The biggest changes in the 7th edition are:
The publisher location is no longer included in the reference.
6th ed. Covey, S.R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful
lessons in personal change. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
7th ed. Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful
lessons in personal change. Simon & Schuster.
The in-text citation for works with three or more authors is now shortened right from the first citation. Only include the first author’s name and “et al.”.
6th ed. (Taylor, Kotler, Johnson, & Parker, 2018)
7th ed. (Taylor et al., 2018)
Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors (instead of 7) should be provided in the reference list.
6th ed. Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S.,
Turner, S. T., … Lee, L. H. (2018).
7th ed. Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S.,
Turner, S. T., Lewis, F., Lee, L. H., Cox, G., Harris, H. L., Martin, P.,
Gonzalez, W. L., Hughes, W., Carter, D., Campbell, C., Baker, A. B.,
Flores, T., Gray, W. E., Green, G., … Nelson, T. P. (2018).
DOIs are formatted the same as URLs. The label “DOI:” is no longer necessary.
6th ed. doi: 10.1080/02626667.2018.1560449
7th ed. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2018.1560449
URLs are no longer preceded by “Retrieved from,” unless a retrieval date is needed. The website name is included (unless it’s the same as the author), and web page titles are italicized.
6th ed. Walker, A. (2019, November 14). Germany avoids recession but growth
remains weak. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-
50419127
7th ed. Walker, A. (2019, November 14). Germany avoids recession but growth
remains weak. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50419127
For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g. Kindle) is no longer included in the reference, and the publisher is included.
6th ed. Brück, M. (2009). Women in early British and Irish astronomy: Stars and
satellites [Kindle version]. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2
7th ed. Brück, M. (2009). Women in early British and Irish astronomy: Stars and
satellites. Springer Nature. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2
Inclusive and bias-free language
Writing inclusively and without bias is the new standard, and APA’s new publication manual contains a separate chapter on this topic.
The guidelines provided by APA help authors reduce bias around topics such as gender, age, disability, racial and ethnic identity, and sexual orientation, as well as being sensitive to labels and describing individuals at the appropriate level of specificity. Some examples include:
The singular “they” or “their” is endorsed as a gender-neutral pronoun.
Instead of: A researcher’s career depends on how often he or she is cited.
Use: A researcher’s career depends on how often they are cited.
Instead of using adjectives as nouns to label groups of people, descriptive phrases are preferred.
Instead of: The poor
Use: People living in poverty
Instead of broad categories, you should use exact age ranges that are more relevant and specific.
Instead of: People over 65 years old
Use: People in the age range of 65 to 75 years old
APA Paper format
In the 7th edition, APA decided to provide different paper format guidelines for professional and student papers. For both types a sample paper is included. Some notable changes include:
Increased flexibility regarding fonts: options include Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11.
The running head on the title page no longer includes the words “Running head:”. It now contains only a page number and the (shortened) paper title.
6th ed. Running head: THE EFFECT OF GOOGLE ON THE INTERNET
7th ed. THE EFFECT OF GOOGLE ON THE INTERNET
The running head is omitted in student papers (unless your instructor tells you otherwise).
Mechanics of style
In addition to some updated and better explained guidelines, there are two notable changes:
Use only one space after a period at the end of a sentence.
Use double quotation marks to refer to linguistic examples (e.g. APA endorses the use of the singular pronoun “they”) instead of italics.
APA endorses the use of the singular pronoun they
APA endorses the use of the singular pronoun “they”