LibGuides: Citation Guide: APA 7th edition

Citation & Format Quick Guides

Additional Resources

Basic Principles of a Reference Entry

Basic Principles of a Reference Entry
Discusses the four elements of an APA reference entry.

Elements of a Reference Entry

Elements of a Reference List Entries
A summary of the basic principles of reference list entries.

Formatting your Paper

APA Style: Student Paper Formatting Checklist
Use this checklist while writing your paper to make sure it is consistent with seventh edition APA Style. Full guidelines for
writing and formatting an APA Style paper are described in the Concise Guide to APA Style (7th ed.).

Title Page Guide

Student Title Page Guide
The title page needs to provide information about the paper’s topic and authors and the course to which it is being submitted.

Sample Student Paper

APA Style: Sample Annotated Student Paper

APA 7^thEdition

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by American Psychological Association
Call Number: Fort Lewis Reference Desk BF76.7 .P83 2020 7th ed.

Using APA style

APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social and behavioral sciences. This Citation Guide offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, and the reference page. Before you adopt this style for your paper, you should check to see what citation style your instructor is requiring for your assignment.

4 elements of APA style:

Who: Author or producer of content. Authors are formatted the same in all material formats.

List all authors with the last name first, then first initials (and middle if available)
- Example: Smith, J. D.
Two authors are separated with a comma and an ampersand ( & )
- Example: Smith, J. D., & Jones, R. L.
Provide last names and initials for up to and including 20 authors. Authors are formatted with commas and an ampersand ( & ) before the final author's last name and initials.
- Example: Smith, J. D., Jones, R. L., & Harper, S. G.
When there are more than 20 authors: List up to the first 19 authors; then insert ellipses (...) but no ampersand, and then add the final author's name.
- Example: Smith, J. D., Jones, R. L., Harper, S. G., Harris, K., Thompson, L. C., Nelson, G. A., Sampson, D., Linares, R. H., Cardoza, M. A. Martin, M. P., Fox, C. P., Wooley, O. W., Sigurðardóttir, Y., Oliver, A. E., Onuzo, C., Atta, S., Maja-Pearce, A., Ba, A., Aidoo, A. A., ... Agualusa, J.

When: Date content was published

Enclose the date of the publication in parentheses, followed by a period.
- Examples: (2020). or (2020, August 31). or (2019, September). or (2019, Fall).
Retrieval dates: include only if the work is unarchived and designed to change over time. Most references do not include retrieval dates.
- When a retrieval date is needed, use the following format for it. Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://xxxxx

What: Title of content: italic title or italic source.

Works that stand alone use the italic title format pattern (e.g., whole books, reports, gray literature, dissertations and theses, informally published works, data sets, videos, films, TV series, albums, podcasts, social media, and works on websites).
Works that are part of a greater whole use the italic source format pattern (e.g., journal articles, edited book chapters), capitalize the title using sentence case. Do not italicize the title or use quotation marks around it.

Where: Publication information. For example, this can be the website you got it from or the journal or book's publication information.

The source for a work that stands alone (e.g., whole book, report, dissertation, thesis, film, TV series, podcast, data set, informally published work, social media, webpage) is the publisher of the work, database or archive, social media site, or website, plus any applicable DOI or URL.
A location is not required in the source element for most works (e.g., do not include the publisher location for book references).
Works associated with a specific location (e.g., artwork in a museum, conference presentations) include location information in the source and, depending on the work, may also include a DOI or URL.
If a work is not recoverable, treat it as having no source.

Missing Elements

Missing Pieces APA Style Reference Table
If any of the elements listed above are unavailable, use this table from the APA Style Blog for help.

Six Steps to a Proper Citation

Six Steps to a Proper Citation
Infographic with the basic steps displayed.

Legal References

In APA Style, most legal materials are cited in the standard legal citation style used for legal references across all disciplines. This legal style has notable differences from other APA Style formats. (Publication Manual of APA, Chapter 11, p. 355).

Table 11.1 Key Differences between APA Style and Legal References

Difference	APA Style	Legal Style
Order of elements in the reference list entry	Usually the author, date, title, and source in that order	Usually the title, source, and date in that order
In-text citation	Usually the author and year	Usually the title and year
Version of work being referenced	The exact version used	The version of record as published in an official legal publication such as the Unites States Code or the Federal Register, plus a URL (optional) for the version used
Use of standard abbreviations	Used for parts of a work (e.g., “2^nd ed.” For a second edition)	Used for common legal entities and publications (e.g., “S.” for the Senate and “H.R.” for the House of Representatives)

In-text Citations of Legal Materials

Most legal reference entries begin with the title of the work; as a result, most in-text citations consist of the title and year. (e.g. Americans With Disabilities Act, 1990); Brown v Board of Education, 1954). If a title is long shorten it for the in-text citation but give enough information to enable readers to locate the entry in the reference list.

Citation Guide