APA 7 Citation Guide

Learn How it works

An APA reference has four parts: Author. (Date). Title. Source.

Author: Last name, then initials: Nguyen, L., & Hale, M. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author. List up to 20 authors.
Date: the year in parentheses: (2021). For web pages and news, add month and day: (2024, September 3). No date? Write (n.d.).
Title: use sentence case: capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Italicize books and reports. Don't italicize or quote article titles.
Source: the journal (in italics, Title Case), volume (italic), issue (in parentheses, not italic), pages, and DOI written as a link: https://doi.org/…

In-text citations

Paraphrase: (Nguyen & Hale, 2021)
Quote: add the page: (Nguyen & Hale, 2021, p. 212)
Three or more authors: (Garcia et al., 2020) from the first citation on.
Named in your sentence: Nguyen and Hale (2021) found that…

The References page

Title it References (bold, centered). Double-space, use a hanging indent, and alphabetize by the first author's last name.

Examples See it done

Book

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Scribner.

Journal article

Nguyen, L., & Hale, M. (2021). Sleep and memory in teenagers. Journal of Adolescent Health, 68(2), 210–217. https://doi.org/10.5555/example.2021.0042

Web page

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024, May 15). About sleep. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about/index.html

Compare MLA and APA for the same article

Style	Entry
MLA 9	Nguyen, Linh, and Marcus Hale. “Sleep and Memory in Teenagers.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 68, no. 2, 2021, pp. 210–17.
APA 7	Nguyen, L., & Hale, M. (2021). Sleep and memory in teenagers. Journal of Adolescent Health, 68(2), 210–217.

The journal article and its DOI above are made-up examples for practice.

Practice Check yourself

Answer, then tap Check. You get an explanation either way.