Guide to What's New in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, APA Style 7th Edition

Guide to What’s New in the

Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association, Seventh Edition

This document provides an overview of what’s new in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association. Content throughout the manual has been significantly expanded and revised from the

sixth edition.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 has new and updated content on scholarly

writing and publishing principles. This includes infor-

mation about

• types of journal articles and student papers,

• ethical and accurate reporting of research results,

• data retention and sharing (with additional data-

sharing considerations for qualitative research),

• contributions meriting publication credit,

• authors’ intellectual property rights during

manuscript review, and

• much more.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 covers paper elements and formatting for

both professional and student papers. The summa-

ries of Publication Manual sections outlined here focus

mostly on changes that affect student paper format-

ting, though signicant changes to professional papers

are also noted.

A sample professional paper and a sample student

paper are available on the APA Style website and in

the manual.

2.3 Title Page

NEW

The seventh edition includes guidelines for student paper

title page formatting that are different from professional

paper title page formatting. Student title page elements

include the course number and name, instructor name,

and assignment due date as well as the omission of the

running head. Students should follow the guidelines of

their instructor or institution when determining which title

page format is most appropriate to use. Sample student

and professional title pages are provided in the manual

(Figures 2.2 and 2.3) and in the title page guidelines on

the APA Style website.

2.4 Title

EXPANDED

The title of the paper should be in title case, bold,

centered, and positioned in the upper half of the title

page. See this section for additional guidelines.

2.5 Author Name (Byline)

EXPANDED

This section includes clearer instructions on how to

format a byline.

2.6 Author Affiliation

REVISED

Affiliations for authors working at different institutions

now use a superscript format that involves using Arabic

numerals to connect author names to the appropriate

affiliations. For all authors, academic affiliations should

include the name of any department or division and the

name of the institution, separated by a comma. It is not

necessary to include the location of the institution unless

the location is part of the institution’s name.

Details and additional examples of affiliations are avail-

able on the APA Style website.

2.7 Author Note

REVISED

An author note is not required for student papers,

unless requested by an instructor. This revised section

includes information for authors of professional papers

about how to format the author note and new content

to be included (i.e., ORCID iDs, study registration,

open sharing practices).

2.8 Running Head

REVISED

• A running head is not required on student papers,

unless requested by an instructor.

• Professional manuscripts still include a running

head of 50 characters or fewer. The words “Running

head:” no longer appear as a label on the rst page.

• See the professional sample paper on the APA

Style website for examples of the seventh edition

running head.

2.9 Abstract

REVISED

An abstract is not required for student papers, unless

requested by an instructor. This revised section

includes guidelines for formatting abstracts, including

structured abstracts.

2.10 Keywords

NEW

Keywords are not required for student papers, unless

requested by an instructor. This section includes guidance

about how to format keywords in professional papers.

2.11 Text (Bo

dy)

EXPANDED

This section describes how to format the text of the

paper, including considerations for

paper organization.

The paper title appears at the top of the first page of

the text in bold and centered.

2.12 Reference List

REVISED

This section describes how to format the reference list.

The label “References” is now bold.

2.13 Footnotes

EXPANDED

This section has instructions on how to create a call-

out to a footnote in the text, number footnotes, and

format footnotes listed on a separate page.

2.14 Appendices

EXPANDED AND REVISED

This section has clearer guidance on how to label and

format different types of appendices. The label

“Appendix” is now bold.

2.15 Supplemental Materials

EXPANDED AND NEW

This section includes examples of and considerations

for content in supplemental materials as well as new

suggestions for making content accessible for all users.

2.17 Order of Pages

EXPANDED

This section outlines the order of pages in a paper,

including a more flexible placement of tables and

figures: either embedded in the text after they are first

called out or on separate pages after the reference list.

See also information on the order of pages on the APA

Style website.

2.18 Page Header

EXPANDED AND REVISED

This section includes instructions on where to place

elements in the page header and details revised

elements tailored to meet the different needs of

papers for professionals (page number and running

head) and students (page number only). See also infor-

mation on page headers on the APA Style website.

2.19 Font

EVISED

• Font guidelines are more exible. This revised

section notes that “APA Style papers should

be written in a font that is accessible to all

users.” Section 2.19 provides the following font

recommendations:

a sans serif font such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point

Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode or

a serif font such as 12-point Times New Roman,

11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer

Modern (the latter is the default font for LaTeX).

• Students and other authors may choose other fonts,

as needed, but should keep accessibility in mind

when doing so. The APA Style website contains

further discussion of font and accessible typography.

• Because different fonts take up different amounts

of space on the page, we recommend using word

count rather than page count to gauge paper

length (see Section 2.25 for more information about

paper length).

2.21 Line Spacing

EXPANDED

General guidance to double-space the paper is

provided, followed by line spacing for specific paper

sections: title page, table body, figure image, foot-

notes, and displayed equations. Do not add lines

before or after headings or between paragraphs.

2.22 Ma

rgins

EXPANDED

The section on margins addresses possible adjust-

ments needed for margins in dissertations and theses

compared to journal articles. See also information on

margins on the APA Style website.

2.23 Paragraph Alignment

EXPANDED

•

This section describes how to align paragraphs to

the left margin. See also information on paragraph

alignment on the APA Style website.

• Formatting of long DOIs or URLs is outlined: (a) line

breaks should not be manually inserted, and (b)

breaks applied automati cally by a word-processing

program are permissible.

2.24 Paragraph Indentation

EXPANDED

This section describes guidance for paragraph inden-

tation as well as exceptions needing different inden-

tation: title page, abstract, section labels, appendix

labels and titles, headings, block quotations, tables

and figures, and reference entries. See also infor-

mation on paragraph indentation on the APA Style

website.

2.25 Paper Length

EXPANDED AND NE

This section includes a recommendation to use word

count rather than page count to determine paper

length when possible. When using word count,

count

all words in text, references,

table bodies,

table and

figure notes, and appendices.

2.26 Principles of Organization

EXPANDED

This section includes a discussion of how and why to use

headings to effectively organize and structure a paper.

2.27 Headings

REVISED

The following table demonstrates how to format head-

ings in seventh edition APA Style. All headings are

bold; Levels 3 and 5 are also italic.

Level Seventh Edition Format

Centered, Bold, Title Case Heading

Text begins indented as a new paragraph.

Flush Left, Bold, Title Case Heading

Text begins indented as a new paragraph.

Flush Left, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading

Text begins indented as a new paragraph.

Indented, Bold, Title Case Heading, Ending

With a Period. Text begins on the same line and

continues as a regular paragraph.

Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading,

Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same

line and continues as a regular paragraph.

For more details about how to format headings,

including headings in the introduction of a paper, see

information about headings and headings in sample

papers on the APA Style website.

2.28 Section Labels

REVISED

• All section labels (e.g., “Author Note,” “Abstract,”

“References”) are now bold.

• The chapter ends with full samples of both student

and professional papers with labels to show how

specific elements appear when implemented and

where in the manual to find more information.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 orients writers to journal article reporting

standards (JARS) and includes tables outlining stan-

dards for reporting quantitative, qualitative, and mixed

methods research.

• JARS was signicantly updated to provide

guidance for not only quantitative research but also

qualitative and mixed methods research.

• Substantial content in Chapter 3 and throughout

the Publication Manual addresses the unique needs

of qualitative and mixed methods researchers.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 provides guidance on writing style and

grammar. Guidance has been updated and expanded

and new examples added throughout.

• The singular “they” is endorsed, consistent with

inclusive usage. Details and examples are in Section

4.18 as well as in the blog post on singular “they.”

• Improved guidance and specic examples help

authors determine what does and does not

constitute anthropomorphism (see Section 4.11).

• Expanded and new sections outline strategies

anyone can use to improve their writing.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 presents bias-free language guidelines.

General guidelines for writing about all people with

inclusivity and respect have been updated.

• Guidance has been updated to reect

best practices for discussing the following

characteristics:

age (Section 5.3)

disability (Section 5.4)

gender (Section 5.5)

racial and ethnic identity (Section 5.7)

sexual orientation (Section 5.8)

• New guidance is provided for discussing:

participation in research (Section 5.6)

socioeconomic status (Section 5.9)

intersectionality (Sec tion 5.10)

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 covers the mechanics of style, including

punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, numbers,

and statistics in text. Examples have been updated

throughout the chapter. Key changes are as follows:

• Use one space after a period (or other punctuation)

at the end of a sentence.

• Use double quotation marks to refer to a letter,

word, phrase, or sentence as a linguistic example or

as itself. See Section 6.7 and as well as the guidance

on quotation marks on the APA Style website.

EXAMPLES:

the letter “m”

the singular “they”

answered “yes” or “no”

Instead of referring to someone as a “defective

child,” talk about a “child with a congenital

disability” or a “child with a birth impairment.”

Students wrote “I promise to uphold the honor

code” at the top of the test page.

• Use double quotation marks to present stimuli in the

text (long lists of stimuli may be better presented in

a table, where quotation marks are not needed).

EXAMPLE:

The stimulus words were “garden,” “laundry,”

“briefcase,” and “salary.”

• Spelling in APA Style papers should conform to

the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Spellings

of psychological terms should conform to the APA

Dictionary of Psychology. If a word appears differently

in these two dictionaries, follow the spelling in the

APA Dictionary of Psychology. If a word is not in

either of these dictionaries, consult an unabridged

edition of Webster’s dictionary. If the dictionary offers

a choice of spellings, select one spelling and use it

consistently throughout your paper.

• Section 6.11 species preferred spellings for

common technology words, including “internet”

(lowercase “i”), “email” (no hyphen), “ebook” (no

hyphen), and others.

• Expanded guidance is provided on the

capitalization of proper nouns, job titles, diseases

and disorders, and more (see Sections 6.13–6.21).

• Guidelines for the presentation of abbreviations

have been revised and expanded to address

common questions, such as how to include a

citation with an abbreviation and how to use

scientic and Latin abbreviations.

• New guidance is given on how to write gene and

protein names and abbreviations (see Section 6.31).

• Guidelines for the presentation of numbers have

been updated to be consistent throughout a work

(e.g., there is no longer an exception for presenting

numbers in an abstract).

• Updated guidelines allow greater exibility for

lettered, numbered, and bulleted lists (see Sections

6.49–6.52). Bulleted lists do not need to be

punctuated as though they are complete sentences.

Chapter 7

• Chapter 7 includes expanded and revised guidance

on creating tables and gures and new samples

showing a range of basic and complex table and

gure types.

• Authors may place tables and gures in the paper

either after the reference list on separate pages

or embedded in the text near where they are rst

called out.

• The accessible use of color in gures is addressed

(see Section 7.26).

• A table checklist is included in Section 7.20. A

gure checklist is included in Section 7.35.

• Tables and gures are now parallel: the formatting

of numbers, titles, and notes is consistent across

both (as outlined below).

Tables

• Bold the word “Table” and the number: Table 1

• The table title is in title case and italics.

• A diagram that illustrates the basic table

components is available online and in Section 7.9.

Figures

• Bold the word “Figure” and the number: Figure 1

• Figures now have titles, just like tables.

• The gure title is in title case and italics.

• Figures now have notes (instead of a caption) that

follow the same guidelines as table notes. Figures

can have general, specic, and probability notes.

• A diagram that illustrates the basic gure

components is available online and in Section 7.23

The APA Style website also contains many sample

tables and sample gures in seventh edition APA Style.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 addresses appropriate levels of citation as

well as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other unethical

writing practices.

• New guidance is provided on how to cite recorded

or unrecorded Traditional Knowledge and Oral

Traditions of Indigenous Peoples (see Section 8.9).

• New guidance is provided on how to format quotations

from research participants (see Section 8.36).

• Information about plagiarism and self-plagiarism

has been updated (see Sections 8.2 and 8.3).

• An example of how to format epigraphs is now

included (see Section 8.35).

• In-text citations have been simplied and made

easier: For works with three or more authors,

include the name of only the rst author and the

abbreviation “et al.” in every in-text citation, even

the rst time a citation appears.

Sixth edition style: First citation: Smith, Ellenio,

and Pruitt (2019) or (Smith, Ellenio, & Pruitt,

2019); subsequent citation: Smith et al. (2019) or

(Smith et al., 2019)

Seventh edition style: Both rst and subsequent

citations: Smith et al. (2019) or (Smith et al., 2019)

See details and examples of narrative and paren-

thetical in-text citations on the APA Style website.

When multiple references would shorten to the

same “et al.” abbreviation, disambiguate them

by spelling out as many author names as needed

to differentiate the citations and match them

to their reference list entry. These and other

guidelines (outlined in Sections 8.10–8.22) about

in-text citations are unchanged from the sixth

edition. Some details for in-text citations can be

found online as well.

Chapters 9–10

Chapters 9 and 10 work together; Chapter 9 contains

guidance, and Chapter 10 has the reference examples.

Chapter 9 includes

• expanded guidelines for creating references,

with specic sections focusing on each reference

element (author, date, title, and source) as well as

the format and order of a reference list

• new guidelines for formatting annotated

bibliographies

• updated guidance on when to include DOIs and

URLs for works retrieved from most academic

research databases as well as from proprietary

databases such as ERIC or UpToDate

Chapter 10 provides

• more than 100 new examples of APA Style

references grouped by category (periodicals,

books, book chapters, reports, dissertations, social

media, websites, etc.)

• templates in each category, so readers can

understand the building blocks needed to create a

reference for any type of work

• corresponding parenthetical and narrative in-text

citations for each reference

New Guidelines for All Reference Types

The number of authors included in a reference entry

has changed:

• Provide surnames and initials for up to and

including 20 authors. When there are two to 20

authors, use an ampersand before the nal author’s

name: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.

• When there are 21 or more authors, include the

rst 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis (but no

ampersand), and then add the nal author’s name.

EXAMPLE WITH 21+ AUTHORS

Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W.,

Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White,

G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W.,

Higgins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K. C., Ropelewski,

C., Wang, J., Leetmaa, A., . . . Joseph, D. (1996).

The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bulle-

tin of the American Meteorological Society, 77(3),

437– 471. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1996)0

77%3C0437:TNYRP%3E2.0.CO;2

For more on why this change was made, see the blog

post on the number of authors to include in a reference.

• The presentation of DOIs and URLs has been

standardized.

Both are presented as hyperlinks.

The label “DOI:” is no longer used before a DOI.

DOIs should begin with the prex https://doi.org/

The words “Retrieved from” are used before a

URL only when a retrieval date is also needed;

otherwise, URLs are presented without a label.

The APA Style website also contains guidance

on DOIs and URLs.

• For any reference with a publisher or a site name:

When the author name and the publisher are an

exact match, the publisher is omitted.

The word “Author” is no longer included

in the source element of the reference as a

replacement as in the sixth edition.

EXAMPLE

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diag-

nostic and statistical manual of mental disor-

ders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.

books.9780890425596

NOT

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnos-

tic and statistical manual of mental disorders

(5th ed.). Author. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.

books.9780890425596

NOT

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnos-

tic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th

ed.). American Psychiatric Association. https://

doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596

The author name in this reference (American Psychi-

atric Association) is also the name of the publisher, so

the name appears only once in the reference (in the

author element). The source element of the reference

includes only the DOI.

• The seventh edition includes expanded guidelines

and examples for citing works that are written in

another language (see Sections 9.38 and 9.39 as

well as the examples in Chapter 10).

10.1 Journal Articles

• When an issue number is present, always include it

(in parentheses and not italicized) after the volume

number.

EXAMPLE

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., &

Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A

comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic

and racial groups in the United States. Psychol-

ogy of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217.

https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

• If a journal uses article numbers, include the word

“Article” and the number instead of any page range.

EXAMPLE

Burin, D., Kilteni, K., Rabuffetti, M., Slater, M., &

Pia, L. (2019). Body ownership increases the

interference between observed and executed

movements. PLOS ONE, 14(1), Article e0209899.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209899

10.2 and 10.3 Books and Book Chapters

• Do not include physical locations for publishers

in any reference type. Whereas a sixth edition

reference included “Washington, DC: SAGE.,” a

seventh edition reference now says only “SAGE.”

EXAMPLES

With a DOI:

Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.).

American Psychological Association. https://doi.

org/10.1037/0000092-000

Without a DOI:

Burgess, R. (2019). Rethinking global health: Frame-

works of power. Routledge.

• For ebooks, the format, platform, or device

(e.g., Kindle) is not included in the reference. For

audiobooks, include the narrator and audiobook

notation only in specic cases (see Examples 22

and 29).

• Religious works and ancient Greek or Roman works

are cited in the text (see Section 9.42 and Examples

35–36 in Chapter 10).

10.4 Reports and Gray literature

• Reports follow a standard format. Examples are

given for government and other reports written by

an agency, individuals, or a task force.

• This category also includes examples for annual

reports, press releases, codes of ethics, grants,

and more.

10.5–10.16 Other Reference Types

New examples are included for dissertations, TED

Talks, TV series, webinars, YouTube and other stream-

ing videos, albums, songs, podcast episodes, radio

interviews and speech audio recordings, albums and

songs, artwork in a museum, clip art or stock images,

infographics, photographs, PowerPoint slides or

lecture notes, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit,

webpages on news websites, and many more.

The APA Style website contains additional reference

examples.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 presents expanded guidance and updated

examples for more types of legal references. Guide-

lines from The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation

continue to be the foundation for APA Style legal refer-

ences, with some modications.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12 provides guidance on the publication

process.

• New content helps early career researchers adapt

a dissertation or thesis into a journal article or

articles, select a journal for publication, avoid

predatory or deceptive publishers, and navigate

journal submission.

• Sections on understanding the editorial publication

process illuminate the role of editors, the peer

review process, and criteria for evaluating

manuscripts.

• Sections 12.9 to 12.13 describe how to prepare a

manuscript for submission, how to use an online

submission portal, how to write a cover letter, and

more.

• Sections 12.14 to 12.18 on copyright and

permissions include general guidelines for

reprinting or adapting materials and information

about copyright and fair use.

• New guidance helps authors share and promote

their work following publication.

SOURCE: American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American

Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000