Use this page to learn, find help citing your sources, and setting up your papers in APA.
APA 7 (American Psychological Society) is the citation style you will use to format your papers and cite your sources. This is the common citation style for scholarly communication in the Social Sciences, Dental Hygiene, and Nursing. If you are more familiar with MLA or Chicago, know that APA will require the same sort of information, just re-arranged slightly.
This video will walk you through how to use this page.
This GHC tutorial will teach the basics of formatting your paper, citing, and creating references.
We proofread a lot of references, and based on that, we recommend that you:
For those who prefer plain text over graphics, let's go over the information element by element.
Usually listed on the first page of an article
List author names in same order as listed on the first page of the article.
2 to 20 authors: Separate authors with a comma and use “&” before the last author.
More than 20 authors: List first 19, insert ellipsis, and final author’s name.
Format is Last Name, Initials. Place period after final author’s initials.
Example: Lee, J. R.
Example: Lee, J. R. Brown, G. & Smith, L.
Usually listed on the first page of an article or in the margins
Place year of publication in parentheses.
Place period after closing parentheses.
Example: (2023).
On title page or first page of article
Write title in sentence case.
Only Capitalize: First word of the title first word after punctuation proper nouns.
Do not use italics.
Put a period at the end of the title.
Example: How to use APA in college: A student’s guide.
Usually listed on title page or in the margins of the page
Use name of journal shown on work (abbreviations might be listed). Do not abbreviate it yourself.
Write title in Title Case. Capitalize most words. Place in italics.
Use lower case for: Words of three letters or less, except the first word of the title or first word of subtitle.
Place a comma after the journal name, but do not italicize it.
Example: Journal of Student Success,
Usually listed on the title page or the margins of the pages
Italicize the volume number. Do not italicize the issue number.
Place issue number in parentheses. Do not include a space between vol. & issue.
Place comma after closing the parentheses around the issue number.
If no issue number is available, omit it and place comma after volume number.
Example: 10(4).
Example:7,
Usually listed on the title page, first page, or last page of the article
Include full page range of the article. No italics.
Do not include page abbreviations such as p., pp., or pg.
Separate numbers in page range with en dash (-). Place period after second page number.
Article #, no page #: Write the word “Article” and then the article number followed by a period.
Example: 15 - 23.
Example: Article 10023.
Usually listed on the title page, first page, or last page of the article
Use DOI, if available. Use the URL if the article was found online but not in a database.
If the article comes from an academic database and does not have a DOI, do not include a url.
Copy and paste the URL or DOI directly from your browser.
Do not place a period after the URL or DOI or write “Retrieved from” before URL or DOI.
Example:https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111
Example: https//www.journal.com
Author, A. A.(Date). Article title. Journal Title, Vol.(Issue #). Page range. DOI or URL
Lee, J. R. (2023). How to use APA in college: A student’s guide. Journal of Student Success, 10(4). 15-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111
For those who prefer plain text over graphics, let's go over the information element by element.
Usually listed on the first page of an article
List author names in same order as listed on the webpage. List Govt. or group authors as written.
2 to 20 authors: Separate authors with a comma and use “&” before the last author.
More than 20 authors: List first 19, insert ellipsis, and final author’s name.
Place period after final author’s initials or final group author.
Example: Lee, J.R.
Example: Department of Statistics.
Usually listed near the top or bottom of the page.
Place year of publication in parentheses.
Place period after closing parentheses.
Example: (2023).
Usually listed at the top of the webpage.
Write title in sentence case.
Only Capitalize: First word of the title, first word after punctuation, and proper nouns.
Place in italics.
Put a period at the end of the title.
Example: APA use among college students in 2022.
Usually listed near the bottom of the page or is the name of the website
Use name of website shown on webpage. Do not abbreviate it yourself. Leave blank if same as author.
Write title in Title Case. Capitalize most words.
Lower Case: words of three letters or less, except the first word of the title or first word of subtitle.
Place a comma after the publisher’s name.
Example: Higher Education Daily,
Listed in the browser search bar, stable URLs listed near authors and date when available
Use DOI, if available. Use the URL if the article was found online, but not in a database.
If the article comes from an academic database and does not have a DOI, do not include a URL.
Copy and paste the URL or DOI directly from your browser.
Do not place a period after the URL or DOI or write “Retrieved from” before URL or DOI.
Example: https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111
Example: https//www.highereddaily.com
Author, A. A. (Date). Webpage title. Publisher, DOI or URL
Department of Statistics. (2023). APA use among College Students in 2022. Higher Education Daily, https//www.highereddaily.com
For those who prefer plain text over graphics, let's go over the information element by element.
Usually listed on the cover and the title page of the book
List author names in same order as listed on the book.
2 to 20 authors: Separate authors with a comma and use “&” before the last author.
More than 20 authors: List first 19, insert ellipsis, and final author’s name.
Format is Last Name, Initials. Place period after final author’s initials.
Example: Lee, J. R.
Example: Lee, J. R. Brown, G. & Smith, L.
Usually listed on the backside of the title page.
Place year of publication in parentheses.
Place period after closing parentheses.
Example: (2023).
Listed on the cover and title page.
Use name of book shown on work. Do not abbreviate it yourself.
Write title in sentence case. Capitalize most words. Place in italics.
Lower Case: words of three letters or less, except the first word of the title or first word of subtitle.
Place a period after the book title, but do not italicize it.
Example: Mastering APA Style.
Usually listed on the title page or the backside of the title page.
Use name of publisher listed in book.
Write in Title Case. Capitalize most words. Do not place in italics.
Lower Case: words of three letters or less, except the first word of the title or first word of subtitle.
Place a period after the publisher name.
Example: Student Publishing.
Usually on the first few pages of the book near the copyright information. Check the bibliographic record if found in a database.
Use DOI, if available. Use the URL if the article was found online, but not in a database.
When citing a print book, leave this element out of the citation.
Copy and paste the URL or DOI directly from your browser.
Do not place a period after the URL or DOI or write “Retrieved from” before URL or DOI.
Example: https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111
Example: https//www.journal.com
Author, A.A., (Date). Book title. Publisher. DOI or URL
Lee, J.R. (2023). Mastering APA style in college. Student Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111
