What’s new in APA 7th?

Hands on laptop keyboard with pen and paper in foreground

The American Psychological Association has updated the APA referencing style for the first time in ten years.

Many of these changes were based on user feedback and make for a much more user-friendly version of APA. There are also a number of new reference types, and over 100 examples.

Key changes

Here’s a taster of some key changes in APA 7th:

In-text citations

  • If there are three or more authors, you now just list the first author followed by et al. (e.g., Garnevska et al., 2014).

Reference list

  • Up to 20 authors are included in a reference list entry.
  • When referencing a book, you no longer need to state the city of publication, just the publisher.
  • If a book has more than one publisher, you list them all in the order that they appear, separated by a semicolon.
  • Format DOIs as URLs (https://doi.org/xxx). You don’t need to use the label “DOI” any more.

Keen to learn more?

We recommend that all students and researchers adopt the 7th edition from 2020 onwards. From the end of 2019, APA 7th guidance and examples will feature in Quickcite.

In the interim, we’ve assembled a comprehensive comparison between APA 6th and 7th to help you understand the changes:

If you use online tools to store and manage your references (e.g., RefWorks), look for APA 7th as a referencing or output style option from late 2019.

If you would like to consult the official APA 7th publication manual, copies are now available in our libraries.

Advice for research students

If you’re part-way through a thesis or dissertation, seek advice from your supervisor or department about whether to keep using APA 6th to see your writing through to completion. We will continue to provide guidance around APA 6th on our website for the foreseeable future.

One Comment

  • Hassan commented on 22/11/2019

    This summary is beneficial.
    Many thanks.

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