The APA 7th Edition, introduced by the American Psychological Association in October 2019, replaced the long-standing 6th Edition (published in 2009).
Over the last decade, the way we conduct research has drastically evolved, with digital sources, online journals, podcasts, social media content, and multiple media materials becoming mainstream.
The APA 7th Edition responds to these shifts by offering clearer, more inclusive, and more user-friendly rules for writers, students, and researchers.
The APA 7th Edition introduces clearer, more modern, and more inclusive guidelines that reflect how research and writing have evolved in the digital age.
With simplified citations, flexible formatting options, bias-free language rules, and expanded examples for digital sources, APA 7 makes academic writing more accessible for students, educators, and researchers.
APA keeps the essential foundation of APA style but improves clarity, reduces unnecessary details, and makes room for diverse online source types. Below are the most impactful updates:
APA introduces more than 114 examples covering nearly every type of source, including books, podcasts, social media posts, YouTube videos, webpages, and more. The new rules simplify citations and eliminate outdated requirements.
Here are the key changes in APA reference entries:
You no longer need to include the city and state of a publisher.
EXAMPLE
❌Old: Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful lessons in personal change. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
✔️New: Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful lessons in personal change. Simon & Schuster.
EXAMPLE
❌Old: (Johns, Roberts & Kate, 2017)
✔️New: (Johns et al., 2017)
This rule applies to all in-text citations, initial and subsequent mentions.
Instead of listing only the first 7 authors, APA 7 requires listing up to 20 authors before adding an ellipsis.
EXAMPLE
❌Old: Browns, K. C., Watson, S. J., Erik, G. L., Bevans, B. B., Kelry, K. S., Thomas, S. T., . . . Bret, D.Y. (2016).
✔️New: Browns, K. C., Watson, S. J., Erik, G. L., Bevans, B. B., Kelry, K. S., Thomas, S. T., Bret, D.Y, Nelson, T. P., Crokx, G., Harry, M. L., Bartin, P., Honelza, T. L., Beagles, B.W., Carter, D., Campbell, C., Kaker, A. B., Flora, X., Grile, S. E., Green, G.,… Sherr, P.W. (2016).
EXAMPLE
❌Old: doi: 10.1181/037237770.2016.116503
❌Old: Kmec, J. (2012, March 13). Where’s the Boss? And what counts as “Work”? The Society Pages. Retrieved from https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/03/13/wheres-the-boss-and-what-counts-as-work/
✔️New: Kmec, J. (2012, March 13). Where’s the Boss? And what counts as “Work”? The Society Pages. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/03/13/wheres-the-boss-and-what-counts-as-work/
The website name is included only if it differs from the author’s name.
With EssaysUK you get:
The new rule of APA is to write inclusively and without biased language. Thus, APA’s new edition has a dedicated chapter on this subject. This significantly promotes clarity, respect, and inclusivity when describing individuals or groups.
The APA’s recommendations assist authors in reducing bias in areas such as:
Gender
Age
Disability
Racial and ethnic identification
Sexual orientation
Some examples are given below:
❌Old: A person’s career depends on how hard he or she works.
✔️New: A person’s career depends on how hard they work.
❌Old: The Bad.
✔️New: The condition is Bad.
❌Old: People over 45 years old.
✔️New: People in the age group of 45 to 50 years old.
These guidelines help writers avoid stereotypes and promote accurate representation.
In the 7th Edition, APA has introduced different guidelines to format papers for students and professionals. This makes formatting easier, depending on the type of academic work being written.
Some changes are discussed below:
The APA 7 allows greater flexibility in font selection. Approved fonts include:
| Calibri 11 |
| Arial 11 |
| Lucida Sans Unicode 10 |
| Times New Roman 12 |
| Georgia 11 |
This change acknowledges accessibility and digital readability concerns.
The title page no longer needs to include the words “Running Head“. The page now consists only of the page number and the precise title of the paper.
EXAMPLE
❌Old: Running head: The effect of COVID-19 on the economy.
✔️New: The effect of COVID-19 on the economy.
Student papers do not require running heads unless directed by an instructor. However, professional papers still include a running head (shortened title + page number).
This requires academic documents to have clearer bolding and indentation, a more consistent structure, and better hierarchy for complex papers.
There are no significant changes that have been seen in the 7th Edition in terms of styling.
The two most notable changes are:
When highlighting examples, use double quotation marks. This improves readability and aligns with digital formatting trends.
The latest edition of the APA manual is the 7th Edition, published in October 2019. While widely spread, some universities are still using APA 6th Edition. So, always follow your institution’s guidelines.
APA 7 removes publisher locations, shortens in-text citations for works with 3+ authors, expands the number of authors listed in references to 20, updates DOI formatting, allows more fonts, and introduces inclusive language rules.
The APA 7th Edition is currently in use. However, we advise you to consult with your respective supervisors about which APA guidelines to follow.
No. Student papers do not require a running head unless specified by the instructor. However, professional papers still require one.
APA 7 provides guidelines for citing podcasts, YouTube videos, tweets, Facebook posts, blog entries, webpages, and other digital materials. DOIs are formatted as URLs, and “Retrieved from” is no longer needed.
Yes. APA 7 fully supports using “they/them” as a gender-neutral singular pronoun to promote inclusive, bias-free writing.
You May Also Like
All work is written by human writers. 100% AI free, guaranteed.
100% money back guarantee if you find plagiarism in our work.
COMPANY DETAILS
