How to cite sources in APA format?

APA (American Psychological Association) format is the citation style used in psychology, education, social sciences, and many STEM fields. The current standard is the 7th edition (2020), which made several significant changes from the 6th — most notably removing the publisher location, allowing up to 20 authors before using an ellipsis, and making DOIs and URLs required where available.

In-text citations follow the author-date system: (Smith, 2021) for a paraphrase, or (Smith, 2021, p. 45) when directly quoting. For two authors, include both every time: (Smith & Jones, 2021). For three or more authors, use the first author's name followed by "et al." from the first citation: (Smith et al., 2021).

Reference list entries vary by source type. For a journal article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. *Journal Name*, *volume*(issue), page–page. https://doi.org/xxxxx. For a book: Author, A. A. (Year). *Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle*. Publisher. For a website: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). *Title of page*. Site Name. URL.

The reference list goes on a new page at the end of the document titled "References" (centered, not bolded). Entries are alphabetized by the first author's last name and use a hanging indent — the first line flush left, subsequent lines indented half an inch. Free tools like Zotero, Mendeley, or the Purdue OWL citation generator build APA citations automatically and save significant time on longer papers.