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Guide: Nursing Resources: APA 7 (New)

Resources for Nursing Students and Faculty

Citation Tools & Managers

APA Paper Formatting

Click the links below for paper formatting guides, sample papers, and reference list guides

APA Guides

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).  https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Major changes from APA 6

  • Only one space after periods.
  • Acceptable font options now include: Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11
  • No location/city needed for book or book chapter citations.
  • No running heads for student papers.
  • The first in-text citation for 3 or more authors no longer includes all the authors, just the first and et al.
  • Write out all authors for a citation if 20 or less authors on a single citation. Shorten citation only with 21 authors or more.

General Rules

Authors

One author: Last Name, A.A.

Two authors: Last Name, A.A., & Last Name, B.B.

Three to Twenty authors: Last Name, A.A., Last Name, B.B., Last Name, C.C., Last Name, D.D., Last Name, E.E., 

Twenty one or more authors: list first 19 authors, add a three dot ellipse, then the last author

A group or corporate author: Spell the name out.

In Text Citations

In-text citations for direct quotes require citing a specific part of a source. This typically includes page numbers or paragraph numbers, but could include chapters, verses, line, tables, slides, or even the tme stamp for a video. Examples for single and multiple pages and paragraphs are listed below. For more examples, see page. 264 of the Publication Manual. 

Author Type In-text citation In-text citation (author mentioned in the text)
One author (Luna, 2020, p. 3) Luna (2020) rest of the sentence (p.3).
Two authors (Salas & D'Agostino, 2020, pp. 1-4) Salas & D'Agostino (2020) rest of the sentence (pp. 1-4).
Three or more authors (Martin et al., 2020, p. 2) Martin et al. (2020) rest of the sentence (p. 2)
Group author (with abbreviation)

(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020, paras. 2-3)

*all references after the first

(NIMH, 2020, paras. 2-3)

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2020, paras. 2-3)

*all references after the first 

NIMH (2020) rest of the sentence (paras. 2-3).
Group author (without abbreviation) (Stanford University, 2020, p. 1) Stanford University (2020) rest of the sentence (p.1).

Citations with missing elements

Missing element Reference list  *(just  the order of the first elements, format the rest for that source type) In-text citation
Author Title. (Date). Source

(Title, year) 
Date Author. (n.d.). Title. Source.

(Author, n.d.)
Title Author. (Date). [Description of work]. Source. (Author, year)
Author and date Title. (n.d.). Source. (Title, n.d.)

Reference List

  • The References page is a list of the works you used to write your paper.
  • Double-space the entire page.
  •  Alphabetize entries by the author’s last name. If no author, alphabetize by title.
  • The first line of each entry should be flush with the left margin. Subsequent lines are indented one-half inch (a single tab).