APA Citations: APA Research Papers

APA formatting is generally used in such disciplines as health, social sciences, business, and education. Some instructors are still using the 6th edition, so ask about their preferences before you use this guide.

What's New in the 7th Edition?

For examples of these, check out the tabs in this guide.

Formatting

• Student papers no longer require a running head. Instead, just put the page number in the top right corner of each page.
• Headings should be in bold, including the title of the paper and the References list.
• Specific fonts are not required, but should be consistent and readable.
•  The title on the title page should be entered three lines from the top and separated from the author by another line.
• Annotated bibliography annotations start on a new paragraph after the citation and are indented 0.5" from the left.

Citations

• For in-text references, 1-2 authors should be listed by their names. Ex: (Smith & Brown, 2020)
• For in-text references, 3+ authors should be listed by the first author's name followed by "et al." Ex: (Smith et al., 2020)
• In the references list, include up to 20 of the authors listed. If there are more than that,  list the first 19, an ellipses [...], and the final author.  Ex: Smith, A., Brown, B., Nguyen, C., Chatterjee, D., Hernandez, E., Park, F., Garcia, G., Chang, H., Singh, I., Soyinka, J., Suzuki, K., Dubois, L., Johansson, M., Muller, N., Kumar, O., Cohen, P., Chen, Q., Santos, R., Novak, S. ... White, Z. (2020). Title. Source. 

Books & eBooks

• Publication location is no longer included.
• EBooks are formatted the same as print books.
• Include a DOI, if provided. Format it as a URL: https://doi.org/###

Articles

• Always include the issue number.
• Include a DOI at the end, if provided. Format it as a URL: https://doi.org/###
• If no DOI is provided, include a direct URL link to the full text, if freely available. If not, stop after the page numbers and do not include a link to the journal home page.
• If linking to an article on a news site that is not published weekly or monthly, format it as a web page.

Web Pages

• Do not include "Retrieved from" before the URL.
• If the URL is long, use a shortener like bit.ly or tinyurl

Class Materials

• If a source is retrieved from a course site like Canvas, include it in the reference list. 

Introduction to Citation Styles: APA 7th ed. Video [3:00] from the the University Library at CSU Dominguez Hills.

Here are a few resources for citing your sources in APA format (7th edition). If you have any questions, feel free to contact a librarian. When in doubt, consult with your instructor for formatting preferences.