APA Citation Style: A Complete Guide

What is APA citation style?

APA style is defined by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition, 2020). It is required by thousands of journals in psychology, education, social work, nursing, and related disciplines, and it is the default citation format taught in most university writing courses outside the humanities.

Unlike ACS or AMA — which assign numbers to sources — APA uses an author-date system. Every in-text citation contains the author's last name and the publication year, so readers can evaluate the currency and authorship of a claim without leaving the page. The full bibliographic details live in the References list at the end of the document, sorted alphabetically by the first author's last name.

The 7th edition (current as of 2020) modernised several formatting rules from the 6th edition. The key changes are covered in the 6th vs. 7th edition section below.

In-text citations

APA in-text citations are parenthetical: the author's last name and the publication year appear in parentheses, separated by a comma. They are placed before the closing punctuation of the sentence — or immediately after a direct quotation, along with a page number.

Multiple authors

For works with one or two authors, always name both in every citation. For works with three or more authors, use only the first author's name followed by "et al." from the very first citation — no need to list all authors the first time, as was required in the 6th edition.

Multiple works in one citation

When citing more than one source in the same parenthetical, list them in alphabetical order separated by semicolons.

Reference list rules

The reference list appears at the end of the paper under the centered heading References (not "Bibliography" or "Works Cited"). Entries are sorted alphabetically by the first author's last name and formatted with a hanging indent — the first line is flush left and subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches.

Author names

List authors as Last Name, Initials. Use a comma between the last name and initials, and a period after each initial. Separate multiple authors with commas; place an ampersand (&) before the final author. For works with 21 or more authors, list the first 19, insert an ellipsis (…), then add the final author's name.

Publication year

The year of publication follows the authors in parentheses, ending with a period: Smith, J. A. (2021). For works with no date, use (n.d.) in place of the year. For works published ahead of print, include the year the article was made available online.

DOIs and URLs

In APA 7th edition, DOIs are presented as full hyperlinks: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/yyyyy. There is no period after a DOI or URL at the end of a reference entry. Include a DOI whenever one is available; use a URL for works without a DOI that are freely available online.

Journal articles

Journal articles are the most common source type in APA papers. The standard format is:

The journal name and volume number are italicized; the issue number in parentheses is not. Article titles use sentence case — only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon are capitalized. Journal names retain their original capitalization (title case).

Advance online publication

For articles published online before appearing in a print issue, include "Advance online publication" in place of the volume, issue, and page range.

Books and book chapters

Entire book

For a whole book, include the author(s), year, title in italics (sentence case), and publisher. The city of publication is no longer required in the 7th edition. If the book has a DOI or URL, add it at the end.

Chapter in an edited book

When citing a chapter in an edited volume, the chapter author comes first, then the year, then the chapter title (no italics, sentence case). The book is introduced with "In" followed by the editor's initials and last name, "Ed." or "Eds." in parentheses, and the book title in italics. The page range of the chapter appears in parentheses after the title.

Websites and online sources

For web pages that are not formally published as journal articles or books, include the author (or organization), the year (or "n.d." if no date is given), the page title in sentence case (not italicized), the site name, and the URL. A retrieval date is only needed if the content is likely to change over time.

How to cite a website with no author in APA

When a webpage has no listed author, APA 7 says to move the title into the author position. The title takes the role the author normally plays — it appears first, followed by the year, then the site name and URL. Do not use "Anonymous" unless the work is explicitly signed that way.

In the reference list, the title is written in italics (because it has been promoted to the author slot, where stand-alone works are italicized). In running text, the in-text citation uses a shortened form of the title in quotation marks, followed by the year — for example, ("Climate Report," 2023). Match the capitalization of the first few words exactly.

Reports and gray literature

Government agencies, research institutes, and advocacy organizations publish technical reports, policy briefs, and working papers that fall outside the traditional journal or book categories. In APA, these are treated similarly to books but may include a report number.

YouTube videos and audiovisual sources

Audiovisual works — YouTube videos, TED talks, podcasts, films, and TV episodes — follow the same author-date logic as written sources, but APA 7 has a few specific rules: the uploader (channel) is treated as the author, the title is in italics, and the medium is identified in square brackets after the title. Always include the full URL and the upload date.

How to cite a YouTube video in APA

Use the name of the person or group who uploaded the video as the author. If the uploader uses a screen name only, list the screen name; if the real name and screen name are both shown, list the real name followed by the screen name in square brackets. The publication date is the date the video was uploaded, not the date you watched it.

In-text citation for a YouTube video

The in-text citation uses the same author and year as the reference list entry. If you quote dialogue or paraphrase a specific moment, include a timestamp in the format hours:minutes:seconds in place of a page number.

TED talks, podcasts, and films

The same pattern adapts to other audiovisual media — change the bracketed descriptor and the platform name to match the source.

6th edition vs. 7th edition

The 7th edition of the Publication Manual (2020) replaced the 6th edition (2009). If you learned APA from an older textbook or style guide, the table below covers every change that affects day-to-day citation work.

Common mistakes to avoid

Using "&" outside parentheses

The ampersand (&) belongs inside parentheses and in the reference list. In running prose — "According to Smith and Jones (2020)…" — always spell out "and." Mixing these up is one of the most common APA errors.

Wrong author truncation threshold

APA 7th edition lists all authors up to 20; only works with 21 or more require truncation. Many writers still follow the 6th edition rule (six authors before truncating). Double-check which edition your institution requires, and apply the correct threshold consistently.

Capitalizing article titles

Article and chapter titles use sentence case in the reference list — only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon are capitalized. Applying title case (capitalizing most words) to article titles is a common error, often imported from other citation styles.

Omitting the issue number

The issue number belongs in parentheses directly after the volume number, with no space before the parenthesis: 95(2). Omitting the issue number or placing a space before it are both formatting errors.

Using "p." for page ranges in journals

In APA, page numbers in journal article references are given without a "p." or "pp." prefix — just the numbers themselves: 256–273. The "pp." prefix is used only for chapters in edited books.

DOI format

In APA 7th edition, DOIs must be formatted as full hyperlinks: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/yyyyy. The older doi:10.xxxx/yyyyy format used in the 6th edition is no longer correct. Never add a period after the DOI at the end of a reference.

Quick summary

APA style rewards consistency. Once you learn its core logic — author-date in text, alphabetical references, sentence case for titles, full DOI links — you can apply the same rules across every source type. The 7th edition simplified several older rules, so if you learned APA from a 6th edition manual, a quick review of the author limit, DOI format, and running-head requirement is worthwhile.