This page presents information based on the APA 7th edition, which was published in October 2019 and includes guidelines for APA reference page. Check out an “Example of APA Reference Page.”
- The correct title is References. Do not write Reference Page, or List of References, or Bibliography. Do not put a colon afterward. Do not italicize.
- The correct font size is 12, bold faced.
- The correct paper size in A4.
- Use double line spacing for each source throughout the references.
- Remove extra spaces before and after each entry. To do so, go to Home menu in Microsoft Word, and find Paragraph section, then select Line and Paragraph Spacing. Next, select Remove Space After Paragraph and Remove Space Before Paragraph.
- Use hanging indentation, which is leaving the first line at the margin and indenting every other line of the entry one tab.
- Use alphabetical order. To do this, begin with the source that has an author whose last name starts with A, and continue with sources that have authors whose last names start B and so forth.
- Begin the reference page on a new page.
- Use &, the ampersand, instead of “and” between the names of authors.
- List authors by last name first, followed by initials (e.g., John Smith appears as Smith, J.).
- Include up to 20 authors in a single entry if your sources has twenty authors.
Mechanics for APA Reference Page
- Capitalize all proper nouns, and headings except preposition
- Capitalize all hyphenated words in APA reference page.
- Article titles are not capitalized in the references.
- Italicize and capitalize names of journals, websites and other periodicals e.g. Journal of Customer Satisfaction, Science Journal, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, The Atlantic, The Harvard Gazette, The Los Angeles Times
- Maintain the punctuation and capitalization that is used by the journal in its title; for example, Journal of Educational Psychology, should not be changed to JOURNAL of Psychology Education or other way around.
- Capitalize words after colons e.g. Afghanistan: A history from 1260 to the present
- Italicize titles of books, but do not capitalize them e.g. Afghanistan: A history from 1260 to the present, The bookseller of Kabul, The forever war


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