APA 7th edition referencing: a practical guide
APA 7 is the standard for psychology, education and many social sciences. This guide shows how in-text citations and reference lists work, and where APA 7 differs most from Harvard.
APA 7th edition is published by the American Psychological Association and is the default style for psychology, education, and much of the social sciences — including at most UK universities teaching those subjects.
In-text citations
| Situation | APA 7 format |
|---|---|
| Single author | (Smith, 2021) |
| Two authors | (Smith & Jones, 2020) |
| Three or more authors | (Smith et al., 2019) |
| Direct quotation | (Smith, 2021, p. 45) |
| Quotation from a web page without pages | (Smith, 2021, para. 4) |
| Narrative citation | Smith (2021) found that… |
| Multiple works together | (Jones, 2019; Smith, 2021) |
APA 7 uses an ampersand (&) inside brackets and the word "and" in narrative sentences. It also uses "et al." from three authors onward — a change from APA 6, which used it from six.
Reference list examples
| Source type | Reference entry |
|---|---|
| Book | Smith, J. (2021). Understanding social policy (3rd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. |
| Chapter in edited book | Jones, A. (2020). Youth policy. In P. Brown (Ed.), Social policy in Britain (pp. 112–134). Policy Press. |
| Journal article | Kaur, R. (2022). Mental health in higher education. Journal of Student Wellbeing, 14(2), 25–41. https://doi.org/10.1234/jsw.2022.02 |
| Website | GOV.UK. (2024, March 5). Student finance: How to apply. https://www.gov.uk/student-finance |
| Report | Department for Education. (2023). Higher education statistics 2022/23. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics |
| AI tool output (to be cited with care) | OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (GPT-4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com |
Note the APA 7 details: sentence-case titles, italics only for the source title and volume, "https://doi.org/..." as a live link, and no "Retrieved from" before URLs.
How APA 7 differs from Harvard
- Ampersands: APA uses "&" in brackets; Harvard uses "and".
- Initials: APA lists initials after the surname (Smith, J.); Harvard typically writes the full first name or initial differently depending on the variant.
- Dates in references: APA puts the year in brackets after the author; Harvard often follows the author with the year too, but formatting of the rest differs.
- Edition and page details: APA uses "(3rd ed.)" and "(pp. 112–134)"; Harvard commonly writes "3rd edn." and "pp." without brackets.
- DOI links: APA 7 expects full https://doi.org/ links.
Frequently asked questions
Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
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