The APA manual was first published in 1974 as a guide to help academic writers communicate clearly and precisely. It covers various components of style and formatting and shows how to properly cite and reference sources.
In October 2019, the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual was released, replacing the 6th edition published in 2009. So, what’s changed? In this blog post, we’ll go over the 10 most significant changes to in-text citations and references, formatting, word choice, and style.
In-text Citations and References
APA’s 7th edition has guidelines that simplify citing online sources. There are more than 100 examples for various media, and there’s a referencing template for each category. Here are some of the key changes to the guidelines:
- When using an in-text citation for works with three or more authors, from the first citation onwards, only the first author’s name and “et al.” are now needed.
✘ (Jameson, Fauci, Kasper, Hauser, Longo, & Loscalzo, 2018)
✔ (Jameson et al., 2018)
- The publisher location is no longer required in the reference entry.
✘ Chambers, C. (2020). Small Pleasures. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
✔ Chambers, C. (2020). Small Pleasures. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
- You no longer need to precede URLs by “Retrieved from,” unless a date of retrieval is necessary. The website name should now be included (unless it is identical to the author) and italicized.
✘ Mucke, V. (2022, January 16). 5 books to grow as a leader in Data Analytics [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://towardsdatascience.com/5-books-to-grow-as-a-leader-in-data-analytics-e16b31a5925a
✔ Mucke, V. (2022, January 16). 5 books to grow as a leader in Data Analytics. Towards Data Science. https://towardsdatascience.com/5-books-to-grow-as-a-leader-in-data-analytics-e16b31a5925a
- The platform or device used for eBooks (e.g., Kindle, Google Books) is no longer required. You should instead include the publisher.
✘ Shelley, M. W. (1869). Frankenstein; or, the modern Prometheus. [Google Books edition]. https://books.google.com/books?id=2Zc3AAAAYAAJ&dq=frankenstein&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=frankenstein&f=false
✔ Shelley, M. W. (1869). Frankenstein; or, the modern Prometheus. Sever, Francis, & Co. https://books.google.com/books?id=2Zc3AAAAYAAJ&dq=frankenstein&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=frankenstein&f=false
Formatting
APA 7 also has revised guidelines for the format of student and professional papers. Here are some significant changes:
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- An increased range of fonts is permitted.
Arial 11, Calibri 11, Georgia 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, and Times New Roman 12 are all now accepted.
- The running head is no longer required for student papers.
- The words “Running head” are no longer required on the running head of the title page of professional papers.
✘ Running head: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND EATING DISORDERS
✔ THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND EATING DISORDERS
Language
APA 7 also includes guidelines on how to make language more inclusive. The most notable change to word choice is:
- “They” or “their” is now approved as a singular gender-neutral pronoun.
✘ If a speech-language pathologist is said to be fully qualified, it means he or she has undertaken the necessary training.
✔ If a speech-language pathologist is said to be fully qualified, it means they have undertaken the necessary training.
Style
There are two key alterations to the style guidelines in APA 7:
- Only one space is required after a period at the end of a sentence.
- Double quotation marks, rather than italics, should be used when referring to a linguistic example.
✘ The phrase at the end of the day was once named Britain’s most annoying common office cliché.
✔ The phrase “at the end of the day” was once named Britain’s most annoying common office cliché.
For a more extensive list of all the changes in APA 7, check out this official tutorial.
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