How do you format an APA reference list in APA 7?

Direct answer: Start the reference list on a new page after the text, with the label References in bold and centred. American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) says not to use Works Cited, Bibliography or Reference List as the label, and that a single reference may use the singular, Reference.

Each reference is its own paragraph, set flush left. American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) points to sections 2.12 and 9.43 to 9.49 of the Publication Manual for the full rules, so those are the sections to check if your marker asks where a rule comes from. University of Queensland Library (n.d.) adds that references in the list are not numbered, which matters for students used to numbered styles in other disciplines.

Edinburgh Napier University Library (n.d.) says to build one long list rather than separate lists for each type of source, unless you are told otherwise. That means books, journal articles and web pages all sit together in a single alphabetical sequence. If your lecturer asks for an annotated list or a list divided by theme, follow the assignment brief, because the default rule gives way to a specific instruction.

Links need one decision. American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) says DOIs and URLs may be either blue and underlined or plain text, so pick one treatment and use it for every entry.

Direct answer: Alphabetise the list by the first word of each entry, which is usually the first author's surname. American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) says an entry with no author starts with its title and is alphabetised by that title. Do not number the entries.

For an entry that starts with a title, University of Queensland Library (n.d.) says to use the first significant word and ignore A, And and The. Edinburgh Napier University Library (n.d.) says an organisational author is alphabetised by the first word of the organisation's name. American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) also lists special cases that need extra care: works by the same authors with the same date, works with the same et al. form, and different authors who share a surname.

When one author has several works, order them by date. Douglas College Library (2023) puts it plainly: "If several references have the same author(s), list them in the order they were published, earliest first" (p. 2). University of Queensland Library (n.d.) gives the same rule. Works by the same author in the same year need extra handling, and American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) lists that case among the special ordering rules, so check the manual before you add letters to the dates.

This post follows that pattern in its own list. Three American Psychological Association pages carry no date, so they appear as n.d.-a, n.d.-b and n.d.-c in alphabetical order of title, and the same suffixes are used in the text. The 2022 guide from the same organisation comes after them.

Direct answer: Give every entry a hanging indent of 0.5 inch, which is 1.27 cm, so the first line sits at the margin and later lines are indented. American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) also says to double-space the whole list, with no extra space between references.

University libraries turn the indent into a check. Curtin University (n.d.) asks, "Do all references have a hanging indent of 1.27cm?" (p. 1). That is the same measurement as the 0.5 inch APA gives, so the rule is consistent whether a source quotes it in inches or centimetres.

Set the indent and spacing once for the whole list in your word processor's paragraph settings rather than pressing the space bar or Enter key at the end of each line. Typing manual line breaks looks right on your screen but breaks when the text reflows. American Psychological Association (2022) says to double-space both within and between references, so the list should look evenly spaced from the first entry to the last, with no gap added between entries.

Select the whole list, apply the hanging indent and double spacing together, then scroll through it. If any entry looks different from its neighbours, the formatting was applied unevenly and needs reapplying.

Direct answer: Invert every author name to surname, comma, then initials with a space between them. American Psychological Association (n.d.-b) says to list up to 20 authors, and from 21 authors to give the first 19, an ellipsis and the final author. Spell out group authors in full.

For works with many authors, American Psychological Association (n.d.-b) sets the limit at 20 names: list all of them up to 20, and from 21 authors give the first 19, an ellipsis and the final author. Use initials rather than first names. American Psychological Association (2022) says to give first and middle initials, not full names. American Psychological Association (n.d.-b) also says to keep an author's own capitalisation, such as hooks, b. For a group author, American Psychological Association (n.d.-b) says to write the full name and not abbreviate it: National Institute of Mental Health is correct, and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is incorrect in the list.

Capitalisation depends on the part of the entry. Curtin University (n.d.) says titles are in sentence case, except journal names, which are given in full in headline style.

Punctuation and DOIs have their own rules. American Psychological Association (n.d.-a) says each element ends with a period, but there is no period after a DOI or URL, and there is no comma between volume and issue because the issue goes in parentheses. Curtin University (n.d.) asks, "Are all DOIs preceded by https://doi.org/?" (p. 1). When a source has both a DOI and a URL, American Psychological Association (2022) says to give only the DOI, and to copy it from the browser rather than retyping it.

Direct answer: Every work cited in the text must appear in the list, and every listed work must be cited. American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) makes exceptions for personal communications, general mentions of websites and, on the other side, works included in a meta-analysis. Works you read but did not cite are left out.

The two-way match is the core test. For each in-text citation, find the entry, and for each entry, find where you cited it. American Psychological Association (2022) says that a work you read but did not cite is excluded, which is the practical difference between a reference list and a bibliography, a label that American Psychological Association (n.d.-c) says not to use for this page.

Problems arise when a source from early reading ends up in the list although it never reached the essay, or when a quotation from a lecture slide has no entry. Check both directions. If you cite a source in the text in a different year or spelling from the list, the match fails even though the work is the same, so keep the author and date identical in both places.

Direct answer: Frequent errors include the wrong heading, entries out of order, a missing hanging indent, the wrong spacing, abbreviated group authors, and badly formatted DOIs. The table below pairs each error with what APA 7 says and a quick fix you can apply before you submit.

The table draws on the rules covered above. The figure below the table repeats six of the rows as a quick visual check.

If a row applies to your list, fix it before checking anything else, because heading and layout errors are the easiest for a marker to spot at a glance.

Direct answer: Check the list against the rules above one point at a time. Curtin University (n.d.) provides a two-page APA 7th checklist for this, and its questions include whether every DOI is preceded by https://doi.org/. Then match each in-text citation to its entry.

Work through these steps in order:

• Confirm the page heading is References, bold and centred, and that the list starts on a new page.
• Check that entries are alphabetical, not numbered, and in one list.
• Check the 0.5-inch (1.27 cm) hanging indent and double spacing on every entry.
• Check author names are inverted with initials, group authors are spelled out.
• Check each DOI starts with https://doi.org/ and has no full stop after it.
• Match every in-text citation to an entry, and every entry to a citation.

Curtin University (n.d.) publishes this checklist, and you can read it as a model of what a marker may look for. Print it or keep it open beside your list, and tick each item as you go.

Direct answer: MAAS works as a tutor and advisor. A MAAS academic mentor reviews your outline, draft and final reference list with you, explains what to change and why, and you stay the author of the work and the person who submits it.

If you want a second pair of eyes before you hand in, essay and assignment support from MAAS follows an Outline, Draft, Final sequence. At the final stage, a mentor goes through your reference list against the checks in this post and explains each correction so you can apply it yourself next time. The mentor gives feedback and you make the changes. Most students begin by sending their draft and the assignment brief, and the first conversation is free.