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APA Style 7th Edition Overview

Overview of Seventh Edition Guideline Changes

Item Guidelines
DOI Information

Be sure to use the full DOI link in your reference. 

  • Ambrose, A. (1963). The age of onset of ambivalence in early infancy: Indications from the study of laughing. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 4(3–4), 167–181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1963.tb02119

Figure Titles

The word “Figure” and the number should be bolded.

  • Example: Figure 1

The figure title is in title case and italics. 

  • Example: APA Checklist
Headings

All headings are bold.

Headings 3 & 5 are italicized. 
In-text Citations

Two authors: For works with two authors, use an ampersand (&) in parenthetical in-text citations: (Guirrez & Castillo, 2020) and use the word “and” in narrative in-text citations: Guirrez and Castillo (2020).

Three or more authors: Use the first author's name followed by et al. in-text and parenthetically from the first citation onward.

Parenthetical Citations: Place the author name and publication year in parentheses.

Narrative Citations: Incorporate the author's name into the text as part of the sentence and then follow with the year in parentheses.

Line Spacing Double-space the entire paper. Do not add extra lines before or after headings or between paragraphs.
Lists - Bulleted 

Bulleted items that are complete sentences should begin with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark.

There are two options for punctuating bulleted lists that consist of items listed as words or phrases.

  1. Do not use any punctuation after the bulleted items.
  2. Insert punctuation after the bulleted items as if the items were not in list form. 
Lists - Lettered

Use a serial comma when a list within a sentence contains three or more items.

Use semicolons if any of the items already contain a comma.

For increased attention to items use lowercase letters in parentheses before each item.
Punctuation

Use one space after a period or other punctuation mark at the end of a sentence.

Use a serial comma before the final element in lists of three or more items (i.e., Oxford Comma).

Use parentheses to set off in-text citations.

Reducing Bias When writing, always be sure to select words that are accurate, clear, and free from bias or prejudicial connotations.
Reference List The label “References” should be formatted as a Level 1 heading.
References

Capitalize titles in sentence case: Capitalize only the first word of the title, the subtitle, and any proper nouns.

  • Example: The APA manual: Seventh Edition

Present both DOIs and URLs as hyperlinks (e.g., beginning with “https:”).

Provide surnames and initials for up to and including 20 authors.

Only use the words “Retrieved from” if the retrieval date is needed.

Do not add a period after the DOI or URL.

Omit the publisher if the author and publisher are an exact match.

Do not include physical locations for publishers.

Singular "They" Singular “they” is endorsed as part of APA Style because it is inclusive of all people and helps writers avoid making assumptions about gender
Spacing  Use one space after a period or other punctuation at the end of a sentence.
Table Formatting

Number tables in the order they are mentioned in the text.

Include borders only at the top and the bottom of the table, beneath column headings, and above column spanners.

Do not use vertical borders or borders around every cell in the table.

Table Titles 

The word “Table” and the number should be bolded.

  • Example: Table 1

The table title is in title case and italics.

  • APA Checklist
Title Page - Student

The running head is no longer a required element of the title page.

Page number upper right corner.

The title should be capitalized, bold, centered, and located in the upper half of the title page.

Fragments, Comma Splices, and Run-On Sentences

Fragments, Comma Splices, and Run-On Sentences

Learn to avoid sentence and punctuation issues.

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