APA 7 formatting guide for theses

In-text citations

APA uses the author–date system: every citation in the text gives the author’s surname and the year, and points to exactly one entry in the reference list. Citations are either parenthetical (everything inside brackets at the end of the clause) or narrative (the author is part of your sentence and only the year is in brackets).

The biggest change from the sixth edition: for three or more authors, use the first author plus “et al.” from the very first citation. There is no longer a rule about listing all names the first time.

Rules that come up in every thesis

• Ampersand or “and”. Use “&” inside brackets and in tables; spell out “and” in running text.
• Direct quotations need a page number: (Rao, 2021, p. 48) or (Rao, 2021, pp. 48–49). For sources without pages, use a paragraph number or section name: (Menon, 2020, para. 4).
• Several works in one bracket go in alphabetical order, separated by semicolons: (Iyer, 2019; Menon & Das, 2022; Rao et al., 2021).
• Same author, same year: add letters after the year, as in (Rao, 2021a, 2021b), and use the same letters in the reference list.
• No date: (Rao, n.d.).
• Secondary sources: cite the work you actually read, for example (Kumar, 1998, as cited in Rao, 2021), and list only Rao (2021) in the references. Use sparingly; examiners prefer that you read the original.
• Same “et al.” form for different works: if two different papers would both shorten to “Rao et al., 2021”, write out as many names as needed to tell them apart.
• Personal communications (interviews, emails, lectures you attended) are cited in the text only and do not appear in the reference list.

Reference list basics

The reference list starts on a new page under the bold, centred label References. Entries are double-spaced, in alphabetical order by first author’s surname, with a 0.5-inch hanging indent. Each entry has four parts in the same order: author, date, title, source.

• Authors: surname, then initials. Include up to 20 authors, with “&” before the last. For 21 or more, list the first 19, then an ellipsis, then the final author (no ampersand).
• Titles of articles and chapters: sentence case, not italic. Titles of books, reports, theses and datasets: sentence case, italic. Journal names: title case, italic, with the volume number also italic.
• DOIs are written as URLs: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx. Do not write “doi:” and do not add “Retrieved from” before a URL.
• Publisher location is no longer included for books.
• If the author and publisher are the same organisation, give the name once, as author.

Reference examples by source type

The patterns below use placeholder names. Italics are shown as they should appear.

Journal article with a DOI

Rao, P. K., Menon, S., & Das, A. (2021). Title of the article in sentence case: Subtitle after a colon. Journal Name in Title Case, 14(3), 215–232. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxxx

The issue number (3) is in brackets and not italic. If the article has an article number instead of page numbers, write “Article e0209899” in place of the page range. No DOI? Use the journal’s URL for the article if it is openly available; otherwise end after the page range.

Authored book

Iyer, R. (2019). Title of the book: Subtitle (2nd ed.). Publisher Name. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

A real example, as given by APA for its own manual (author and publisher are the same, so the publisher is omitted):

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Chapter in an edited book

Menon, S., & Das, A. (2020). Title of the chapter. In R. Iyer & K. Nair (Eds.), Title of the edited book (pp. 101–124). Publisher Name. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Editors’ initials come before surnames here, unlike authors.

Web page

Organisation Name. (2024, March 5). Title of the web page. Site Name. https://www.example.org/page

Omit the site name when it is the same as the author. Add a retrieval date (“Retrieved May 2, 2026, from https://…”) only for pages designed to change over time, such as a live dashboard.

Dataset

Organisation Name. (2022). Title of the dataset (Version 2.1) [Data set]. Publisher or Repository Name. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Doctoral thesis or dissertation

Kumar, V. (2023). Title of the thesis [Doctoral dissertation, Name of University]. Name of Database or Archive. https://…

For a thesis you consulted in print or that is not in any database, use “[Unpublished doctoral dissertation]” and give the university as the source. Theses on Shodhganga follow the first pattern, with Shodhganga as the archive.

Conference paper

Das, A. (2022, December 8–10). Title of the paper [Paper presentation]. Name of the Conference, City, Country. https://…

A paper published in formal proceedings is cited like a journal article (if the proceedings appear in a journal) or like a chapter in an edited book (if they are published as a book).

Report from an organisation

Name of Ministry or Organisation. (2021). Title of the report (Report No. 12). https://…

Headings: levels 1 to 5

APA 7 uses five heading levels. All are bold; levels 3 and 5 are also italic. Use them in order: a level 3 heading only appears under a level 2. Do not add a heading called “Introduction” at the start of the paper; the paper’s title does that job.

In a thesis, chapter titles are usually governed by the university format (often “CHAPTER 1” with a title below), and APA levels apply to the headings inside each chapter. Decide on this mapping at the start and apply it throughout. Numbered headings (1.1, 1.2.1) are not APA, but many universities require them; if yours does, keep the numbering and use the APA formatting for the text.

Tables and figures

Tables and figures share a structure: a bold number (Table 1, Figure 1), a title on the next line in italic title case, the body, then any note below. Both the number and the title go above the table or figure.

• Number tables and figures separately, in the order they are first mentioned in the text. Every table and figure must be referred to in the text (“as Table 3 shows”).
• Tables use horizontal rules only, with no vertical lines and no shading unless it carries meaning.
• Notes can be general (“Note. Data from…”), specific (superscript letters on particular cells) or probability notes (* p < .05).
• If you reproduce or adapt a table or figure from another source, the note must say so and cite it (“Adapted from…”). Reproducing a copyrighted figure may also need the publisher’s permission.
• They can be embedded in the text after they are first mentioned, or placed on separate pages after the references. Theses almost always embed them, but check your university format.

Statistical reporting follows APA too: italicise statistical symbols (M, SD, t, F, p), and omit the leading zero for values that cannot exceed 1, such as p = .032.

Student paper or professional paper?

The seventh edition introduced separate formats for student papers (coursework) and professional papers (manuscripts for journals).

For a PhD thesis, neither title page applies, because your university prescribes its own. For a journal submission, use the professional format unless the journal’s author guidelines say otherwise; many journals adapt APA and their guidelines take precedence.

General layout for both: 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins, double spacing, a legible font used consistently (APA lists options such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 11-point Georgia and 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode), paragraphs indented 0.5 inch, and left-aligned text with a ragged right margin rather than full justification.

Common mistakes we correct in theses

These account for most of the APA corrections we make during editing. Each is easy to check yourself.

• Citation and reference list don’t match. A source cited in the text but missing from the list, or listed but never cited, or with a different year in each place. Check every citation against the list before submission.
• Old sixth-edition habits: listing all authors at first citation, publisher cities, “Retrieved from”, “doi:” prefixes.
• “et al” without the full stop after “al”, or “et. al.” with a stray full stop after “et”.
• “&” in running text (“Rao & Menon found…”). Use “and” outside brackets.
• Title case for article titles in the reference list. Article and chapter titles take sentence case; only journal names take title case.
• Missing or wrong italics. The journal volume should be italic, the issue number should not.
• Numbered or unsorted reference list. APA lists are alphabetical and unnumbered.
• Reference manager output taken on trust. Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote are excellent, but imported metadata often has wrong capitalisation, missing issue numbers or the journal name in capitals. Proofread the list by eye.

If you need the whole thesis checked for citation consistency, that is part of our thesis editing and proofreading. If your field uses numbered references instead, see the IEEE citation guide.