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APA Citation Style, Seventh Edition

Changes between the Sixth and Seventh Editions

Listed below are some of the major changes between the sixth and seventh editions of the APA Manual. 

  • Publisher location is no longer included in reference list entries 
  • For works with three or more authors, only include the first author's name followed by "et al." for all in-text citations 
  • Surnames and initials of up to 20 authors are included in reference list entries
  • DOIs and URLs are formatted similarly; the label "DOI:" is no longer necessary  
  • For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g. ebook; Kindle) is no longer included in the reference 

*From https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-seventh-edition-changes/ 

American Psychological Association (APA) Citation Style

What kinds of sources do you want to cite?

APA style is the editorial style created by the American Psychological Association that many of the social and behavioral sciences have adopted to present written material in the field. APA Style was first developed 80 years ago by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication. Since that time, it has been adopted by leaders in many fields and has been used by writers around the world.
*From www.apastyle.org

 The purpose of documentation is to:

  • Identify (cite) other people’s ideas and information used within your work.
  • Indicate the authors or sources of these in a References list at the end of your paper.

The purpose of this guide is to provide some helpful examples; however, it is not comprehensive. For more detailed information, refer to the APA Manual available at the Research Help Desk in the Library, ask your instructor, or AskUs.

APA Publication Manual

APA Examples and Help

The following sites also provide helpful citation examples:

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

Many scholarly publishers now assign an alpha-numeric code called a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) to journal articles and other documents. APA guidelines for citing electronic resources recommend including this identifier in the citation whenever possible. The DOI can generally be found on the first page of scholarly journal articles as well as in the database record for that article.

If the DOI does not appear on the article or in the database record, it may be found by entering citation information into the free DOI Lookup on CrossRef.org.

To determine DOIs for an entire reference list, copy & paste the entire list here: Cross/Ref Simple Text Query.

Materials originally published prior to the Internet, but now available online, may not have a DOI. Use this DOI Flow Chart created by APA to help you decide what information you need to include if you cannot find a DOI.

APA Style Blog

The official companion blog to the APA Manual, Seventh Edition. The blog is offered by the APA Style team who regularly publish posts talking about writing, publishing, and APA Style (about the blog).

Printable Handouts

Acknowledgement

This guide was created using a template from Red Deer College, and draws from content created by ULethbridge Librarian Judy Vogt.