APA 7 Citation Guide
Introduction to APA Citation Style
Your citation will always include the name of the person(s) or group
considered the “author” of the work.
Direct quotations require page or paragraph numbers, but paraphrases
usually don’t.
Both will require mentioning the publishing date.
•Either narratively (author’s name as part
of the sentence)
Both can be cited: •Or parenthetically (author’s name in
parentheses after the sentence).
Direct Quotation
Paraphrase
In-text Citation
• APA includes the year of publication in every parenthetical citation and in the first
narrative citation of each source in any paragraph.
Dates • Only the year of publication goes in your in-text citation, even if the reference page
entry includes a month.
➢(Drew, 2002, p. 4)
• APA requires specific page, paragraph, or location numbers for all direct quotations.
With Page • Specific page numbers are not included for paraphrases
numbers • List all digits in every page number.
➢(Drew, 2002, p. 24)
• For written sources without page numbers, use “para.,” the paragraph number, and, when
possible, the section heading.
Without Page • Put document-specific headings in quotation marks and shorten them if needed.
Numbers • (Drew, 2002, para. 4)
• (Marvin, 2009, Introduction, para. 12)…
• (Fayne, 2013, “Idaho Dentists Find,” para. 3)
In-text Citation
• The body of an APA paper typically uses last names only, even on first
reference.
• Endings like “Jr.” and academic degrees are not included.
Names ➢Garland and Wilder (2013) found that…
➢Other research suggests that this model may be inadequate (Garland &
Wilder, 2013).
• When you don’t know the name of your source’s author, use the first
words of its title.
No • Italicize the title of a periodical, book, or report; use quotation marks for
author an article.
➢Book: (Eating Disorders, 2018) or the book Eating Disorders (2018)
➢Article:…benefits have been demonstrated (“Holistic Approach,” 2002).
In-text Citation
• If your source has two authors, cite both every time.
• If it has three or more authors, use the first author’s name
with “et al.”
➢Note that “et al.” is not italicized and that there is a period
Multiple after “al.”
• If you name two authors in a narrative citation, write out the
authors “and” between their names.
• In a parenthetical citation, use “&”.
➢One study of peer relationships… (Granger & Patil, 1997).
➢A later study of peer relationships… (Longbottom et al.,
1999).
In-text Citation
• Personal communications that a reader can’t retrieve (ex. letters,
memos, e-mail, interviews, telephone conversations) appear as in-text
citations only.
Email and • Don’t put them in your reference list.
• Include your source’s initials and last name and as exact a date as
personal possible.
interviews ➢S. Crewe argued that not all sources agree (personal communication,
May 3, 2012).
➢Not all sources agree (S. Crewe, personal communication, May 3,
2012).
•If you use a quotation that’s 40 or more words long
(also called a “block quotation”), set it off from the
rest of your paper by indenting it five spaces (one tab
Long quotations space).
•Double space it and don’t use quotation marks.
•The final period goes before, not after, the citation at
the end.
Reference List
• The reference list starts on a new page.
• Every line is double-spaced, without extra spaces between entries.
• The word “References” is centered at the top and bolded.
Page format • The pages are numbered as if they were part of your paper.
• Use the “hanging indent” format
➢Start the first line of each entry at the left margin, but indent all subsequent
lines one tab space (five spaces).
• List each source alphabetically by the last name of its first author.
Order of • If there is no author, alphabetize the source by the first word of its title
references (excluding a, an, the).
• Shorten all first and middle names to initials.
Names • List all authors by last name first, then initials.
• If a source has multiple authors, don’t change the order they’re in.
Reference List
• If a source has up to 20 authors, list them all.
Multiple authors • If it has 21 or more, list the first 19, add an ellipse (three
dots separated by spaces), and name the last.
• List more than one work by the same author in the order of
the years they were published.
One author, multiple works • If multiple works were published in the same year,
alphabetize them by their titles and label them (2011a),
(2011b).
World Health Organization. (2012). Immunization: Closing the gap…
World Health Organization. (2015a). Global vaccination targets…
World Health Organization. (2015b). Keeping Syrian children free from polio…
Reference List
• Put the year of publication in parentheses immediately after the author’s name(s).
• In a book, the date is usually on the copyright page behind the title page.
• The date of a website is trickier:
Dates ➢Don’t use a “Last Reviewed” date or a website copyright date.
➢Use a “Last Updated” date only when the update clearly applies to the
information you’re reading as opposed to some other feature of the page.
• If your source truly provides no date, use the abbreviation “n.d.” (“no date”) instead
of the year.
• In the title and subtitle of a book, chapter, or article, capitalize only the first word
Capitalization and any proper nouns.
• In journal, magazine, and newspaper titles, capitalize all major words.
• Italicize titles of books, journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Italics • Also italicize volume numbers in journal references.
• Leave article and chapter titles alone: don’t italicize them or put them in quotation
marks.
Reference List
• The publication information required for books includes only the name of
Publication the publisher.
information.
• The requirement for articles includes volume, issue, and page numbers.
• Many sources have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), a permanent number
that goes with them wherever they’re published online. If your source
has a DOI, your citation must include it.
• The doi itself looks something like
DOIs. ➢10.xxxx/gobbledygook.
• It can appear in many formats, but APA only uses one.
• Don’t put a period at the end.
➢htpps://doi.org/10.xxxx/gobbledygook
Reference List
•If an electronic source has a DOI, don’t include the URL.
URLs.
•No DOI? Try to find a URL that links to the source directly.
Book with subtitle.
•Fraser, C. (2017). Prairie fires: The American dreams of Laura
Ingalls Wilder. Metropolitan Books.
•Spritzler, F. (2017, January 29). 13 ways to prevent type 2
Website article with
author. diabetes. Healthline.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/prevent-diabetes
Website article without •What are pulses? (n.d.). Half-Cup Habit.
author or date. https://pulses.org/nap/what-are-pulses/
