If your reading list, an older textbook or a helpful senior student taught you APA in its 6th edition form, some of what you learned is now out of date. The 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association was released to simplify referencing, especially for online sources, and many UK universities that use APA have now switched to it. Submitting 6th edition formatting on a course that expects the 7th is an easy way to lose presentation marks. This guide covers the changes that actually affect student essays and assignments. As you update old references, the free APA referencing generator can rebuild entries in 7th edition format so you can compare them with your existing drafts.
Always confirm which edition your course requires. A small number of courses stayed on the 6th edition for a transitional period, and your handbook is the final authority.
The in-text et al. rule became simpler
This is the change students notice first. Under APA 6th, a work with three to five authors had to be cited in full the first time it appeared, and only shortened to the first author plus “et al.” in later citations. Works with six or more authors were shortened from the start. Keeping track of whether it was your first or third mention of a source was fiddly and error prone.
APA 7th removes that tracking completely. Any work with three or more authors is shortened from the very first citation: (Taylor et al., 2022) in brackets, or Taylor et al. (2022) in a narrative citation. Works with one author are cited normally, and works with two authors still name both authors every time, using the ampersand inside brackets, as in (Harris & Lee, 2021), and the word “and” in narrative citations, as in Harris and Lee (2021). If shortening would make two different sources look identical, which can happen when different author teams share a first author and year, APA 7th asks you to list as many names as needed to tell them apart. That situation is uncommon in undergraduate work but worth knowing about.
DOIs are now presented as web links
In the 6th edition, a DOI was written with the prefix “doi:” followed by the number, like this: doi:10.1037/0000165-000. In the 7th edition, the DOI takes the form of a live link: https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000. The change reflects the fact that readers now click through to sources rather than copying identifiers into a resolver.
In practice, this means copying the DOI exactly as it appears on the article page or PDF and presenting it as a full link at the end of the reference, with no full stop after it, because a full stop can break the link. If an article has no DOI, you no longer add “Retrieved from” before a normal journal homepage link, and for most journal articles read through a library database you simply end the reference after the page range. The phrase “Retrieved from” is now kept only for content designed to change and not archived, such as a live data dashboard or a social media profile.
Publisher location has been dropped
APA 6th required the place of publication for books: New York, NY: Guilford Press, for example, with extra rules for US states and countries. APA 7th removes the location entirely. A book reference now goes straight from the publisher name to the end: Author, A. A. (2020). Title of book. Publisher.
This is one of the easiest updates to make in an old bibliography. Delete the city and state, keep the publisher name as written on the title page, and do not include words such as “Inc.” or “Ltd.” that form part of the legal company name but are not needed to identify the publisher. If a work has two publishers, the 7th edition allows both to be listed separated by a semicolon, whereas older practice was less clear on this point.
Up to 20 authors in the reference list
The reference list rules for long author teams expanded. APA 6th listed up to seven authors in full and then used an ellipsis before the final author for longer teams. APA 7th lists up to 20 authors in full. For a work with 21 or more authors, you list the first 19, add an ellipsis, and then give the final author, with no ampersand before that final name.
Most student references involve far fewer authors, so this change mainly matters in the sciences and health subjects, where a single paper can have a large research team. It also means you should no longer truncate a list at eight names out of habit from the 6th edition. Copy the author order exactly as it appears on the source, because order signals contribution in academic publishing.
Headings, font and paper formatting
APA 7th tidied up the heading levels, and Level 3, 4 and 5 headings now follow a clearer and more consistent pattern, with Level 3 flush left and italicised, Level 4 indented and ending with a full stop in bold, and Level 5 following the same structure in bold italics. If you use your university APA template, it will usually have these built in, but if you set headings yourself, check them against a 7th edition summary rather than an older handout.
The 7th edition also widened the choice of acceptable fonts to improve accessibility, including options such as Calibri 11 point, Arial 11 point and Georgia 11 point alongside the traditional Times New Roman 12 point. Student papers no longer need the “Running head:” label on the title page; the running head itself is still used in professional manuscripts, but student versions simply show the shortened title in the header. The title on the title page is now in bold, positioned in the upper half of the page.
Bias-free language and the singular they
The 7th edition gave much fuller guidance on writing about people respectfully. It formally endorses the singular “they” as a pronoun for a person whose pronouns are unknown or who uses “they” themselves, replacing the clumsy “he or she” constructions that the 6th edition era preferred. The guidance also encourages describing people with person-first or identity-first language as appropriate to the group being discussed, being specific rather than using broad labels, and avoiding presenting one group as the normal standard against which others are compared.
For students, the practical effect shows up in methods and discussion sections: describe your participants precisely, for example by age range and relevant characteristics, rather than with vague terms, and avoid turning adjectives into nouns for groups of people.
What stayed the same
Plenty of core APA did not change, which is reassuring if you already learned the basics. The author and date system is unchanged: surname and year drive both the in-text citation and the alphabetical reference list. The reference list is still ordered alphabetically by first author surname, still uses a hanging indent, and article titles still use sentence case while journal titles use title case and italics. Direct quotes still need a page number or an equivalent locator such as a paragraph number. The basic shapes of the book, journal article and chapter references will look familiar; the changes sit in particular details rather than in the overall structure.
For the most common source type in most essays, see our step by step guide on how to reference a journal article in APA 7th, which works through one reference element by element.
Updating your references is one part of polishing an assignment. If the writing itself needs support, our assignment help page explains what is available, with prices from £20 per 1,000 words. Checking the edition your course uses should come first, before any other editing, because it decides which set of rules the whole document follows.
Smaller changes students still miss
Ebooks: The 6th edition asked you to name the format or platform, such as Kindle. The 7th edition drops that completely. An ebook is now referenced like a print book, with the publisher included, plus a DOI or URL if it has one.
Websites: The site name is now included in most website references unless it is the same as the author, and webpage titles are italicised. A retrieval date is only needed for content designed to change over time and not archived, such as a live dashboard or a dictionary entry that updates.
Spacing and student papers: The 7th edition settled the old two-spaces debate: use one space after a full stop. It also formally separated student papers from professional manuscripts, so student title pages carry your course, instructor and due date instead of a running head and author note.
Frequently asked questions
When was APA 7th released? The 7th edition of the Publication Manual was published in October 2019, and most courses that use APA have adopted it since then.
Can I mix 6th and 7th edition rules? No. A reference list that uses the old doi: prefix alongside 7th edition author rules looks inconsistent and loses easy marks. Convert the whole list to one edition.
Do I still write Retrieved from before a URL? Almost never. It is kept only for changeable, unarchived content where you also give a retrieval date.
What about sources with no DOI? For a standard journal article read through a database, simply end the reference after the page range. Do not paste in a long database search link.
Try it free
Take one page of references from an older assignment and update it as an exercise. Paste each source into the free APA referencing generator, compare the 7th edition output with your original and count how many of the changes above you can spot, especially the DOI format, the missing publisher location and the shortened et al. citations. Once you have seen the differences on your own work, they are much easier to apply automatically in your next assignment.