Universiti Malaya's default referencing style is APA 7th edition. The UM Library publishes an APA Style 7th Edition guide with a 28-page PDF version, and the university's thesis guidelines send students to it while adding layout rules of their own. A faculty may approve another official style, but no UM page we read names a university-wide alternative.
EdCitation is not affiliated with Universiti Malaya; this follows its public library guide, checked on 3 October 2026. Three thesis documents could be read only in archived copies, linked under References. EdCitation publishes this guide; near the end, its free Cite a source and Verify references are run on Malaysian sources and UM's own examples, with every answer quoted. For neighbouring universities, see referencing at universities in Malaysia and Singapore.
Which referencing style does Universiti Malaya use?
APA 7th edition, unless your faculty approves another. Universiti Malaya (2023) asks for APA "or in another format according to the official citation guide approved by the faculty". Faculty and library pages fill in the rest:
| Where | Style named | UM page |
|---|---|---|
| Research reports, dissertations and theses, university-wide | APA, or a faculty-approved official guide; ACS is the example given | Thesis guidelines, 2023 |
| Faculty of Education, postgraduate | APA 7th edition for citations, references, tables and figures | Faculty guidelines, 2022 |
| Faculty of Science, postgraduate | APA, or another format the faculty approves | Faculty slides, 2020 |
| Law subject guide | APA 6th, Harvard, Chicago and Vancouver as examples; ask your lecturer | UM Library, law guide |
| Engineering subject guide | Still links the library's APA 6th edition guide | UM Library, engineering guide |
| Building the entries | Cite a source: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver | EdCitation |
The law and engineering pages lag behind the library's own guide, which is the 7th edition (Universiti Malaya Library, 2025e, 2026). EdCitation builds APA 7, not APA 6th, and no ACS, which is written by hand.
What the thesis guidelines add to APA
Universiti Malaya (2023) and the Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya (2022) set the same layout for the list: each entry single spaced, a double space between entries, alphabetical order, no numbering, and a 0.5 inch hanging indent. In the text, the 2023 guidelines want the surname "or as specified in the UM Library APA Formatting and Style Guide", the year, and a page number for direct quotations only. A quotation of more than 40 words takes its own paragraph, indented 0.5 inch. Footnotes should be few, in 8-point type, following the faculty's convention.
Two things here should not be copied. The 2023 guidelines' "APA Format" examples spell out first names and capitalise every word, as in "Walmsley, Ben. (2019), Audience Engagement", which is not APA 7. And the Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya (2020) slides write "Thomas & Peter (1994)", where the library guide uses "and" outside brackets.
What are UM's own APA rules?
The library guide adds rules for Malaysian names and institutions that the APA manual leaves out, and restates the standard ones (Universiti Malaya Library, 2025a). Each rule below comes from the page named.
| UM rule | As UM prints it | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Malay name without a family name: drop bin or binti, write it whole | Asmah Binti Omar becomes Asmah Omar. (1991). | General rules |
| Indian or Sikh name without a family name: drop d/o, s/o, a/l, a/p | Narrayani a/p Jeganathan becomes Narrayani Jeganathan. | General rules |
| Chinese name: surname, then initials | Chu Chin Ning becomes Chu, C. N. | General rules |
| Chinese name with an English name | Vincent Foo Hiap Khian becomes Foo, V. H. K. | General rules |
| Inherited name kept; conferred title dropped | Raja Ahmad Niza; Tun Mahathir Mohamad becomes Mahathir Mohamad | General rules |
| Government department under its official name | Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Perak. | General rules |
| Yayasan (foundation) or Lembaga (board) kept as given | Yayasan Sabah. | General rules |
| Up to 20 authors in the list; from 21, the first 19, ". . .", then the last | The Kalnay example | General rules |
| Et al. from three authors, in the text | (Smith et al., 2009) | In-text citations |
| A Malay name stays whole in the text | (Hasmah Zanuddin & Azizah Hamzah, 2007) | Reference format |
| Unpublished UM thesis | [Unpublished master's thesis]. Universiti Malaya. | Reference format |
| Thesis in the repository | [Master's thesis, Universiti Malaya]. University of Malaya Student Repository. | Reference format |
| No site name when it repeats the author | Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia. (2020, October 5). | Reference format |
For other naming systems, see names in references across cultures; for Gaya UKM, Indonesian and Malaysian citation.
Malay-language sources
The guide's Malay examples stay in Malay: Asmah Omar's Kemahiran berbahasa in sentence case, and the Malay name of a seminar in Negeri Sembilan. Its French example, a Piaget title, adds an English translation in square brackets, but its Malay title carries none, and no UM page states a rule for translating Malay (Universiti Malaya Library, 2025d). APA 7 asks for the translation, so ask your supervisor which a UM marker expects; see citing a non-English source.
Where UM's own examples slip
Copy UM's patterns, not every example:
- DOIs appear three ways: https://doi.org/, http://dx.doi.org/ and a short http://doi.org/fg6rf9. APA 7 asks for https://doi.org/ throughout.
- Page ranges take a hyphen in the library's examples (1034-1048) and an en dash in the Faculty of Education's template (155–159). Pick one and keep to it.
- Young and colleagues' ADHD consensus statement is listed with 20 authors, ending "& Tierney, K.", and pages "1-27". The publisher's record names 22 authors and gives Article 404, so by UM's own rule the list runs to the 19th name, ". . .", then Woodhouse.
- The Faculty of Education's chapter example gives "DOI:10.14425/9789674881757"; doi.org reports no such DOI.
What does a UM reference list look like?
Three real sources, set exactly in UM's APA 7th form. In the text:
Ahmad Alif Kamal et al. (2020) analysed feedback from 354 pre-university students at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak during the move to fully online learning. Malaysia's labour force participation rate reached 70.8 per cent in 2025 (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2026). Sivameenambigai Veeriah et al. (2026) examine withholding or withdrawing medical treatment from severely ill neonates in Malaysia, cited in brackets as (Sivameenambigai Veeriah et al., 2026).
Under "References", each entry single spaced, a double space between entries, with a 0.5 inch hanging indent:
Ahmad Alif Kamal, Norhunaini Mohd Shaipullah, Liyana Truna, Muna Sabri, & Syahrul N. Junaini. (2020). Transitioning to online learning during COVID-19 pandemic: Case study of a pre-university centre in Malaysia. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 11(6), 217–223. https://doi.org/10.14569/ijacsa.2020.0110628
Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2026, June 26). Labour force survey 2025. https://www.dosm.gov.my/portal-main/release-content/labour-force-survey-2025
Sivameenambigai Veeriah, Mohammad Firdaus Abdul Aziz, & Sharon Kaur Gurmukh Singh. (2026). Withholding or withdrawing medical treatment from severely ill neonates in Malaysia: Regulatory gap and uncertainty. Journal of Malaysian and Comparative Law, 53(1), 39–62. https://doi.org/10.22452/jmcl.vol53no1.3
The first is UM's own example of Malay names written whole, rebuilt with the DOI, issue and pages its version leaves out. The department needs no site name, since the site is its own. The third byline prints A/P and BIN, which UM's rules drop.
Which EdCitation style is closest to UM's, and what do you change?
APA 7. EdCitation's APA 7 follows the same edition as UM's guide, so most entries need only UM's name rules applied by hand. These are the changes our runs on 2 and 3 October 2026 called for:
| EdCitation's APA 7 printed | Change it to, for UM |
|---|---|
| Sivameenambigai A/p Veeriah, Mohammad Firdaus bin Abdul Aziz, & Sharon Kaur A/p Gurmukh Singh | Sivameenambigai Veeriah, Mohammad Firdaus Abdul Aziz, & Sharon Kaur Gurmukh Singh |
| Kamal, A. A., Mohd, N., Truna, L., Sabri, M., & Syahrul, N. | The names in full from the byline, as UM prints them |
| 11(6). with no pages | 11(6), 217–223, from the article's PDF |
| Skirrow, C., … Woodhouse, E. | Skirrow, C., . . . Woodhouse, E., the ellipsis as UM prints it |
| attention-deficit/ hyperactivity | attention-deficit/hyperactivity (the space is in the record) |
| DOSM. (n.d.). Department of Statistics Malaysia. | Author, title and date corrected in the form first |
| PENGAPLIKASIAN ELEMEN MASLAHAH DALAM INSTITUSI PERBANKAN ISLAM DI MALAYSIA | Pengaplikasian elemen maslahah dalam institusi perbankan Islam di Malaysia |
| Behave. Penguin Press. | Subtitle and publisher from your copy's title page |
Where a faculty or lecturer names another style, Harvard, Chicago 18 author-date and Vancouver are built too. APA 6th, ACS and footnote styles are not: Cite a source builds six styles only.
Six steps to a UM reference list
- Find the style in your course outline or faculty guidelines. EdCitation's free Check your paper reads an assignment's instructions into a checklist, citation style included.
- Look each source up in Cite a source by DOI, ISBN or web address, in APA 7.
- Apply UM's name rules from the tables above, and correct a web page's author, title and date in the form.
- Set the list out as the thesis guidelines ask: single-spaced entries, a double space between, alphabetical, unnumbered, a 0.5 inch hanging indent.
- Paste the list into Verify references and open the source behind every "check this" or "could not check".
- For a dissertation or thesis, References from a file (Pro, $8 a month) checks every reference and matches every in-text citation to the list.
What did Cite a source and Verify references return?
Cite a source is the best place to start a UM list because it looks every source up and never writes one: authors, year, volume and pages come from the publisher's record, or from the page itself for a web address, while a chatbot's reference has no record behind it. It sets the entry in APA 7 or five other styles, screens for retraction, and asks for no account or payment. EdCitation never writes any part of your paper: it finds, cites and checks sources, and every sentence you hand in stays yours.
Cite a source on Malaysian sources
For DOI 10.22452/jmcl.vol53no1.3, in a law journal published by Universiti Malaya, APA returned:
Sivameenambigai A/p Veeriah, Mohammad Firdaus bin Abdul Aziz, & Sharon Kaur A/p Gurmukh Singh. (2026). Withholding or withdrawing medical treatment from severely ill neonates in Malaysia: Regulatory gap and uncertainty. Journal of Malaysian and Comparative Law, 53(1), 39–62. https://doi.org/10.22452/jmcl.vol53no1.3
The names arrive whole, as UM wants, and Malaysia keeps its capital; delete A/p and bin, here and in "(Sivameenambigai A/p Veeriah et al., 2026)". No retraction was reported.
For DOI 10.14569/ijacsa.2020.0110628, UM's own Malay-name example, APA began "Kamal, A. A., Mohd, N., Truna, L., Sabri, M., & Syahrul, N. (2020)" and ended at "11(6)." with no pages. The record splits the byline badly, cutting Norhunaini Mohd Shaipullah to "Mohd, N."; the journal's page and PDF give the full names and the pages.
For a Malay-language article, DOI 10.22452/syariah.vol34no2.1, APA began "Azimoha, N. N., & Ab Rahman, A. (2026). PENGAPLIKASIAN ELEMEN MASLAHAH DALAM INSTITUSI PERBANKAN ISLAM DI MALAYSIA" and joined the journal's English title after a colon. The capitals, kept on a second run, are the record's: lower them to sentence case and settle the translation with your supervisor.
For the Department of Statistics Malaysia's Labour Force Survey 2025 page, the details read from the page gave "DOSM. (n.d.). Department of Statistics Malaysia.", the page's own title tag. With the author, title and the date 26 June 2026 entered in the form, APA returned "Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2026, June 26). Labour force survey 2025." and the address: UM's form exactly.
For Young and colleagues' DOI, 10.1186/s12888-020-02707-9, APA listed 19 authors, "… Woodhouse, E.", and "20(1), Article 404". For ISBN 9781594205071 the catalogue answered "Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave. Penguin Press."; UM's example adds a subtitle and Penguin Books, so take both from the copy you read.
Verify references on UM's own examples
On 3 October 2026 we pasted eight entries into Verify references: six as UM's guides print them, and our DOSM and Sivameenambigai Veeriah entries.
- Young and colleagues, Varalakshmi and Arunachalam, and Sivameenambigai Veeriah without A/P and BIN: verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." It did not flag the two authors UM's Young entry leaves out; Cite a source's entry shows them.
- Kalnay and colleagues with the short DOI, and Ahmad Alif Kamal and colleagues with only a PhilPapers address: verified, "Title, year and first author match a published record."
- The Faculty of Education's chapter by Ryan Hidayat and colleagues: not found, "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference. No registry holds the DOI 10.14425/9789674881757."
- UM's repository thesis by Aini Hayati Abdul Rahim, and the DOSM page, twice: "could not check", "The page at this address did not answer. Check it in a browser." The DOSM page took 12 seconds to load for us; neither was called not found.
With Pro ($8 a month), References from a file checks every reference in an uploaded thesis and matches each in-text citation to the list; pricing has the plans.
Quick questions
What referencing style does Universiti Malaya use?
APA 7th edition by default. The thesis guidelines allow another style only where the faculty approves an official guide for it.
How are Malay names written in UM's APA style?
In full and not inverted, without bin or binti: Asmah Binti Omar becomes Asmah Omar. Indian and Sikh names without a family name drop a/l, a/p, s/o and d/o.
How should references be spaced in a UM thesis?
Each reference single spaced, a double space between references, alphabetical, unnumbered, with a 0.5 inch hanging indent.
Is the UM library citation guide APA 6th or APA 7th?
APA 7th. The law and engineering subject guides still mention or link APA 6th material; follow the 7th edition unless your lecturer says otherwise.
Can EdCitation build references in UM's APA style?
Nearly: EdCitation's Cite a source builds APA 7 from the publisher's record, and you apply UM's name rules by hand. ACS and footnote styles are not among its six.
References
- Ahmad Alif Kamal, Norhunaini Mohd Shaipullah, Liyana Truna, Muna Sabri, & Syahrul N. Junaini. (2020). Transitioning to online learning during COVID-19 pandemic: Case study of a pre-university centre in Malaysia. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 11(6), 217–223. https://doi.org/10.14569/ijacsa.2020.0110628
- Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2026, June 26). Labour force survey 2025. https://www.dosm.gov.my/portal-main/release-content/labour-force-survey-2025
- Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya. (2022). Guidelines for the preparation of research report, dissertation and thesis (Edited version 2022) [PDF, archived copy]. https://web.archive.org/web/20260205100637/https://education.um.edu.my/PG%20Student/Guidelines%20for%20the%20Preparation%20of%20Research%20Report,%20Dissertation%20and%20Thesis%20Version%202022.pdf
- Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya. (2020). Guidelines for the preparation of research reports, dissertations and theses [PDF slides, archived copy]. https://web.archive.org/web/20250526150924/https://fs.um.edu.my/new%20files/backup%20website/POSTGRADUATE/guidelines/GUIDELINE%20FORMAT%20THESIS%20%288.07.2020%29-update.pdf
- Sivameenambigai Veeriah, Mohammad Firdaus Abdul Aziz, & Sharon Kaur Gurmukh Singh. (2026). Withholding or withdrawing medical treatment from severely ill neonates in Malaysia: Regulatory gap and uncertainty. Journal of Malaysian and Comparative Law, 53(1), 39–62. https://doi.org/10.22452/jmcl.vol53no1.3
- Universiti Malaya. (2023). Guidelines for the preparation of research report, dissertation and thesis [PDF, archived copy]. https://web.archive.org/web/20250527101750/https://ias.um.edu.my/Student%20Affairs/Guideline/Guidelines%20for%20the%20Preparation%20of%20Research%20Report,%20Dissertation%20and%20Thesis_Oct%202023.pdf
- Universiti Malaya Library. (2020). APA Style 7th Edition [PDF, updated 7 December 2020]. https://umlibguides.um.edu.my/ld.php?content_id=50609455
- Universiti Malaya Library. (2025a). General rules. APA Style 7th Edition library guide. https://umlibguides.um.edu.my/c.php?g=939660&p=6801196
- Universiti Malaya Library. (2025b). Home. APA Style 7th Edition library guide. https://umlibguides.um.edu.my/c.php?g=939660&p=6801195
- Universiti Malaya Library. (2025c). In-text citations. APA Style 7th Edition library guide. https://umlibguides.um.edu.my/c.php?g=939660&p=6801198
- Universiti Malaya Library. (2025d). Reference format. APA Style 7th Edition library guide. https://umlibguides.um.edu.my/c.php?g=939660&p=6801197
- Universiti Malaya Library. (2025e). Referencing. Law library guide. https://umlibguides.um.edu.my/c.php?g=395645&p=5085841
- Universiti Malaya Library. (2026). Citing & managing references. Engineering library guide. https://umlibguides.um.edu.my/c.php?g=395650&p=5471545