APA 7th ed. Citation Guide: Reference List & Assignment Formats

Your research paper ends with a list of all the sources cited in the text of the paper.

To view an example, go to the Sample Papers and Checklists tab.

1. Start a new page for your Reference list at the end of your paper.
2. Centre the title: References in bold at the top of the page. (Do not use all Capitals).
3. Double-space the entire list, both within and between entries.
4. Use Hanging Indents for each entry. The first line of each reference starts at the left margin while subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches from the left margin. Use the paragraph formatting function of your word processing program (ie MS Word) to apply the hanging indent
5. Order the list entries alphabetically by author surname.  Where the author is unknown, alphabetize by the first significant word in the title, ignoring the words "a", "an", "the".
6. For each author, give the surname (last name) followed by a comma and the first (and middle, if listed) initials followed by periods.
7. Italicize the titles of works: books, audiovisual material, internet documents and newspapers, and the title and volume number of journals and magazines.
8. Do not italicize titles of parts of works, such as: articles from newspapers, magazines, or journals / essays, poems, short stories or chapter titles from a book / chapters or sections of an Internet document.
9. In titles of non-periodicals (books, videotapes, websites, reports, poems, essays, chapters, etc), capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, and all proper nouns (names of people, places, organizations, nationalities).
10. If more than one place of publication is listed give the publisher's home office. If the home office is not given or known then choose the first location listed.

• Invert all individual authors' names, providing the surname first, followed by a comma and the initials: Author, A.A.
• Use one space between initials.
• Use a comma to separate an author's initials from additional author names, even when there are only two authors; use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name: Author, A.A., & Author, B.B.
• Do not use a comma to separate two group authors: American Psychological Association & National Institutes of Health.
• Provide surnames and initials for up to and including 20 authors.  When there are two to 20 authors, use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name: Author, A.A., Author, B.B., & Author, C.C.
• When there are 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors' names, insert an ellipsis (...) but no ampersand, and then add the final author's name. (See the example provided on this page for 21 or more authors)
• When given names are hyphenated, retain the hyphen and include a period after each initial but no space (e.g., Xu, A-J., for  Ai-Jun Xu).  When the second element of a hyphenated name is lowercase, treat it as a single name (e.g. Raboso, L.,  for Lee-ann Raboso).
• Use commas to separate initials and suffixes such as Jr. and III: Author, A.A., Jr., & Author B.B.
• If nonprimary authors are credited using the word "with" (e.g. on a book cover), included them in the reference list entry with parentheses : Meyers, K. (with Long, W.T.)  Note: the in-text citation will only include the primary author: (Meyers, 2019).

* Headings are only required if your instructor indicates they are to be included in your paper.

APA Style Headings have 5 possible levels:

Level 1 Headings: are used for top level or main sections

Level 2 Headings:  are subsections of of Level 1; and so on.

Each section starts with the highest level of headings and follows the sub-heading top-down progression. 

*Some sections may not require Sub-Headings

*The number of heading levels needed for a paper depends on its length and complexity; three is average.  Short student papers may not require any headings.