3 Summary of Changes New to the 7th Edition

The changes listed below are those most relevant to student academic writing. See the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7^th edition, for a complete list of changes (Library copies are available). Section numbers of the book are listed in brackets throughout for additional information. Refer to the APA Style Blog, apastyle.apa.org/blog, for additional updates.

• Different title page requirements for students and professional journal submissions (2.2). Student title page elements include (unless otherwise specified by your professor):
• Title of the paper
• Name of each author of the paper and institutional affiliation
• Course number and name
• Instructor name
• Assignment due date
• Page number
• Note: running heads are no longer required for student papers. If included, the words “Running Head:” is no longer used on the first page (2.2, 2.8)
• Font guidelines are more flexible, as long as the font used is accessible to all users (2.19). Suggested fonts include 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 12-point Times New Roman or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (default for LaTeX).
• Use of the singular “they”, rather than using “he/she” if the gender of the individual is unknown or prefers its use (4.18) Note: your professor may prefer you don’t use the singular “they”.
• Recommended to use one space after a period at the end of a sentence (6.1)
• Changes to in-text citations include:
• All sources with three authors or more are listed using the first author’s name followed by “et al.” (8.17, 8.18)
• Traditional Knowledge and Oral Traditions of Indigenous Peoples are now treated as a distinct source category (8.9)
• Changes to reference list entries include:
• Up to 20 authors should be included in a reference list entry (9.8). If there are more than 20 authors, after the 19^th author’s name place an ellipsis ( . . . ) followed by the final listed author’s name (9.8, 10.1 example 4)
• Digital object identifiers (DOIs) and URLS are both written as hyperlinks for electronic sources, beginning with “http://” or “https://” (9.35)
• Include the word “Retrieved” before a URL or DOI only if a retrieval date is also required e.g. an unarchived online dictionary or encyclopedia or a dynamic online map (9.35, 10.2 example 33 and 10.14 example 100)
• New guidelines around using DOIs and URLs when citing sources obtained from a Library database or online archive (9.30)
• If the publisher and the author are the same, the publisher is omitted altogether; no longer use the word “Author” as a place holder (9.29)
• Do not include publication locations (e.g. Toronto) for books or book chapters (10.2, 10.3)
• For ebooks, do not include the format, platform or device (e.g. Kindle) in the reference (10.2, 10.3)
• Expanded example list including social media, YouTube videos, lecture notes, etc.