Dynamic PDF: Changes in APA 7th Edition

Why the Update: The newest edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide, published in October 2019, addresses many changes in writing since the 6^th edition’s publication in 2009. Specifically, “[c]iting online material has become more common, the use of inclusive and bias-free language is increasingly important, and the technology used by researchers and students has changed.”[i] This guide helps writers identify the biggest changes in the 7^th edition.

What are the Changes?

References and In-text Citations:

1. The publisher’s location is not included in the reference.
   • INCORRECT: Lamott, A. (1994). Bird by bird. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.
   • CORRECT: Lamott, A. (1994). Bird by bird. Pantheon Books.

2. Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors are used in the reference.[ii]
   • INCORRECT: Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T., . . . Lee, L. H. (2018).
   • CORRECT: Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T., Lewis, F., Lee, L. H., Cox, G., Harris, H. L., Martin, P., Gonzalez, W. L., Hughes, W., Carter, D., Campbell, C., Baker, A. B., Flores, T., Gray, W. E., Green, G., . . . Nelson, T. P. (2018).

3. It is no longer necessary to include the format, platform, or device foreBooks, but the publisher is included.
   • INCORRECT: Brück, M. (2009). Women in early British and Irish astronomy: Stars and satellites [Kindle version]. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2
   • CORRECT: Brück, M. (2009). Women in early British and Irish astronomy: Stars and satellites. Springer Nature. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2

4. “Retrieved from” or “Accessed from” is no longer used beforeDOIs and URLs because they are formatted as hyperlinks, which remain active if the document is read/published online. The website page title is in italics, and the website name is added.
   • INCORRECT: Streefkerk, R. (2019, November 26). APA Manual 7th edition: The most notable changes. Retrieved from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-seventh-edition-changes/
   • CORRECT: Streefkerk, R. (2019, November 26). APA Manual 7th edition: The most notable changes. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-seventh-edition-changes/

5. The in-text citation for works with three or more authors is abbreviated from the first citation: (first author’s last name et al., year).
   • INCORRECT: (Hall, Rosado & Chapman, 2019)
   • CORRECT: (Hall, et al., 2019)

6. DOIs and URLs are both formatted as hyperlinks.
   • INCORRECT: doi: 10.3390/ijerph15102236
   • CORRECT: https://10.3390/ijerph15102236

7. Additional changes to the formatting of references regarding podcasts, TV shows/episodes, social media posts, and YouTube videos are included. Information regarding the use of emojis and hashtags is included as well.

Inclusive and Bias-Free Language:

1. The singular form of “they” or “their” is endorsed as a gender-neutral pronoun can take the place of “he or she.”
2. It is preferred to use descriptive phrases for groups of people rather than adjectives. This is sometimes referred to as people first language. For example, “people living in poverty” rather than “the poor.”
3. Specific age ranges should be used rather than broad categories. For example: “people in the age range of...” instead of “people over...”

Paper Formatting

1. Acceptable fonts now include the following: Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11.
2. The running head on the title page no longer uses the words “running head.” It now only consists of the page number and the paper title (or the shortened version of it). The running head is omitted on student papers, at the professor’s discretion.
3. There are updates to heading levels 3-5. See the style guide for more details.

Style Mechanics

1. Use a single space after the end of a sentence.
2. Instead of italics, use double quotation marks to refer to linguistic examples. See the above examples used in the Inclusive and Bias-Free Language section.

Additional Resources:

https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-seventh-edition-changes/

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/

 

[i] Streefkerk, R. (2019, November 26). APA Manual 7th edition: The most notable changes. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-seventh-edition-changes/

[ii] Streefkerk, R. (2019, November 26). APA Manual 7th edition: The most notable changes. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-seventh-edition-changes/