APA 7 Citation Style in 2026: Complete Guide for Theses, Dissertations and Student Papers

The APA 7 citation style is the dominant standard in psychology, social sciences, education, nursing, business and engineering across the English-speaking world. Published in October 2019, the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association replaced APA 6 and is still the current edition in 2026 (no APA 8 has been announced). This guide gathers every rule, example and 2026 update you need to cite correctly in a thesis, dissertation or student paper.

This is the authoritative practitioner reference, not a marketing summary. All examples are checked against the official APA Style website (https://apastyle.apa.org) and the Publication Manual, 7th edition.

What APA 7 Is, Who Maintains It, and When to Use It

APA Style is published by the American Psychological Association, the largest scientific organization of psychologists in the United States. The 7th edition of the Publication Manual was released on October 1, 2019, replacing the 6th edition that had governed psychology and adjacent fields since 2010.

Official source: https://apastyle.apa.org
Free instructional aids: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids
Book: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (paperback, spiral, hardcover).

Disciplines using APA 7 as their default standard:

• Psychology (all subfields)
• Education and educational research
• Nursing and allied health sciences
• Sociology, social work, communication
• Business (some programs, particularly in the US)
• Engineering (some programs in the US, often alongside IEEE)
• Counseling, marriage and family therapy
• Linguistics (some universities)

If your supervisor or department has not explicitly told you which style to use, and you are in one of these fields, APA 7 is almost certainly the expected default.

Two Document Types: Student Paper vs Professional Paper

A key innovation of APA 7 is the formal separation between the student paper format (used for class papers, theses, dissertations submitted to a university) and the professional paper format (used for journal submissions and other publications). Most readers of this article will use the student format.

Your university or course may add specific requirements (chapter format for theses, declaration of authorship, etc.) on top of APA's base format. The university's thesis guide always takes precedence over the generic APA template.

In-Text Citations: Parenthetical and Narrative

APA 7 uses author-date in-text citations. Two formats are available and can be mixed freely within a paper.

Parenthetical citation (most common): the author and year appear in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

Reading speed declines with age in monolingual adults (Smith, 2023).

Narrative citation: the author's name is part of the sentence, with the year in parentheses immediately after.

Smith (2023) found that reading speed declines with age in monolingual adults.

Page numbers (direct quotes and specific passages)

Direct quotes always require a page number (or paragraph number for sources without pages):

"Reading speed declines after age 60 in monolingual adults" (Smith, 2023, p. 142).

For paraphrases, page numbers are recommended but not strictly required by APA 7. Many supervisors still expect them, particularly in thesis work.

For sources without page numbers (websites, online articles), use paragraph numbers:

(Smith, 2023, para. 4)

Or use the section heading:

(Smith, 2023, Conclusion section)

Two authors

Both names are cited every time, joined by & in parenthetical citations and by and in narrative citations.

(Smith & Jones, 2023)
Smith and Jones (2023) found...

Three or more authors (changed in APA 7)

In APA 7, all citations with three or more authors use "et al." from the first citation onward. This is the most-asked-about change from APA 6, which required listing 3-5 authors in full at first mention.

(Smith et al., 2023)
Smith et al. (2023) found...

The full author list still appears in the reference list (up to 20 authors).

Group authors

First citation: full name plus abbreviation in brackets. Subsequent citations: abbreviation only.

First: (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020)
Then: (APA, 2020)

If an organization has no widely recognized abbreviation, spell it out every time.

No author

Use the first few words of the title in quotation marks for articles/chapters, or in italics for books/reports:

("Climate change report", 2024)
(Climate adaptation in Europe, 2024)

Multiple sources in the same parentheses

Separate by semicolons, alphabetical by first author:

(Brown, 2022; Jones et al., 2023; Smith, 2024)

Personal communications

Citations to emails, interviews, private conversations: cite in text only, NOT in the reference list.

(J. Smith, personal communication, May 2, 2026)

Reference List: General Rules

The reference list appears at the end of the document under the heading References (centered, bold), on a new page.

Universal formatting rules:

• Double-spaced throughout (including within and between references)
• Hanging indent of 0.5" (first line flush left, subsequent lines indented)
• Alphabetical order by first author's surname
• Up to 20 authors listed (in APA 6 it was 7+ with et al.; APA 7 raised this to 20+)
• For 21+ authors: list the first 19, then ellipsis (...), then the last author's name
• DOI is now mandatory when available (no more "Retrieved from")
• No "Retrieved from" for stable URLs (use only for time-sensitive content like a Wikipedia article)

Author names

Surname first, then initials of first and middle names (no full first names).

Smith, J. P. (2023).

Multiple authors are separated by commas, with & before the final name:

Smith, J. P., Jones, A. B., & Brown, C. D. (2023).

DOI and URL format

DOIs are formatted as hyperlinks beginning with `doi:10.NNNN/example:

doi:10.NNNN/example

For online sources without a DOI, include the URL as a hyperlink. Stable URLs only (no need for "Retrieved from" date except for time-sensitive content).

Reference List: Examples by Source Type

Journal article with DOI

Smith, J. P., & Jones, A. B. (2023). Reading speed and aging in monolingual adults: 
A longitudinal study. Journal of Cognitive Aging, 45(3), 234-251. 
doi:10.NNNN/example

Article titles are in sentence case (capitalize only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon). Journal titles are in title case and italics. Volume number is italicized; issue number in parentheses is not.

Journal article without DOI

Smith, J. P. (2022). Memory consolidation during sleep. Sleep Research Journal, 
12(2), 45-60.

If the article is freely available online without a DOI, add the URL after the page range.

Book (single author)

Sherwood, L. (2019). Physiology of the human body (4th ed.). De Boeck Superieur.

Book title in italics, sentence case. Edition in parentheses. Publisher name only (no location since APA 7).

Book chapter (edited book)

Dupuis, M. (2021). Chronic pain assessment. In R. Rey (Ed.), Treatise on pain 
(3rd ed., pp. 234-256). Maloine.

Edited book (citing the whole book)

Rey, R. (Ed.). (2021). Treatise on pain (3rd ed.). Maloine.

Thesis or dissertation

Published in a database:

Garcia, M. (2022). Cognitive reserve and bilingualism in aging [Doctoral 
dissertation, University of California, Berkeley]. ProQuest Dissertations 
and Theses Global.

Unpublished:

Garcia, M. (2022). Cognitive reserve and bilingualism in aging [Unpublished 
doctoral dissertation]. University of California, Berkeley.

Webpage

World Health Organization. (2024, March 15). Mental health and well-being. 
https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health

If the content is updated regularly without a stable version, include a retrieval date:

World Health Organization. (n.d.). COVID-19 dashboard. Retrieved May 19, 2026, 
from https://covid19.who.int/

Government report

National Institute of Mental Health. (2023). The state of mental health in 
the United States (Report No. NIH-23-MH-001). U.S. Department of Health 
and Human Services. https://www.example.com

Conference paper or presentation

Smith, J. P. (2024, March 12-15). Working memory in older adults [Conference 
presentation]. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.

YouTube or streamed video

TED. (2023, June 5). How to read more books in 2023 [Video]. YouTube. 
https://www.example.com

Podcast episode

Vedantam, S. (Host). (2024, January 8). The science of habits (No. 412) [Audio 
podcast episode]. In Hidden Brain. NPR. https://www.example.com

Dataset

Smith, J. P. (2023). Cognitive aging dataset 2010-2022 [Dataset]. Open Science 
Framework. doi:10.NNNN/example

AI-generated content (added by APA in 2023, mature guidance by 2026)

For ChatGPT and other large language models, APA recommends citing the model as a software tool:

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. 
https://www.example.com

In-text: (OpenAI, 2024). The full prompt and response should be archived in an appendix if the AI-generated content is substantive (per APA blog guidance updated 2023-2024). Many universities now require disclosure of AI use in the methodology or acknowledgments section: check your institution's policy.

Newspaper article (online)

Goldstein, D. (2024, April 22). Reading scores recover post-pandemic. 
The New York Times. https://www.example.com

Social media post

APA Style [@APA_Style]. (2024, March 5). Reminder: in APA 7, all three-or-more 
author citations use "et al." from the first mention [Post]. X. 
https://www.example.com

Paper Formatting (Manuscript Layout)

APA 7 introduced more flexibility on fonts and clarified margins, spacing and headings.

Margins

1 inch (2.54 cm) on all four sides.

Font (APA 7 is more flexible than APA 6)

Acceptable fonts (any of these):

• Times New Roman 12pt
• Calibri 11pt
• Arial 11pt
• Lucida Sans Unicode 10pt
• Georgia 11pt
• Computer Modern 10pt (for LaTeX users)

Pick one and use it consistently. Your university may impose a specific font: their guide takes precedence.

Spacing

Double-spaced throughout, including:

• Body text
• Block quotes
• References
• Table notes
• Figure captions

Single-spaced exceptions: tables and figures (depending on readability), footnotes (some universities), title page elements within a single block.

Indentation

First line of every paragraph: indented 0.5". Block quotes (40+ words): no quotation marks, indented 0.5" from the left margin, double-spaced.

Page numbers

Top right corner of every page, including the title page. Page 1 = title page.

Headings (5 levels)

Heading levels in APA 7 are differentiated by formatting, not by number labels.

Use headings hierarchically: Level 1 for major sections, Level 2 for subsections, etc. Do not skip levels.

Title page (student version)

In order, centered, in the upper half of the page:

1. Title of the paper (bold, title case)
2. Blank line
3. Author name
4. Affiliation (department, university)
5. Course number and name
6. Instructor name
7. Assignment due date

Page number top right.

Title page (professional version)

In order, centered:

1. Title (bold, title case)
2. Blank line
3. Author name(s)
4. Author affiliation(s)
5. Author note (bottom of page, separate section)

Running head (shortened title in all caps) at the top left of every page, page number top right.

Key Changes: APA 7 vs APA 6 (for those updating)

If you learned APA under the 6th edition (2010-2019), here are the changes most likely to trip you up:

1. Et al. from first citation for 3+ authors (APA 6 required listing 3-5 authors in full at first mention).
2. DOI is mandatory when available; no more "Retrieved from".
3. Publisher location dropped; cite only publisher name (no "New York, NY:" or "Cambridge, MA:" before the publisher).
4. Singular "they" accepted as a gender-neutral third-person pronoun.
5. Up to 20 authors in references (was 7 in APA 6, with et al. from author 8 onward). For 21+ authors, list first 19, then ellipsis, then last author.
6. No running head required on student papers.
7. Simplified student title page (course, instructor, due date instead of author note).
8. More flexible font choices (5+ accepted fonts).
9. Singular hashtags in references (no need for the # symbol when citing).
10. Bias-free language guidelines expanded (race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, socioeconomic status).

Bias-Free Language (Chapter 5 of the Manual)

APA 7 dedicates a full chapter to inclusive and bias-free language. Key guidance:

• Person-first language by default ("person with schizophrenia", not "schizophrenic"), but accept identity-first language when preferred by the community (autistic person, deaf person).
• Gender-neutral pronouns: singular "they" is acceptable in formal writing.
• Racial and ethnic identity: capitalize "Black", "White", "Indigenous"; spell out groups specifically rather than aggregating ("Asian American" rather than "Asian/Pacific Islander").
• Sexual orientation: use "LGBTQ+ people" rather than "homosexuals".
• Age: use specific ranges ("adults aged 65-75") rather than vague terms ("the elderly").
• Socioeconomic status: specify ("families earning less than $25,000 per year") rather than "low-income".

This chapter is mandatory reading for any thesis involving human participants. Many ethics committees now require demonstration of bias-free language in dissertations.

Common Mistakes That Cost Points or Cause Re-Formatting

Five mistakes that supervisors flag most often.

Citing 3+ authors in full after the first mention: in APA 7, use "et al." from the first citation. This is the most common APA 6 carryover.

Forgetting the hanging indent in references: 0.5" hanging indent (first line flush, subsequent lines indented) is mandatory. Set this via your word processor's paragraph dialog, not by manually pressing tab.

Mixing italics and quotation marks for titles: book titles, journal titles, and stand-alone reports = italics. Article titles and book chapters = no italics, no quotation marks, sentence case.

Including "Retrieved from" before stable URLs: removed in APA 7. Use only for time-sensitive content.

Mismatched in-text and reference list: every in-text citation must correspond to a reference list entry, and every reference list entry must be cited in the text. Use Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote to automate the cross-check.

Reference Managers and APA 7

Most reference managers now ship with up-to-date APA 7 citation style files (CSL):

• Zotero (free, open source): built-in APA 7 style, excellent for thesis work
• Mendeley (free, by Elsevier): APA 7 style available
• EndNote (paid, by Clarivate): APA 7 style preinstalled in recent versions
• Citavi (paid, Windows + macOS): APA 7 support
• Folio Student: applies APA 7 layout automatically on import for thesis projects

Verify the style date in your manager. Older Zotero or Mendeley installations may default to APA 6 style; check Edit > Preferences > Cite > Styles and update.

Submission Checklist (APA 7 Thesis or Paper)

• Decided between student and professional paper format
• Title page matches APA 7 template (no running head for student version)
• Margins set to 1 inch on all sides
• Font is one of the 5+ accepted (used consistently)
• Double-spaced throughout
• Page numbers top right on every page including title page
• Headings use APA 7 levels (no number labels, hierarchy preserved)
• All in-text citations use et al. from first mention for 3+ authors
• All in-text citations match reference list entries one-to-one
• References on a new page, "References" centered bold
• Hanging indent 0.5" on every reference
• Alphabetical order by first author surname
• DOIs included as hyperlinks (https://doi.org/...) when available
• "Retrieved from" removed (except for time-sensitive sources)
• Publisher location removed from book references
• Up to 20 authors listed before et al. (APA 6 cutoff was 7)
• Bias-free language chapter applied (person-first, gender-neutral, specific identity)
• University-specific thesis requirements layered on top of APA base
• Final proofread by a fresh reader

For full details on every academic standard cited above, see our academic style guides reference. For a comparison of APA, MLA, Chicago and Vancouver by discipline, see our doctoral thesis formatting guide.

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FAQ

Is APA 7 still the current edition in 2026?
Yes. APA 7 was published in October 2019 and remains the current edition as of May 2026. The American Psychological Association has not announced APA 8. Editions historically appear every 8-12 years, so APA 8 is unlikely before 2027 at the earliest.

What is the single biggest change from APA 6 to APA 7?
The "et al." rule. In APA 7, all in-text citations with 3 or more authors use "et al." from the very first citation (Smith et al., 2023). In APA 6, you listed 3-5 authors in full at first mention and used et al. only from the second citation. This is the change most often missed by writers switching from APA 6.

Do I need a running head on my student thesis?
No, not under APA 7 unless your university specifically requires it. Running heads are required only for professional (journal submission) papers. Many universities still ask for them in dissertations: check your thesis handbook before omitting.

Are DOIs really mandatory?
Yes, when available. If a source has a DOI, it must appear in the reference. Use the format doi:10.NNNN/example as a clickable hyperlink. If no DOI is available, use a stable URL. The old "Retrieved from" prefix is no longer required.

How do I cite ChatGPT or other AI tools in APA 7?
Cite the AI tool as software:

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://www.example.com

In-text: (OpenAI, 2024). Archive the full prompt and response in an appendix if substantive. Disclose AI use in your methodology or acknowledgments per your institution's policy. This guidance was added by APA in 2023 and refined through 2024.

What font should I use for my APA 7 thesis?
APA 7 accepts Times New Roman 12pt, Calibri 11pt, Arial 11pt, Lucida Sans Unicode 10pt, Georgia 11pt, or Computer Modern 10pt. Pick one and stick with it. If your university's guide specifies a font, follow that.

How many authors do I list in the reference list before using et al.?
Up to 20 authors. List all of them. For 21 or more authors, list the first 19, then ellipsis (...), then the last author's name. This is a major change from APA 6, which capped the list at 7 and used et al. from author 8.

Can I use the singular "they" in an APA 7 thesis?
Yes. APA 7 explicitly endorses singular "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun. This is appropriate for individuals whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or non-binary.

Where do I put the table of contents in an APA 7 thesis?
APA Style itself does not specify a table of contents (it's a journal style, not a thesis layout). University thesis handbooks specify TOC placement, typically after the abstract and acknowledgments, before chapter 1. Follow your university's order.

My university handbook contradicts APA 7. Which one wins?
Always your university. APA 7 is the citation and writing standard; your university's thesis handbook is the binding submission format. Where they conflict (running head policy, title page layout, margin sizes, font), the university requirement governs. The supervisor's discipline expectation overrides both for stylistic choices.

How do I cite a thesis I read in ProQuest?

Garcia, M. (2022). Cognitive reserve and bilingualism in aging [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

The database name appears at the end. If the thesis is open-access online, add the URL after the database name.

What's the difference between a parenthetical and a narrative citation?
Parenthetical: the author-year is in parentheses at the end of the sentence. "Reading declines with age (Smith, 2023)." Narrative: the author's name is part of the sentence. "Smith (2023) found that reading declines with age." Both are valid; mix them to avoid monotony.