APA 7th edition citations have two parts: a short in-text citation with the author and year, such as (Smith, 2020), and a full entry in the reference list. Every in-text citation must match a reference entry, and every entry must be cited.
APA style, from the American Psychological Association, is used across psychology, education, nursing, business and the social sciences. This page covers in-text rules, quotations, the reference list and examples for common source types.
APA 7 in One Minute
- In text: (Author, Year), adding a page number for quotations: (Smith, 2020, p. 14).
- Three or more authors: use "et al." from the first citation: (Smith et al., 2020).
- Reference entry: Author. (Date). Title. Source.
- List: titled References, alphabetical, double-spaced, hanging indent.
- DOIs: written as links: https://doi.org/...
In-Text Citations: Parenthetical and Narrative
APA gives you two ways to cite in the text. Good writing alternates between them.
- Parenthetical: author and year in brackets: Retention improved with spaced practice (Smith, 2020).
- Narrative: the author is part of the sentence and only the year is bracketed: Smith (2020) found that retention improved with spaced practice.
Use narrative citations when the author matters to your point and parenthetical citations when the idea matters more.
Engagement rose sharply in the second term (Mensah & Lopez, 2021), a pattern that Okoro et al. (2022) also observed across four cohorts. Earlier work had hinted at the effect but lacked controls (Diaz, 2018).
Authors: One, Two, Three or More, and Groups
| Authors | Parenthetical | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| One | (Smith, 2020) | Smith (2020) |
| Two | (Smith & Okafor, 2020) | Smith and Okafor (2020) |
| Three or more | (Smith et al., 2020) | Smith et al. (2020) |
| Group with abbreviation | First: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2023); then (WHO, 2023) | First: World Health Organization (WHO, 2023); then WHO (2023) |
Use an ampersand inside brackets and the word "and" in running text.
Missing Details
- No author: use the title in place of the author, italicized for standalone works and in quotation marks for parts of works: ("Adolescent Mental Health," 2023).
- No date: use n.d.: (Patel, n.d.).
- Secondary source: (Brown, 1998, as cited in Smith, 2020), listing only Smith in your references.
Quotations and Paraphrasing
Direct quotations always need a location: a page number, or a paragraph number or heading for unpaginated sources: (Lee, 2022, para. 4).
- Under 40 words: in double quotation marks within your sentence.
- 40 words or more: a block quotation, indented, with no quotation marks and the citation after the final punctuation.
- Paraphrase: cite author and year; a page number is encouraged but not required.
Smith (2020) described spacing as "the most reliable revision strategy available to students" (p. 14).
Formatting the Reference List
- Start a new page headed References, bold and centered.
- Order entries alphabetically by first author's surname; works by the same author go in date order, earliest first.
- Use a hanging indent of 0.5 inch (1.27 cm).
- Double-space everything, with no extra lines between entries.
- List up to 20 authors; for 21 or more, list the first 19, an ellipsis, then the final author.
Titles of books, reports and web pages use sentence case and italics. Journal names use title case and italics, as does the volume number.
Reference Examples by Source Type
The examples below are illustrative. In your list, each would use a hanging indent and double spacing.
Book:
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Edited book chapter:
Okafor, N. (2019). Motivation in adult learners. In R. Patel & T. Adeyemi (Eds.), Handbook of adult education (pp. 88–104). Routledge.
Journal article with DOI:
Smith, J., & Okafor, N. (2020). Spacing effects in undergraduate revision. Journal of Learning Research, 12(3), 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1234/jlr.2020.0412
Journal article without DOI:
Diaz, M. (2018). Attention and recall in lectures. Learning in Practice, 54, 22–31.
Web page, organization as author:
World Health Organization. (2023, March 2). Adolescent mental health. https://www.who.int/
Report:
Office for National Statistics. (2022). Internet users, UK: 2022. https://www.ons.gov.uk/
Newspaper article:
Adeyemi, T. (2023, January 14). Why revision timetables fail. The Daily Herald. https://www.example.com/
Note the DOI format: a full link, no "doi:" label and no full stop after it. Book publisher locations are no longer included in APA 7.
Citing AI Tools, Datasets and Software
APA's guidance treats the company that made a generative AI tool as the author, with the version year and a description of the version.
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
In text: (OpenAI, 2023)
Describe in your text how you used the tool and what prompt you gave, and check whether your course permits AI use at all. Datasets and software follow the same author, date, title, source pattern, with a description in square brackets such as [Data set] or [Computer software].
What Changed from APA 6
| Rule | APA 6 | APA 7 |
|---|---|---|
| Three or more authors in text | All names first time, then et al. | et al. from the first citation |
| Authors listed in references | Up to 7 | Up to 20 |
| Publisher location | Included | Omitted |
| DOI format | doi:10... | https://doi.org/10... |
| "Retrieved from" | Before most URLs | Dropped for most web sources |
| Running head (student papers) | Required | Not required; page number only |
Common APA Mistakes
- Writing "and" inside brackets instead of "&".
- Listing all authors in text for sources with three or more.
- Missing page numbers on direct quotations.
- Title case for article and book titles in the reference list.
- Reference entries with no matching in-text citation, or the reverse.
- Typing the hanging indent with spaces instead of using paragraph settings.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Author and year, such as (Smith, 2020), with a page number for direct quotations: (Smith, 2020, p. 14).
For three or more authors, from the first citation: (Smith et al., 2020).
Yes for direct quotations. For paraphrases they are encouraged but optional.
No. APA 7 dropped publisher locations for books.
As a full link, such as https://doi.org/10.1234/abcd, with no full stop after it.
Yes, with a hanging indent and no extra blank lines between entries.
Use n.d. in place of the year: (Patel, n.d.).