APA style uses two pieces of information for every in-text citation: the author’s last name and the year of publication. Those same sources then appear in full detail on a reference list at the end of your paper. The current standard is the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual, and the rules below follow that edition.
Two Types of In-Text Citations
Every time you reference someone else’s idea, data, or words, you place a short citation in the text itself. APA gives you two ways to do this: parenthetical and narrative.
Parenthetical citations put both the author and year inside parentheses, separated by a comma, usually at the end of the sentence:
- Falsely balanced news coverage can distort public perception of expert consensus (Koehler, 2016).
Narrative citations work the author’s name into the sentence itself, with only the year in parentheses:
- Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.
You can place a narrative citation anywhere in the sentence that reads naturally. In rare cases where both the author and year appear in the sentence itself, you drop the parentheses entirely: “In 2016, Koehler noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.”
Handling Multiple Authors
For a work with two authors, include both names every time you cite it, joined by an ampersand inside parentheses or the word “and” in running text:
- Parenthetical: (Smith & Jones, 2020)
- Narrative: Smith and Jones (2020)
For three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” (Latin for “and others”) from the very first citation onward:
- Parenthetical: (Smith et al., 2021)
- Narrative: Smith et al. (2021)
When Information Is Missing
Not every source comes with a clear author and date. APA has specific fallback rules for each situation.
No author: Move the title into the author position. In the in-text citation, use a shortened version of the title. Italicize it if the full title would be italicized in the reference list (books, reports, webpages), or put it in quotation marks if it would not be (journal articles, chapters). Do not write “Anonymous” unless the work is literally signed “Anonymous.”
No date: Replace the year with “n.d.” (no date) in both the in-text citation and the reference list entry. A parenthetical citation would look like (Smith, n.d.).
Direct Quotes Need Page Numbers
When you quote someone’s exact words, add the page number after the year. Use “p.” for a single page and “pp.” for a range:
- Parenthetical: (Koehler, 2016, p. 45)
- Narrative: Koehler (2016) argued that “direct quote here” (p. 45).
If your source has no page numbers, as with many websites, use a paragraph number (para. 4), a heading name, or another locator that helps the reader find the passage.
Building the Reference List
The reference list appears on its own page at the end of your paper, titled “References” and centered at the top. Every source you cited in the text gets a full entry here, and every entry on the list should correspond to a citation in the text.
Each reference follows a four-part structure: Author, Date, Title, Source. The exact punctuation and formatting shift depending on the source type, but the underlying pattern stays the same. For a journal article, it looks like this:
- Koehler, D. J. (2016). Can journalistic “balance” distort public perception of consensus in expert opinion? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 22(1), 24–38. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000073
A few formatting rules apply to every reference entry:
- Hanging indent: The first line of each entry is flush left, and every subsequent line is indented 0.5 inches.
- Alphabetical order: Sort entries by the first author’s last name. If the entry starts with a title (no author), alphabetize by the first significant word of the title.
- DOIs over URLs: If a source has a DOI (a permanent digital identifier), include it as a link (https://doi.org/…). Use a regular URL only when no DOI exists.
- Italics: Italicize the titles of books, reports, and webpages. For journal articles, italicize the journal name and volume number, not the article title.
Citing AI-Generated Content
If you used a tool like ChatGPT or Google Gemini and your instructor allows you to cite it, APA treats the company that built the tool as the author. To cite a specific chat session, the reference format is:
- OpenAI. (2024, March 10). Title of chat [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chat.openai.com/share/…
The in-text citation follows the normal pattern: (OpenAI, 2024) for parenthetical, or OpenAI (2024) for narrative. Use the date the chat took place. If you want to cite the tool in general rather than a specific conversation, list the tool name in italics as the title, with a bracketed description like [Large language model], and use the year the tool was most recently updated.
Document your prompts somewhere in the paper itself, such as an appendix or methods section. Prompts don’t go in the reference list because they don’t fit the standard four-part reference structure.
Formatting Your Paper
APA 7th edition has slightly different rules depending on whether you’re writing a student paper or a professional manuscript.
Student papers do not require a running head. The title page includes the paper title, your name, your school, the course number and name, the instructor’s name and preferred title, and the assignment due date. Page numbers appear on every page, including the title page.
Professional papers include a running head on every page. The running head is a shortened version of your title, written in all capital letters. (The older “Running head:” label from the 6th edition is no longer used.) The professional title page includes the paper title, author names, institutional affiliations, and an optional author note.
Both formats use 1-inch margins on all sides, double spacing throughout, and a readable font such as 12-point Times New Roman or 11-point Calibri. Paragraphs in the body are indented 0.5 inches, while reference list entries use the hanging indent described above.
Quick Reference for Common Source Types
Here are simplified templates for the sources students cite most often. Replace the placeholder text with your source’s details.
- Book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher. DOI or URL
- Journal article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Page–Page. DOI or URL
- Webpage on a site with a group author: Group Name. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL
- Webpage where the site name and author are the same: Organization Name. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. URL (omit the site name to avoid repetition)
For source types not listed here, the APA’s own style website provides free templates and examples for nearly every format, from podcasts and YouTube videos to court cases and dissertations.