The University of the Philippines (UP) has no one referencing style. Each college's thesis manual names its own: APA 7th edition at UP Los Baños' engineering college and UP Open University, APA 6th at UP Manila, APA 6th or MLA at UP Diliman's College of Mass Communication, and the department's choice in UP Diliman's College of Science. The UP Diliman library publishes no rulebook of its own.
EdCitation is not affiliated with the University of the Philippines; this follows its public documents, checked on 3 October 2026. Our guide to referencing at universities in the Philippines compares UP with other schools; this one stays with UP's own documents. EdCitation publishes it, and near the end quotes what its free Cite a source and Verify references returned on sources a UP student would cite.
Which referencing style does the University of the Philippines use?
The one your college's thesis manual or your adviser names. These are the UP documents we could read:
| Constituent university and unit | Document | Style it names | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| UP Diliman, University Library | Citation maker page | No rules of its own; links to the APA Handbook (7th edition) and Chicago Manual of Style Online | Library page |
| UP Diliman, College of Science | Style and format manual, revised 2021 | Set by each department or institute, after the field's journals | Sections 1.1, 2.12, 3.1 |
| UP Diliman, College of Mass Communication | Format guidebook, 2016 | APA 6th edition or MLA, never mixed | p. 4 |
| UP Diliman, School of Economics | Thesis manual, 2024 | None named; the body follows rules the author and adviser agree | pp. 9, 11 |
| UP Diliman, Sentro ng Wikang Filipino | Daluyan call for papers | MLA 7th edition | Call page |
| UP Los Baños, College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT) | Guidelines, 7th edition, 2023 | APA, latest edition (7th) | p. 71 |
| UP Manila | Manual of format and style, 2013 | APA 6th edition recommended | Section 1.10 |
| UP Open University | Style guide, 2022 | APA 7th edition in the text | p. 13 |
| Any of them | Building each entry | Cite a source, free | EdCitation |
Is there a UP Diliman library citation guide?
Not one with rules. The library's "Citing with APA Handbook (7th Edition)" post, updated 10 May 2024, embeds a learning object that today shows only its title card (University of the Philippines Diliman University Library, 2023). Its "Citation Maker Free Online" page lists the APA Handbook, the Chicago Manual of Style Online and Mendeley, then three free generators (University of the Philippines Diliman University Library, n.d.). The School of Economics manual sends students to that same page and says the body follows "the rules agreed by the author and adviser" (University of the Philippines School of Economics Library, 2024, p. 11).
APA 6th or 7th, MLA 7th or 9th
The older manuals name older editions: UP Manila's dates from 2013 and the mass communication guidebook from 2016, though the college's May 2024 submission rules still point to it (University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication, 2024). EdCitation builds APA 7 only, so ask an APA 6 programme whether the seventh is accepted; our guide to rules that changed between editions lists the differences. Daluyan, UP Diliman's journal in Filipino, asks for MLA 7th edition; EdCitation builds MLA 9.
EdCitation builds six styles: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver. The College of Science's suggested CBE and ACS manuals, Turabian notes and APA 6 are not among them.
What citation rules do UP's thesis manuals set?
Beyond the style itself, the manuals add rules of their own:
| Rule | Document | Page or section |
|---|---|---|
| APA in its latest edition, the 7th, author-date | UPLB CEAT guidelines | 10.1, p. 71 |
| The guidance committee checks the accuracy of the entries; the author answers for them | UPLB CEAT guidelines | 10.1.4, p. 71 |
| Use a reference manager (Mendeley, Zotero or EndNote are named) | UPLB CEAT guidelines | 10.2, p. 71 |
| Missing author, date or title: APA's substitutes, set out in a table | UPLB CEAT guidelines | 10.3, p. 72 |
| A table's source goes below its bottom border, in italics, with author and year | UPLB CEAT guidelines | 5.5.2, p. 55 |
| Group author abbreviated once, then the abbreviation alone | UPOU style guide | p. 13 |
| No "ibid."; repeat the whole citation | UPOU style guide | p. 14 |
| Every work cited goes in the list; nothing unused may be cited | UPD College of Science manual | 2.12 |
| APA 6th or MLA; do not mix styles | UPD mass communication guidebook | p. 4 |
| Cite earlier studies in the past tense | UPD mass communication guidebook | p. 31 |
| APA 6th edition recommended; another style needs the unit's approval | UP Manila manual | 1.10 |
| "REFERENCES" centred on a new page, alphabetical, hanging indent, double spaced | UP Manila manual | 1.10 |
Footnotes: preferred, discouraged or banned
The manuals disagree. UP Manila bans footnotes and allows endnotes (University of the Philippines Manila National Graduate Office for the Health Sciences, 2013, section 2.8). The mass communication guidebook prefers footnotes to endnotes for readability (p. 4). UP Open University (2022) discourages both, yet uses a footnote for the source of a table or figure (p. 17). Your own manual wins.
Can a UP reference list include works you did not cite?
At UP Open University, yes: its guide defines references as sources used in preparing the manuscript, which "may or may not have been cited in the text" (p. 21). The College of Science allows nothing that was not used. Ask your adviser which your programme expects.
How do UP's manuals treat Filipino and Filipino-language sources?
They cover writing in Filipino more than citing it. The College of Science accepts a thesis in English or Filipino (section 1.2). For words in a language other than English it repeats the Chicago Manual's advice: isolated words in italics, a whole quotation in that language in quotation marks only, and no marking for words a good English dictionary lists (section 3.4). UPLB's engineers allow Filipino words in the acknowledgement if they are italicised or quoted (p. 36). UP Manila asks for the manuscript in English (p. 5). Daluyan wants the title, abstract and keywords in both Filipino and English (Sentro ng Wikang Filipino, n.d.).
None of the documents says how to list a source written in Filipino. Our guide to citing a non-English source covers the styles' rules; confirm yours with your adviser.
What does a UP APA 7 reference list look like?
Four real sources in APA 7, the edition UPLB's engineers and UP Open University name, with UP Open University's group-author rule in the text:
Alcazaren and Labor (2023) examined how queer users express identity through TikTok's features. A government policy note links the mismatch between home language and language of instruction to lower achievement (Abrigo et al., 2026). Bato (2023) quantified runoff and soil erosion with PCRaster. The style itself is set by the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020), and later citations read (APA, 2020).
Under "References", in alphabetical order with hanging indents:
Abrigo, M. R. M., Estopace, K. M. M., Lingatong, E. E., & Relos, C. M. L. (2026). School-based linguistic deprivation limits learning (PIDS Policy Notes No. 2026-18). Philippine Institute for Development Studies. https://doi.org/10.62986/pn2026.18
Alcazaren, H. K. G., & Labor, J. S. (2023). Queered affordances: Gender expressions of Filipino TikTok content creators. Plaridel. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.52518/2023-07aznlbr
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
Bato, V. (2023). Numerical quantification of surface runoff and soil erosion using PCRaster. The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, 106(4), 389–399. https://doi.org/10.62550/hq065020
A table built from Bato's data would carry its source below the bottom border, in italics, as UPLB's guidelines set it: Source: Bato, 2023.
What each entry shows
- Abrigo: a report, with the series number in parentheses after the title and the middle initials printed on the PIDS page.
- Alcazaren: an Early View article with no volume yet, so "Advance online publication." follows the journal, as in the journal's own suggested entry; the authors keep the byline's order.
- APA manual: no publisher, as in UPLB's own list, since the author is the publisher.
- Bato: volume, issue and an en dash in the page range.
Which EdCitation style is closest, and what do you change by hand?
APA 7, for most UP programmes. These are the changes our runs on 3 October 2026 called for:
| Your manual asks for | Start in EdCitation's | Then fix by hand |
|---|---|---|
| APA 7th (UPLB CEAT, UP Open University) | APA 7 | Author order and middle initials against the byline; "Advance online publication." for Early View; a report's series number; table and figure source lines |
| APA 6th (UP Manila, mass communication) | APA 7 | Ask whether the 7th is accepted; if not, edit to the 6th by hand |
| MLA (mass communication; Daluyan, 7th edition) | MLA 9 | Hold each entry against the edition your unit names |
| A department's journal style (College of Science) | Closest of the six, or by hand | CBE and ACS are not built |
Six steps from source to a UP reference list
- Find your college's manual and ask your adviser which style and edition it means. EdCitation's free Check your paper reads your instructions into a checklist, citation style included.
- Paste each DOI, ISBN, title or page address into Cite a source and choose APA 7 or MLA 9.
- Hold each entry against the source's first page: author order, middle initials, volume and pages.
- Make the changes in the table above.
- Write table and figure source lines by hand, as your manual places them.
- Paste the finished list into Verify references and open the source behind every "check this".
What did Cite a source and Verify references return?
Cite a source is the best tool for starting a UP list because it looks each source up and never composes one: it reads the publisher's record, the registry or the page, builds the entry in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver, and screens the source for retraction. A lookup, not a guess, is what caught a mistyped DOI in UPLB's own guidelines below. Both tools are free, with no account. EdCitation never writes a word of a student's thesis: it finds the record behind each source, and the reading, the argument and every sentence remain the student's.
Cite a source on four sources
For DOI 10.52518/2023-07aznlbr, from Plaridel, the journal of UP Diliman's mass communication college, APA returned:
Labor, J., & Alcazaren, H. K. (2023). Queered affordances: Gender expressions of Filipino TikTok content creators. Plaridel. https://doi.org/10.52518/2023-07aznlbr
The publisher's record lists Labor first, but the article's first page and the journal's own suggested entry put Alcazaren first (Alcazaren & Labor, 2023). Reverse the authors, add the middle initials G. and S., and add "Advance online publication." "TikTok" and "Filipino" kept their capitals.
For DOI 10.62550/hq065020, from UPLB's The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, APA returned an entry we could not fault:
Bato, V. (2023). Numerical quantification of surface runoff and soil erosion using PCRaster. The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, 106(4), 389–399. https://doi.org/10.62550/hq065020
The record names an institute as if it were an author; the tool left it out. The journal's page asked for a robot check, so we could not hold the byline against it.
For the PIDS policy note's page on pids.gov.ph, APA returned:
Abrigo, M., Estopace, K. M., Lingatong, E., & Relos, C. M. (2026). School-based linguistic deprivation limits learning. Philippine Institute for Development Studies. https://doi.org/10.62986/pn2026.18
It found the DOI on the page. Add the middle initials the page prints, the series number and italics. A Philippine Statistics Authority page gave "That page could not be read. Some sites block automated readers."; write such an entry by hand.
For ISBN 9781433832161, the library catalogue answered and APA gave "American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.)." with the publisher rightly left out.
Verify references on six entries
We pasted six entries, three copied exactly from UP documents. Verify references answered:
- The APA manual exactly as UPLB's guidelines list it: "check this", "No registry holds the DOI 10.1037/000016S-000. The work is on record with the DOI 10.1037/0000165-000." The guidelines typed an S for a 5.
- Alcazaren and Labor in byline order: "check this", "The publisher's record lists Labor first, and your entry opens with Alcazaren. Check the order of the authors." Here the record is wrong, so keep the byline's order.
- Bato and the PIDS note: verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches."
- UP Open University's entry for a 2012 memorandum, with no DOI or address: could not check, kept apart from not found.
- UP Open University's "UP Gazette" link: 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."
For the whole thesis, Pro ($8 a month) adds References from a file, which checks every entry and matches each in-text citation to the list; Max ($24 a month) adds Theoretics QA, which judges the paper against its own instructions and rewrites nothing. See pricing.
Quick questions
What referencing style does UP Diliman use?
No single one. The College of Science lets each department choose, the College of Mass Communication allows APA 6th edition or MLA, and the School of Economics leaves it to the author and adviser.
Is there a UP Diliman library citation guide?
No rulebook. The library's citation pages link to the APA Handbook (7th edition), the Chicago Manual of Style Online and free generators, and leave the rules to each college's manual.
Does UPLB require APA 7th edition for a thesis?
UPLB's College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology requires APA in its latest edition, which its 2023 guidelines name as the 7th. We did not read other UPLB colleges' rules.
Can I use footnotes in a UP thesis?
It depends on the campus. UP Manila bans footnotes, UP Diliman's mass communication college prefers them to endnotes, and UP Open University discourages them except for sources of tables and figures.
Does EdCitation write any part of a UP thesis?
No. EdCitation finds sources, builds each reference from its record in Cite a source and checks lists; every sentence of the thesis is the student's own.
References
- Abrigo, M. R. M., Estopace, K. M. M., Lingatong, E. E., & Relos, C. M. L. (2026). School-based linguistic deprivation limits learning (PIDS Policy Notes No. 2026-18). Philippine Institute for Development Studies. https://doi.org/10.62986/pn2026.18
- Alcazaren, H. K. G., & Labor, J. S. (2023). Queered affordances: Gender expressions of Filipino TikTok content creators. Plaridel. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.52518/2023-07aznlbr
- American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
- Bato, V. (2023). Numerical quantification of surface runoff and soil erosion using PCRaster. The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, 106(4), 389–399. https://doi.org/10.62550/hq065020
- Sentro ng Wikang Filipino. (n.d.). Panawagan ng Daluyan. University of the Philippines Diliman. https://sentrofilipino.upd.edu.ph/pananawagan/daluyan/
- University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. (2016). Format guidebook for theses and dissertations (Version 1) [PDF]. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oMS44aV6X8YrPHzpoYCRgRpWPvVWRuMe/view
- University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. (2024). Updated guidelines on the submission of theses and dissertations [PDF]. CMC Library. https://sites.google.com/up.edu.ph/cmclibrary/linkages/theses-guidelines
- University of the Philippines College of Science. (2021). Style and format manual for thesis and dissertations (Rev. ed.) [PDF]. https://science.upd.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/revised_Style-and-Format-Manual_Revised-September-2021.pdf
- University of the Philippines Diliman University Library. (n.d.). Citation maker free online. https://mainlib.upd.edu.ph/citation-maker-free-online/
- University of the Philippines Diliman University Library. (2023, May 23). Citing with APA Handbook (7th edition). https://mainlib.upd.edu.ph/citing-with-apa-handbook-7th-edition/
- University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology. (2023). Formatting and submission guidelines for undergraduate thesis, innovationeering and engineering industry research (EIR) manuscripts (7th ed.) [PDF, archived copy]. https://web.archive.org/web/20250805094017/https://ceatlibrary.uplb.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/CEAT-Manuscript-Guidelines-effective-April-3-2023.pdf
- University of the Philippines Manila National Graduate Office for the Health Sciences. (2013). Manual of format and style for theses and dissertations [PDF]. NTTCHP eLibrary. https://sites.google.com/up.edu.ph/nttchplibrary/research-tools/upm-manual-of-format-style-for-td
- University of the Philippines Open University. (2022). Style guide for UPOU bachelor's special/capstone project, master's capstone project, special problem, and thesis, and doctoral dissertation (Memorandum No. CMDPB 2022-009) [PDF]. https://fmds.upou.edu.ph/student/research-support-services/
- University of the Philippines School of Economics Library. (2024). Thesis manual 2024: Format guide for theses and dissertations and thesis policy [PDF]. https://selib.upd.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Manual-2024-07-23-Ramirez-R-Thesis-and-dissertation.pdf