Key Changes Between APA 6 and 7

In October 2019, an updated 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association replaced the 6th edition (2009). Some of the most noticeable changes to students are grouped into the tables below according to the following categories: formatting, references, in-text citations, and miscellaneous changes. Each change includes a corresponding number of the pertinent chapter and section in the 7th edition manual.

Of course, the manual itself is the best source for complete APA style guidance. Basic 7th edition guidelines are also available at the official APA Style website (https://apastyle.apa.org/). The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) continues to be a reliable secondary source for APA information.

Format

Format refers to the layout and arrangement of the paper.

Student Paper Option

APA style now has two paper formats—a professional paper, for manuscripts submitted for publication, and a student paper, for class assignments. APA 6 had one format for both purposes. [2.1 and 2.2]

Font and Size

Font options have been expanded beyond 12-point Times New Roman to include several other accessible options (e.g., 11-point Calibri and 11-point Arial). Thus, the editors recommend gauging length requirements by word count rather than number of pages. [2.19]

Title Page

For the student paper, the title page includes course information. A student title page can be seen here. [2.4 and Figure 2.2]

Top Header / Pagination

Only the page number appears in the upper, right-hand corner of each page. Students no longer need to include a shortened title in the upper margin of each page opposite the page number; however, a running head is still part of the professional paper. [2.18]

Abstract

For student papers, current APA guidelines say that an abstract is not usually necessary unless requested by a professor or school. Students should check assignment descriptions, rubrics, and syllabi. However, papers written for publication should contain an abstract. [2.9]

Section Labels

Bold print is now used for labels of the paper’s main sections:

the title both on the title page and before the text of the paper,
the abstract heading (if an abstract is included),
the references page heading, and
page headings on optional sections (e.g., appendices, figures, and tables). [2.28]

Headings Within the Body of the Paper

The 7th edition still has five levels of headings, which can be seen here; however, the formatting of levels three through five have changed from the 6th edition. [2.27 and Table 2.3]

Tables and Figures

Figures should now be labeled with the figure number and title at the top, like tables, rather than at the bottom. In addition, writers have the option to embed tables and figures within the text of the paper rather that placing them at the end. [7.6 and 7.23]

Reference Entries

The reference list is after the text of the paper and includes all sources that the writer cited (borrowed from) in the paper. The four main elements listed for each resource are the author, date, title, and source.

Webpages

The 7th edition includes more guidance for webpage references. [10.16]

When a person is not listed as the author, the manual includes tips for finding the author(s) or groups behind websites. Frequently,
The title of the webpage should be italicized. [9.19]
The name of the website follows the webpage title unless the website name was already listed as the group author. [9.33]
The URL is included as a live link when the paper will be read digitally. The “retrieved from” wording before the URL is no longer necessary. [9.35]

Examples:
- Tomoshige, A. (2020, December 16). Wearing someone else’s face: Hyper-realistic masks to go on sale in Japan. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-masks/wearing-someone-elses-face-hyper-realistic-masks-to-go-on-sale-in-japan-idUSKBN28Q194
- Bellevue University. (n.d.). Writing center. https://www.bellevue.edu/student-support/writing-center/writing-center/

Books

The reference entry for a book no longer requires the place (city and state) of publication. [10.2]

Ballenger, B. (2017). The curious writer (5th ed.). Pearson.

Classroom/Intranet Resources

New APA guidance has a form for referencing material on a password-protected system (e.g., Blackboard) when writing to others who have access to that system. For example, a student might wish to reference a professor’s PowerPoint presentation or lecture that is only available on Blackboard and not on the general internet. To do so, one would format the author, date, and title element in the usual format. However, after the title, the system should be named, followed by the URL for the login page to the system. [8.8]

Catz, J. (2020).Mouse dissection [Video]. Blackboard@BU. https://cyberactive.bellevue.edu/ultra/course

Social Media Sources

Social media resources are among the many new reference examples in the 7th edition. Numerous examples, categorized by type, are available here on the updated APA Style website. [10.1-10.16]

Multiple Authors

All authors should be listed for a source with 20 or fewer authors. Previously, a writer could stop listing authors when the number was greater than seven. [9.8]

Resources from Most Academic Databases

If a resource does not have a digital object identifier (DOI), electronic access information is no longer necessary. Students should not use the URL from the database or a journal’s homepage. [9.34]
DOIs should now be presented as hyperlinks in the following form: https://doi.org/xxxxx [9.35]

In-text Citations

Author-date citations are placed within sentences of quoted or paraphrased material to refer the reader to the correct source on the reference list.

Multiple Authors

The in-text citation of any source with three or more authors uses the first author’s name followed by “et al.” and the date. Previously, writers had to list up to five authors on the first citation and then could use the shortened “et al.” form thereafter. [8.17 and Table 8.1]

Parenthetical citation: (Doe et al., 2019)
Narrative citation: Doe et al. (2019)

Long Paraphrases

New guidance says to include an in-text citation when beginning to paraphrase from a source. If the paraphrasing continues into subsequent sentences, the citation does not need to be repeated as long as contextual clues indicate that the material is continuing from the same source.

If, however, the writer is mixing paraphrased material from more than one source or with personal analysis, additional citations should be used. Additionally, the citation should be repeated if source material continues into other paragraphs. [8.24)

Miscellaneous Changes

Singular They

APA endorses use of singular “they” in lieu of using gender-specific pronouns when the gender of a singular antecedent is unknown. The manual continues to list other work-arounds as well. Previously, APA style required the pronoun to always agree with the antecedent in number. [4.18 and 5.5]

Punctuation

When referring to a letter, word, or words as a linguistic example, use quotation marks rather than italics.

Spacing after End Punctuation

The editors recommend one space after punctuation at the end of a sentence rather than two spaces.

Copyright Attribution

The manual has additional information about formatting a copyright attribution note when, for example, using a table from an outside source or using clipart. Of course, it is still imperative to make sure use complies with copyright law. [12.14-12.18]

References

American Psychological Association. (2019). Publication manual of the American psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

American Psychological Association. (2010).Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).