Skip to Main Content
  • Hampton: (757) 825-2877 | Historic Triangle: (757) 258-6500
  • APA 7th Edition General Notes and Updates

    Hints: Title of book in Sentence case, not italicized. Capitalize proper nouns.

    Title of Journal in Title Case and ItalicizedJournal volume # is italicized(issue number in parenthesis), pages-pages.

    Citation for a chapter from a book (instead of the whole book): List the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). Use the p. or pp. for newspaper citations. However, do not use p. or pp for magazines or journal citations, just note the page number or page range. (See examples above.)

     

    General notes about updates:

    • URLs are no longer preceded by “Retrieved from,” unless a retrieval date is needed.
    • The website name is included (unless it is the same as the author), and web page titles are now italicized and the name of the entire website is in sentence case (a reverse of APA 6th instructions):
      • Walker, A. (2019, November 14). Germany avoids recession but growth remains weak. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50419127
      • Do not need to note [Website] when source is a webpage but will note formats such as [Video] or [Film] as needed.
    • DOIs are formatted the same as URLs. The label “DOI:” before the information is no longer necessary.
    • Publisher location is no longer required, just list the name of the publisher in citations for books.
    • Do not need to list the name of the database for articles from library databases. Use DOI if there is one.
       

    Note about paper formatting:

    • Increased flexibility regarding fonts: options include Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11.
    • The running head on the title page no longer includes the words “Running head:” It now contains only a page number and the (shortened) paper title.
       

    In-Text Citation Examples

     (From Publication Manual of the APA, 7th edition, page 266.)

    No page numbers required in in-text unless using a direct quote.

    For in-text citations: when noting page numbers use p. X for a single page or pp. X-X for a page range.

    Note: The instructions for in-text citations for sources with three or more authors has changed from the 6th edition (see examples below).

    Number of Authors

    First in-text citation

    Subsequent in-text citations

    One work by two authors

    (Walker & Allen, 2004)

    (Walker & Allen, 2004)

    One work by three or more authors

    (Bradley et al., 2006)

    (Bradley et al., 2006)

    Groups or organizations with abbreviation

    (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2003)

    (NIMH, 2003)

    Groups or organizations with no abbreviation

    (University of Pittsburgh, 2005)

    (University of Pittsburgh, 2005)