APA Style Guide 7th Edition--Frequently Asked Question and Updates: APA 7th Ed.--Information for Nursing Students

Important:  If you have ever have questions or concerns about your formatting, please consult with your professor or your librarian.

References and in-text citations in APA Style

• Publisher location is no longer included in the reference.
• In-text citation for works with three or more authors is now shortened right from the first citation. You only include the first author’s name and “et al.”.
• Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors (instead of 7) should be provided in the reference list.
• DOIs are formatted the same as URLs. The label “DOI:” is no longer necessary.
• 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.
• For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g. Kindle) is no longer included in the reference, and the publisher is included.
• Clear guidelines are provided for including contributors other than authors and editors. For example, when citing a podcast episode, the host of the episode should be included; for a TV series episode, the writer and director of that episode are cited.
• Dozens of examples are included for online source types such as podcast episodes, social media posts, and YouTube videos. The use of emojis and hashtags is also explained.

Inclusive and bias-free language

• The singular “they” or “their” is endorsed as a gender-neutral pronoun.
• Instead of using adjectives as nouns to label groups of people, descriptive phrases are preferred.
• Instead of broad categories, you should use exact age ranges that are more relevant and specific.

APA Paper format

• 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.
• The running head is omitted in student papers (unless your instructor tells you otherwise).
• Heading levels 3-5 are updated to improve readability.

Mechanics of style

• Use only one space after a period at the end of a sentence.
• Use double quotation marks instead of italics to refer to linguistic examples.

• Citation help from John B Coleman
• Another libguide to APA changes
• Accessing Library Resources
• Accessing Reference and Information Services Resources
• An introduction to Nursing search strategies
• Health: Academic Library Resources
• MEDLINE, PubMed & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
• Mental Health Research and Resources: Helpful Databases for Mental Health Research
• National Library of Medicine Resources
• Refworks

A list of useful links and a downloadable PowerPoint

• A downloadable PDF quick reference guide to the APA 7th edition is here.
• Faculty Focus - discusses changes to the APA.
• Update from MyBib.
• YouTube presentation from the American Psychological Association is available here.
• Resources from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) can be found here.
• Lecture slides based on Scribbr’s Knowledge Base article APA Manual 7th edition: The Most Notable Changes, which can be found here.