APA 7th Edition Guidelines

General Guidelines

• The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual introduces several changes to the referencing style
• The main goal of APA style is to provide a consistent and organized way of presenting research and ideas
• APA style is commonly used in social sciences, education, and business fields

In-Text Citations

• In-text citations are used to credit the original author(s) of an idea or research
• APA 7th edition uses author-date format, where the author's last name and publication year are included in the text
• Examples:
  • One author: (Smith, 2020)
  • Two authors: (Smith & Johnson, 2020)
  • Three or more authors: (Smith et al., 2020)
  • No author: ("Title," 2020)
  • No date: (Smith, n.d.)

Reference List

• The reference list provides full details of the sources cited in the text
• References are listed in alphabetical order by author's last name
• Each reference includes the following elements:
  • Author's last name, initial(s)
  • Publication year
  • Title of the work (in sentence case)
  • Publication information (e.g., journal title, volume, issue, page numbers)
  • DOI or URL (if applicable)

Common Reference Types

Book

• Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book. Publisher.
• Example: Smith, J. (2020). The history of psychology. Routledge.

Journal Article

• Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, Volume(Issue), pp.-pp.
• Example: Johnson, K. (2020). The effects of climate change. Journal of Environmental Studies, 10(2), 12-20.

Website

• Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of the webpage. Retrieved from https://www.url.com
• Example: World Health Organization. (2020, January 10). Mental health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/mental_health/en/

Other Key Changes in APA 7th Edition

• The running head is no longer required for student papers
• The use of "et al." is introduced for sources with three or more authors
• DOI or URL is required for online sources
• The format for citing online sources has been updated to include the title of the webpage and the retrieval date