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At the end of 2019, the American Psychological Association updated APA style from 6th to 7th edition.

As of Fall 2020, many School of Nursing courses have started using the new 7th edition.

If you are unsure which version to use, ask your professor!

This page is for the new 7th edition. For this guide's page about 6th edition, click here.

Examples are taken from Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, “Reference Examples.” 

Reference List

Arrange entries in alphabetical order by surname of the first author.  For more than one work by the same author, arrange in date order, earliest first.  One-author entries precede multiple-author entries beginning with the same surname.

Journals and other periodicals

The general format for periodicals (items published on a regular basis, like newspapers, magazines,and  journals):

Author, A.A., Author, B.B., & Author, C.C. (year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx, pp-pp. doi:xx.xxxxxxxxx

When there are up to twenty authors, spell out all authors’ names. After the nineteenth author, use ellipses before the last author’s name.

The DOI - Digital Object Identifier

APA style requires the addition of a DOI – Digital Object Identifier – for journal articles if one is available. (Most current journals articles and many historic articles found in PsycINFO will have a DOI.) (Note: your instructor may choose to have you do reference lists in a simpler format. Please check with them if you are not sure.)

If retrieving an article from a private database (examples of private databases include library databases like ProQuest, or PsycInfo), it is not necessary to include the database information in your reference. However, if there is no DOI available for a journal article, you should look up the home page URL of the journal and include it in your reference.

Journal article with a DOI (Manual section 10.1.1)

McCauley, S.M., & Christiansen, M.H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1-51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

Journal article without a DOI, from a print journal or database (Manual section 10.1.3)

Anderson, M. (2018). Getting consistent with consequences. Educational Leadership, 76(1), 26-33.

Goldman, C. (2018, November 28). The complicated calibration of love, especially in adoption. Chicago Tribune.

Journal article without a DOI, with a non-database URL (Manual section 10.1.2)

 Ahmann, E., Tuttle, L.J., Saviet, M., & Wright, S.D. (2018). A descriptive review of ADHD coaching research: Implications for college students. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 31(1), 17-39, https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/publications/jped/archived-jped/jped-volume-31

Newspaper article (Manual section 10.1.16)

Guarino, B. (2017, December 4). How will humanity react to alien life? Psychologists have some predictions. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/12/04/how-will-humanity-react-to-alien-life-psychologists-have-some-predictions/

Magazine articles  (Manual section 10.1.15)

      Bergeson, S. (2019, January 4). Really cool neutral plasmas. Science, 363(6422), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau7988

Bustillos, M. (2013, March 19). On video games and storytelling: an interview with Tom Bissell. The New Yorker.     https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/on-video-games-and-storytelling-an-interview-with-tom-bissell

APA style uses an author-date format for in-text citations. Every reference cited in the text of your document should be included in the reference list.  Generally speaking, the author’s last name and year of publication should be inserted into the text when appropriate.  If the author’s name is part of the narrative, then the publication year alone is included in parentheses.  If the author’s name is not part of the narrative, then both the author’s last name and the publication year is included in the parentheses.

One author (Manual section 8.10)

Karaka (1884) describes the religious customs and traditions of the Parsis settled in Gujarat.

One of the most prominent men of the time had a close relationship with the British (Karaka, 1884).

Multiple authors (Manual section 8.17 - 8.18)

If a work has two authors, then include both names every time the reference occurs in the text.

Forte and Hewitt (2006) propose the idea that

For a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus "et al." in every citation, including the first citation, unless doing so would create ambiguity. To avoid ambiguity, when the in-text citations of multiple works with three or more authors shorten to the same form, write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references.

Kapoor, Bloom, Montez, et al. (2017)

Kapoor, Bloom, Zucker, et al. (2017)

Authored book with a DOI (Manual section 10.2.20)

Brown, L.S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000

For an explanation of DOI, see the section on electronic journal articles.

Authored book, print version, without a DOI (Manual section 10.2.21)

      Burgess, R. (2019).  Rethinking global health: Frameworks of power.  Routledge.

Authored ebook (Manual section 10.2.22)

Christian, B., & Griffiths, T. (2016). Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions. Henry Holt & Co.

Book chapter (Manual section 10.2)

For a chapter in an authored book, create a reference for the whole book (see examples above) and provide the chapter information with the in-text citation only.

Reference book (Manual section 10.2)

Zalta, E.N. (Ed.). (2019). The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Summer 2019 ed.). Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/

Entry in an online reference work (Manual section 10.3.48)

Graham, G.  (2019).  Behaviorism.  In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Summer 2019 ed.).  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/

Entry in an online reference work, no individual author or editor (Manual section 10.3.47)

Merriman-Webster (n.d.). Self-report. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary.  Retrieved July 12, 2019, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-report

Government report  (Manual section 10.4.50).  See also the Citing Gov Docs tab

Australian Government Productivity Commission & New Zealand Productivity Commission. (2012). Strengthening trans-Tasman economic relations. https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/australia-new-zealand/report/trans-tasman.pdf

Websites

To mention a website in general, do not create a reference list entry or an in-text citation. Instead, include the name of the website in the text and provide the URL in parentheses (Manuel 10.16). If you are citing multiple or specific documents on a website, however, follow the example(s) below.

Web article with author listed (Manual 10.16.112)

Martin Lillie, C.M. (2016, December 29). Be kind to yourself: How self-compassion can improve your resiliancy. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/self-compassion-can-improve-your-resiliency/art-20267193

Web article with no author listed (http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/web-page-no-author.aspx)

Justice Sotomayor:  A boon for business? (2009). Retrieved from http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=7449

Web message/post/comment with author listed (Manual section 10.1.18)

KS in NJ. (2019, January 15). From this article, it sounds like men are figuring out something that women have known forever. I know of many [Comment on the article "How workout buddies can help stave off loneliness"]. The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/2HDToGJ

Provide the comment title or up to the first 20 words of the comment, then write "Comment on the article" and the title of the article on which the comment appeared.

Blog posts (Manual section 10.1.17)

Use the author’s name if known, otherwise use a screen name.

Klymkowsky, M. (2018, September 15). Can we talk scientifically about free will? Sci-Ed. https://blogs.plos.org/scied/2018/09/15/can-we-talk-scientifically-about-free-will/

Videos on websites such as YouTube (Manual section 10.12.90)

Fogarty, M. [Grammar Girl]. (2016, September 30). How to diagram a sentence (absolute basics). [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/deiEY5Yq1qI

Wikipedia or other wiki entry (Manual 10.3.49)

List of oldest companies. (2019, January 13). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_oldest_companies&oldid=878158136

Cite the archived version of the page so that readers can retrieve the version you used. Access the archived version on Wikipedia by selecting "View history" and then the time and date of the version you used. If a wiki does not provide permanent links to archived versions of the page, include the URL for the entry and the retrieval date.

Film (Manual section 10.12.84)

Jackson, P. (Director). (2001). The lord of the rings: The fellowship of the ring [Film; four-disc special extended ed. on DVD]. WingNut Films; The Saul Zaentz Company.

Television – single episode (Manual Section 10.12.87)

Korsh, A. (Writer & Director). (2019, September 25). One last con (Season 9, Episode 10) [TV series episode]. In D. Liman & D. Bartis (Executive Producers), Suits. Untitled Korsh Company; Universal Content Productions; Open 4 Business Productions.