APA Reference List: Formatting Every Source Type in APA 7th Edition

The APA reference list is the alphabetical list of every source cited in the body of your paper, formatted according to APA 7th edition rules. It's placed on its own page at the end of the document. Every in-text citation must correspond to exactly one entry in the reference list, and every entry must be cited at least once in the body. This is one of the strictest one-to-one rules in APA and one of the easiest to violate during revision.

This guide covers the page setup rules, alphabetization, multi-author conventions (including the change from 7 authors to 20 in APA 7th), title formatting rules, DOI and URL conventions, and the reference list format for every major source type. For the in-text citation rules that pair with these references, see Editor World's guide to APA in-text citations. For the broader APA framework, see the complete APA citation guide.

Quick Answer: APA Reference List Rules

Page setup. Title is "References," centered and bold, on its own page. Double-spaced throughout. Hanging indent of half an inch on every entry.

Order. Alphabetical by first author's last name. Multiple works by the same author: chronological by year.

Multiple authors. List up to 20 authors before using an ellipsis. This is the change from APA 6th, which capped at 7 before the ellipsis.

Titles. Sentence case for article and book titles (only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized). Italicize book titles, journal names, and report titles.

DOIs and URLs. Format DOIs as hyperlinks beginning with "https://doi.org/." No "doi:" prefix and no "Retrieved from" before URLs (both are APA 6th carryovers).

Page Setup and Format

The reference list begins on its own page after the body of the paper and any appendices. The word "References" appears centered and in bold at the top of the page. The list is double-spaced throughout, with no extra blank lines between entries.

Every entry uses a hanging indent: the first line of the entry is flush with the left margin, and every subsequent line is indented half an inch. In word processors, you set this through the paragraph formatting menu (Special: Hanging, By: 0.5"), not by pressing Tab. Tabbed indents look correct on screen but break when the document is exported or paginated differently.

The reference list uses the same font and font size as the rest of the paper. Page numbers continue from the body of the paper into the reference list. The page number for the reference list page is not reset to 1.

Order and Alphabetization

Entries are ordered alphabetically by the first author's last name. The rules for handling complications follow a predictable hierarchy:

Multiple works by the same author: ordered chronologically by year of publication, earliest first.
Multiple works by the same author in the same year: ordered alphabetically by title, with lowercase letters added to the year (2024a, 2024b) that match the in-text citations.
Same first author, different second authors: ordered alphabetically by the second author's last name.
Same first author and second author, different third authors: alphabetical by the third author's last name, and so on through the author list.
Single-author entries and multi-author entries with the same first author: single-author entries first, then multi-author entries.
Authors with prefixes (von, de, van, Mac, Mc): alphabetized as they appear in the source, treating "Mac" and "Mc" as if spelled out.
Organization authors: alphabetized by the first significant word in the organization name, ignoring leading articles (a, an, the).
No author: alphabetized by the first significant word of the title, ignoring leading articles.

Multi-Author Rules: The APA 7th Edition Change

APA 7th edition made one of its most consequential changes to the reference list. Under APA 6th, the reference list capped at seven authors. If a source had more than seven, the rule was to list the first six, then an ellipsis, then the final author. Under APA 7th, the cap is raised to twenty authors before the ellipsis kicks in.

Two to twenty authors: list all authors, separated by commas, with an ampersand (&) before the final author. Each author appears as Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial.
Twenty-one or more authors: list the first nineteen authors, then three spaced periods (...), then the final author. Do not use an ampersand before the final author in this case.

For papers in genomics, large clinical trials, and other multi-author fields, this is a meaningful change that's still commonly missed. If your reference template or citation manager hasn't been updated since 2019, it may still be applying the seven-author rule.

Title and Italicization Rules

APA uses sentence case for article titles, book titles, chapter titles, and webpage titles in the reference list. Only the first word, the first word after a colon or em dash, and proper nouns are capitalized. This is one of the most-missed rules because word processors capitalize all major words automatically, and writers don't notice the default is wrong.

Wrong (title case): Aging in Place: Community Design and Health Outcomes

Right (sentence case): Aging in place: Community design and health outcomes

Title case is still used for the names of journals, magazines, and newspapers in the reference list. This is the apparent contradiction that confuses writers: an article title is in sentence case, but the journal that published it is in title case. The same applies to a book chapter (sentence case) appearing in an edited volume whose title is also in sentence case.

Italics apply to the titles of standalone works: books, journals (the journal name, not the article title), magazines, newspapers, reports, and standalone webpages or online documents. Italics do not apply to article titles, chapter titles, or short webpage titles within a larger site. The pattern: italicize the container, not the contained piece.

DOI and URL Formatting

APA 7th updated the formatting of digital identifiers in two ways that often get missed by writers familiar with the 6th edition.

DOIs are formatted as hyperlinks beginning with "https://doi.org/" followed by the unique identifier. The old "doi:" prefix is no longer used.

Wrong (APA 6th): doi:10.1016/j.joep.2017.03.006
Right (APA 7th): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2017.03.006

URLs no longer require "Retrieved from" before them. Just the URL itself. The exception is when a retrieval date is genuinely needed, which applies only to sources designed to change over time (Wikipedia entries, frequently updated dashboards). For static sources, omit the retrieval date and the "Retrieved from" phrase.

Include the DOI if available, even when the source is also accessible via a URL. URLs are used only when no DOI exists.

Reference Formats by Source Type

The reference list format varies by source type. The most common types are covered below with worked examples. Format follows a standard order: author(s), date, title, source information.

Books, single author

Format: Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of book in sentence case. Publisher.

Example: Fisher, P. (2024). Household finance: A practical guide for researchers. University of California Press.

Notice that the publisher location is not included. This is the APA 7th change from APA 6th, which required city and state (or country) before the publisher name.

Books, two to twenty authors

Format: List all authors, separated by commas, with an ampersand before the final author.

Example: Fisher, P., & Yao, R. (2017). Gender differences in financial risk tolerance. Princeton University Press.

Edited books

Format: Editor Last Name, First Initial. (Ed. or Eds.). (Year). Title of book in sentence case. Publisher.

Example: Smith, A., & Patel, M. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook of academic publishing in the social sciences. Routledge.

Chapter in an edited book

Format: Chapter Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of chapter in sentence case. In Editor First Initial. Last Name (Ed. or Eds.), Title of book in sentence case (pp. xx-xx). Publisher.

Example: Hassan, A. (2022). Interventions for adolescent anxiety in school settings. In A. Smith & M. Patel (Eds.), Handbook of academic publishing in the social sciences (pp. 145-167). Routledge.

Notice that the editor's name appears in normal order (First Initial. Last Name), not inverted, when it follows "In." Only the first author of the chapter is inverted.

Journal articles with a DOI

Format: Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal in Title Case, volume(issue), page range. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx

Example: Fisher, P., & Yao, R. (2017). Gender differences in financial risk tolerance. Journal of Economic Psychology, 61, 191-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2017.03.006

The journal name and volume number are italicized; the issue number (in parentheses) is not. Page numbers appear without "p." or "pp." prefixes.

Journal articles without a DOI

If the article has no DOI and is available online, include the URL of the article (not the journal's homepage). If the article is print-only and you accessed it in print, the URL is omitted.

Example (online, no DOI): Smith, A. (2020). Editor selection in academic marketplaces. Journal of Scholarly Communication, 15(2), 45-67. https://www.example.com/article-url

Magazine and newspaper articles

Format: Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year, Month Day). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Publication, page range or URL.

Magazine example: Patel, M. (2024, March 15). The future of peer review. Nature Index, 12(3), 22-28.

Newspaper example: Hassan, A. (2024, June 7). Mental health interventions in rural schools. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/example

Conference papers and presentations

Paper published in proceedings: Jones, R., & Wilson, T. (2023). Bayesian methods in survey research. In Proceedings of the Joint Statistical Meetings (pp. 234-256). American Statistical Association.

Conference presentation (unpublished): Smith, A. (2023, August 7-11). Editor selection in academic marketplaces [Conference presentation]. Joint Statistical Meetings, Toronto, Canada.

Dissertations and theses

From a database: Patel, M. (2022). Adolescent mental health interventions in rural schools (Publication No. 28571234) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Unpublished: Hassan, A. (2024). Cross-cultural validation of depression measurement scales [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of California, Berkeley.

Government and organization reports

Format: Organization Name. (Year). Title of report in sentence case (Report No. xxxx, if applicable). Publisher (if different from author). URL.

Example: U.S. Department of Education. (2023). The condition of education 2023 (Report No. NCES 2023-144). National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/example

Datasets

Format: Author/Organization. (Year). Title of dataset in sentence case (Version, if applicable) [Data set]. Repository. DOI or URL.

Example: Fisher, P. (2024). Survey of Consumer Finances replication data [Data set]. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. https://doi.org/10.3886/example

Websites and online sources

Website references follow the author-date format with the title of the page in italics and sentence case, followed by the site name and URL. Specific formatting varies between webpages, blog posts, journal articles with DOIs hosted online, and online lecture materials. For the full source-type breakdown of online sources with worked examples for each variation, see Editor World's guide to citing a website in APA.

Common APA Reference List Mistakes

The same handful of errors appears in nearly every reference list that comes back marked up. Each one is correctable in a single editing pass.

1. Title case instead of sentence case for article and book titles

Word processors capitalize all major words by default. APA 7th uses sentence case for article and book titles in the reference list. Every reference list needs a manual check for capitalization, because the auto-generated default is almost always wrong.

2. Including the publisher location in book references

APA 6th required the city and state of the publisher before the publisher name. APA 7th drops the location entirely. Just the publisher name appears. This is the most common APA 6th carryover in book references.

3. Stopping at seven authors instead of twenty

APA 6th capped at seven authors before requiring an ellipsis. APA 7th raised the cap to twenty. Citation managers and reference templates that have not been updated since 2019 may still be applying the seven-author rule.

4. Using "Retrieved from" before URLs

APA 6th required "Retrieved from" before URLs in reference list entries. APA 7th removed the phrase except when a retrieval date is genuinely needed (for sources designed to change over time). For static sources, the URL appears alone.

5. Using "doi:" prefix instead of the full URL format

APA 7th formats DOIs as hyperlinks beginning with "https://doi.org/" rather than the older "doi:" prefix. This is one of the small details automated citation tools sometimes still get wrong.

6. Tabbing the hanging indent instead of using paragraph formatting

A hanging indent set with the Tab key looks correct on screen but breaks when the document is exported, paginated differently, or opened in a different program. Always set hanging indents through the paragraph formatting menu, not with manual tabs.

7. Reference list entries that don't match in-text citations

Every entry in the reference list must be cited at least once in the body of the paper, and every in-text citation must have a matching reference list entry. The mismatch usually appears during revision: a paragraph is deleted but the reference stays, or a new source is added to the body without an entry being added to the references.

8. Missing or incorrect italicization

Italics apply to standalone works: books, journals (the journal name), magazines, newspapers, reports, and long-form standalone webpages. Italics do not apply to article titles, chapter titles, or short webpages within a larger site. The pattern: italicize the container, not the contained piece.

When Professional APA Editing Helps

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Frequently Asked Questions About the APA Reference List

How do you format an APA reference list?

The APA reference list begins on its own page after the body of the paper, with the word "References" centered and in bold at the top. Entries are double-spaced throughout, with no extra lines between them. Every entry uses a hanging indent of half an inch: the first line of each entry is flush with the left margin, and every subsequent line is indented. Set hanging indents through the paragraph formatting menu in your word processor, not with the Tab key. The reference list uses the same font and size as the rest of the paper, and page numbers continue from the body without resetting.

How are entries ordered in an APA reference list?

Entries are ordered alphabetically by the first author's last name. Multiple works by the same author are ordered chronologically by year, earliest first. Multiple works by the same author in the same year are distinguished by lowercase letters (2024a, 2024b) added to the year, ordered alphabetically by title. When the first author is the same but later authors differ, alphabetize by the second author's last name, then the third, and so on. Single-author entries come before multi-author entries that share the same first author. Organization authors and works with no author are alphabetized by the first significant word, ignoring leading articles.

How many authors do you list in an APA reference before using an ellipsis?

APA 7th edition lists up to twenty authors in a reference list entry. For sources with twenty-one or more authors, list the first nineteen, then three spaced periods (the ellipsis), then the final author. Don't use an ampersand before the final author when an ellipsis is used. This is a change from APA 6th, which capped at seven authors before the ellipsis. Citation managers and reference templates that haven't been updated since 2019 may still apply the seven-author rule, so verify your reference list against the current edition before submitting.

Should titles be in sentence case or title case in APA?

APA uses sentence case for article titles, book titles, chapter titles, and webpage titles in the reference list. Only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized. Word processors capitalize all major words by default, so the auto-generated formatting is almost always wrong and needs to be corrected manually. Title case is still used for the names of journals, magazines, and newspapers. This produces the apparent contradiction that confuses writers: an article title is in sentence case, but the journal that published it is in title case. The rule applies consistently to all source types.

How do you format a journal article reference in APA 7th edition?

The format is: Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal in Title Case, volume(issue), page range. DOI or URL if applicable. The journal name and volume number are italicized. The issue number, in parentheses, is not italicized. Page numbers appear without "p." or "pp." prefixes. Include the DOI as a hyperlink beginning with "https://doi.org/" whenever one is available. Use the URL of the article (not the journal homepage) only when no DOI exists and the article is available online.

Do you need to include the DOI in APA references?

Yes, include the DOI whenever the source has one. APA 7th treats DOIs as the preferred identifier for digital sources and requires them in reference list entries for journal articles, datasets, and other materials that have one assigned. Format DOIs as hyperlinks beginning with "https://doi.org/" followed by the unique identifier. The older "doi:" prefix used in APA 6th is no longer used. If a source has no DOI, include the URL only when the source is accessible online. For print-only sources, neither a DOI nor a URL is needed.

How do you cite a source with no author in the reference list?

When a source has no identified author, the title moves to the author position in the reference list entry. The entry is alphabetized by the first significant word of the title, ignoring leading articles (a, an, the). Format the title the way you would otherwise: italicized for standalone works such as books and reports, in plain text for articles, chapters, and webpages within a larger site. If the source is explicitly labeled as authored by Anonymous, use the word Anonymous in the author position and alphabetize accordingly.

What is the difference between an APA reference list and an MLA Works Cited?

An APA reference list and an MLA Works Cited both list every source cited in the paper, but they follow different formatting conventions. APA calls it "References" and emphasizes the publication year by placing it in the second position after the author name. MLA calls it "Works Cited" and emphasizes the page location rather than the year. APA uses sentence case for article and book titles; MLA uses title case. APA includes the issue number in journal references; MLA's container system handles journal information differently. For the full side-by-side comparison, see Editor World's article on APA vs MLA format.

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