APA Style 7th edition: Common Mistakes & Solutions: References

• Begin references on a new page, then center, title it, and bold: 

References
 

• Only works cited in-text must appear in References (except when referring to an entire web site, which is in-text only). Works consulted but not directly cited do not belong on the list of references. 
  • Exception: Writing a Literature Review-type of article (which is vastly different from the lit review section of the scholarly project), or writing a meta-analysis.
• Some websites may refer to web pages as "articles." In APA style, articles are published in periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers/news sites). If it is not a periodical, reference as a web page.
• Reference the same exact work only once in the list.
• Make sure all entries use hanging indent, and are double-spaced, with no extra blank lines between entries.
   
• How to set hanging indent in Word
  • Arrange reference entries list alphabetical by first author's last name or organization name 
  • Highlight all references
  • Right-click & choose Paragraph
  • Under Special section change setting to Hanging, & make sure By: is 0.5"
  • Click OK
     
• How to set hanging indent in Google Docs
  • Arrange reference entries list alphabetical by first author's last name or organization name
  • Highlight all references
  • Click Format --> Align & Indent --> Indentation Options --> Under Special Indent, Change to Hanging --> In next box enter: 0.50 --> Click Apply
  • Remove extra blank line(s) between reference entries
     
• Never use et al. in Reference entry.
• Do not abbreviate organization author name in Reference entry
   
• Italicize & capitalize names of genera, species, and varieties: Staphylococcus aureus 

• For a reference entry, list authors in the order they appear on the work.
• Format of author entries are last name, first initial, middle initial(s). Only exception is for authored chapter in an edited book when writing the editor of the book.
• Must include author middle initials when provided in the source (this is absolutely required). This directly affects the arrangement of entries in References.
• Do not place a comma between author initials, but after the author first initial (when no middle is used), or after middle initial(s) (when middle initial(s) used).
• Must place a space between author initials.
• When author has hyphenated first name, include periods for initials: M.-C.
• Scandinavian author names such as van Soeren: Van is usually not the middle name, but rather part of the last name. Capitalize according to the form as it appears on the article.
• When organization is author, do not include or replace name with acronym. Correct: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Incorrect: CDC.
• When referencing U.S. government agencies as authors, do not spell out United States. Instead, provide initials without a space: U.S. 
  Exceptions include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as there is only one agency in the world with that name.
  • Also, provide the specific agency name in the author position, and provide the parent agency/agencies in the publisher/website host position of the reference. 
• When same exact set of authors in the same order & published same year, arrange alpha by title/part, and place lower-case letters immediately after year: (2001a) (2001b). Use same year format for in-text cites.
• When organization is the author and have multiple works published same year, must first arrange in exact chronological order, then alpha by title/part, and place lower-case letters immediately after the year: (2010a) (2010b). The letter format for works with no date are formatted like this: (n.d.-a) (n.d.-b)
  See Section 9.46 for further details.
• When referencing works with 21 or more authors, list the first 19 followed by a comma, then an ellipse then the last author like this for example: Smith, L., . . . Bardin, T.

• For journal articles, books, reports, and most other works published one time, provide only the latest year.
• For magazine articles, provide year, month such as: (2012, August)
• For newspaper articles, provide year, month, day: (2017, July 10)
• For webpages, blog posts & other social media, YouTube, and course materials, provide full date: (2023, May 23)

• For journal title, capitalize all significant words. That is, use Title Case. Also capitalize first word following a colon or Em dash.
• For all other titles of sources including title of book, video, article title, or title of authored chapter, use Sentence case. That is, capitalize first word of title, & subtitle following a colon or em dash.
• For all works, always capitalize proper nouns, and write acronyms and abbreviations in ALL CAPS.
• Titles of projects are considered proper names, and therefore capitalized.
• Do not place quotation marks around article titles unless they appear on the title of the work.
• If quotation marks appear on the title of the work, the end of sentence punctuation goes inside, not outside of the ending quotation mark.

• Journal titles: Do not use MEDLINE-type of abbreviations, such as Am J Nutr
• Verify official title of journals (e.g., Formulary, not Formulary Journal).
• Journal titles: If official title is an acronym, DO NOT expand title. Correct: JAMA, AORN Journal, AANA Journal 
  Incorrect: Journal of the American Medical Association
• Only include location when part of official title-even if the publication title is a generic name. Correct: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Incorrect: The Mining Journal (Marquette).
• Capitalize all significant words; that is, all words except conjunctions, articles, prepositions.
• Italicize journal title and volume number (but not issue number or page numbers).
• Must include volume number (unless not yet assigned due to advance publication).
• Must include issue number when journal uses issue numbers. 
• Must include full pagination, not just the page number used, unless Advanced online publication (article has not yet been assigned to a specific volume).
• Article published in supplemental issue format is: 109(Suppl. 2)
• Advanced online publications - Verify article status is still advanced (has not been published), and indicate same in the reference. Often, articles have been published between when first retrieved, and then later submitted for a grade.
• Colons are not used in the source sentence.
• Must provide complete beginning & ending page numbers for articles. 
  However, if journal is published online-only which includes an article number or eLocator instead of pagination, APA requires you provide that value prefaced by the capitalized word Article
  Examples include titles beginning with BMC
  such as BMC Medicine, 6, Article 2.
  For journals which are only published in HTML format and do not provide article, eLocator, or page numbers, place a period after the issue number. For example, referencing articles from Online Journal of Issues in Nursing would look like this: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 22(3).

• When a DOI is assigned to an article or book, must include at the end of the reference. This is not a choice, but a requirement.
  Begins either:
  http://doi.org/ 
  or
  https://doi.org/
• Verify DOIs are correct and match the reference.
• Allow the word processing software to decide whether/where to split a DOI address between lines. Do not force the split.
   

DOI not appearing on article or book?

Where to locate DOI for one article

1. Check the first page of article (usually in smaller print near journal logo, copyright, or near author email address).
2. If not on article, check database record/abstract (sometimes labeled as DOI). CINAHL began adding DOIs in 2009.
3. If DOI does not appear on either article or in database, search the Cross/Ref DOI Lookup using article author/title

Where to locate DOI for list of articles

1. Create an account at Cross/Ref. After you submit your request, you will receive an e-mail. Please click on the provided link to activate your account.
2. Next, go to Simple Text Query Form and enter your e-mail address, then copy & paste entire reference list into box. Click submit.

• If article retrieved online is not assigned a DOI, then must provide journal home page URL. 
  Note: this is different than the URL of where you found the article.
• Verify the correct journal URL which matches the article referenced. For example, there are at least three different journals titled Child Welfare.
• URLs are not underlined or active (change Options - Proofing - Autocorrect settings in Word).
• If you split URL between lines, next line must begin with a slash: /

• Referencing a book with editors? In most cases, reference the separately-authored chapter(s), not the entire book.
• Very few quality/academic works lack an author. If unable to identify an author, search title in WorldCat to verify the author.

• Books and reports, always italicize the title & subtitle (if used).
• For reports, include report number in parentheses at end of title sentence. Also provide URL for PDF, not web page URL on which PDF link appears.
• Whether online or print version, APA style 7th edition does not include place of publication (City, ST/Province) or (City, Country).
• Must include Name of publisher: exclude words such as Publishing, Pub., Co., Ltd., or Inc., but keep words such as Books and Press.

• Online version: Must include exact URL, except for works behind a paywall--then provide url which displays info on publisher website.
• You may not substitute print reference information for an ebook.
• No comma between book title and edition statement within parentheses.
• When online reports are regularly updated, recommend using latest published report (current data).

Chapter in an edited book

• Is the book edited, or just authored? Verify by looking at the title page and verso page (will state edited by or Ed.).
  • If book has authors but not editors--even though chapters are separately authored--cite the entire book, not the book chapter.
• Begin entry by providing author(s) of book chapter. Year of publication. Title of chapter.
• At the end of the book title, include pagination of entire chapter, not just cited portion.

Web pages

• Never use the name of a webpage reviewer or reviewed by name as the author.
• If no individual(s) responsible for webpage, indicate organization/agency as the author, and do not include it in the website host position of the reference (between title and url).
• Include latest date of publication as indicated on the content of the webpage.
  • Look for a stand alone date, revised date, updated date, last updated date, etc.
  • APA style 7th edition does not allow use of copyright date or any date which appears in the webpage/website footer, as that section appears on all webpages on the site.
  • APA style does not allow using a Review date for the publication date, as that only indicates when the content was reviewed, not when the content was created or revised.
    • If the only date provided is a Reviewed date, the publication date used in the reference is no date: (n.d.).
       
• Titles of web pages are capitalized using Sentence case, and follow capitalization rules indicated above.
• Titles are also italicized.
• If a webpage is authored by a person/people, place the name of the website host between the title and url.
• If a webpage is authored by an organization, do not also place the name in the website host position.
• Allow the word processing software to decide whether/where to split a DOI address between lines. Do not force the split (Manual Section 9.35).
   
• Do not include a date of retrieval except for the following, as such types of sources are not archived on the website, and are inherently designed to constantly be revised, or the information changes over time:
  • Entry in the database UpToDate
  • Web-based entries in online encyclopedias, dictionaries, Twitter/X profile, or Facebook page
  • Webpages showing statistics which are updated daily such as occurrence of diseases or pandemics

When referencing one of the above, start the line with the capitalized word Retrieved
and then provide the full date using format of Month day, year, from 

• Example: Retrieved October 31, 2023 from 

followed by the url
 

• If source is behind a paywall or "member-only," provide home page URL
• Verify urls for web pages; update broken urls.
• Never end a url with a period
• Use caution when referencing lecture notes by a graduate TA or papers posted by students, as their credibility is questionable.
• Some sites may refer to web pages as "articles." In APA style, articles are published in periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers/news sites). If it is not a periodical, reference it as a web page.