Citation Systems: A Guide to APA 7th Edition

 What is APA?

APA (American Psychological Association) is a common writing style in social science subjects. The stylistic choices range from formatting font all the way to abstracts and citations. The general basics to follow are: 12-point font, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, and double spaced. While APA is a specific system, it is important to keep in mind some professors don’t require, or even want, all aspects within the style system. It is always important to be aware of all aspects within the different writing styles, but to follow your professors guidelines and expectations in the end as they will be the one giving a grade.

*The most recent version of APA is the 7th edition. There is an older 6th edition that some professors may want to use, but this page will mainly be focused on the 7th edition and student papers. This APA 6th edition resource can help if you have questions.

 

Are Headings Needed?

Headings are typically used at the writers’ discretion. Professors may sometimes require that sections are broken up, but APA has various levels of headings and usually the writer can choose how in-depth they would like to be. There are 5 levels of headings one can use in APA. Whether they are all used or not, they should always go in order. For example, a writer should not go from level 1 to level 4 in order to break up information, they would need to go from level 1 to level 2. The levels are used based on sections and subsections.

 

What is a Title Page?

The title page in APA is going to be a stand-alone front page with information such as your name, the class, your professors name, etc. There are specifics when it comes to spacing, and sometimes an author note may be included. One main difference between APA 6th and 7th edition is the lack of a running head. If you don’t know what that is, that is completely fine, it is just how the title was stated in the header (very top of the margins).

 

Title Page:

  • For APA 7th edition, all you need in the header is a page number. The page number should be in the upper right hand corner, and be sure it starts on the title page then follows on the remaining pages.
  • The title of the paper should be the first thing seen on the page. It should be bolded and centered. The title should also be around 3 lines down from the top margin.
  • Your name should be next. This information should still be centered but it is not bolded. Your name should be about two lines below the title of the paper.
  • The rest of the information is only spaced with one line and goes: school, class, professor, and due date.

 

What is an abstract? Do you need it?

An abstract is essentially a summary that touches on all important details and data, including the ending points. A simple yet effective way to think about it is a movie trailer that gives away the ending. It should be short and to the point. Think to yourself when writing it, can someone read this and understand what my paper is about and why? Whether or not you need it is up to the professor. Many times in student papers a professor will say it is not necessary, especially if the paper is only a few pages; however, sometimes a professor will want one with a 2-3 page paper simply to make sure the students are knowledgeable on how to craft them.

 

Quick Tips:

  • The word “Abstract” should be centered and bolded on a new page (even though the abstract is short, it has a page to itself and the paper itself should begin on the next one)
  • No indentation is needed for an abstract
  • Abstracts may vary in length, but they tend to be 150-250 words
  • Summarize main points and data
  • Usually there are no citations or outside sources used within it

 

Is anything needed to begin the paper?

As everyone is aware, starting off the assignment can often be a difficult task. There are a lot of questions going on in your head and it can be a confusing time to put thoughts into lines on a page. The first thing to do in APA is restate the title of the paper as a level 1 heading (bold and centered on its own line). If you have doubts about starting the paper or are unsure how to brainstorm, please visit here.

 

What are citation politics?

Sara Ahmed (2013) defines citation practices “as a rather successful reproductive technology, a way of reproducing the world around certain bodies.” Citation politics is about reproducing sameness. When you are consistently citing the same type of scholar (white, male authors), you are reproducing a narrow set of knowledge. The knowledges of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, trans, women, non-binary, disability and queer writers are silenced when you only value one voice. When you cite someone, you are legitimizing that knowledge.

For more information, listen to this expert panel on citation politics.

 

Who should we cite?

You should question who you are citing and why you are citing them. What kinds of knowledge, expertise, and research are you incorporating in your work? Are you citing underrepresented scholars as part of your core argument not just footnotes? Whose identities are missing from your reference page? Do your citations reproduce the status que? How does who you cite change your argument or the research narrative?

 

Why do you need citations?

In-text citations and references are used to give proper credit to the source information you are using in your own work. Plagiarism is a very big deal, even if it is done unintentionally, because it is essentially stealing someone else’s work in order to fill your own paper. This can be done in multiple forms, but it can also be easily avoided with the right knowledge. There are two ways source information may be used: paraphrasing and directly quoting. Paraphrasing tends to be a good route because you can use source information while still letting your own voice come through. Just remember, even if there are not quotation marks being used, anytime source information is included, a citation must also be included. Directly quoting is when you are taking information word-for-word from a source. When directly quoting, quotation marks should be included at the beginning and ending points of the quote.

 

What do in-text citations in APA look like?

Citations vary from system to system and in APA the main information needed is the author last name, the year of publication, and a page number if it is a direct quote.

Paraphrasing in-text citation: *Source information paraphrased* (author last name, year of publication).

Direct quotes in-text citation: “Source information” (author last name, year of publication, page number).

The period always comes at the end of the citation rather than the end of the sentence. With direct quotes, a page number is also required so that the precise location of your quote can be found. A page number can also be included when paraphrasing, it just isn’t mandatory.

Looking for more? Check out these in-text APA citation examples. 

 

What to do if information is missing?

There are usually ways to get around missing information if you are having trouble locating a necessary part of the citation. Sometimes there isn’t an author listed because the piece was actually written by an organization, in this case you would list the organization as the author. In other cases, an author/organization may not be listed so using the title is acceptable. If there is no date listed, the abbreviation “n.d.” may be used. If there is no page number, using information that will help locate where the information came from is best, this can be a section name, heading, or paragraph number. The abbreviation for paragraph is “para.”

 

What is et al. and when to use it?

Et al. is a Latin phrase that means “and others”, it is used to simplify and shorten author lists for citations. In APA 7th edition, et al. should be used for in-text citations if there are 3 or more authors in a citation. When there are 3 or more authors, only the first author name needs to be listed in the citation followed by “et al.”. This may look like: (Smith et al., 2017).

*Et al. is not used in the References section, but the rules do differ here if there are more than 3 authors. If there are up to 20 authors to one source in the references section, all the names should be listed out. Anything past 20, the first 19 names are to be listed and then an ellipsis (…) follows the 19th name and the citation finishes as usual.

 

What do references look like?

In APA, the final page(s) with the more detailed source information should be labeled “References”, this should be centered and bolded at the top of a new page. These references should be in alphabetical order and have a hanging indent. A hanging indent is when every line after the first of each entry is indented. The challenging part with references can be that there are many different source types and each source types has slight differences in its citation. The first thing you need to do is figure out what kind of source you are using.

 

Book (Printed) Example: Author Last name, first initial. Middle Initial(optional). (Year of Publication). Title of Book: Subtitle. Publisher Name. DOI(optional)

Scholarly Article Example: Author Last name, first initial. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Vol.(Issue), page numbers. DOI or URL

Webpage Example: Last name, First initial. (Date of publication). Title of page. Site name. URL

If it was written by a group/organization rather than single person, that can go in place of author name.

For a more exhaustive list of source types, information, and details, visit Purdue OWL.

Please remember to check what kind of source you are using so you know how to cite it. While it can seem easy to choose a random style to cite, figuring out what kind of source you are using and citing it properly is how you correctly give credit and avoid plagiarizing.

Learn more about what plagiarism is and why it matters by viewing our avoiding plagiarism guide.

Before turning in your assignment, feel free to use this APA checklist to make sure you’ve touched on the general APA elements. Keep in mind that your professor may have additional/slightly different requests, though. If you have any questions or need clarity, please feel free to make an appointment at the UWC.

 

References

Lee, C. (2011, November 3). The Proper Use of et al. in APA Style. American Psychological Association. https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/11/the-proper-use-of-et-al-in-apa-style.html#:~:text=in%20APA%20Style,-by%20Chelsea%20Lee&text=One%20of%20these%20is%20the,repeated%20referencing%20shorter%20and%20simpler

MorningSide College. (2020, October 12). APA Citations (7th ed.): Abstracts. https://morningside.libguides.com/APA7/abstracts

Purdue OWL. (n.d.) APA Headings and Seriations. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_headings_and_seriation.html

Purdue OWL. (n.d.). In-Text Citations: Author/Authors. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_author_authors.html

Purdue OWL. (n.d.). Reference List: Author/Authors. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_author_authors.html

Purdue OWL. (n.d.). Reference List: Electronic Sources. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_electronic_sources.html