APA Citations 7th Edition

Author(s)

Authors of works are individuals or groups who participated in its creation. Individuals and groups may appear together in a reference as authors of a work.

Individual names used in a reference generally appear in the formats "LastName, A. A." or "A. A. LastName" depending on location in the reference. For example, "Obama, B. H." or "B. H. Obama."

Group authors can be businesses, government agencies, associations, non-profit organizations, task forces, hospitals, and study groups. In a reference full group names are spelled out. For example, "Delaware County Community College" rather than "DCCC."

Authors in specialized roles such as editors, directors, and so on are identified as such. For example, a director as author would appear as "Anderson, W. W. (Director)."

Titles

Article titles in reference citations appear in "sentence case." This means that as with a sentence, most words are lowercase. Words capitalized are:

• first word of a title or subtitle
• first word after a colon or dash
• proper nouns

Publication (source) titles in reference citations appear in "title case." This means that most words are capitalized, but:

• minor words that are three letters or fewer long are lowercase
• minor words are capitalized if they are at the beginning of a title or subtitle

     Publication titles are also italicized.

DOIs and URLs

• DOI:
  • stands for "digital object identifier" 
    • this is a regulated, assigned web address which is an actionable, persistent link to information about a source which is intellectual property
    • in library databases frequently only the unique part of the web address is provided, for example, "10.1111/cars.12168" 
  • in references a complete working DOI should be provided
    • begin with "https://doi.org" and end with the unique part given; for example, "10.1111/cars.12168" would become "https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12168"
  • do not add a period at the end
• URL:
  • stands for "universal resource locator," and normally appears in the editable box near the top of your browser screen
  • include the "https://" or "http://" the URL of the website begins with
  • do not add a period at the end
  • a retrieval date is needed with a URL only for sources which are designed to change and for which prior versions are not archived 

• Online articles:
  • not from a library database, a DOI or URL is required
  • from a library databases, a DOI should be included if readily available, but otherwise no information identifying the database should be included
  • do not add a period to the end of a DOI or URL
• Print articles:
  • a DOI should be included if readily available

Format

Author last name, Initial(s). (Publication YYYY). Article title: Article subtitle. Journal Name, volume #(issue #), starting page #-ending page #. DOI, OR if no DOI and it is online and not from a library database, URL

Examples

One Author; Library Database With no DOI:

Herriage, T. (2020). Nursing care of the child with cancer during intravenous pentamidine infusions. Pediatric Nursing, 46(2), 61–91.

One Author; Print With DOI:

Park, E. S. (2019). Examining community college students’ progression through the English as a second language sequence. Community College Review, 47(4), 406–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091552119867467 

Two Authors; Website With DOI:

Cer, E., & Sahin, E. (2017). The effects of quality books for children and the metacognitive strategy on students' self esteem levels. Journal of Education and Learning, 6(1), 72-80. https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v6n1p72

Multiple Authors (20 or Less); Library Database With DOI:

Simmons, L. D., Taylor, L. C., Anderson, K., & Neely-Barnes, S. L. (2018). Comparative experiences of first- and continuing-generation social work students. Journal of Social Work Education, 54(3), 480–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2018.1434436

NOTE: when there are two to 20 authors use an "&" before the last authors name

Multiple Authors (21 or More); Library Database With DOI:

Ershov, N. I., Mordvinov, V. A., Prokhortchouk, E. B., Pakharukova, M. Y., Gunbin, K. V., Ustyantsev, K., Genaev, M. A., Blinov, A. G., Mazur, A., Boulygina, E., Tsygankova, S., Khrameeva, E., Chekanov, N., Fan, G., Xiao, A., Zhang, H., Xu, X., Yang, H., Solovyev, V.,…Skryabin, K. G. (2019). New insights from Opisthorchis felineus genome: update on genomics of the epidemiologically important liver flukes. BMC Genomics, 20(1), 399. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-019-5752-8

NOTE: When there are 21 or more authors list 19 followed by "..." and then the final authors name.

Format

Author last name, Initials. (Publication YYYY, month name, DD OR YYYY, month name). Article title: Subtitle of the article. Magazine Name, volume(issue #), page range. DOI, OR if no DOI and it is online and not from a library database, URL

Examples

Year, Month Name, and Day; No Volume, Issue, or Page #; Online with URL:

Tufekci, Z. (2019, February 18). The imperfect truth about finding facts in a world of fakes: It used to make sense to believe something until it was debunked; now, it makes sense to assume certain claims are fake—unless they are verified. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/zeynep-tufekci-facts-fake-news-verification/

Year and Month Name; Issue Only; Page Numbers; Print and No DOI:

Hudak, J. (2019, December). Country’s surprise superstar. Rolling Stone, (1334), 19-21.

Format

Author last name, Initial(s). (Publication YYYY, month name, DD or YYYY, month name). Article title: Subtitle of the article. Newspaper OR Blog Name, page range. URL of the article if not from a library database

Examples

Newspaper - Year, Month Name, and Day; Page #; Print:

Jones, C. (2020, February 18). Pier 1 files for bankruptcy protection. USA Today, 2B.

Newspaper - Year, Month Name, and Day; Website With URL:

Schwartz, J. (2019, November 21). A wet year causes farm woes far beyond the floodplains. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/climate/farms-climate-change-crops.html

Blog - Year, Month Name, and Day; Website With URL:

Riccaboni, N. (2019, July 3). Custom learning tools: Nursing hacks # 15. Nurse Nacole. http://www.nursenacole.com/search/label/Nursing%20Hacks