rules with local examples. Massey's reference list page calls APA "the most common referencing style used at Massey" (Massey University, n.d.-a), and Canterbury's education guide follows the seventh edition.
Auckland is the exception worth knowing. Its arts and education faculty lists APA beside Harvard, Chicago, MLA and a "University of Auckland Style", and engineering lists five styles, so students there need the course outline, not a rule of thumb. The APA rules themselves are in our APA 7 in-text citations guide.
Law: the New Zealand Law Style Guide
Law is the one subject that leaves the general styles behind. Victoria University of Wellington (2026) calls NZLSG "the official referencing style of the Faculty of Law", and Auckland lists it for law; Auckland's guide follows its third edition, a footnote style (University of Auckland, 2026b). EdCitation does not build NZLSG: write those footnotes by hand from your faculty's guide.
How do you cite Māori sources and te reo Māori titles?
Citing Māori sources in APA follows the ordinary rules, plus a few points the New Zealand guides add. They concern language: the guides we read set rules for te reo Māori titles and bilingual names, not for mātauranga Māori as a kind of source.
Te reo Māori titles and bilingual names
The University of Waikato (2026) says a source in te reo Māori is referenced in te reo Māori only, with no English translation of its title, because te reo Māori is an official language of Aotearoa. For other languages APA adds a translated title in square brackets, so this is a real difference. The guides add:
- A title given in both languages goes in the order the source shows, with a colon after the first version where the source uses a hyphen (Waikato).
- A bilingual group author, such as Ministry of Health Manatū Hauora, keeps the order on the item (Waikato).
- A government department's two names go "in the order provided in the source, regardless of prominence", shortened in later citations (University of Canterbury, 2026b).
Waikato's own example of a bilingual title:
Macfarlane, A. (2004). Kia hiwa rā: Listen to culture: Māori students' plea to educators. NZCER Press.
Writing in te reo Māori, macrons and italics
Canterbury has published te reo Māori translations of APA's referencing terms, offered as a trial, so a student writing in te reo Māori can cite in it; its examples join authors with "rāua ko" and "rātou ko" in place of "&" (University of Canterbury, 2026a). Massey notes that macrons mark long vowels, and tells students writing in English to italicise Māori words except common ones such as haka, hui and whānau (Massey University, n.d.-b). Keep a source's macrons exactly as printed.
What the guides leave open: none we read gives a rule for citing a whakataukī or knowledge shared in person on a marae. Ask your lecturer, and ask before quoting anything shared with you in confidence. Published work on mātauranga Māori, such as Stewart (2022), is cited as the journal article it is.
Which Harvard do Irish universities use, and what is Harvard UL?
Harvard, but not one Harvard. UCD's Harvard guide points to the 2025 edition of Cite Them Right (University College Dublin, 2026a); UCC recommends the 13th edition and calls Harvard widely used there; DCU subscribes to Cite Them Right Online and says "lots of different citation styles" are used (Dublin City University Library, n.d.). Limerick publishes its own: Cite It Right, fourth edition, a Harvard "based on ISO 690:2010 and BS 5605:1990 approved by UL", called Harvard UL (University of Limerick, 2026).
UCD Harvard against Harvard UL
The University of Galway (n.d.) calls Harvard (UL) "a locally popular version" used by many disciplines there, and warns that Cite Them Right's Harvard is not Harvard (UL). Its journal example shows the differences:
| Element | Harvard UL (Galway's example) | Cite Them Right (EdCitation's Harvard) |
|---|---|---|
| Citation in the text | (Lyons 2009) | (Lyons, 2009) |
| Pages | 164-174 | pp. 164–174 |
| Link | available: http://dx.doi.org/… | Available at: https://doi.org/… |
Galway's full Harvard UL entry:
Lyons, J.R. (2009) 'Atmospherically-derived mass-independent sulfur isotope signatures, and incorporation into sediments', Chemical Geology, 267(3), 164-174, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2009.03.027.
Built from the same DOI in EdCitation's Harvard style, the publisher's record gave the issue as 3–4, not 3: a guide's example can slip, and the record is the check. EdCitation's Harvard follows Cite Them Right's 12th edition, so at Limerick or Galway take its entry and make the three changes in the table by hand. More on the Harvard family is in our Harvard referencing guide.
Trinity College Dublin referencing
Trinity College Dublin referencing is set course by course: your lecturer, course director or supervisor may name a style or let you choose (Trinity College Dublin, 2026b). Its guides demonstrate APA 7, MLA 8, Vancouver and Chicago 17, and nursing and midwifery names APA 7. MLA and Chicago have since reached their 9th and 18th editions, which are the ones EdCitation builds.
Law: OSCOLA Ireland
UCD advises law students to use OSCOLA Ireland (2016 edition), the Irish adaptation of the Oxford standard, and links free PDFs of it (University College Dublin, 2026b). EdCitation does not build OSCOLA Ireland, OSCOLA or MHRA: write those footnotes by hand.
How do you cite Irish-language sources?
Only one guide we read gives Irish-language examples. The Irish-language guide at Mary Immaculate College, a college of the University of Limerick, says "Baineann mic léinn na Gaeilge leas as an gcóras tagartha Chicago": students of Irish use the Chicago system (Mary Immaculate College Library, 2026). Its examples are Chicago footnotes in Irish, with "eag." for editor, "in eagar ag" for "edited by", and Irish place names such as Baile Átha Cliath. That is Chicago notes and bibliography, which EdCitation does not build; its Chicago is the 18th edition author-date.
Elsewhere the department decides. UCD's school of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore uses Harvard or Chicago, DCU points history students to the rules of Irish Historical Studies, and Trinity's Irish and Celtic studies guide sets no rule for Irish-language sources. Keep names and fadas exactly as the source prints them: the publisher's record gives the surname Mac Gearailt, space included.
What do integrity policies in New Zealand and Ireland say about referencing?
Both put referencing inside academic integrity. The University of Auckland (n.d.) requires every student starting a new programme to complete its online Academic Integrity Course, with 100% in all quizzes, and says "You cannot graduate" without it.
Ireland has a national vocabulary. Quality and Qualifications Ireland (2025), in the second version of its National principles and lexicon of common terms, lists as plagiarism "Failing to include citation of all original sources", improper paraphrasing, and GenAI used "without appropriate authorisation and acknowledgement". Your own university's policy is the one that applies. For the last point, see how to declare AI use in an assignment.
How do you reference correctly at a New Zealand or Irish university?
- Look up the style in the course outline (New Zealand) or module handbook (Ireland), module by module: an elective run by another school follows that school.
- Pin down the version: APA 7, Cite Them Right or Harvard UL, NZLSG or OSCOLA Ireland.
- Paste each DOI, ISBN, title or address into EdCitation's Cite a source when your style is APA 7, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, MLA 9 or Chicago author-date; footnote styles are typed by hand.
- Correct what a record cannot know: a web page's author, the year your style wants, the Harvard UL changes.
- Keep te reo Māori titles untranslated, and keep macrons and fadas.
- Run the list through Verify references and resolve every entry marked "check this".
What did EdCitation return on New Zealand and Irish sources?
For a New Zealand or Irish reference list, EdCitation is the tool we would pick first: it copies each entry's details from the record the publisher deposited, where a chatbot recalls them, and the runs below show exactly what it kept and what it missed. Cite a source takes a DOI, title, PubMed ID, ISBN or web address, sets it in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver, and screens it for retraction. Both tools are free with no account, and EdCitation writes no part of anyone's paper.
Cite a source on journals and government pages
For 10.1080/03036758.2020.1779757, from the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, APA 7 returned:
Stewart, G. T. (2022). Mātauranga Māori: A philosophy from Aotearoa. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 52(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2020.1779757
Macrons and sentence case are right. But the Harvard entry gave 2020, the year the article went online, where APA gave 2022, the year of its issue. An Irish Educational Studies article, 10.1080/03323315.2021.1910971, did the same (2023 in APA, 2021 in Harvard), with the authors' names and fadas intact: Breandán Mac Gearailt, Gerry Mac Ruairc, Clíona Murray. Use one year throughout: APA asks for the issue's, and your lecturer can say which your Harvard wants.
A Te Puni Kōkiri page, "Te reo Māori", came back in APA as "Te reo Māori. (2026, September 22)." with no author: add Te Puni Kōkiri as author in the form before the entry is built. A Quality and Qualifications Ireland news page also lost its author in APA and Harvard. A gov.ie press release and a Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori page returned "That page could not be read. Some sites block automated readers."; enter those by hand.
Verify references on six entries
We pasted an APA list of six real works into Verify references, giving one of them a wrong year to test it:
- Stewart with its DOI: verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches."
- Mac Gearailt and colleagues, dated 2021, no DOI: verified, "Title, year and first author match a published record." Verified means the work exists; which year your style wants is still yours to settle.
- Greaves and colleagues, misdated 2021: "check this", "it was published in 2023 online and 2024 in its issue, not 2021". Right.
- Macfarlane's Kia hiwa rā: verified against a library catalogue record.
- The Te Puni Kōkiri page: verified, "The page is at this address, and its title matches."
- The QQI lexicon PDF: verified, "The address opens a PDF whose first pages carry the entry's title."
When the list sits inside a finished thesis, upload the file instead: References from a file, part of Pro at $8 a month (pricing), checks each entry and pairs every citation in the text with one.
Quick questions
Do New Zealand universities use APA or Harvard?
Mostly APA 7. Massey calls it its most common style and Victoria University of Wellington uses it widely; some Auckland faculties add Harvard, and law uses NZLSG.
Is UCD Harvard the same as Harvard UL?
No. UCD's Harvard follows Cite Them Right; Harvard UL, used at Limerick and Galway, drops the comma before the year and "pp.", and writes "available:".
Do I translate a te reo Māori title in an APA reference?
No. Waikato's guide says a source in te reo Māori is referenced in te reo Māori only, because it is an official language of Aotearoa.
Does EdCitation do NZLSG or OSCOLA Ireland?
No. Those are footnote styles; EdCitation's Cite a source sets APA 7, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, MLA 9 and Chicago 18 author-date, so NZLSG, OSCOLA Ireland and MHRA footnotes are typed from the faculty's guide.
Which style do I use at Trinity College Dublin?
The one your lecturer, course director or supervisor names. Trinity's guides demonstrate APA, MLA, Vancouver and Chicago, and nursing and midwifery uses APA 7.
References
- Dublin City University Library. (n.d.). Citing and referencing. https://www.dcu.ie/library/citing-and-referencing
- Mary Immaculate College Library. (2026). Foinsí a lua agus tagairtí a dhéanamh. Gaeilge Durlas. https://libguides.mic.ul.ie/c.php?g=656888&p=4622840
- Massey University. (n.d.-a). APA reference list. https://www.massey.ac.nz/study/study-and-assignment-support-and-guides/academic-writing/referencing/american-psychological-association-referencing-style/apa-reference-list/
- Massey University. (n.d.-b). Writing in te reo Māori. https://www.massey.ac.nz/study/study-and-assignment-support-and-guides/academic-writing/writing-your-assignment-in-te-reo-m%C4%81ori/
- Maynooth University Library. (2026). Referencing. https://nuim.libguides.com/academicwriting/referencing
- Quality and Qualifications Ireland. (2025). Academic integrity: National principles and lexicon of common terms (Version 2) [PDF]. https://www.qqi.ie/sites/default/files/2025-12/academic-integrity-principles-and-lexicon-2025.pdf
- Stewart, G. T. (2022). Mātauranga Māori: A philosophy from Aotearoa. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 52(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2020.1779757
- Trinity College Dublin. (2026a). Citing & referencing: Nursing & midwifery. Library Guides. https://libguides.tcd.ie/c.php?g=667857&p=4736970
- Trinity College Dublin. (2026b). Referencing practices. Library Guides. https://libguides.tcd.ie/c.php?g=712113&p=5150020
- University College Cork. (2026). Reference styles. UCC Library. https://libguides.ucc.ie/citing-and-referencing/reference-styles
- University College Dublin. (2026a). Harvard style guide. UCD Library. https://libguides.ucd.ie/harvardstyle
- University College Dublin. (2026b). OSCOLA style guide. UCD Library. https://libguides.ucd.ie/academicintegrity/oscola
- University College Dublin. (2026c). School citing styles. UCD Library. https://libguides.ucd.ie/academicintegrity/citingstyles
- University of Auckland. (n.d.). Academic Integrity Course. https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/academic-integrity-copyright/academic-integrity-course.html
- University of Auckland. (2026a). Faculty referencing styles. Libraries and Learning Services. https://auckland.libguides.com/faculty-referencing-styles
- University of Auckland. (2026b). NZLSG. Libraries and Learning Services. https://auckland.libguides.com/nzlsg
- University of Canterbury. (2026a). APA i te reo Māori. Library. https://canterbury.libguides.com/c.php?g=971995&p=7070621
- University of Canterbury. (2026b). Citing with APA: Education. Library. https://canterbury.libguides.com/educ/referencing
- University of Galway. (n.d.). Harvard style of citing and referencing. Research Skills for Students. https://openpress.universityofgalway.ie/researchskillsforstudents/chapter/harvard-style-of-citing-and-referencing/
- University of Limerick. (2026). Cite it right: Guide to Harvard referencing style (4th ed.). Glucksman Library. https://libguides.ul.ie/citeitright
- University of Waikato. (2026). Te reo Māori. APA Reference Formatting. https://libraryguides.waikato.ac.nz/c.php?g=969592&p=7049938
- Victoria University of Wellington. (2026). Styles. Referencing and Citing. https://libguides.victoria.ac.nz/referencing-citing/styles