References and in-text citations in APA Style The guidelines provided by APA help authors reduce

bias around topics such as gender, age, disability, racial

1. The publisher’s location is no longer and ethnic identity, and sexual orientation, as well as
included in the reference. being sensitive to labels and describing individuals at
o Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly the appropriate level of specificity. Some examples
effective people: Powerful lessons in include:
personal change. New York, NY: Simon &
Schuster. 7. The singular “they” is endorsed as a gender-
o Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly neutral pronoun.
effective people: Powerful lessons in o A researcher’s career depends on how
personal change. Simon & Schuster. often he or she is cited.
2. The APA in-text citation for works with three o A researcher’s career depends on how
or more authors is now shortened right from often they are cited.
the first citation. You only include the first 8. Instead of using adjectives as nouns to label
author’s name and “et al.”. groups of people, descriptive phrases are
o (Taylor, Kotler, Johnson, & Parker, 2018) preferred.
o (Taylor et al., 2018) o The poor
3. Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors o People living in poverty
(instead of 7) should be provided in 9. Instead of broad categories, you should use
the reference entry. exact age ranges that are more relevant and
o Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., specific.
Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. o People over 65 years old
T., . . . Lee, L. H. (2018). o People in the age range of 65 to 75
o Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., years old
Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T.,
Lewis, F., Nelson, T. P., Cox, G., Harris, APA Paper format
H. L., Martin, P., Gonzalez, W. L.,
Hughes, W., Carter, D., Campbell, C., In the 7th edition, APA decided to provide
Baker, A. B., Flores, T., Gray, W. E., different paper format guidelines for professional and
Green, G., . . . Lee, L. H. (2018). student papers. For both types, a sample paper is
4. DOIs are formatted the same as URLs. The included. Some notable changes include:
label “DOI:” is no longer necessary.
o doi: 10.1080/02626667.2018.1560449 12. Increased flexibility regarding fonts: options
o https://doi.org/10.1080/ include Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans
02626667.2018.1560449 Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and
5. URLs are no longer preceded by “Retrieved Georgia 11.
from,” unless a retrieval date is needed. The 13. The running head on the title page no longer
website name is included (unless it’s the includes the words “Running head:”. It now
same as the author). contains only a page number and the
o Streefkerk, R. (2019, October 11). APA
(shortened) paper title.
o Running head: THE EFFECT OF GOOGLE
7th edition: The most notable changes
[Blog post]. Retrieved ON THE INTERNET
o THE EFFECT OF GOOGLE ON THE
from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/a
pa-seventh-edition-changes/ INTERNET
o Streefkerk, R. (2019, October 11). APA 14. The running head is omitted in student
7th edition: The most notable papers (unless your instructor tells you
changes. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.co otherwise).
m/apa-style/apa-seventh-edition- 15. Heading levels 3-5 are updated to improve
changes/ readability.
6. For ebooks, the format, platform, or device
(e.g. Kindle) is no longer included in the Mechanics of style
reference, and the publisher is included. In terms of style, not much has changed in the 7th
o Brück, M. (2009). Women in early British edition. In addition to some updated and better
and Irish astronomy: Stars and explained guidelines, there are two notable changes:
satellites [Kindle
version]. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90- 16. Use only one space after a period at the end
481-2473-2 of a sentence.
o Brück, M. (2009). Women in early British 17. Use double quotation marks instead of italics
and Irish astronomy: Stars and to refer to linguistic examples.
satellites. Springer o APA endorses the use of the singular
Nature. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90- pronoun they
481-2473-2 o APA endorses the use of the singular
pronoun “they”
Inclusive and bias-free language
Writing inclusively and without bias is the new standard,
and APA’s new publication manual contains a separate
chapter on this topic.
Throughout your paper, you need to apply the following Table of contents
APA format guidelines:
APA Style does not provide guidelines for formatting
the table of contents. It’s also not a required paper
 Set page margins to 1 inch on all sides. element in either professional or student papers. If your
 Double-space all text, including headings. instructor wants you to include a table of contents, it’s
 Indent the first line of every paragraph 0.5 best to follow the general guidelines.
inches.
 Use an accessible font (e.g., Times New Roman
Place the table of contents on a separate page between
12pt., Arial 11pt., or Georgia 11pt.).
the abstract and introduction. Write the section label
 Include a page number on every page.
“Contents” at the top (bold and centered), press “Enter”
once, and list the important headings with
APA alphabetization guidelines corresponding page numbers.
References are ordered alphabetically by the first
author’s last name. If the author is unknown, order the Reference page
reference entry by the first meaningful word of the title
The APA reference page is placed after the main body
(ignoring articles: “the”, “a”, or “an”).
of your paper but before any appendices. Here you list
all sources that you’ve cited in your paper (through APA
Page header in-text citations). APA provides guidelines for formatting
In an APA Style paper, every page has a page header. the references as well as the page itself.
For student papers, the page header usually consists of
just a page number in the page’s top-right corner. For Formatting the reference page
professional papers intended for publication, it also
Write the section label “References” at the top of a new
includes a running head.
page (bold and centered). Place the reference entries
directly under the label in alphabetical order.
A running head is simply the paper’s title in all capital
letters. It is left-aligned and can be up to 50 characters
Finally, apply a hanging indent, meaning the first line of
in length. Longer titles are abbreviated.
each reference is left-aligned, and all subsequent lines
are indented 0.5 inches.
Headings and subheadings
APA headings have five possible levels. Heading level 1 Tables and figures
is used for main sections such as “Methods” or
Tables and figures are presented in a similar format.
“Results”. Heading levels 2 to 5 are used for
They’re preceded by a number and title and followed by
subheadings. Each heading level is formatted
explanatory notes (if necessary).
differently.
Use bold styling for the word “Table” or “Figure” and the
Title page
number and place the title on a separate line directly
The title page is the first page of an APA Style paper. below it (in italics and title case). Try to keep tables
There are different guidelines for student and clean; don’t use any vertical lines, use as few horizontal
professional papers. lines as possible, and keep row and column labels
concise.
Both versions include the paper title and author’s name
and affiliation. The student version includes the course Keep the design of figures as simple as possible.
number and name, instructor name, and due date of the Include labels and a legend if needed, and only use
assignment. The professional version includes an color when necessary (not to make it look more
author note and running head. appealing).

Abstract
The abstract is a 150–250 word summary of your paper.
An abstract is usually required in professional papers,
but it’s rare to include one in student papers (except for
longer texts like theses and dissertations).

The abstract is placed on a separate page after the title

page. At the top of the page, write the section label
“Abstract” (bold and centered). The contents of the
abstract appear directly under the label. Unlike regular
paragraphs, the first line is not indented. Abstracts are
usually written as a single paragraph without headings
or blank lines.

Directly below the abstract, you may list three to five

relevant keywords. On a new line, write the label
“Keywords:” (italicized and indented), followed by the
keywords in lowercase letters, separated by commas.