APA Citation Guide: Welcome

APA style was created by the American Psychological Association. It is a set of rules for publications, including research papers.

In APA, you must "cite" sources that you have paraphrased, quoted or otherwise used to write your research paper. Cite your sources in two places:

1. In the body of your paper where you add a brief in-text citation.
2. In the Reference list at the end of your paper where you give more complete information for the source.

Two copies of the print edition of APA 7 are available at the Help Desk for onsite use only.

Digital resources designed to assist remote researchers are listed below. Hover over links for resource descriptions.

Here's a summary of major changes in the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

Essay Format:

• Font - While you still can use Times New Roman 12, you are free to use other fonts. Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans 10, and Georgia 11 are all acceptable.
• Headers - No running headers are required for student papers.
• Tables and Figures - There is a standardized format for both tables and figures.

Style, Grammar, Usage:

• Singular "they" required in two situations: when used by a known person as their personal pronoun or when the gender of a singular person is not known.
• Use only one space after a sentence-ending period.

Citation Style:

• New "Four Elements of a Reference" (Author, Date, Title, Source) to help writers create references for source types not explicitly examined in the APA Manual.
• Three or more authors can be abbreviated to First author, et al. on the first citation.
• Up to 20 authors are named in the References List.
• Publisher location is not required for books.
• Ebook platform, format, or device is not required for eBooks.  
• Library database names are generally not required.
• Hyperlinks for web resources:
  • No "doi:" prefix, simply include the doi.
  • All hyperlinks retain the https://
  • Links can be "live" in blue with underline or black without underlining

Ask a Librarian

Live Chat
Text
Telephone
Email
Book a Librarian

This guide is used/adapted with the permission of Seneca College Libraries.

For information please contact lcc@senecacollege.ca.

Note: When copying this guide, please retain this box.