APA 7 Tips and Resources

To assist with the transition to APA 7, I have included a few of the more common errors that I find while reviewing references and citations. However, these should be confirmed for your use.

References

  • For each periodical (journal), there must be either a DOI or source URL. The DOI takes precedence over the URL, if present. To locate the DOI, search for the title at crossref.org. If a DOI is not available, use the journal's homepage URL as the retrieved from source.  Note that per APA, common databases such as Proquest and EBSCOHost should not be listed as these sources can often be retrieved from an online journal website (see APA 7 section 9.31).

  • Refer to APA 7, section 9.35 for DOI and URL formatting.  Begin DOIs with "https://" and omit "Retrieved from" for URLs, when used (this is a change from APA 6).

  • For the full list of when to include DOI and URLs, visit https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/dois-urls

  • Visit http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/12/how-to-find-a-doi.html to locate a DOI for an academic source using crossref.org.

  • The inclusion of an issue number implies that each issue begins on page 1, if not, omit the issue #.  However, to determine this, multiple issues must be observed at the journal homepage - this takes work!

  • Only capitalize the first word of the title and sub-title (see APA 7 section 9.19).

  • Italicize the journal name and volume number, or the book title.

  • Only use the authors first and middle initials - not their full names 

  • Religious works, such as the Bible, need to be listed as a reference using the book reference format. See https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/religious-work-references

  • Works from proprietary databases (EBSCOHost, ProQuest, et al.) Per APA, “Database information is seldom provided in reference list entries. The reference provides readers with the details they will need to perform a search themselves if they want to read the work—in most cases, writers do not need to explain the path they personally used.“ See https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/database-information

Citations

  • Use et al. for 3+ authors for in-text citations, beginning with the first citation (note that this is a change in APA 7 - see section 8.12)

Other

  • Quotes should be avoided for improved originality. Only quote passages that would otherwise lose their meaning, if paraphrased, such as the Bible, Law, famous quotes, etc. (see APA 7, section 8.25).

  • The Figure Caption is placed above the image, instead of below (see APA 7, section 7.20)

Finally, visit the following links for additional information and guides for APA 7:

A free Academic Writer® tutorial: Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style

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