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Basic APA Rules 

NEW RULES... The 7th edition of the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association contains many changes.  The most important changes are listed below. To see the complete list of changes, please go to https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/whats-new-7e-guide.pdf
 

Title Page: The seventh edition now has a separate set of guidelines for a student paper title page and a professional paper title page.  Students should use the guidelines specified by their instructor.  Elements to be used on a student title page are title, each author’s name, the author’s affiliation (typically the author’s school), the course number and name for which the paper is being written, the instructor’s name and title, the assignment’s due date, and the page number.  Note: omit the running head.  More information is available at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/title-page.

Other New Omissions: Also not required for student papers are author’s note, running head, and keywords.

References List: The label “References” is now bold.

Tables and Figures: These items can now either embedded in the text after they are first called out or on separate pages after the reference list.

Page Header: A page header in a student paper includes only the page number and should be in the top margin of the paper. 

Font: Font guidelines are more flexible but should be written in a font accessible to all users.  The style manual recommends either (1) a sans serif font such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode or (2) a serif font such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the latter is the default font for LaTeX). Because of variation in font size, the style manual recommends gauging paper length by word count. 

Line Spacing: Do not add lines before or after headings or between paragraphs. 

The Pronoun “They”: The style manual endorses “they” as a singular third-person pronoun. The singular “they” should be used when referring to a generic person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant to the context or when referring to a specific, known person who uses “they” as their pronoun. 

Bias-Free Guidelines:  The style manual discusses best practices for discussing: 

• Age https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/age
• Disability https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/disability
• Gender https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/gender
• Racial and ethnic minorities https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/racial-ethnic-minorities
• Sexual orientation https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/sexual-orientation
• Research participation https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/research-participation
• Socioeconomic status https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/socioeconomic-status
• Intersectionality https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/intersectionality

Changes in Style: 

• Use one space after a period (or other punctuation) at the end of a sentence. 
• Use double quotation marks to refer to a letter, word, phrase, or sentence as a linguistic example or as itself. Example: the letter “m”
• Spelling in APA Style papers should conform to the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. 
• Spellings of psychological terms should conform to the APA Dictionary of Psychology. 
• If a word appears differently in these two dictionaries, follow the spelling in the APA Dictionary of Psychology. If a word is not in either of these dictionaries, consult an unabridged edition of Webster’s dictionary. If the dictionary offers a choice of spellings, select one spelling and use it consistently throughout your paper. 
• Preferred spellings of common technology words are “email,” “data set,” “Wi-Fi,” “home page,” “ebook,” “smartphone,” “website,” “username,” “ereader,” “internet,” “webpage,” “login page,” “log in (when used as a verb),” “database,” “intranet,” “the web,” “and emoji (singular)/emojis (plural) 
• Bulleted lists do not need to be punctuated as though they are complete sentences. 

Tables and Figures: Guidelines have been revised and expanded.  See sample tables https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-tables and sample figures https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-figures

In-Text Citations: These citations have been made easier. For works with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author and the abbreviation “et al.” in every in-text citation. More citation help is available at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/author-date and https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/.

Multiple Authors in A Reference: The number of authors to be included in a reference entry has increased up to and included 20.  When there are two to 20 authors, use an ampersand before the final author’s name: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.  When there are 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis (but no ampersand), and then add the final author’s name. Example with 21 or more authors: Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White, G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Higgins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K. C., Ropelewski, C., Wang, J., Leetmaa, A., . . . Joseph, D. (1996). The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bulle¬tin of the American Meteorological Society, 77(3), 437–471. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077%3C0437:TNYRP%3E2.0.CO;2

DOIs and URLs: The presentation of DOIs (digital object identifiers) and URLs (uniform resource locators) has been standardized, and both are presented as hyperlinks. The label “DOI:” is no longer used before a DOI. DOIs should begin with the prefix https://doi.org/.The words “Retrieved from” are used before a URL only when a retrieval date is also needed; otherwise, URLs are presented without a label. More information is available at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/dois-urls

Publisher or Site Name in a Reference: When the author name and the publisher are an exact match, the publisher is omitted. Also, the word “Author” is no longer included in the source element of the reference as a replacement.

Changes in Journal Articles: 

• When an issue number is present, always include it (in parentheses and not italicized) after the volume number. 
• If a journal uses article numbers, include the word “Article” and the number instead of any page range.

Changes in Books and Chapters: Do not include physical locations for publishers in any reference type. 

Changes in Ebooks: For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g., Kindle) is not included in the reference. The publisher is included.

 

 

7th Edition Guide to Citations and Authors

Based on both the APA Style 7th Edition Reference Quick Guide available at https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf and Reference List: Author/Authors Purdue University https://bit.ly/3ackdw5

Journal Article citation

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Name of the Periodical, volume(issue), #–#. https://doi.org/xxxx

• Single author: An author is listed last name first, followed by a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, and a space. (Any additional initials in an author’s name follow the same format.)
• Multiple authors: For multiple authors, list them in the same order as they appear on the article. Every author except the last is listed last name first, followed by a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, a comma, and a space.  For the last author, put an ampersand, a space, the last name, a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, and a space. Any additional initials in an author’s name follow the same format.  If authors number more than 20, see guidance below.
• Publication year: Place the year in parentheses, followed by a period and a space.
• Title: Only the first letter of the first word is capitalized. For a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title. Also, capitalize proper nouns. Do not italicize the title. End with a period and a space.
• Periodical: Capitalize all major words in the periodical name.  Italicize the periodical name.  Follow with a comma and a space, but do not italicize the comma.
• Volume: Use italicized numerals only for the volume number.
• Issue number: Put parentheses around the issue number. Use numerals only for the number.  Do not put a space between the volume number and the first parenthesis before the issue number.  Do not italicize the issue number or parentheses.  Follow with a comma and then a space. 
• No issue number: Follow the volume number with a comma and then a space.
• Article page range: Separate the page numbers with a hyphen (no spaces).  End with a period and a space. Use numerals only for the page numbers.
• DOI: Include a DOI (digital object identifier) for all works that have one.  Do not put a period after the DOI.

Book citation

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright Year). Title of the book (7th ed.). Publisher. DOI or URL

• Single author: An author is listed last name first, followed by a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, and a space. (Any additional initials in an author’s name follow the same format.)
• Multiple authors: For multiple authors, list them in the same order as they appear on the article. Every author except the last is listed last name first, followed by a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, a comma, and a space.  For the last author, put an ampersand, a space, the last name, a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, and a space.  Any additional initials in an author’s name follow the same format.  If authors number more than 20, see guidance below.
• Copyright year: Place the year in parentheses, followed by a period and a space.
• Title: Only the first letter of the first word is capitalized. For a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title. Also, capitalize proper nouns. Italicize the title. End with a period and a space.
• Edition and/or volume number: An edition or volume number should be placed between the title and before the period and inside parentheses.  Here are some examples:
  • (8th ed.)
  • (8th ed., Vol. 3)
  • (Vol. 3)

For edition numbers, use ordinal numbers.  Use numerals for volume numbers.  Abbreviate edition and volume as shown; capitalize volume as shown.

• Publisher: Include the name of the publisher, followed by a period and a space.
• Multiple publishers: Separate the names of publishers by a semicolon and a space.  A period and a space goes after the name of the last publisher.
• DOI: Include a DOI (digital object identifier) for all works that have one.  Do not put a period after the DOI.
• URL: Do not include a URL (uniform resource locator) or database information for works from academic research databases. Include a URL for ebooks from other websites. Do not put a period after the URL.

Chapter in an edited book

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Copyright Year). Title of the book chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (2nd ed., pp. #–#).Publisher. DOI or URL

• Single author: An author is listed last name first, followed by a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, and a space. (Any additional initials in an author’s name follow the same format.)
• Multiple authors: For multiple authors, list them in the same order as they appear on the article. Every author except the last is listed last name first, followed by a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, a comma, and a space.  For the last author, put an ampersand, a space, the last name, a comma, a space, the first initial, a period, a space, the second initial, a period, and a space. Any additional initials in an author’s name follow the same format.  If authors number more than 20, see guidance below.
• Copyright year: Place the year in parentheses, followed by a period and a space.
• Book chapter title: Only the first letter of the first word is capitalized. For a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title. Also, capitalize proper nouns. Do not italicize the chapter title. End with a period and a space. When referring to a section of a book that is not a chapter, cite the applicable identified, such as Preface, Foreword, or Afterword.
• Editor(s): Write the word “In” and the initials and last name of each editor.  Put a period and a space after each initial. 
  • If one editor, follow the editor’s name with a space, an opening parenthesis, “Ed.”, a closing parenthesis, a comma, and a space.
  • If two editors, follow the first editor’s last name with a space, an ampersand, a space, the second editor’s initials (with a period and space after each initial), the second’ editor’s last name, a space, an opening parenthesis, “Eds.”, a closing parenthesis, a comma, and a space.
  • If more than two editors, put an ampersand and a space before the last editor’s name.  Follow the same format for each editor’s name.  Put a comma and a space after each editor’s name except the last editor.  After the last editor’s name, put a space, an opening parenthesis, “Eds.”, a closing parenthesis, a comma, and a space.
• Book title: Only the first letter of the first word is capitalized. For a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title. Also, capitalize proper nouns. Italicize the title, and follow with a space.
• Edition and/or volume number: An edition or volume number should be placed after the title.  Write an opening parenthesis, and use one of the following formats:
  • (8th ed.,
  • (8th ed., Vol. 3,
  • (Vol. 3,

For edition numbers, use ordinal numbers.  Use numerals for volume numbers.  Abbreviate edition and volume as shown; capitalize volume as shown. Follow with a comma and a space.

• Page numbers: If including a volume and/or edition number, follow with the page numbers.  If no volume or edition number, put the page numbers after the opening parenthesis.  Use this format:
  • (pp. 6-7).

Use numerals for the page numbers. Put parentheses around the page numbers.  Follow with a period and a space.

• Publisher: Include the name of the publisher, followed by a period and a space.
• Multiple publishers: Separate the names of publishers by a semicolon and a space.  A period and a space goes after the name of the last publisher.
• DOI: Include a DOI (digital object identifier) for all works that have one.  Do not put a period after the DOI.
• URL: Do not include a URL (uniform resource locator) or database information for works from academic research databases. Include a URL for ebooks from other websites. Do not put a period after the URL.

Format when an authorship includes more than 20 writers

List the authors in the same order as they appear on the material being cited.  For the first 19 authors, follow this format:

• Last name
• Comma
• Space
• Initials, with each initial but the last initial followed by a period and a space
• A period and a comma after the last initial
• Space
• Ellipsis after the 19th author’s name
• Space
• Last author’s name
• Comma
• Space
• Last author’s initials, with each initial followed by a period and a space.

Group author

Sometimes an authorship can be held by a corporation, government agency, organization, or other such entity.  The organization’s full name is listed, and then the rest of the citation follows the same format appropriate for the type of citation.  If a work has multiple layers of group authorship, such as a department of a government agency, then list the most agency as the author and the parent agency as the publisher.

Unknown author

When a source has no identified author, use a shortened version of the source’s title instead of an author’s name.  Only identify the author as Anonymous if the work is signed “Anonymous.”

Two or more works by the same author

• Single-author citations only: Write the author’s name in the format described above (last name followed by initials) for each entry. 
  • The entries should be listed in chronological order of publication/copyright date.
  • If the years are the same, look for a more specific date, and then list chronologically.
  • If the dates are still the same, list the citations alphabetically by the title or in numerical order if the materials are identified as part of a series. Also, assign letter suffixes to the year in the citation and use these in parenthetical citations.  Example: Smith (2015b)
• Single-author citation and multiple-author citation: When an author appears as the sole author in one citation and then as the first author in a group citation, list the one-author citation first.
• Multiple-author citations only with the same first author: List alphabetically by the first last name that is different in the multiple-author listing.

Online sites specifically for APA. All of these sites are using the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.