APA Reference Page: Complete Formatting Guide

The reference page is the final section of your APA-formatted paper. It provides full details for every source cited in the text, allowing readers to locate the original material. Every in-text citation must have a corresponding entry on the reference page, and every reference page entry must be cited in the text.

General Formatting Rules

Title: Center the word "References" in bold at the top of the page. Do not underline or use quotation marks.
Spacing: Double-space all entries with no extra line spacing between entries.
Hanging indent: The first line of each reference is flush left, and all subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches.
Alphabetical order: Arrange entries by the last name of the first author. Disregard "A," "An," and "The" when alphabetizing by title.
Font and margins: Use the same font and margins as the rest of the paper.

Four Elements of a Reference

Most APA references follow the same four-element structure:

Author: Who is responsible for the work? This could be an individual, group, or organization. Invert names (Last, First Initial.).
Date: When was the work published? Use the most specific date available in parentheses.
Title: What is the work called? Use sentence case for article/book/chapter titles. Italicize standalone works (books, reports, films).
Source: Where can the work be found? This includes journal name, publisher, website name, URL, or DOI.

Author Formatting

Single author: Smith, J. A.
Two authors: Smith, J. A., & Jones, B. C.
Three to twenty authors: List all authors separated by commas, with "&" before the last author.
Twenty-one or more authors: List the first 19, insert an ellipsis (...), and add the last author.
No author: Move the title to the author position.
Organization: Spell out the full name of the organization.

Date Formatting

Year only: (2023)
Year and month: (2023, March)
Year, month, and day: (2023, March 15)
No date: (n.d.)
In press: (in press)

Title Formatting

Sentence case: Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.
Italicize: Book titles, report titles, dissertations, films, and other standalone works.
Do not italicize: Article titles, chapter titles, or webpage titles.
Non-English titles: Include the original title, then add the English translation in brackets.

Source Information

DOIs and URLs

Always include a DOI when available, formatted as: https://doi.org/xxxxx
Do not add a period after a DOI or URL.
If no DOI is available, use the homepage URL of the journal or publisher.
Do not include database URLs (e.g., JSTOR, ProQuest).

Publisher Names

Use the publisher name as shown on the work.
Do not include terms like "Inc.," "Co.," "Ltd.," or "Publishing."
Do not include publisher location (this was required in APA 6th edition but removed in the 7th edition).

Common Reference Formats

Journal Article

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Book

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book (edition). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Website

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Website Name. https://www.url.com

Edited Book Chapter

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Alphabetizing Tips

Alphabetize letter by letter based on the first author's last name.
For multiple works by the same author, arrange by year (earliest first).
For same-author, same-year works, add lowercase letters: (2023a), (2023b).
Single-author entries come before multi-author entries with the same first author.
Works with no author are alphabetized by their title.

Common Mistakes

Forgetting the hanging indent.
Using title case instead of sentence case for titles.
Including the database URL instead of the DOI.
Adding a period after the DOI or URL.
Including publisher location (no longer required in APA 7th edition).
Having in-text citations that do not match a reference entry.