The APA Style

The American Psychological Association style is commonly used in the sciences and social sciences. It allows readers to quickly identify the source of a piece of information without looking away from the text, at the cost of some flexibility in citation and referencing. The APA released the 7th edition of their manual in late 2019; all of the guides below follow the 7th edition.

Guide and Template for term papers and assignments:

 APA Citation & Reference Guide:

APA citation and reference guide thumbnail

Guide and Template for major projects (theses, dissertations, & publications):

 


The APA Site:

APA logo

What's new in the 7th edition?

The 7th Edition of the APA Style Guide includes some notable improvements.  

The Running Head

It is no longer necessary for student papers to have a running head (only page numbers).

It is also no longer necessary to have “Running head:” prior to the shortened version of the title on the title page of a professional paper.

The Heading Styles

The APA 7th Edition heading styles are simpler. 

APA Heading Styles Screenshot

The In-Text Citations

The most significant change to the in-text citation style is the use of “et al.” for the first as well as subsequent citations for sources with three or more authors. 

In-text APA citation screenshot

The References

There have been a few changes to how online sources are referenced:

  • • It is no longer necessary to include the words “Retrieved from” prior to a URL. 
  • • The URL is hyperlinked and there is no period following a URL
  • • DOI numbers should be included in their URL form (e.g., http://doi.org/ …)  
APA's Reference screenshot

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