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Massey University > OWLL > Referencing > APA style > APA 6th vs. 7th edition

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APA 6th vs. 7th edition

In late 2019, the American Psychological Association (APA) published a revised style guide: the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. This edition contains a few minor changes to the 6th edition of the manual.

Key changes at a glance

  • Et al.: “et al.” is used in the first in-text citation for works with three or more authors.
  • Up to 20 authors cited: In the reference list, give the surnames and initials for up to 20 authors.
  • Website names: Website names are now included as well as the webpage title.
  • Publication location: The location of the publisher (i.e., city, country/state code) is no longer required.
  • Ebook publisher: You no longer need to give the platform, format, or device (e.g., Kindle) for ebooks, but you do need give the publisher.
  • "Retrieved from": You no longer need to write “Retrieved from” before a URL.
  • DOIs: DOIs are formatted the same as URLs. You do not need to write "DOI."
  • Spelling and capitalization of ethnic and racial terms: Ethnic and racial groups are capitalised.
  • Minor changes: Inclusive language, Formatting assignments; The mechanics of style; Tables, figures, and graphs; Heading levels.
APA 7th edition

This short video lecture introduces the 7th ed. of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Which edition should I use?

Some courses at Massey use the 6th ed. of APA, but this will change to the 7th ed. as course content is updated. If your course uses APA 6th, then you can find examples of how to format APA Style (6th ed.) references and in-text citations at APA Interactive (6th ed.).

Your course/study guide should tell you which edition to use. However, if it does not, then it is suggested that you ask your lecturer or course coordinator.

Many authors: In-text citations ("et al." in the first citation)

In APA 6th ed., for works with three to five authors, the first time the source is cited the in-text citation lists all names followed by commas:

(Smith, Khan, & Zhang, 2019)

Smith, Khan, and Zhang (2019)

In APA 6th ed. subsequent in-text citations for works with three to five authors only include the first author followed by “et al.” (which means “and others” in Latin) and the date:

(Smith et al., 2019).

Smith et al. (2019).

APA 6th ed. all in-text citations for six or more authors include only the first author followed by “et al.” and the date.

APA 7th ed. in-text citations for works with three or more authors include only the first author name and “et al.” (which means “and others” in Latin) is used in all citations, including the first in-text citation:

(Smith et al., 2019).

Smith et al. (2019).

Many authors in the reference list

APA 6th ed. uses “. . .” (an ellipsis) to replace all authors between the sixth author and the last author (no more than seven authors are listed):

Smith, J. D., Khan, V., Zhang, H., Williams, T., Garcia, J., Sato, Y., . . . Laurence, D.

If there are 6 or 7 authors, all of their names are spelled out in the reference list.

APA 7th ed. includes the surnames and initials of up to and including 20 authors in the reference list. For works with more than 21 authors, use an ellipsis between the 19th and final author. There should be no more than 20 names:

McDuff, C., Smith, J., Kensington, K., Jones, S., Coughlan, S., Bortolin, L., Witte, M., Scott, A., Newport, A., Jensen, K., Wutzler, J., van Staden, I., McLean, J., Bergsma, G., Dowman, B., Petrie, K., Higgens, D., McCloud, R., Jessop, L., …Duncan, P. (2017). An introduction to quantitative analysis in finance. Houghton.

(McDuff et al., 2017).

McDuff et al. (2017).

Website names

The 6th ed. does not include the name of the website or organisation that hosts the webpage, report, or any other kind of source:

Lawson, J. F. (2019). The impacts of plastic on Indonesian migratory birds. Retrieved from https://www.doc.govt.nz/reports/birds/indonesiaplastic/

The 7th ed. includes the name of the website or organisation that hosts the webpage, report, or any other kind of source:

Lawson, J. F. (2019). The impacts of plastic on Indonesian migratory birds. Department of Conservation. https://www.doc.govt.nz/reports/birds/indonesiaplastic/

Publication location

The 6th ed. includes the publisher location in reference list entries. If the city is not in the United States, the country is also written, after a comma:

Palmerston North, New Zealand:

Oxford, England:

For cities in the United States, the 6th ed. uses the two-letter postal code abbreviation for the state instead of the country:

Anaheim, CA:

The 7th ed. omits publisher location from reference list entries:

Lawford, C. K. (2009). Moments of clarity: Voices from the front lines of addiction and recovery. William Morrow.

Note: When the author and publisher are the same, omit the publisher in the reference.

Ministry of Education. (2009). Research ethics in New Zealand: A student guide.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Note: Multiple publishers are listed in the order shown on the copyright page of a work, separated with a semi-colon:

Neftci, S. N. (2009). Principles of financial engineering (2nd ed.). Academic Publishing; Massey University Press.

E-book format

The 6th ed. includes the e-book format, platform, or device (e.g., Kindle) but not the publisher:

Roach, M. (2010). Packing for Mars: The curious science of life in the void [Kindle version]. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com

The 7th ed. omits the e-book format, platform, or device (e.g., Kindle) but includes the publisher:

Forsyth, D. (2018). Probability and statistics for computer science. Springer Publishing Company. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319644097

Retrieved from

The 6th ed. includes the words “Retrieved from” before the url in the reference list:

Forsyth, D. (2018). Probability and statistics for computer science. Springer Publishing Company.  Retrieved from https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319644097

Ministry of Education. (2009). Measuring hauora in primary schools. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/school/student-support/haurora/

The 7th ed. omits the words “Retrieved from” before the url in the reference list:

Forsyth, D. (2018). Probability and statistics for computer science. Springer Publishing Company. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319644097

Ministry of Education. (2009). Measuring hauora in primary schools. http://www.education.govt.nz/school/student-support/haurora/

DOI format

The 6th ed. includes the label “doi:” before the DOI number in the reference listing:

Gelkopf, M., Ryan, P., Cotton, S., & Berger, R. (2008). The impact of “training the trainers” for helping tsunami-survivor children on Sri Lankan disaster volunteer workers. International Journal of Stress Management, 15(2), 117-135. doi:10.1037/1072-5245.15.2.117

The 7th ed. omits the label “doi:” from the reference listing, and starts a DOI link with https://doi.org/ instead:

Smith, J. D. (2009). Research ethics in New Zealand: A student guide. https://doi.org/10.1000/182

The 7th ed. includes DOIs for all sources where a DOI is available even if the source wasn’t accessed online. For more on this see the DOIs and URLs or the quick guide.

Spelling and capitalization of ethnic and racial terms

The 7th ed.:

  • Ethnic and racial groups are capitalized, e.g. Māori rather than māori.
  • Capitalise Indigenous and Indigenous People when a group is being referred to.
  • Do not capitalise the word people when individuals are being referred to.
  • Do not hyphenate multiword names, e.g. African Americans rather than African-Americans.

For more on this see https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/racial-ethnic-minorities

Minor changes

Show all | Hide all
Inclusive language
  • Avoid gender-specific descriptors (e.g., man) to describe groups (e.g., people, humanity).
  • Avoid using adjectives as nouns (e.g., the poor) to describe groups of people (e.g., people living in poverty). Choose labels with sensitivity.
  • Be specific with reference to conditions and age.  Rather than giving broad categories (e.g., young people), give specific categories (e.g., 15-18 years old, 18-25 years old).
  • Use the singular "they" to reflect inclusiveness in gender and avoid bias. For example, Smith suggests that this theory can be considered a forerunner to quantum theory. They further suggest that….
Formatting assignments
  • The 7th ed. provides examples of how students should format assignments.
  • If you are required to submit an assignment title page, then your assignment title should be bold, centred and title case (the first letter of major words should be capitalised). The title should be positioned in the upper half of the title page (e.g., three or four lines down from the top of the page).
  • Leave one double line between the assignment title and the author name. Write the name in full, in normal font (not bold). Additional authors are given on the same line. Use "and" between the first and last author's name.
  • Leave one double line then give the affiliation for each author of the paper, typically the department name and university attended.
  • Leave one double line then give the course code and name.
  • Leave one double line then give the lecturer's or course coordinator's name.
  • Leave one double line then give the due date of the assignment.
  • See here for an example of an assignment title page.
  • Running heads with the assignment title are not required for student assignments unless requested by the lecturer. A header (or footer) with the page number is usually sufficient.
The mechanics of style
  • Use one space instead of two after a period at the end of a sentence, and after most other common punctuation marks (e.g., commas, semi-colons, colons, initials in a name).
  • Use double quotation marks to introduce a new, specialised, or novel term. Only use the quotation marks the first time you refer to the term.
Tables, figures, and graphs
  • The presentation style of table and figure numbers, titles and notes are now consistent. Table and figure numbers are now both given above the table/figure in bold; table and figure titles appear on the next double-spaced line, flush left with the margin, in italics with major words capitalized (i.e. in title case) with no full stop. Notes appear below the table/figure. See here for more information about tables and figures.
Heading levels
  • Changes have been made to heading Levels 3 to 5. See here for more details about, and examples of, headings in APA 7th edition.
  • Do not begin an assignment with “Introduction.” Your assignment title and first paragraphs are understood to introductory and act as a de facto Level 1 heading.

Sample papers

There are sample papers available at:

  • Annotated sample student assignment
  • Annotated sample professional paper
  • Unannotated sample student assignment
  • Unannotated sample professional paper
  • Reference examples
  • Sample student papers (discussion post, literature review, quantitative study) and professional papers (literature review, mixed methods, qualitative, quantitative, review) from the APA Style website.

References and further reading

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). [Massey Library link]

American Psychological Association. (2020a). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000 [Massey Library link]

American Psychological Association. (2020b). Quick reference guide. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf

Disclaimer

These pages are provided as a guide to proper referencing. Your course, department, school, or institute may prescribe specific conventions, and their recommendations supersede these instructions. If you have questions not covered here, check in the style guide listed above, ask your course coordinator, or ask at Academic Q+A.

Page authorised by Director - Centre for Learner Success
Last updated on 11 January, 2021

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