7th Edition
Creating an APA Style
Reference List Guide
The reference list contains all the
works you cited in the text of
your paper.
• In general, there should be a one-to-one
correspondence between the works cited in the text
and the works listed in the reference list.
• An exception is personal communications, which are
cited in the text of your paper but are not included
in the reference list (see Section 8.9 in the seventh
edition
Publication Manual
).
• If you read a work while doing your literature search
but did not end up citing it in the text of your paper,
do not include it in the reference list.
Use the section label “References” (not
“Works Cited” or “Bibliography”).
• Start the reference list on a new page after the text
of your paper.
• Center the label at the top of the page and write it
in bold.
• It is acceptable to use “Reference” as the label when
you cited only one source in your paper.
Format references in seventh
edition APA Style.
• Double-space the reference list, both within and
between references. Do not add extra lines
between references.
• Order references alphabetically, usually by the rst
letter of the rst author’s last name.
• Include the authors’ rst and middle initials
(if they have them). Do not write out rst or
middle names.
• Write author names in inverted format so that the
last name comes rst, followed by a comma and the
initials. Place a period and a space after
each initial.
• Apply a hanging indent for all references using
the paragraph-formatting function of your word-
processing program: The rst line is ush left, and all
subsequent lines are indented 0.5 in.
• To determine the format to use for a reference list
entry, rst determine the reference group (e.g.,
textual works, online media) and reference category
(e.g., periodical, social media), and then choose
the appropriate reference type within the category
(e.g., journal article, Facebook post) and follow that
example in Chapter 10 of the Publication Manual or
the Concise Guide to APA Style.
°
Reference formats are based on the document
type (e.g., journal article, report), not the retrieval
method (e.g., online, in print).
°
Even if you retrieved a work online, determine
what type of document it is. Only cite a work as a
webpage or website if no other category ts.
Include a DOI or URL at the end
of the reference for any work that
has one.
• Most references do not require retrieval dates.
Include a retrieval date only when (a) a work is
inherently designed to change over time (e.g., a
Facebook prole page) and (b) you are citing an
unarchived version of the work, as described in
Section 9.16 of the
Publication Manual
.
• Do not include both a DOI and a URL in a reference
entry. If a work has both a DOI and a URL, include
only the DOI.
• Copy and paste the DOI or URL directly from your
web browser.
• Do not add a period after the DOI or URL.
• DOIs and URLs can be either blue and underlined
(usually the default setting for hyperlinks) or plain
text that is not underlined.
Avoid the following common mistakes
when writing reference list entries.
Author Element
• Use the word “and” between two authors’ names
in narrative in-text citations. Use an ampersand (&)
between two authors’ names in parenthetical in-
text citations and before the nal author’s name in
reference list entries.
°
Narrative in-text citation:
Sanders and Jang
(2020) found . . .
°
Parenthetical in-text citation:
A positive
association was found . . . (Sanders & Jang, 2020).
°
Reference list entry:
Sanders, F. A., & Jang, T. D.
(2020).
• For a work with 21 or more authors, include the rst
19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis (. . .), but no
ampersand, and then write the nal author’s name.
• For a work with a group author (or multiple group
authors), include a period at the end of the author
element in the reference.
°
Reference list entry
: American Psychological
Association. (2020).
Date Element
• Most references include only the year as the date.
• Use more specic dates, such as the month, day, and
year (e.g., 2020, June 10), for works published on a
more frequent basis (e.g., newspaper or magazine
articles, social media posts). When in doubt,
check the templates in Chapter 10
.
• For webpages and websites, use the date of
last publication or last update. Do not use the
copyright date from a webpage footer or the date
of last review. If the date is unknown or cannot be
determined, write “n.d.” as the date.
Title Element
• Titles of works that stand alone (e.g., books,
reports, webpages) are written in italic sentence
case.
• Titles of works that are part of a greater whole
(e.g., journal articles, book chapters, dictionary
entries) are written in sentence case without italics.
• For book and report references, place any
identifying information (e.g., edition, report number,
volume number) in parentheses after the title.
Do not add a period between the title and the
parenthetical information.
Source Element
• In the source element for journal article references:
°
Italicize the journal title and volume number.
°
Do not italicize the comma between the journal
title and volume number, the issue number, and
page numbers.
°
Place the issue number in parentheses after the
volume number with no space in between.
°
Use an en dash (–) to separate a page
range (e.g., 15–26).
• When the author and the publisher of a work are
the same (as in many reports, books, and websites
published by group authors), include the group
name in the author element and omit it from the
source element.
Last Updated February 23, 2022
More information on APA Style can be found in the Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association (7th ed.) and the Concise Guide to APA
Style (7th ed.).
CITE THIS HANDOUT:
American Psychological Association. (2022). Creating an
APA Style reference list guide. https://apastyle.apa.
org/instructional-aids/creating-reference-list.pdf
We thank Traci Giuliano, of Southwestern University, for
providing the inspiration for this content.
© 2022
