Changes in APA Manual 7th Edition (released 10/1/19)

As of August 2021, most students and writers should be using the 7th Edition of the APA Style Guide. Student papers using APA 6 will most likely be noted. The following are highlights of the changes between APA 6 and APA 7.

For more information, check out APA's website. (The search function on the APA style website works really well as a quick way to find answers to APA 7 questions.)

References and in-text citations in APA Style

  • The publisher location is no longer included in the reference. Instead of “New York, NY: McGraw-Hill” it’s just “McGraw-Hill.”
  • The in-text citation for works with three or more authors is now shortened right from the first citation. Only include the first author’s name and “et al.”.
  • Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors (instead of 7) should be provided in the reference list.
  • DOIs are formatted as URLs (https://doi.org/xxx). The label “DOI:” is no longer necessary.
  • URLs are embedded directly in the reference, without being preceded by “Retrieved from,” unless a retrieval date is needed.
  • For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g. Kindle) is no longer included in the reference.
  • Clear guidelines are provided for including contributors that are not an author or editor. For example, when citing a podcast episode, the host of the episode should be included; for a TV series episode, the writer and director of that episode are cited.
  • Dozens of examples are included for online source types such as podcast episodes, social media posts, and YouTube videos. Also, the use of emojis and hashtags is explained.
  • Some examples of webpage on website references are as follows (note that the article title is italicized and website name is in non-italics):

Fagan, J. (2019, March 25).  Nursing clinical brain. OER Commons. Retrieved September 17, 2019, from https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/53029-nursing-clinical-brain/view

National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July).  Anxiety disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

Woodyatt, A. (2019, September 10).  Daytime naps once or twice a week may be linked to a healthy heart, researchers say. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/10/health/nap-heart-health-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

World Health Organization. (2018, May 24).  The top 10 causes of death. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

Inclusive and bias-free language

  • The singular “they” or “their” is endorsed as a gender-neutral pronoun. This page from the APA's new style website discusses addressing gender and sex in depth. 
  • Descriptive phrases such as “people living in poverty” are preferred over adjectives as nouns to label people (e.g., “the poor”).
  • Instead of broad categories (e.g., over 65 years old), you should use exact age ranges (e.g., 65-75) that are more relevant and specific.

APA paper format

  • APA now allows the author affiliation (for student papers, this is the school the student attends), course number, instructor name, and the due date for the paper on the title page (in that order). 
  • Increased flexibility regarding fonts: options include Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11.
  • The running head on the title page no longer includes the words “Running head:”. It now contains only a page number and the (shortened) paper title.
  • The running head is omitted in student papers (unless the instructor says otherwise).
  • Heading levels 3-5 are updated to improve readability. 

Mechanics of style

  • Use only one space after a period at the end of a sentence.
  • Use double quotation marks to refer to linguistic examples (e.g., APA endorses the use of the singular pronoun “they”) instead of italics.

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