APA 7th Citation Guide

General Guidelines

• Ensure your punctuation is correct

  • Theses titles: Write the title of the dissertation in italics and in sentence case. 
  • Institution awarding degree: In regular font and in title case. 

• Location
  • ​Provide the full name of the institution awarding the degree. If the institution located in multiple cities, use an en dash to hyphenate the university with the city (see link below on how to insert an en dash).
    • e.g. Augusta University
    • e.g. California State University–Fullerton. 

• Retrieval information: If you found the thesis or dissertation:
  • In an academic database: Provide the database name.
  • On the web: Insert the URL to the document itself.

• Ensure your formatting is correct:
  • ​Follow our red format structure and view our examples in black. E.g. For the elements of the reference we have italicized, you also italicize that same element in your reference. 

Format

Unpublished dissertation

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dissertation [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Name of Institution Awarding the Degree in Title Case. 

​Unpublished thesis 

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of thesis [Unpublished master's thesis]. Name of Institution Awarding the Degree in Title Case.

Examples

Unpublished dissertation

Sultan, N. (2015). A heuristic inquiry of the embodied experiences of body psychotherapists in the therapeutic process [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. St. Mary's University. 

Unpublished thesis

Warming, R. (2014). Towards an archaeology of boarding: Naval hand-to-hand combat tactics in Northwestern Europe in the 16th century [Unpublished master's thesis]. University of Southampton. 

Citing In-Text: Example of one of the references

(Sultan, 2015) OR Sultan (2015) 

For more detailed guidelines on in-text citations go to our Citing In-Text tab.

Format

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of thesis [Publication No. #'] [Doctoral dissertation, Institution Awarding the Degree in Title Case]. Database Name in Title Case. 

Examples

Gee, R. M. (2019). Evaluating the impact of high fidelity patient simulation on clinical reasoning in undergraduate nursing students [Publication No.  27665556] [Doctoral dissertation, Augusta University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Weisman, M. (2020). Impacts of visits to career services on persistence: A quantitative exploration [Publication No. 27743571] [California State University–Fresno]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.

Citing In-Text: Example of one of the references

(Weisman, 2020) OR Weisman (2020) 

For more detailed guidelines on in-text citations go to our Citing In-Text tab.

Format

Published dissertation found online (not in a database)

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dissertation [Doctoral dissertation, Institution Awarding the Degree in Title Case]. Title of web source. https://xxxx

Published thesis found online (not in a database)

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dissertation [Doctoral dissertation, Institution Awarding the Degree in Title Case]. Title of web source. https://xxxx

Examples

Cosper, S. M., & Callan, R. S. (2018). Investigating student and faculty perspectives related to predictors of success: BSN curriculum and NCLEX-RN outcomes [Doctoral dissertation, Augusta University]. Scholarly Commons. https://augusta.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10675.2/621824/Callan_gru_1907E_10094.pdf?

Wright, A. T. (2018). Rightful machines [Master's thesis, University of Georgia]. Athenaeum@UGA. https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/wright_ava_t_201812_ms.pdf

Citing In-Text: Example of one of the references

(Cosper & Callan, 2018) OR Cosper or Callan (2018) 

For more detailed guidelines on in-text citations go to our Citing In-Text tab.

For more details and examples on how to reference unpublished manuscripts, consult the following section in the APA 7th Publication Manual:

Section 10.6 Dissertations and Theses 64-66.

Augusta University provides free access to EndNote citation management tool students, faculty, and staff.

If you use EndNote to input your references, then choose the reference type underneath. If you export or import your citations, then check that EndNote automatically categorized them to the below reference type. Edit the reference type if it is incorrect.  

Reference Type: Thesis