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APA 7th edition format
The seventh edition of the APA Publication Manual, published in 2019, sets the rules for references, in-text citations and the layout of the paper itself. This is the part most students need, in one place.
The reference list
Title it References
Centre the word References in bold at the top of a new page. List the entries in alphabetical order by the first author's surname, double spaced, with a hanging indent of half an inch: the first line sits at the margin and every line after it is indented.
Four parts, in order
Author, date, title and source. A journal article's source is the journal, volume, issue, pages and DOI; a book's source is the publisher; a web page's source is the site name and the URL.
Up to twenty authors
List up to twenty authors in full, with an ampersand before the last. With twenty-one or more, list the first nineteen, an ellipsis, then the final author.
Italics go on the stand-alone work
Italicise the title of a book, a report or a web page that stands alone, and the name and volume number of a journal. The titles of articles and chapters are not italicised.
A DOI is a link
Write it as https://doi.org/ followed by the DOI. Retrieved from is no longer used before a URL, unless you also give a retrieval date for a page designed to change.
In-text citations
Author and year
A parenthetical citation puts the surname and the year in brackets: (Aspelmeyer, 2009). A narrative citation puts the name in the sentence and the year in brackets after it: Aspelmeyer (2009) argued that...
Two authors, then three or more
Two authors are named every time, joined by an ampersand inside brackets and by and in running text. For three or more, give the first author and et al. from the very first citation: (Smith et al., 2020).
Quotations need a page
When you quote directly, add the page: (Aspelmeyer, 2009, p. 11), or pp. for a range. A paraphrase does not require a page number, though APA encourages one for a long work.
Laying out a student paper
Margins, font and spacing
One inch margins on every side. APA 7 accepts several fonts, among them 12 point Times New Roman, 11 point Calibri, 11 point Arial and 11 point Georgia. Double space everything, the reference list included, and indent each paragraph by half an inch.
The title page
A student title page carries the page number, the title in bold, your name, your department and university, the course number and name, the instructor's name and the due date. A running head is only required on professional papers.
Headings
APA has five levels of heading. Level 1 is centred and bold, Level 2 is flush left and bold, and Level 3 is flush left, bold and italic. Most student papers never need more than three.
What changed from the sixth edition
No publisher city
Books no longer carry the place of publication: Jonathan Cape, not London: Jonathan Cape.
More authors, sooner et al.
Twenty authors in full instead of seven, and et al. from the first citation for any work with three or more authors.
Simpler online references
Retrieved from has gone, DOIs are written as links, and the website name is included when it differs from the author.
Questions
What is the difference between APA 6 and APA 7?
APA 7 dropped the publisher's location, lists up to twenty authors, uses et al. from the first citation for three or more authors, writes DOIs as links, and makes the running head optional on student papers.
Is APA 7 double spaced?
Yes. The whole paper is double spaced, including the title page, block quotations and the reference list.
What font does APA 7 require?
No single font. The manual gives 12 point Times New Roman, 11 point Calibri, Arial or Georgia and 10 point Lucida Sans Unicode as examples of acceptable choices. Check whether your instructor prefers one.
Does a student paper need a running head in APA 7?
No. Student papers need a page number in the top right corner, but a running head only if the instructor asks for one.
Build the references themselves
More on citing
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