Tutoring Center: APA

The definitive source for guidelines using APA style is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, frequently referred to as the "APA Manual."  Most recently in its 7th edition, the manual will contain information for formatting papers, in-text citation examples, bibliography help, and sample papers, including information specific to student papers.

Here's a quick list of some of the major changes from the 6th edition to the 7th edition of the APA Manual:

• Samples for professional papers, student papers, and annotated bibliographies are now included

• Running head and author note is no longer included in student papers

• One space (not two) should be used after a period

• Publisher location no longer required for book citations

• With three or more authors, abbreviate "et al." the first time you present the work in in-text citations, as opposed to writing all authors the first time and using "et al." subsequent times.

• For a general mention of a website with no indication of specific page, no reference list or in-text citation is needed.

• In your reference list, write out up to 20 author names as opposed to 7 authors maximum.  For 21 authors or more, use ellipses.

• Present both DOIs and URLS as hyperlinks, and do not insert "Retrieved from" before a hyperlink.

• More citation examples are included for social media, apps, media, and other non-traditional sources.

For more help, see these links below:

DOI is a digital object identifier

The DOI is a a web address linked to the publisher information of the article or book chapter. This is more stable than using a link from a database. A group of publishers, Publishers Linking International Association (PILA) formed the CrossRef depository as a collaborative linking system. To find more information go to https://www.apa.org/pubs/librarians/industry/crossref

To find a DOI for a publication you can use the CrossRef website: https://www.crossref.org/

A simple way to do so is to use the Search Metadata search and enter the title of the article. Then you can check for the matching item.