How to Cite Every Source Type in APA 7th Edition
Most APA guides show you a book and a website and leave you stuck on everything else — the book chapter, the newspaper story behind a paywall, the government PDF, the dictionary entry, the statute. This guide gives you the exact APA 7th edition reference format for each of those, with a real example you can copy, and the APA Citation Generator builds any of them for you if you’d rather just fill in the fields. Every format below follows the APA Publication Manual, 7th edition (2020).
The pattern behind every APA reference
Almost every APA reference is the same four elements in the same order:
Author. (Date). Title. Source.
- Author — last name, then initials:
Smith, J. A.Use&before the final author (up to 20). - Date —
(2024).for most works;(2024, March 14).when a specific day matters (news, web pages, conference talks);(n.d.)when there is genuinely no date. - Title — italic for works that stand alone (books, reports, whole websites); plain for works that are part of something larger (a chapter, an article, a webpage on a site).
- Source — where it lives: the publisher, the journal, the website name, the URL or DOI.
Once you can see those four slots, the “tricky” sources are just variations on which slot holds what. The differences below are the parts people get wrong.
Books and book chapters
| Source | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Whole book | Author. (Year). Title. Publisher. | Nguyen, T. (2021). Quiet systems. MIT Press. |
| Edited book | Editor (Ed.). (Year). Title. Publisher. | Olsen, R. (Ed.). (2019). Field notes. Routledge. |
| Chapter in an edited book | Author. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. Editor (Ed.), Book title (pp. xx–xx). Publisher. | Park, S. (2020). Memory and place. In J. Lee (Ed.), Urban minds (pp. 45–67). Sage. |
Two things people miss: the chapter title is plain text while the book title is italic, and the editor’s name goes initials-first (J. Lee), the opposite of the author. APA 7th also dropped the publisher location — no more “New York, NY:”.
Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles
These look similar but differ in three details — volume, issue, and what’s italic:
| Source | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Journal article (with DOI) | Author. (Year). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxx | Reed, M. (2022). Flow in writing. Written Communication, 39(2), 210–235. https://doi.org/10.1037/abc123 |
| Magazine article | Author. (Year, Month). Article title. Magazine Name, Volume(Issue), pages. URL | Cole, A. (2023, July). The slow web. Wired, 31(7), 44–49. |
| Newspaper article | Author. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Newspaper Name. URL | Diaz, L. (2024, March 2). City rethinks transit. The Guardian. https://… |
Note the date precision climbs left to right (year → month → full date), the article title stays plain, and the journal/magazine/newspaper name is italic. Newspapers get no volume or issue, and if you read it in print or a database with no stable URL, you stop after the name.
Webpages — the three things that trip people up
A standard webpage is: Author. (Year, Month Day). *Title of page*. Site Name. URL
- No author? Move the title into the author slot:
*Title of page*. (2024, Month Day). Site Name. URL. In text, cite a short title in quotes:("Page Title," 2024). - No date? Use
(n.d.)— not the year you happened to read it. - Group/organization author that’s also the site? List the author once and drop the duplicate site name:
World Health Organization. (2023). *Air quality*. https://...
You only add a retrieval date (Retrieved March 2, 2026, from) when the content is designed to change and isn’t archived — like a live dictionary entry or a Twitter/X profile, not a normal article.
Reports, PDFs, and government documents
There is no “PDF” source type in APA — and this is the single most common mistake. You cite the document by what it is (usually a report), and the fact that it’s a PDF is irrelevant. A report from an organization:
Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). Climate indicators report (EPA No. 430-R-21-001). https://…
The organization is both author and publisher, so you don’t repeat it. Add the report number in parentheses after the italic title if there is one. A government webpage follows the standard webpage rule with the agency as the group author.
The genuinely tricky ones
| Source | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Dissertation/thesis (database) | Author. (Year). Title (Publication No. xxx) [Doctoral dissertation, University]. Database. | Vance, K. (2022). Coastal grammars (Publication No. 30418) [Doctoral dissertation, Univ. of Leeds]. ProQuest. |
| Conference paper | Author. (Year, Month Day–Day). Title [Paper presentation]. Conference Name, Location. URL | Ito, H. (2023, June 5–8). Edge models [Paper presentation]. ACL 2023, Toronto, Canada. |
| Encyclopedia/dictionary entry | Author/Group. (Year). Entry title. In Reference work. Publisher. URL | Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Syntax. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved June 2, 2026, from https://… |
| Online video | Uploader. (Year, Month Day). Title [Video]. YouTube. URL | NASA. (2024, Jan 9). Webb’s first year [Video]. YouTube. https://… |
| Statute (law) | Name of Act, Volume Source § Section (Year). URL | Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 (1990). https://… |
Legal sources are the exception to the four-element pattern — APA borrows the Bluebook style for laws and court cases, so they look different on purpose. When in doubt, the APA Citation Generator keeps these straight.
The reference list and the APA cover page
- Reference list: start on a new page titled References (bold, centered), entries in alphabetical order by first author’s surname, double-spaced, with a hanging indent (first line flush left, the rest indented 0.5”).
- Cover page (student): title in bold, centered, about a third down the page, then on separate lines your name, your university, the course number and name, the instructor, and the due date. The professional version swaps the course block for an author note and adds a running head.
If you’re also assembling the paper, the Word Counter helps you hit an assignment’s length target, and for other styles see the MLA Citation Generator and Chicago Citation Generator.
FAQ
When does APA use “et al.” in the text?
For three or more authors, use the first author’s surname + “et al.” from the very first citation: (Reed et al., 2022). The full author list still appears in the reference entry (up to 20 names).
How do I handle 21 or more authors?
List the first 19 authors, add an ellipsis (…), then the final author’s name — no ampersand before that last one. This is the one place APA caps the list.
What if I’m citing a source I only read about in another source?
Cite the source you actually read and name the original in the text: (Smith, 1999, as cited in Reed, 2022). Only the source you read (Reed) goes in the reference list.
Do I keep the “Retrieved from” wording from APA 6th?
No. APA 7th dropped “Retrieved from” before URLs and DOIs. You only keep a retrieval date for unstable, unarchived content — and even then the wording is “Retrieved [date], from [URL]”.
Is the year the same as the date I accessed the page?
No. The date in parentheses is when the work was published or updated, not when you opened it. If there’s no publication date, use (n.d.), not today’s date.
Stuck on a source that doesn’t fit a template? Drop its details into the APA Citation Generator — it places the authors, italics, dates, and DOI correctly so you can paste a finished reference and get back to writing.