About APA Citation Format

What is APA Format?

APA (American Psychological Association) format is a set of guidelines for writing and citing sources in academic papers. It is the most commonly used citation style in the social sciences, education, nursing, and business fields.

The APA Publication Manual was first published in 1929. The 7th Edition — the current standard — was released in October 2019 and introduced significant changes including cleaner formatting for online sources, updated guidelines for student papers, and the ability to list up to 20 authors before using an ellipsis.

Key APA 7th Edition Rules

• Authors: Format as Lastname, F. I. List all authors up to 20. For 21+, list first 19, then ellipsis (. . .), then the last author.
• Date: Use (Year) for books/journals; (Year, Month Day) for web pages.
• No date: Use (n.d.) in place of the year.
• Title capitalization: Article/chapter titles use sentence case. Journal/book titles are italicized and use title case.
• DOI: Present as hyperlink — https://doi.org/xxxxx
• Reference list: Alphabetical, double-spaced, hanging indent of 0.5 inches.

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