This guide is representative of the 7th edition Publication Manual of APA and focuses on a student paper structure.
APA examples are not exhaustive and focus on referencing and citations. Assistance from your professor and/or Writing Centre is suggested for clarification.
Users are responsible for interpretation of APA style guidelines and to seek further assistance when necessary.
Effective September 2020.
A reference has 4 elements:
1. Author: Who is responsible for the work?
2. Date: When was the work published?
3. Title: What is the work called?
4. Source: Where can you retrieve the work? (American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 283)
For every source, you want to identify: who, when, what, where.
See the APA Style website, Reference List Elements.
For punctuation in a reference list entry, see the APA Style website, Punctuation in Reference List Entries.
Personal authors are always listed in this order:
Lastname, Initials.
Smith, A. B., MacPherson, C. D. & Singh, T. J.
Place a comma after the last name and list any first or second names just by their initial (first letter) followed by a period. Use one space between multiple initials. Place a comma to separate authors. Use an & between the last and second last author.
Last name can also be called surname or family name.
Usually, the listed author's name needs to have the order reversed before creating the reference list entry.
From the detailed record in MultiSearch:
From the article PDF:
Up to 20 authors:
List all authors up to 20 authors.
Over 20 authors:
List first 19 authors followed by "..." then the last author of the article. There are no spaces before or after "...". See Publication Manual 8.17 for in-text citation examples when there are multiple authors.
See Publication Manual, Section 9.8. See Publication Manual 8.17 for in-text citation examples when there are multiple authors.
| Component | Journal | Book | Punctuation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who | Archer, C. L., Brodie, J. F., & Rauscher, S. A. | Rourke, J.T. (Ed.). | Place a period after each author. Separate multiple authors with a comma. Use an & between the last and second last authors. |
| When | (2019). | (2014). | Date element surrounded by () and ends with a period. |
| What | Global warming will aggravate ozone pollution in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic. | Taking sides. Clashing views in world politics (16th ed.). | Place a period at the end of the title. |
| Where | Journal of Applied Meteorology & Climatology, 58(6), 1267–1278. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-18-0263.1 | McGraw-Hill. | Place a period at the end of the source. If there are several elements listed, separate them with a comma. No period after a DOI or URL. Place a period after the page range. Volume and issue form one element. |
| Component | News Video | TV Series Episode | Punctuation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who | Global National. | Morgan, P. (Writer) & Martin, P. (Director). | Place a period after each author. Separate multiple authors with a comma. Use an & between the last and second last authors. |
| When | (2020, February 21). | (2016). | Date element surrounded by () and ends with a period. |
| What | The struggle of living with addiction [Video]. | Smoke and mirrors (Season 1, Episode 5) [TV series episode]. In P. Morgan, S. Daldry, A. Harries, P. Martin, S. Mackie, M. Byam-Shaw, R. Fox, T. Seghatchian, N. Wolarsky, & A. Goss (Executive Producers), The crown. | Place a period at the end of the title. See audiovisual examples for further explanation. |
| Where | Global News. https://globalnews.ca/video/6581269/the-struggle-of-living-with-addiction-2 | Left Bank Pictures; Sony Pictures Television; Netflix. | Place a period at the end of the source. If there are several elements listed, separate them with a comma. No period after a DOI or URL. When there are 2 or more publishers, separate them with semicolons. |
| Component | Tweet | Website with Group Author | Punctuation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who | Hall, A.. [@lyss_hall]. | College of Nurses Ontario. | Place a period after each author. |
| When | (2020, July 11). | (2018, October 20). | Date element surrounded by () and ends with a period. |
| What | My favourite, most recent reads [pile of 3 books emoji] [Images of book covers]. [Tweet]. | New opioid dispensing requirements in effect. | Place a period at the end of the title. See online media examples for further explanation. |
| Where | Twitter. https://twitter.com/lyss_hall/status/1281918832521732096 | https://www.cno.org/en/news/2018/october-2018/new- opioid-dispensing-requirements-in-effect/ |
Place a period at the end of the source. No period after a DOI or URL |
When information to create the reference list entry is missing, see APA Style website or the Publication Manual, Table 9.1. Examples are also provided for the in-text citation to match the reference list entry with missing elements.