APA 7: Formatting the Reference List

• Start the reference list on a new page after the text.
•  Center the title References, IN BOLD at the top of the page.  * This is new!*
• List complete citations for the sources you cited.
• List all entries alphabetically by author. If there is no author, start with the first significant title word (ignore the, a)
• Double-space your references (and between reference entries).
• Make sure there aren't any extra lines in between your reference entries.
• Place the first line of the reference against the left margin and indent any additional lines one tab or five spaces; this is called a hanging indent.

Authors – Who or what organization is responsible for creating the work?

• List all authors in the order listed on your source - UP TO 20 names. “Author” can include individuals, groups, organizations, and agencies.
• Depending on your source, you might need to locate and use the names of editors, podcasters, news organizations, film directors, and other creators.
• Entries include the authors’ last names and initials (with a space between initials) – Jones, A. B.
• Use commas between the author’s names
• Between two authors and the last two authors, format like this: Author A., & Author, B. (Use comma, &)
• Alphabetize references by the first author's last name. If there is no author, use the title and start the entry with the first significant title word (that is, the first word after “The” or “A”).

Dates – What is the publication, copyright, creation, or update date?

• List dates in parentheses (2020).
• Use only the year for journal and book citations (2020).
• Use the entire date for a magazine, newspaper, web page, and a/v media citations (2020, March 28).
• For web pages, don’t use the website’s copyright date. Instead, use the creation or updated date.
• Do not use the last reviewed date to cite a web page as content might not have been changed or updated.
• If no date is available, use (n.d.).

Titles – these include article, journal, book, chapter, website, film, podcast, and other titles:

• Capitalize only the first word in the title and subtitle of books, reports, articles, and chapters.
• Capitalize all significant words in the title of a journal, magazine, newsletter, or newspaper.
• Capitalize proper nouns such as personal names.
• Italicize titles of books, reports, newspapers, journals, magazines, newsletters, and webpages.
• When citing a book with an edition or volume number, include that information in parenthesis after the title. Do not italicize. For example - Web searching for students (2nd ed.).

• Italicize the volume of a periodical.

• Always include the issue number for a periodical if available. For example, 34(2) * This is new! *

• Include the page numbers for the entire article or chapter, if available.

• Some journals use an article number instead of the page number range. When citing article numbers, use the word Article (capitalize the A) in front of the number. For example Infection Ecology & Epidemiology, 5(1), Article 30048.

• Generally, end the citation with a period, except when the reference ends with a URL or DOI.

• Not all articles have a DOI.

• Some eBooks do have a DOI.

• The DOI number will be indicated by doi, DOI, or https://doi.org/number

• Locate DOIs on the article’s details page (in a database) and on the article itself.

• When including DOI numbers, use the updated format https://doi.org/placedoinumberhere even if the DOI is listed differently on the original (see Publication Manual, p. 300).  *This is new*

• If an article has both a DOI and URL, only include the DOI.

• APA allows for URLs and DOI numbers to be hyperlinked, so it is not necessary to remove the hyperlink.

• DO NOT include the phrase “Retrieved from” before the URL.    *This is new!*

• Long URLs can be shortened using a shortening service like tinyurl.com. Just be sure the URL link works.