- Page specified, author mentioned in text:
Lutz & Huitt (2010, p. 4) argue that “the statistical significance of …”
- Page specified, author not mentioned in text:
The results were consistent throughout the study (Fernández-Manzanal, Rodríguez-Barreiro, & Carrasquer, 2007).
The study found that … (Sania et al., 2011)
The data presented …. (“How sleep enhances memory retention”, 2015).
Reference list examples:
- Book citation, one author, multiple editions:
Hawking, S. W. (1998). A brief history of time: From the big bang to black holes (10th ed.). New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.
Tyler, G. (n.d.). Evolution in the systems age. Retrieved from http://www.onlineoriginals.com/showitem.asp?itemID=142&action=setvar&vartype=history&varname=bookmark&v1=1&v2=46&v3=2
- Journal article, three authors, with a DOI:
Fernández-Manzanal, R., Rodríguez-Barreiro, L., & Carrasquer, J. (2007). Evaluation of environmental attitudes: Analysis and results of a scale applied to university students. Science Education, 91(6), 988–1009. doi:10.1002/sce.20218
* Note: For more information on the different types of journal article citations that can be made under APA 7, see section 10.1 of the Publication Manual, pp. 316-321.
Veterans Affairs Canada. (2019, February 14). Indigenous people in the Second World War. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/historical-sheets/aborigin
Smith, D. (2019, October 22). The banner, the rings, the season opener: Champion Raptors return on a night like no other. The Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/2019/10/22/the-banner-the-rings-the-season-opener-champion-raptors-return-on-a-night-like-no-other.html
- Article from an online news website (HuffPost, MSNBC, Vox, etc.):
Wade, L. (2013, March 6). ‘Sunstone’ crystal from British shipwreck may be vikings’ legendary navigation aid. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sunstone-british-shipwreck-viking-navigation_n_2818858
CrashCourse. (2015, April 30). Mars: Crash course astronomy #15 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-88YWx71gE
How Do I Format My Reference List?
Drawing on a range of relevant sources in your work proves that you have read widely around your chosen topic, so it’s a surefire way to impress your reader.
To ensure your reader’s ease of comprehension you must adhere to the style’s formatting guidelines. In APA format, a list of all the sources that have directly contributed to your work should be placed on a new page at the end of the narrative and titled ‘References’ (center align the title), otherwise known as an APA works cited list. The references should all have a hanging indentation – the second and subsequent lines of each reference should start ½ inch from the margin.
You may also be required to provide a full APA bibliography. This is a comprehensive list of all the source material you used to complete the assignment, even if it was not cited in the text. It should include any book, journal, article etc. that you may have consulted throughout your research and writing process in order to get a deeper understanding of the subject at hand.
APA Format Example:
Fernández-Manzanal, R., Rodríguez-Barreiro, L., & Carrasquer, J. (2007). Evaluation of environmental attitudes: Analysis and results of a scale applied to university students. Science Education, 91(6), 988–1009. doi:10.1002/sce.20218
Sound like a lot of work? Although the style guidelines are strict in regard to how references should be formatted, the Cite This For Me APA citation machine can help take the weight off your shoulders by quickly compiling your reference list and bibliography.
APA Style Paper Formatting Guidelines (7th Edition)
When following the APA format guidelines, you must pay attention to presentation details such as font type, line spacing, margins and page headers to ensure your work is easily legible. The information below, as well as further formatting details, can be found in Chapter 2 of the APA 7 Publication Manual.
- 1-inch margins on all sides
- Easily readable font – Times New Roman recommended, 12pt. size
- Double-space the entirety of the paper
- Page numbers in the header, aligned to the right
- Title of the paper in all capitals, 50 characters or less, in the header on each page of the body (the ‘running head’), aligned to the left. Only include a running head if you’re writing a professional paper
- The paper should typically include four major sections – Title Page, Abstract, Main Body and References.
- If infographics (tables, charts) were used in the narrative you should also add Appendices as a separate section at the end of the paper.
APA Title Page
Not all instructors will require a title page, also sometimes called an APA cover page. If they do, include these four parts:
- Title of your paper
- Running head (see above section)
- Author’s/Your name
- Institutional affiliation
The title of your paper should:
- Be centered on the page and use title case (a combination of lower and uppercase letters).
- Not be italicized, bolded, or underlined
- Use a 12-point font
- Be a maximum of 2 lines and not more than 12 words long
- Not include abbreviations
Underneath the title, place the author’s name. If you wrote the paper, put your full name here. There’s no need to include titles or degrees (e.g., Ms., PhD, etc.).
Under the author’s name, place the institutional affiliation. For most students, this would be the name of the school, college or university you are attending. The title, author’s name, and institutional affiliation should all be double spaced. Here’s an example of an APA format title page:
Writing Guidelines
The American Psychological Association also provides some helpful guidelines regarding overall best practices when writing academic and scientific papers. One important thing to be on the lookout for is bias in your writing. For instance, using the word “man” to represent humans as a species is neither scientific nor without potential bias.
Here are some good rules of thumb to help you avoid bias in your paper:
- Always be specific in your writing and avoid generalizations.
- Do not label people or test subjects unnecessarily.
- When writing about participants in your experiment or study, be sure to acknowledge them as such appropriately. Use the term “participants” instead of “subjects.”
- Use active voice instead of passive voice in your writing. For example, “the participants completed the task” vs. “the task was completed by the participants.”
- Always be cautious when discussing topics such as sexual orientation, racial and ethnic identity, disabilities, etc.
- Never change quotations to better serve your own ends or to better fit with your conclusions.
Important Terms for an APA Paper
Have you come across terms such as “abstract” or “appendices” in the manual and been unsure of their meanings? Here are some important terms to know when writing your next APA paper.
- Abstract – A brief and concise summary of your paper’s contents.
- Keywords – A list of significant keywords that the reader should be on the lookout for in your paper.
- Introduction – Generally kicks of the rest of your paper by describing what you’re writing about. In scientific papers, this would outline the problem you are solving and your research strategy.
- References – An APA reference page is the place where you list each source that you have cited via an APA in-text citation within the body of your paper.
- Running Head – Running head is the name of APA headings that are used in research papers. They contain the title of the paper, the page number, and the term “Running head.”
A Brief History of the APA Format
APA stands for American Psychological Association, the scientific organization that assembles the publishing manual of the APA format. The style was developed in 1929 by a group of scientists to standardize scientific writing. It was created in the hopes that it would provide a coherent and professional manner of citing sources for students and researchers in the fields of social and behavioral sciences.
The first publication manual of the APA format was published in pursuit of a neat and efficient research formatting style, mainly for editorial purposes. Although some contemporary scientists argued that having such strict regulations restricted personal writing styles, the format has since become one of the most popular referencing styles. Today it is adopted in term papers, research reports, literature reviews, theoretical articles, case studies etc.
What’s New in the 7th Edition of APA Format?
It is important to note that citation styles and referencing formats change over time as they adapt to new source types and trends in academic publishing. APA format is no different, and in the fall of 2019 released the 7th edition of its Publication Manual.
Are you curious to know what the differences are between the 7th and 6th edition of APA style? Here are some of the important updates listed in the 7th edition of APA citing:
- The location of the source’s publisher no longer needs to be included in the citation.
- DOIs are formatted as URLs (i.e. https://doi.org/xxx), and no longer require the label “DOI” preceding them in the reference.
- When making an APA website citation, URLs no longer need to be preceded by “Retrieved from.” The exception to this is when you include a date of retrieval, which is optional.
- When making an APA book citation for an ebook, you no longer need to include the device or platform that you read the book on (i.e. “Kindle) is no longer required in the citation.
- There is more flexibility in the 7th edition regarding APA paper format specifications on font.
- The running head in an APA format title page no longer requires the words “Running head,” and instead now only requires a page number and a shortened version of your paper’s title.
- You now need to only use one space after each period in your paper.
Before you switch to the newest version, it is a good idea to confirm with your teacher or instructor that this is the version of the style that they prefer you use.
How do I Create Accurate Citations with the Cite This For Me APA Generator?
Referencing giving you a headache? Let the Cite This For Me APA format generator remove the stress caused by citations by helping to turn in any of your sources into a fully-formatted citation. The generator will create your reference in two parts; an in-text citation and a full reference that is ready to be copied straight into your work.
To unlock the full potential of the APA citation maker, simply login to Cite This For Me multi-platform tool. Use the web platform to add and edit citations, export full projects and individual entries, utilize the add-ons, and save all of your citations in the cloud. Or, you can make use of Cite This For Me for Chrome – the browser extension for Google Chrome that allows you to cite APA sources and instantly create and edit a citation for any online web page, without leaving the one you’re viewing.
Cite This For Me gives students the confidence to achieve their full academic potential by encouraging them to research and cite diverse sources. The APA citation generator can help you cite many different kinds of sources; whether it be a PDF report, podcast, a musical score or many more.
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How do I write an in-text citation for a source with more than three authors?Section 8.17 of the APA Manual, 7 th edition, provides details on the number of authors to be included in in-text citations. As per this section, any work having 3 or more authors will not be written fully. Instead, the Latin words “et al” meaning “and others” have to be used after writing the first author’s name.
Example In-Text Citation Entry for more than 3 authors:
Almost all suppressed persons end up becoming an oppressed person when the same set of situations is presented in their lives (Camus et al., 1975).
In a rare instance, multiple sets of three or more authors might have the same initial pair or initial author. Under such rare situations, Section 8.18 of the APA manual requires you to write out the names of authors in order to distinguish between such confusing references.
Example In-Text Citation Entries:
Bandopadhyay, Schmidt, Wagner et al. (2000)
Bandopadhyay, Schmidt, Meyer et al. (1975)
How do I format a running head for a paper in APA style?Section 2.8 of the APA Manual, 7 th edition, provides details on the running head. A shortened version of the paper’s title (50 characters or fewer, including spaces and punctuation), the running head appears on top of each page so that the readers can connect the paper’s content with the title. While running heads are not required for student papers unless explicitly stated by the organization or instructor, manuscripts for publication absolutely require them.
Running heads should be in all-capital letters, flush left (directly across from the page number, which is flush right), and presented in the page header including the title page. You do not need to use the words, “Running head” because it is implied from its presence in the header.
Example:
Comparison of Loan Repayment Between Traditional Lending and Online Lending Models (Heading)
COMPARISON OF LOAN REPAYMENT MODELS (Running Head)
What is included on a title page for a student paper in APA style?Section 2.3 of the APA Manual, 7 th edition provides details on what should appear in a title page for both professionals and students. While students are advised to follow the guidelines from their respective institutions or instructors, the following elements (from top to bottom) are necessary in the absence of any such information.
- Page number at the right hand side top in the header portion (also to be included in all pages)
- Title of the paper in bold, centered and appearing in the middle
- Author’s name
- Affiliation of the author (this will be the university’s name along with the department’s or division’s name)
- Name of the course (format used in the course materials. For example, PSY101)
- Name of the instructor (check with the instructor for their preference of salutation like Dr., Professor, etc.)
- Due date of the assignment with the month spelled out (June 1, 2021, or 1 June, 2021)
Section 2.3 of the APA Manual, 7 th edition provides details on what should appear on a title page for both professional and student papers. The following elements (from top to bottom) are necessary for the professional version of the title page.
- Running head in capitals at the left-hand side of the header portion (included on every page)
- Page number at the right-hand side of the header portion (included on every page)
- Title of the paper in bold, centered, and on the upper portion of the page (usually three or four lines down from the top)
- Authors’ name(s) in full, including first name, middle initial, and last name
- Affiliation of the authors (the university’s or institution’s name where the work referenced in the paper was conducted and the department’s or division’s name)
- Author Note (below the information listed above, this section provides additional pertinent information about authors along with contact information for those interested)
According to section 9.16 of the APA manual, 7th edition, you only need to add “retrieved from” and a retrieval date in a reference entry for web sources designed to be continuously updated. For example, an online reference entry from a dictionary or encyclopedia, or a social media page. Including a retrieval date signals to readers that the source may differ in content if retrieved on a different date. When including the retrieval date, insert it before the URL or DOI at the end of the entry:
Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://chegg.com
For web sources with stable URLs or DOIs that do not change, do not include a retrieval date. Only include the URL or DOI. Section 9.5 of the APA manual, 7 th edition provides information on how to format DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) and URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). Both DOIs and URLs are to be presented as hyperlinks (use http:// or https:// as the case may be). Since these are presented as hyperlinks that the readers can use to access the content, it is NOT necessary to have the words, “Retrieved from” or “Accessed from” before a DOI or an URL. However, test the resource to ensure the hyperlink works.
How do I write a parenthetical citation when the source has two authors in APA style?Section 8.11 of the APA Publication Manual, 7 th edition, provides details on parenthetical citations. A parenthetical citation provides the authors’ names and publication date of the source within parentheses along with the cited text. If two authors are present in the source, both authors’ last names should be mentioned in the in-text citation. Their names should be separated by an ampersand (&). The publication date should follow the second surname, separated by a comma.
A parenthetical citation can appear either at the end of the sentence or within the sentence depending on how the sentence is framed. The period or end punctuation appears after the closing parenthesis.
Example parenthetical citation at the end of a sentence:
The reach of fake news is greatly underrated (Rameses & Hudgson, 2021).
If more text appears along with the parenthetical citation, include commas to separate the year and help the reader distinguish the citation from the surrounding text.
Example parenthetical citation with additional text:
The reach of fake news is greatly underrated (see Rameses & Hudgson, 2021, for more detail).
How do I write a narrative citation when the source has two authors in APA style?Section 8.11 of the APA Publication Manual, 7 th edition, provides details on narrative citations. A narrative citation provides the authors’ names in running text, and the publication date appears within parentheses immediately after the names. If two authors are present in the source, both authors’ last names should be mentioned in the in-text citation. In narrative citations, the word “and” should be spelled out between the two names.
Example narrative citation with two authors:
Crompton and Williams (2020) noted that gut health is of paramount importance in maintaining mental health.
In some circumstances, the year may also appear within the text along with the authors’ names. In such a scenario, the date should not appear within parentheses.
Example narrative citation with two authors and date:
In 2020, Crompton and Williams broke new ground with their hypothesis that mental health is strongly linked with gut health.
How long can a title be for a paper in APA style?As per Section 2.4 of the APA Publication Manual, 7 th edition, the title of a research paper should summarize the main idea in a succinct manner. While there is no prescribed title length in APA style, authors are advised to keep their titles brief and focused. The manual also provides examples between effective and ineffective titles, including “fluff” words that can be cut from titles and substantive information that should be included in a title to make it relevant to the reader(s).
When do I need to include a page number for an in-text citation in APA style?When the whole book or article is being referenced, there is no need to include a page number. However, when you are referring to a specific page or pages (either in a paraphrase or a direct quote), include the page number(s) in your in-text citation.
If you are referring to information or a quote contained on a single page, add the page number after the author and date, preceded by “p.” If you are citing multiple pages, the page numbers should be preceded by “pp.” and separated by an en-dash.
Example in-text citation with single page number:
(Rayden, 2014, p. 308)
Example in-text citation with page range:
(Rayden, 2014, pp. 308-311)
If there are no page numbers in a work, you can use some other type of locator in in-text citations to help your reader find the information you are citing, like chapter names, headings, or paragraph numbers.
How do I write an in-text citation for a source with no author in APA style?As per Section 8.14 of the APA Publication Manual, 7 th edition, for sources with an unknown author, include the title of the source and year of publication in your in-text citations instead.
If the title of the source is italicized in your reference list, it should also be italicized in your in-text citation. If the title is not in italics in the reference list, it should be in quotation marks in your in-text citation. Titles should be listed in title case (with all important words capitalized) when included in in-text citations.
In-text citation templates:
(Full Name of the Source, year)
(“Full Name of the Source,” year)
In-text citation examples:
(How to Be Awesomely You, 2021)
(“Social Dynamics in US Colleges,” 2018)
If a work’s author is designated as “Anonymous,” use “Anonymous” as the author in in-text citations, as shown below.
Where are appendicies added in an APA style paper?As per Section 2.14 of the APA Publication Manual, 7 th edition, an appendix or appendices are included after the references, footnotes, tables, and figures of the paper. In other words, appendices are the last item in your paper. Each appendix should be separately mentioned within the main text (e.g., “see Appendix A”). Appendices are to be self-contained; they should describe the contents and clearly have a label and title.
What do I need to include for in-text citations in APA style?For a parenthetical in-text citation in APA style, the basic elements needed are the author’s last name (or the group author’s name) and the publication year. For parenthetical citations, format this information by inputting it in parentheses.
For a narrative in-text citation, include the information in the running text. Usually, this means you include the author’s last name followed by the year in parentheses. However, if needed, you may include both the author’s last name and the year in the running text.
For audio, visual, or audiovisual works, replace the author’s last name with a director’s last name (for a film), an uploader’s last name (for YouTube), the artist’s name (for an artwork), and so on.
Which major sections should be included in a paper in APA style?As per section 2 of the APA 7 manual, papers require the following elements presented in the order below. Since the required elements differ depending on whether your paper is a professional or student paper, there are two lists to distinguish the differences. Sections like Figures, Tables, and Appendices may not be relevant to your paper, so you may exclude those.
Professional Papers*
- Title Page (with title, author(s), affiliations, and an author note)
- Page Headers including a running head and page numbers
- Abstract
- Text
- Reference List
- Keywords (optional)
- Footnotes (optional)
- Tables (optional)
- Figures (optional)
- Appendices (optional)
- Supplemental Materials (optional)
*Always refer to the professional journal’s instructions or submission guidelines.
Student Papers
- Title Page
- Page Numbers
- Text
- Reference List
- Tables (optional)
- Figures (optional)
- Appendices (optional)
An APA reference list comprises the publication details of the studies that specifically quote or support the ideas and concepts presented in a paper. Cite sources in the text, with a narrative or parenthetical citation, and include corresponding reference entries in the reference list.
An APA bibliography is similar to a reference list because it also includes full reference entries for sources cited in the text. However, they also include other sources that support or give background for further research related to the listed source.
An APA annotated bibliography includes short annotations below the reference entry in a separate paragraph(s). Annotations summarize and/or describe a source in detail.
What edition of APA does the Cite This For Me citation generator use?Both the 6 th and 7 th editions of APA style are available on the Cite This For Me citation generator.
What information do I need to use an APA citation generator?For a webpage/website, journal article, or book, you’ll need 1-2 pieces of basic publication information. For example:
- Website: URL, page title, etc.
- Journal article: Article title, DOI number, author(s), etc.
- Book: Book title, author, date published, etc.
Using those pieces of information, you can search for the source in the Cite This For Me APA citation generator and it will help you to create a citation.
Other source types (newspaper article, video, government document, etc.) will provide a form on which you provide all source information. Using that information, the citation generator will create a properly formatted APA citation for you.
