The 7th edition of APA’s Publication Manual is now available. As stated on the APA Style blog, “The transition to seventh edition APA Style will not happen overnight. Although the new Publication Manual was released in October 2019, we anticipate that most students and professionals will start using seventh edition style in the spring semester of 2020 or thereafter.” Reynolds Libraries will update its Citation Style: APA LibGuide by the early part of next year. Below are some highlights of the new changes:
Formatting changes:
- New guidelines for formatting student papers
- More options for choosing a font size and style (other than Times New Roman 12) as long as the fonts are legible and widely available
- One space after sentence period
- More quotations will be used rather than italicizing words
- In-text citations – if a source was written by 3 or more authors, you can use et al.
More Citation examples:
- The new manual includes more citation examples that include classroom material, Intranet sources, and social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
eBooks and articles database:
- Continue to use the DOI # for journal articles that include a DOI #.
- Journal articles without a DOI # including eBooks, magazine and newspaper articles found in a database should be treated as print works. Do not list the database name or the URL of the publisher’s home page. Only include database information in the reference if the source comes from a database that publishes original, proprietary content, such as UpToDate. For an explanation of this change, click here.
Hyperlinks/URLs:
- Present both DOIs and URLs as hyperlinks (i.e., beginning with “http:” or “https:” – https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185).
- Because a hyperlink leads readers directly to the content, it is no longer necessary to include the words “Retrieved from” or “Accessed from” before a DOI or URL.
- It is acceptable to use either the default display settings for hyperlinks in your word-processing program (e.g., usually blue font, underlined) or plain text that is not underlined.
- Leave links live if the work is to be published or read online.
Publisher information:
- Publisher location is no longer necessary (same as MLA guidelines)
Help Tools:
- Reynolds Libraries will be ordering the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual which will be made available at each campus library.
- APA is planning to develop a tutorial on the 7th edition changes which should be made available sometime in 2020.
- The APA Style website has been recently updated to include the 7th edition changes – https://apastyle.apa.org/. Check out the information under “Style and Grammar Guidelines” and “Instructional Aids.”
- APA style questions can be sent via email to StyleExpert@apa.org
- The Concise Guide to APA Style for Students will be available in December 2019. “This easy-to-use pocket guide is adapted from the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association and is designed specifically for undergraduate writing.”
