First developed in 1929 by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication, APA Style has been adopted by writers, researchers, editors, students, and educators in the social and behavioral sciences, natural sciences, nursing, communications, education, business, engineering, and other fields. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition, published in 2020, is the official source for APA Style.
Known for its authoritative, easy-to-use reference and citation system, the Publication Manual also offers guidance on choosing the headings, tables, figures, language, and tone that will result in powerful, concise, and elegant scholarly communication. It guides users through the scholarly writing process—from the ethics of authorship to reporting research through publication.
APA Style uses the author-date citation system, with brief in-text citations that direct readers to a full reference list entry.
References are created using these style guidelines. They are then listed in a reference list or bibliography. This list is filed alphabetically by author, or by title if there is no author. The reference list must have a hanging indent.
You will need to compile a list of all sources used in your assignment/report. Your reference list must provide full and accurate details, as it is the means by which the reader can follow up on your sources. Guidelines for referencing a variety of sources are available in this guide.
A reference generally has four elements:
Answering these four questions will help you create a reference for any type of work, even if you do not find a specific example that matches it.
The image below shows an example of an article title page highlighting the locations of the reference elements and showing their placement in a reference list entry:
Because so much scholarship is available and/or retrieved online, most reference list entries end with either a DOI (digital object identifier) or a URL (uniform resource locator). A:
APA Style's first preference is to cite the DOI (digital object identifier). If there is a DOI, then provide that in your reference entry.
General rule of thumb: If the resource does not have a DOI, then only cite the URL if it is freely accessible, i.e. not from a password-protected database.
Include the name of the database and a URL to the work if it is from the following contexts -
DOI: https://doi.org/xxxx
URL: http://xxxx
You should not add a period after the DOI or URL in the reference list.
You must provide an in-text citation if you:
In-text citations typically contain the following information, in this order:
Missing reference information is covered in Section 9.4 of the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition. This guidance is the same as in the 6th edition.
Sometimes the information needed to create a reference list entry is missing or unknown. When this is the case, there are various strategies to adapt the reference.
The following table shows the basic structure of an APA Style reference to a published work, adapted for missing information, along with the corresponding in-text citations. Refer to the reference examples and Chapters 9 and 10 of the Publication Manual for specific details for the type of work being cited.
| Missing element | Solution | Template | ||
| Reference list entry | In-text citation | |||
| Nothing—all elements are present | Provide the author, date, title, and source of the work. | Author. (Date). Title. Source. |
(Author, year) Author (year) |
|
| Author | Provide the title, date, and source. | Title. (Date). Source. |
(Title, year) Title (year) |
|
| Date | Provide the author, write “n.d.” for “no date,” and then provide the title and source. | Author. (n.d.). Title. Source. |
(Author, n.d.) Author (n.d.) |
|
| Title | Provide the author and date, describe the work in square brackets, and then provide the source. | Author. (Date). [Description of work]. Source. |
(Author, year) Author (year) |
|
| Author and date | Provide the title, write “n.d.” for “no date,” and then provide the source. | Title. (n.d.). Source. |
(Title, n.d.) Title (n.d.) |
|
| Author and title | Describe the work in square brackets, and then provide the date and source. | [Description of work]. (Date). Source. |
([Description of work], year) [Description of work] (year) |
|
| Date and title | Provide the author, write “n.d.” for “no date,” describe the work in square brackets, and then provide the source. | Author. (n.d.). [Description of work]. Source. |
(Author, n.d.) Author (n.d.) |
|
| Author, date, and title | Describe the work in square brackets, write “n.d.” for “no date,” and then provide the source. | [Description of work]. (n.d.). Source. |
([Description of work], n.d.) Description of work] (n.d.) |
|
| Source | Cite as a personal communication or find another work to cite (see the Publication Manual for more information). | No reference list entry |
(C. C. Communicator, personal communication, month day, year) C. C. Communicator (personal communication, month day, year) |
|
For a missing author, do not use “Anonymous” as the author unless the work is actually signed “Anonymous.” If the work is signed “Anonymous,” use “Anonymous” in the reference and in-text citation.
Anonymous. (2017). Stories from my time as a spy. Bond Publishers.
Parenthetical citation: (Anonymous, 2017)
Narrative citation: Anonymous (2017)
If the work is not actually signed “Anonymous,” the title moves to the beginning of the reference and is used in place of the author name, as shown in the table.
The date in the reference list entry for a work with a publication date may be a year only, and month and year, or a specific date (e.g., a month, day, and year); however, in the in-text citation, provide the year only.
For an in-press work, use “in press” for the date in both the reference list entry and in-text citation.
For a work with no date, use “n.d.” in both the reference list entry and the in-text citation.
Italic formatting within the title or source varies by reference and is not shown in the table. In general, the title is italicized for a work that stands alone (e.g., book, report, webpage on a website), and some part of the source is italicized for a work that is part of a greater whole (e.g., journal article, newspaper article).
See the reference examples and Chapters 9 and 10 of the Publication Manual for information on what to italicize within a reference.