The APA 7 reference pattern
Every APA reference answers four questions in the same order: who (author), when (date), what (title) and where (source, including a DOI or URL). Authors are listed by surname and initials, the year sits in parentheses after them, article and book titles use sentence case, and journal names and volume numbers are italic.
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
In-text citation: (Grady et al., 2019)
Note the details APA asks for: up to 20 authors with an ampersand before the last one, the issue number in parentheses right after the italic volume, a page range with an en dash, and the DOI as a full https link.
APA citations for books, websites and reports
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000
In-text citation: (Jackson, 2019)
Schaeffer, K. (2021, October 1). What we know about online learning and the homework gap amid the pandemic. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/10/01/what-we-know-about-online-learning-and-the-homework-gap-amid-the-pandemic/
In-text citation: (Schaeffer, 2021)
National Cancer Institute. (2019). Taking time: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2059). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf
In-text citation: (National Cancer Institute, 2019)
APA 7 dropped the publisher location for books and the "Retrieved from" phrase for most web sources. Web pages get a full date when one is shown, and an organisation can be the author.
APA in-text citations
Parenthetical: (Sapolsky, 2017). Narrative: Sapolsky (2017) shows that... Two authors: (Surname & Surname, year) in parentheses, "Surname and Surname (year)" in the sentence. Three or more authors: first author plus "et al." every time. For a quotation, add the page: (Sapolsky, 2017, p. 32). Groups are spelled out, as in (National Cancer Institute, 2019).
The generator shows the parenthetical form under each preview. For more cases, see the in-text citation generator.
What to check before you copy an APA reference
- Sentence case: registries often send titles in Title Case or capitals. APA wants only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns capitalised.
- Initials: authors need initials, not full first names, and the generator abbreviates them for you.
- Issue numbers: add the issue if the registry omitted it.
- Dates for web pages: use the date the content was published or updated, not today's date.
Then format the list in your document: "References" centred and bold, double spacing, hanging indent of 0.5 inch, alphabetical order by first author.
Official APA guide and edition used
This APA citation maker uses the official apa.csl style from the Citation Style Language project, which implements the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The examples on this page were recreated from APA Style's own reference examples at apastyle.apa.org, checked October 25, 2026. Rephrasa is not affiliated with the American Psychological Association.
If you write in Psychology or Education, the academic paraphrasing tool helps you put sources in your own words before you cite them.
APA for newspapers and videos
Harvard University. (2019, August 28). Soft robotic gripper for jellyfish [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guRoWTYfxMs
In-text citation: (Harvard University, 2019)
For a video, the channel or person who uploaded it is the author, the full date follows, and the description [Video] comes after the title. Newspaper articles use the full date too, with the newspaper name in italics.