APA Citation Style

The APA 7th ed. structure for formatting references

Before getting started, it's important to understand how to identify what type of reference you are trying to style according to APA 7th ed. There is a hierarchical structure for identifying references. There are groups, categories, and types. Below the explanations are given for the organization of APA references. Understanding this organization helps the user identify how to properly classify and then format a citation properly. 

The first level of organization to classify a resource according to APA 7th edition is by groups. Each of the four groups (bolded) are then divided into categories. The groups (bolded) are demonstrated below along with their subdivisions into categories.

• Textual works
  • Periodicals
  • Books and reference works
  • Edited book chapters and reference work entries
  • Reports and gray literature
  • Conference sessions and presentations 
  • Dissertations and theses
  • Reviews of other works
  • Unpublished and informally published materials 
• Data sets, software, and tests 
  • Computer software
  • Data sets 
  • Mobile apps
  • Apparatuses/equipment 
  • Tests, scales, and inventories
• Audiovisual media 
  • Audiovisual works
  • Audio works
  • Visual works
• Online media 
  • Social media
  • Webpages
  • Websites

This guide includes examples of the major categories commonly cited in medical research. Within each of the selected categories there is information about the different reference types found on pages ...Articles?, ...Books?, ...Websites?, and, ...Other Sources?.

The Reference list starts on a new page. The word "References" should be centered and bolded and put before the reference list entries

• Order reference list entries alphabetically by author 
• Double space 
• Use a hanging indent for each reference

Check out the Reference Quick Guide from the American Psychological Association (2020, September). 

For books or other reference categories, there may be abbreviations for some of the information that needs to be included within the reference. 

The above table was taken from Purdue Online Writing Lab here. 

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/000165-000