APA 7 basics
APA 7th edition is an author-date style used widely in social sciences, business, education and psychology. Every source you cite in the text must appear in a reference list at the end, and every item in the reference list must be cited in the text.
Key features: the reference list is titled "References", ordered alphabetically by first author's surname, with a hanging indent. Titles of books and journals are in italics. Always follow your lecturer's version if it differs, and check the official APA Style website when you are unsure.
In-text citations (author-date)
Use the author's surname and the year. Place the year in parentheses when the author is part of the sentence, or include both inside brackets at the end.
- Narrative: Tan (2022) argues that...
- Parenthetical: ...as reported in earlier work (Tan, 2022).
- Two authors: (Tan & Lim, 2022). Use "and" in a narrative citation.
- Three or more authors: (Tan et al., 2022), from the first citation.
- Direct quotation: add a page number, for example (Tan, 2022, p. 14).
- Same author, same year: add letters, such as 2022a and 2022b.
Use a secondary source only when the original is not available.
Reference list: books, journals, websites
Basic patterns (titles of books and journals are italicised):
- Book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case (2nd ed.). Publisher.
- Journal article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal in Title Case, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxxx
- Website: Author or Organisation. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL
In APA 7, the publisher location is not required, and DOIs appear as full links. List up to 20 authors; for more, give the first 19, an ellipsis and the final author. If there is no date, use (n.d.).
Citing AI tools and online sources
APA treats the output of a generative AI tool as personal communication in many contexts, but the official guidance gives a reference format for it. A typical reference lists the company as author, the year of the version you used, the tool name in italics, the description in square brackets and the URL: OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com. In the text, cite it as (OpenAI, 2024).
Check the current APA guidance and whether your university allows citing AI at all. For websites, social media and online documents, include the author or organisation, date, title and URL, and add a retrieval date only for pages designed to change over time.
Common APA mistakes
Mistakes markers often notice:
- Reference list not in alphabetical order, or missing a hanging indent.
- In-text citations that do not match the reference list.
- Using "&" in narrative citations or "and" inside brackets.
- Title case where sentence case is required for article and book titles.
- Missing DOIs or URLs for online sources.
- Citing "et al." for two-author works.
- Quoting without page numbers.
- Inconsistent punctuation after the author initials.
A reference manager such as Zotero or Mendeley helps, but check its output, because imported metadata is often wrong.
Reference list checklist
Before submitting, check each reference list entry:
- Is every in-text citation in the list, and every list item cited in the text?
- Are entries alphabetical by surname, with a hanging indent?
- Are author names, initials and years correct and consistent?
- Is the title in the right case and italicised where required?
- Does each entry have a DOI or working URL where available?
- Are page numbers present for direct quotes?
- Does every source actually exist and say what you claim it says?