APA 7th Edition Referencing: The Complete Quick Guide
In-text citations, reference-list formats and the rules students most often get wrong, with copy-ready examples.
Dr. Maria Santos
· 8 min read
APA (American Psychological Association) style is the standard in psychology, education, nursing, business and most social sciences. The 7th edition simplified several rules, so if you learned APA 6 it's worth a refresher.
In-text citations
APA uses the author-date system. Cite the author's surname and year of publication; add a page number for direct quotations.
- One author: (Smith, 2021) or Smith (2021) found that...
- Two authors: (Smith & Patel, 2021). Use 'and' in the narrative form: Smith and Patel (2021).
- Three or more authors: (Smith et al., 2021), from the very first citation.
- Direct quote: (Smith, 2021, p. 14) or for several pages (pp. 14-16).
- Group author: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2022), then (WHO, 2022).
Reference-list formats
Journal article
Smith, J. A., & Patel, R. (2021). Feedback literacy in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 46(5), 1023-1037. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.0000000
Book
Brown, L. K. (2020). Research methods for the social sciences (3rd ed.). Sage.
Chapter in an edited book
Otieno, M. (2019). Language policy in East Africa. In P. Green (Ed.), Multilingual education (pp. 45-67). Routledge.
Web page
World Health Organization. (2023, March 10). Mental health at work. https://www.who.int/
Formatting the reference list
- Title the page 'References' (bold, centred).
- Order entries alphabetically by the first author's surname.
- Use a 0.5-inch (1.27 cm) hanging indent and double spacing.
- Italicise book titles and journal names plus volume numbers, not issue numbers.
- Include DOIs as full https://doi.org/ links. The publisher location is no longer needed in APA 7.