# Sheffield Hallam referencing: APA 7, not SHU Harvard

**Which referencing style does Sheffield Hallam University use?** Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) has used APA 7th edition as its standard referencing style since September 2021, and its library guide has no Harvard page. SHU's APA 7 gives (Strangfeld, 2019) in the text, et al. from three authors, up to 20 authors in the list, and a retrieval date only for web pages with no date.

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

Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) references in APA 7th edition. The university adopted it as the standard style in September 2021, and the library tells students to assume APA 7 unless a tutor names another style. Searches for "SHU Harvard" still turn up older guides and generators, but the library's referencing pages carry no Harvard page today.

Every rule below was read on 2 October 2026 in Hallam Library's public *Referencing at Hallam* guide, its FAQs, its AI page and three PDF guides linked from them. EdCitation is not affiliated with Sheffield Hallam University; this follows its public library guide, checked on 2 October 2026.

EdCitation publishes this guide, and quotes below what its free [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) and [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) returned on the library's own examples, faults included.

## Which referencing style does Sheffield Hallam University use?

APA 7, unless your tutor says otherwise. Sheffield Hallam University Library (2026b) says many courses recommend it and asks you to confirm the style with your course or module leader; students who need a numeric style are told so explicitly (Sheffield Hallam University Library, n.d.-b). A few subjects set their own:

| Course or task | Style the library names | Page it comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Most courses | APA 7th edition | Referencing at Hallam (2026b) |
| Chemistry | Vancouver RSC, a numeric style, with journal abbreviations from CASSI | Another referencing style (n.d.-c) |
| Electrical and electronic engineering | IEEE, with full journal and publisher names allowed | Another referencing style (n.d.-c) |
| Some physics assignments | Vancouver Physics; RefWorks' plain "Vancouver" style | Another referencing style (n.d.-c) |
| History | Your tutors' guidance: footnotes and a bibliography | Another referencing style (n.d.-c) |
| Law | OSCOLA, with the library's own quick guide | Another referencing style (n.d.-c) |
| An APA 7, IEEE or Vancouver entry from a DOI or address | [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa), free | EdCitation |

Chemistry warns that another style, where RSC referencing is asked for, loses marks. EdCitation's Cite a source builds six styles, APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, but not RSC, OSCOLA or the history footnotes, which are written by hand. For the national picture, see [referencing at UK universities](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/referencing-at-uk-universities).

### Is there still an SHU Harvard style?

Not in the current guide. The Built Environment research guide states that the university adopted APA 7 as its standard in September 2021 (Sheffield Hallam University Library, 2026a). A library blog post from that month, Lomax (2021), listed the changes: et al. from the first citation, DOIs in the https://doi.org form, no place of publication, the fullest date for web pages, and "Retrieved from" dropped except where a format still needs a date. If a module handbook still asks for Harvard, ask which version; EdCitation's [Harvard](https://edcitation.com/cite/harvard) follows Cite Them Right.

## What are SHU's APA 7 rules?

The library's pages and PDFs set these rules, each with the page it comes from:

| Rule | SHU's form | Page it comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| In the text | (Abram & Karasavas, 2018) or Abram and Karasavas (2018) | Referencing FAQs (n.d.-e) |
| Et al. | From three authors: (Dacre et al., 2020) | Referencing FAQs (n.d.-e) |
| Authors in the list | Up to 20, with & before the last; from 21, the first 19, an ellipsis and the last | Referencing FAQs (n.d.-e) |
| Initials | Full stops optional with several authors, if consistent | How to use APA 7 (2021b), 9.3.1 |
| Quotation | Page after the year: (De Waal, 2017, p. 21) | New to referencing (n.d.-b) |
| No page numbers | A section name, a paragraph number or both; a time stamp for video | How to use APA 7 (2021b), 7.3.3 |
| Title capitals | First word, proper nouns, initials and acronyms only | Sources and examples (2024), p. 5 |
| Final full stop | None after a DOI or URL | Sources and examples (2024), p. 5 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/ form, older prefixes rewritten | Referencing FAQs (n.d.-e) |
| Article number | "Article 113693", and never page numbers | APA 7 examples (n.d.-a) |
| Web page date | The page's published or updated date; failing that, the site's | APA 7 examples (n.d.-a) |
| Retrieval date | Only with n.d.: Retrieved July 7, 2021, from URL | How to use APA 7 (2021b), 9.3.3 |
| Organisation as author | In full in the list; [NICE] added at the first citation | APA 7 examples (n.d.-a) |
| Report number | In brackets straight after the title; no publisher when it is the author | APA 7 examples (n.d.-a) |
| The list | A reference list, never a bibliography | Quick guide (2021a) |
| Generative AI | The tool itself: OpenAI. (2023). *ChatGPT* [Large language model]. | Referencing AI use (n.d.-d) |
| Building the entry | [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa), APA 7, then the changes below | EdCitation |

### Where SHU's APA 7 is simpler than APA's

The retrieval date is the plainest house rule. Sheffield Hallam University Library (2021b) calls its rule "a simplification of official APA 7 guidelines": add "Retrieved" and the date only when a page has no date, so students need not judge which pages are designed to change. The same guide drops the URL for articles found in databases, and the 2024 sources guide lets Ofsted stand as an author under its short name. The AI page, updated in November 2025, references a shared chat by its date when the chat itself is the evidence. For APA's full web page pattern, see [how to cite a website in APA 7](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-cite-a-website-in-apa-7).

## Where do the library's own examples disagree?

In six places, so choose one form and keep to it:

- **Web page dates.** The 2021 quick guide forbids a site's footer copyright year; the library's APA 7 examples page and the 2024 guide allow it for an undated page. A footer year dates the site, not the page, so n.d. is safer.
- **Article numbers.** The rule says never page numbers, yet the Strangfeld example prints "9(1), 1-14"; the publisher's record holds article number 2158244018822382.
- **Subtitles.** "Cultural capital's" takes a capital after the colon; "Global logistics: new directions" does not. APA capitalises it: see [title case or sentence case](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/title-case-or-sentence-case).
- **Report numbers.** The NICE example puts a full stop before "(NICE guideline NG189)"; the rule says straight after the title.
- **Ampersands.** The FAQ's Dacre entry and the Sutton example drop the comma before &, and a 2021 example joins names with "and" inside brackets.
- **Names.** The sample list spells Stella Cottrell "Cotterell", the Review of Particle Physics example gives Aielli as "Aella", and a gov.uk PDF is credited to a "Department of Education"; gov.uk names the Department for Education.

## A worked example in SHU's APA 7

Five of the library's own example sources, set by its rules rather than copied from its examples:

> Reviews come in many kinds, and each asks something different of a literature search (Sutton et al., 2019). Qualitative business research has its own history and traditions (Cassell et al., 2018), and Strangfeld (2019) links student plagiarism to cultural capital. Safeguarding in care homes follows national guidance (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2021); NICE (2021) covers abuse and neglect. For the public, Amos et al. (2024) reported a reconstructed Neanderthal face.

**References**

> Amos, J., Morelle, R., & Francis, A. (2024, May 2). *Face of 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman revealed*. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68922877
>
> Cassell, C., Cunliffe, A. L., & Grandy, G. (Eds.). (2018). *The SAGE handbook of qualitative business and management research methods: History and traditions*. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526430212
>
> National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2021). *Safeguarding adults in care homes* (NICE guideline NG189). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng189
>
> Strangfeld, J. A. (2019). I just don’t want to be judged: Cultural capital’s impact on student plagiarism. *SAGE Open*, *9*(1), Article 2158244018822382. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018822382
>
> Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L., & Booth, A. (2019). Meeting the review family: Exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. *Health Information & Libraries Journal*, *36*(3), 202–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276

Amos is a dated page, so no retrieval date; NICE is author and publisher, so no publisher; Strangfeld takes its article number by the library's rule.

## Which EdCitation style is closest to SHU's APA 7, and what do you change?

APA 7. EdCitation's [APA 7 style](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) already matches SHU on et al. from three authors, the rule for 21 or more authors, "Article" numbers, and a retrieval date only for an undated page. We made these changes by hand on 2 October 2026:

| EdCitation printed | Change to, for SHU |
| --- | --- |
| I just Don’t want to be judged | I just don’t want to be judged |
| Cassell, C., Cunliffe, A., & Grandy, G. (2018). | Add (Eds.) after the editors, and Cunliffe's L. |
| Overview. (n.d.). NICE. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from… | Author, title and date entered in the form first |
| (2021, February 26). … NICE. https://… | (2021). Title (NICE guideline NG189). https://… |
| Jonathan Amos, R. M. and A. F. (2024, May 1). | Each author in the form; May 2, as the page shows |
| (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2021) | Add [NICE] at the first citation |
| Direct Uptake of Nutrition and Caffeine Study (DUNCS) | Lower case, as the library's Jones example sets it |

## What did Cite a source and Verify references return?

EdCitation is the right tool to start an SHU reference list, because it looks each source up in the publisher's record and never writes a reference. The library's own AI page warns that AI tools can make up sources that do not exist (Sheffield Hallam University Library, n.d.-d); a lookup cannot invent one. [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) takes a DOI, title, PubMed ID, ISBN or web address, sets the entry in APA 7 or five other styles, and screens the source for retraction, free and with no account. EdCitation finds, cites and checks sources and writes no part of an assignment: every sentence in it stays yours.

### Cite a source on six real sources

For 10.1111/hir.12276, APA 7 returned the Sutton entry exactly as the worked example sets it, ampersand, comma and en dash included. For 10.1177/2158244018822382:

> Strangfeld, J. A. (2019). I just Don’t want to be judged: Cultural capital’s impact on student plagiarism. *Sage Open*, *9*(1), Article 2158244018822382. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018822382

A rerun gave the same capital on "Don’t": lower it by hand. For the library's example of 21 or more authors, 10.1103/PhysRevD.98.030001, it printed 19 names, an ellipsis and the record's last author, the Particle Data Group. For 10.4135/9781526430212 it gave the Cassell handbook without "(Eds.)", so add it.

For https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng189 it read only the page's tab:

> Overview. (n.d.). NICE. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng189

With the institute, the title and 26 February 2021 entered in the form, it became:

> National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2021, February 26). *Safeguarding adults in care homes*. NICE. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng189

Keep the year alone, add the guideline number and delete "NICE." The BBC News page came back with its three authors read as one, "Jonathan Amos, R. M. and A. F.", dated May 1, the UTC date in the page's code; the page shows 2 May 2024. With each author entered separately and the date corrected, it matched the library's Amos example. No source was reported retracted.

### Verify references on twelve of the library's examples

We pasted twelve of the library's examples with DOIs or addresses, exactly as printed, into [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references). Eleven came back verified, most with "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." The Fergus conference paper was verified with a note that its full title adds "(ASC)". One came back "check this": Garofalo and Dupuis, whose address opens the journal's Volume 5 contents page, drew "The address works, but the page there has a different title. Check it is the page meant."

Two slips went through: "Aella" in that long author list, and the "Department of Education" PDF, verified because "The address opens a PDF whose first pages carry the entry's title." The check confirms that a work exists and matches; names inside an ellipsis are yours to read. With Pro, at $8 a month, [References from a file](https://edcitation.com/tools/references-from-a-file) checks a whole paper's list and matches every in-text citation to it ([pricing](https://edcitation.com/pricing)).

## How do you reference at Sheffield Hallam, step by step?

1. Find the style in your module handbook or assignment brief; EdCitation's free [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check) reads the brief into a checklist, citation style included.
2. Build each article, book and web page in [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) from its DOI, ISBN or address, in APA 7; for IEEE use [the IEEE style](https://edcitation.com/cite/ieee), and for physics the [Vancouver style](https://edcitation.com/cite/vancouver).
3. Correct a web page's author, title and date in the form, then make the changes in the table above.
4. Give every quotation its page, section or paragraph, and reference AI as the library's AI page sets out.
5. Paste the finished list into [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) and settle each "check this" against the source.

## Quick questions

### Does Sheffield Hallam use Harvard or APA?

APA 7th edition, the standard since September 2021. Chemistry, engineering, some physics, history and law may set other styles; your tutor decides.

### When does et al. start in SHU APA 7?

From three authors, in every citation including the first. The list names up to 20 authors; from 21, the first 19, an ellipsis and the last.

### Do I need a retrieved date at Sheffield Hallam?

Only for a web page with no date. A dated page, a DOI and a database article take no retrieval date, by the library's own simplification of APA 7.

### Which style do SHU chemistry and engineering students use?

Chemistry uses Vancouver RSC, with journal abbreviations from CASSI. Electrical and electronic engineering may use IEEE, and the library allows full journal names there.

### Can EdCitation build SHU referencing in APA 7?

Nearly. EdCitation's [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) builds APA 7 from the publisher's record; then add "(Eds.)", report numbers and [NICE]-style abbreviations by hand. It does not build RSC or OSCOLA.

## References

- Amos, J., Morelle, R., & Francis, A. (2024, May 2). *Face of 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman revealed*. BBC News. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68922877](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68922877)
- Cassell, C., Cunliffe, A. L., & Grandy, G. (Eds.). (2018). *The SAGE handbook of qualitative business and management research methods: History and traditions*. SAGE Publications. [https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526430212](https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526430212)
- Lomax, C. (2021, September 28). *Get up to speed with the update to referencing in APA 7th style*. Library Services Blog, Sheffield Hallam University. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/blogs/library/Referencing-style-updated-to-APA-7th](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/blogs/library/Referencing-style-updated-to-APA-7th)
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2021). *Safeguarding adults in care homes* (NICE Guideline NG189). [https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng189](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng189)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (n.d.-a). *I need to reference something in APA 7*. Referencing at Hallam. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing/refsomething](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing/refsomething)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (n.d.-b). *I'm new to referencing*. Referencing at Hallam. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing/newtoref](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing/newtoref)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (n.d.-c). *I'm using another referencing style*. Referencing at Hallam. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing/refother](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing/refother)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (n.d.-d). *Referencing AI use*. AI and your academic work. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/ai/referencing](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/ai/referencing)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (n.d.-e). *Referencing FAQs*. Referencing at Hallam. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/c.php?g=693495&p=4980821](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/c.php?g=693495&p=4980821)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (2021a). *A quick guide to referencing* (Version 1.0) [PDF]. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=33832206](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=33832206)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (2021b). *Your guide to referencing: How to use APA 7 edition* (Version 1.0) [PDF]. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=33873429](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=33873429)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (2024). *Your guide to APA 7 edition referencing: Sources and examples* (Version 2.0) [PDF]. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=35688228](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=35688228)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (2026a). *Cite and reference*. Boost your research skills for your Built Environment research project. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/c.php?g=702066&p=5046950](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/c.php?g=702066&p=5046950)
- Sheffield Hallam University Library. (2026b). *Referencing at Hallam*. [https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing](https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing)
- Strangfeld, J. A. (2019). I just don’t want to be judged: Cultural capital’s impact on student plagiarism. *SAGE Open, 9*(1), Article 2158244018822382. [https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018822382](https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018822382)
- Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L., & Booth, A. (2019). Meeting the review family: Exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. *Health Information & Libraries Journal, 36*(3), 202–222. [https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276](https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276)