# APA format in the Philippines: university theses and SHS research

**Which referencing style do universities in the Philippines use?** Universities in the Philippines mostly use APA, but no national rule sets one style. CHED requires graduate theses and journal publication without naming a style, and DepEd lets senior high school research cite in APA, MLA or Chicago. Each college decides: Letran asks for APA 6, Central Philippine University for APA 7, Ateneo development studies for Harvard, APA or Chicago.

Published 2026-10-02 by EdCitation. https://edcitation.com/newsletter/referencing-at-universities-in-the-philippines

No national rule sets one referencing style for universities in the Philippines. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) requires a thesis and a journal publication from graduate students on its academic and research tracks without naming a style, and the Department of Education (DepEd) lets senior high school students cite in APA, MLA or Chicago. Referencing at universities in the Philippines is therefore decided college by college, and most of the colleges we read choose APA format.

This is an EdCitation guide. Every handbook and library guide below was read on 2 October 2026 and carries its own date. Mapúa University's library, the main CHED and DepEd websites, the Official Gazette and APA's own site refused our connection that day, so nothing here rests on them; CHED's memorandum was read in a copy hosted by Far Eastern University. The final section reports, word for word, what EdCitation's free [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) and [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) gave back on Philippine sources, faults included. EdCitation's part ends at the sources: it fetches and checks each reference and never writes a single line of anyone's paper, so the thesis remains entirely the student's.

## Which referencing style do universities in the Philippines use?

APA, in most of the guides we read, but the edition and the alternatives change from school to school and even from programme to programme.

| University | Programme or level | Style it names | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| University of the Philippines Diliman, College of Science | Theses and dissertations | Set by each department or institute; APA, CBE, ACS, MLA and Chicago among the suggested manuals | University of the Philippines College of Science (2021) |
| UP Diliman, Population Institute | MA Demography thesis | APA, 6th edition | University of the Philippines Population Institute (2015) |
| UP Diliman, College of Education | Thesis article for its journal | APA, 7th edition | University of the Philippines College of Education (n.d.-a) |
| Ateneo de Manila University | Development Studies undergraduate thesis | Harvard, APA or Chicago | Ateneo de Manila University (2021) |
| De La Salle University | Engineering graduate manuscripts | APA, author-year in the text | De La Salle University (2014) |
| Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Manila | Senior high school to graduate school | APA, 6th edition; IEEE in engineering and IT | Colegio de San Juan de Letran (2018) |
| Central Philippine University | The whole university | APA, 7th edition, with a 6th edition tab kept | Central Philippine University (2023) |
| San Pedro College, Davao | Senior high school to graduate school | APA 7 for social sciences and nursing; Vancouver for medical, allied health and natural sciences | San Pedro College (2020) |
| Mindanao State University, Main Campus | Graduate theses | The department's manual: APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, ASA, IEEE or Harvard, latest edition | Mindanao State University (2023) |
| Any of them | Building each entry | [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite), free | EdCitation |

### Referencing style at UP Diliman: set by the college

UP Diliman has no single style. The College of Science's manual, revised in September 2021, leaves style to each department or institute, which should follow the major journals of the field, and it bars citing anything that has "not been used in the preparation" of the thesis. The Population Institute's MA guide asks for APA 6th edition, while the College of Education sends graduate students' thesis articles to its journal, which follows APA 7th edition (University of the Philippines College of Education, n.d.-a, n.d.-b). A guide to the University of the Philippines alone will follow; this one compares.

### APA 7th edition in the Philippines, and the guides still on APA 6

Two guides still name the sixth edition, Letran's 2018 manual and the Population Institute's 2015 guide, and a 2014 De La Salle engineering template keeps older forms: its samples use "Retrieved from", a publisher's city and title case. Its author believes the university last mandated a thesis style guide "in the age of typewriters". Central Philippine University (2023) teaches the seventh edition, which it dates to 2019, and Mindanao State University (2023) asks for "the latest edition" and says its own handbook wins on formatting where a manual disagrees. EdCitation builds APA 7 only, so check whether an APA 6 programme accepts it; our guide to [rules that changed between editions](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/et-al-and-other-rules-that-changed-between-editions) lists the differences.

EdCitation builds six styles: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard (Cite Them Right), IEEE and Vancouver. It does not build CBE, ACS, ASA, Chicago notes or legal citation. Ateneo's "Harvard" has no single publisher, so compare our [Harvard](https://edcitation.com/cite/harvard) entries with your adviser's examples.

## What do CHED and DepEd require for a thesis or research paper?

Neither sets a style for universities: CHED sets a publication requirement for graduate students, and DepEd names three styles for senior high school.

### CHED: a thesis, a publication and a plagiarism policy

CHED Memorandum Order No. 15, series of 2019, requires students in master's academic and research tracks to have a publication in a refereed journal or a juried creative work, and doctoral students to publish in internationally or nationally indexed journals or a juried creative work (Commission on Higher Education, 2019). We found no citation style in its 30 pages. It does require each university's Graduate Program Manual of Operations to include policies on plagiarism, which is where the similarity limits below come from. Mindanao State applies the publication rule to students enrolling from the first semester of academic year 2023–2024 onwards.

The practical effect for thesis format in the Philippines: the journal's style governs the article. San Pedro College recommends APA 7 for nursing theses, but asks for Vancouver in the papers students submit to its own journals. One DOI in [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) gives both.

### DepEd: APA, MLA or Chicago in senior high school

DepEd's curriculum guides for Practical Research 1 (Grade 11) and Practical Research 2 (Grade 12), published on the DepEd Learning Portal on 24 September 2018, carry the same competency: citing related literature in a standard style, with APA, MLA and the Chicago Manual of Style named (Department of Education, 2018a, 2018b). The school picks one. Letran's senior high school research courses follow its APA 6 rule; San Pedro College's follow its APA 7 or Vancouver.

## How do you format a senior high school research paper in the Philippines?

Use the style your school's research manual names, then build and check the list:

1. Ask which style your school uses for Practical Research. DepEd accepts APA, MLA or Chicago.
2. Find sources for the review of related literature in [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) or your library.
3. Build each entry in [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa); MLA 9 and Chicago author-date are there too.
4. Correct by hand what the last section shows: names, subject names, missing dates.
5. Paste the list into [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) before your final defence.
6. Turn your teacher's instructions into a checklist with [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check).

Our guide to [your first research paper](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/first-research-paper-how-to-cite-sources) covers in-text citations from the start.

## What similarity index do Philippine universities accept?

Each sets its own number, since CHED's memorandum asks for a plagiarism policy without giving one:

| University | Limit | Left out of the count |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Colegio de San Juan de Letran | At least 90% original before each defence | Not stated |
| San Pedro College | Below 15%, every programme | Not stated |
| Mindanao State University | Not above 20% for a thesis or dissertation | Quoted and attributed work, references, front matter, generic terms, laws, symbols and equations |
| Visayas State University | 20% or below | Preliminary pages, table of contents, quotations, references |

Visayas State University (2025) counts "inaccurate source information" as plagiarism, so a wrong reference is an integrity matter there, not only a formatting one. A percentage measures matching text, not guilt; our guide to [what similarity percentage is acceptable](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/what-similarity-percentage-is-acceptable) sets out what the numbers mean. EdCitation's [Check plagiarism](https://edcitation.com/tools/check-plagiarism), part of Pro, marks each matching passage with its source, shown only to you; it runs on credits, and the cost is shown before it runs.

## How do you cite Philippine laws and government pages?

As your own guide shows, and the guides we read show little.

- **In law.** The UST Law Review style guide uses footnotes, gives a statute's full title and then "Republic Act No. 1405, Section 6 (1955)", and sends writers to the Philippine Manual of Legal Citations for the rest (UST Law Review, n.d.). EdCitation does not build legal footnotes.
- **Government pages.** De La Salle University (2014) makes the Department of Energy the author of its own page, in the older "Retrieved from" form. The run below shows a DepEd page built in APA 7.
- **Republic Acts in APA papers.** None of the APA guides we read gives an example, so ask your adviser for your department's form.
- **Filipino names.** Particles and suffixes, as in Dela Cruz, San Agustin or III, are covered in our guide to [names across cultures](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/names-in-references-across-cultures).

## Where do the guides' own examples go wrong?

Follow each guide's pattern, and check its samples before pasting them. Central Philippine University's book example ends in another university's library proxy address with a DOI beginning "90." (every DOI begins "10.", as our [DOI guide](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/what-is-a-doi) explains), and its thesis example links to "http://doi.net/49294". Mindanao State's 2023 handbook lists a 2011 Cornell library page "Retrieved July 9, 2013" among its own references. De La Salle's sample cites a 1989 article in the *Philippine Engineering Journal* without any link; we could not confirm it exists, and a local journal of that age may have no digital record, so ask the library before relying on such a source.

## What did EdCitation return on Philippine sources?

For building and checking these entries, EdCitation is the best free tool, and the runs show why: each entry comes straight from the record a publisher or registry holds, with no detail guessed, which a chatbot composing references from memory cannot say. All six styles above come free, with no account. We quote the outputs without italics, which the page itself adds.

### Cite a source on two Acta Medica Philippina DOIs

For 10.47895/amp.v57i9.4342 (Labra et al., 2023), [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) returned in APA, on two runs:

> Labra, P. J., Mejia, O. A., Ricalde, R., Catangay Ombao, J., Dela Cruz, A. P., Ambrocio, G. M., Capistrano, M., & Eugenio, N. (2023). Implementation of universal Newborn hearing screening in the Philippines: A survey of registered Newborn hearing centers. Acta Medica Philippina, 57(9), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.47895/amp.v57i9.4342

All eight authors, the two-word surname Catangay Ombao and the volume details are right. "Newborn" kept its capital in APA and Vancouver both times: lower it by hand.

For 10.47895/amp.vi0.13462 (Dela Cruz et al., 2025), the publisher's record files degrees inside the surnames, and APA began "Dela Cruz, Md, A. P. C., Ong, Md, K. M. C., Villafuerte Iii, Md, C. V. L.". Delete the degrees and write the suffix as "Villafuerte, C. V. L., III". Harvard labelled the article "[Preprint]" where Chicago said "ahead of print"; check how your guide treats online-first articles.

### Cite a source on a DepEd page

For DepEd's Practical Research 1 page, the first entry was "LR Portal. (n.d.). Deped LR Portal. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://lrmds.deped.gov.ph/detail/14448", because that is how the page's own metadata names itself. After we entered the real title, Department of Education as an organisation, the site and the date, APA gave:

> Department of Education. (2018, September 24). K to 12 senior high school applied track subject – Practical research 1 curriculum guide. DepEd Learning Portal. https://lrmds.deped.gov.ph/detail/14448

Practical Research 1 is a subject's name, so restore its capital R by hand.

### Verify references on five entries

[Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) answered:

- The Labra article: verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches."
- The Dela Cruz article with Villafuerte left out: "check this", "The DOI and title are right, but the first author differs. Check the names." The record's first author reads "Dela Cruz, Md", which is the cause, and the missing author was not reported, so check the byline yourself.
- The DepEd page: verified, "The page is at this address, and its title matches."
- De La Salle's 1989 sample: not found, "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference."
- Central Philippine University's thesis sample, with its placeholder link: could not check, "The page at this address did not answer. Check it in a browser." It was kept apart from not found.

Everything above is free. Pro ($8 a month) reads the whole thesis file through [References from a file](https://edcitation.com/tools/references-from-a-file), verifying every entry and matching each in-text citation to the list. Max ($24 a month) brings Theoretics QA, which reads the paper against its own instructions, quotes it, and rewrites nothing. See [pricing](https://edcitation.com/pricing). No tool here can promise a mark, and none does.

## Quick questions

### What citation style is used in the Philippines?

APA, in most university guides we read, but no national rule sets one: Ateneo's development studies accepts Harvard, APA or Chicago, Letran's engineers use IEEE, and San Pedro College uses Vancouver in the health sciences.

### Does UP Diliman have one referencing style?

No. Its College of Science leaves the style to each department, its Population Institute asks for APA 6th edition, and its College of Education's journal follows APA 7th edition.

### What citation style should a senior high school research paper use?

The one your school names. DepEd's Practical Research curriculum guides accept APA, MLA or the Chicago Manual of Style.

### Does CHED require a citation style for a thesis?

No. CHED Memorandum Order No. 15, series of 2019, requires graduate students to publish in refereed or indexed journals, so the journal's own style governs the article.

### Can EdCitation build a reference list for a Philippine university?

Yes, in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver, free in EdCitation's [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite); check Filipino names and degrees in the result.

## References

- Ateneo de Manila University. (2021). *Guidelines for undergraduate thesis-writing*. Development Studies Program. [https://www.ateneo.edu/soss/dev-studies/undergraduate-programs/guidelines-thesis-writing](https://www.ateneo.edu/soss/dev-studies/undergraduate-programs/guidelines-thesis-writing)
- Central Philippine University. (2023). *APA citation guide*. Henry Luce III Library. [https://cpu.libguides.com/apaguide](https://cpu.libguides.com/apaguide)
- Colegio de San Juan de Letran. (2018). *Student research manual* (Rev. ed.) [PDF]. [https://research-manila.letran.edu.ph/downloadfile/12](https://research-manila.letran.edu.ph/downloadfile/12)
- Commission on Higher Education. (2019). *Policies, standards, and guidelines for graduate programs* (CHED Memorandum Order No. 15, Series of 2019) [PDF, copy hosted by Far Eastern University]. [https://www.feu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CHED-Memorandum-Order-No.-15-Series-of-2019-compressed.pdf](https://www.feu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CHED-Memorandum-Order-No.-15-Series-of-2019-compressed.pdf)
- Dela Cruz, A. P. C., Ong, K. M. C., Villafuerte, C. V. L., III, San Agustin, M. L. M., & Reyes-Quintos, M. R. T. (2025). Hearing aid adoption among old adults diagnosed with presbycusis. *Acta Medica Philippina*. Advance online publication. [https://doi.org/10.47895/amp.vi0.13462](https://doi.org/10.47895/amp.vi0.13462)
- De La Salle University. (2014). *Format for manuscript: A style guide and template* [PDF]. College of Engineering, Graduate Studies. [https://old.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/pdf/coe/graduate-studies/format-for-manuscript.pdf](https://old.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/pdf/coe/graduate-studies/format-for-manuscript.pdf)
- Department of Education. (2018a, September 24). *K to 12 senior high school applied track subject – Practical Research 1 curriculum guide*. DepEd Learning Portal. [https://lrmds.deped.gov.ph/detail/14448](https://lrmds.deped.gov.ph/detail/14448)
- Department of Education. (2018b, September 24). *K to 12 senior high school applied track subject – Practical Research 2 curriculum guide*. DepEd Learning Portal. [https://lrmds.deped.gov.ph/detail/14450](https://lrmds.deped.gov.ph/detail/14450)
- Labra, P. J., Mejia, O. A., Ricalde, R., Catangay Ombao, J., Dela Cruz, A. P., Ambrocio, G. M., Capistrano, M., & Eugenio, N. (2023). Implementation of universal newborn hearing screening in the Philippines: A survey of registered newborn hearing centers. *Acta Medica Philippina, 57*(9), 15–20. [https://doi.org/10.47895/amp.v57i9.4342](https://doi.org/10.47895/amp.v57i9.4342)
- Mindanao State University. (2023). *Graduate studies handbook* (Rev. ed.) [PDF]. Main Campus. [https://www.msumain.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GS-Handbook-2023-MSU-Main-BOR-Approved.pdf](https://www.msumain.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GS-Handbook-2023-MSU-Main-BOR-Approved.pdf)
- San Pedro College. (2020). *Student's guide to thesis and dissertation writing* (Rev. ed.) [PDF]. Research, Publication and Innovation Center. [https://www.spcdavao.edu.ph/home/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Student_s-Guide-to-Thesis-and-Dissertation-Writing_2020.docx.pdf](https://www.spcdavao.edu.ph/home/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Student_s-Guide-to-Thesis-and-Dissertation-Writing_2020.docx.pdf)
- University of the Philippines College of Education. (n.d.-a). *Submission guidelines*. Philippine Journal of Education Studies. [https://educ.upd.edu.ph/submission-guidelines/](https://educ.upd.edu.ph/submission-guidelines/)
- University of the Philippines College of Education. (n.d.-b). *Submission of publishable article*. [https://educ.upd.edu.ph/submission-of-publishable-article/](https://educ.upd.edu.ph/submission-of-publishable-article/)
- 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](https://science.upd.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/revised_Style-and-Format-Manual_Revised-September-2021.pdf)
- University of the Philippines Population Institute. (2015). *MA Demography thesis format guide* [PDF]. [https://www.uppi.upd.edu.ph/sites/default/files/pdf/MA%20Demography%20Thesis%20Format%20Guide.pdf](https://www.uppi.upd.edu.ph/sites/default/files/pdf/MA%20Demography%20Thesis%20Format%20Guide.pdf)
- UST Law Review. (n.d.). *ULR style guide, A.Y. 2017–2018* [PDF]. University of Santo Tomas. [https://lawreview.ust.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ULR-Style-Guide.pdf](https://lawreview.ust.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ULR-Style-Guide.pdf)
- Visayas State University. (2025). *Graduate programs manual of operations* [PDF]. Graduate Education. [https://www.vsu.edu.ph/images/OGS/docs/GPMO_2025_Revision_polished_091725.pdf](https://www.vsu.edu.ph/images/OGS/docs/GPMO_2025_Revision_polished_091725.pdf)