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APA Citation Guide - Lake County: Home

APA Style Guides

APA is the style manual of choice for the social and behavioral sciences, natural sciences, nursing, communications, education, business, engineering, and other fields. Recently updated in 2020, there are two books in the Ivy Tech Lake County libraries.  See below for the call number for each book to let staff know if you would like to see either.  The first is the Concise Guide to APA Style, designed specifically for undergraduate student writing,  This easy-to-use pocket guide is adapted from the larger 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, a copy of the book which is also shown here. 

Or you may also use this online citation libguide for an overview of the main APA Style features!  Check on the major changes from the previous edition, read the quick guide (tip sheet), plus how to set up your title page, how to do in-text citations, and see an example of an APA Reference Page. 

For examples how to cite various source types, such as books, journal articles or websites, begin by clicking on the below APA Color-Coded Guide, or the four-page APA Style QUICK Guide below it.

APA Concise Guide. 7th ed

    

 by American Psychological Association

 Publication Date: 2016

CALL NUMBER:  808.0661 Con 2020

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed.

      

      by American Psychological Association

      Publication date:  2020

      CALL NUMBER: 808.06 APA 2020

APA Color-Coded Guide

APA Quick Guide

The above is a quick guide showing examples for common source types, plus how to do a reference page entry, AND in-text citation entry. For all other examples, see Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed.

APA Title Page

A sample view of what the title page should look like, with color explanations.

In-Text Citation Key Points

THE APA uses a name-date system in which short in-text citations direct the readers to the full reference list entry.

In other words, the in-text citation is usually the author's name(s) followed by the year of publication.  Page numbers are only included if there is a direct quote from the source.  In most cases, you will put the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence describing the work cited.  You can also include the name of the author within your text for a narrative citation.  See either guide above for examples.

Other tips (key phrases, quotations) are in below document:

Sample Student paper

See below student paper excerpts with elements in basic APA style, including title page, in-text citations, and References page. Source:  Harker, D (2020). Documenting Sources in APA Style, 2020 Update.  Bedford/St. Martin's.

APA 7th edition main features

APA 7th Edition - major changes

Bias-free language

  • Guidelines are being added to use bias-free language when referring to people or entities. This means using the word “they” or “their” instead of gender pronouns like “he”, “she”, “his” and “her”.

References and citations

  • Website URLs no longer need to be preceded with “Retrieved from” unless there is also a retrieval date.
  • EBooks no longer require the type of eBook to be listed (e.g. PDF, Kindle etc)
  • Journal DOIs are now displayed as a doi.org URL instead of with the “DOI:” prefix.
  • The publisher location is no longer required for books or similar mediums.
  • Up to 20 authors can now be included in a reference list entry before needing to omit others with an ellipsis.
  • With in-text citations, any reference with more than three authors can now be shortened to the first author and et al.

Punctuation and layout

  • Titles are no longer needed in the header. This include the Running Head on the title page. Page numbers are still needed in the upper right corner of every page. 
  • Headings are simplified. See this page of the APA website for details: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/headings
  • The 7th edition adds additional fonts: Calibri size 11pt, Arial 11pt, Lucida Sans Unicode 10pt, and Georgia 11pt in addition to Times New Roman 12pt.
  • Use one space after a period.

APA Reference Page

A brief view of a couple of citations set up in a Reference Page, with instructions.

Sources Consulted

The creation of this APA libguide in part has pulled together some features from other Ivy Tech library guides.  This editor wished to acknowledge and thank Lenore Engler, Evansville library director; Heather Ayres, Valparaiso library director, and Linda Judd and Melissa Stumpe, Indianapolis librarians for portions of their guides used here.  Original sources from other universities, particularly University of Southern Indiana's David L. Rice Library, are noted in the attached documents themselves.