Key takeaways
- Use 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins, a readable font such as 12-point Times New Roman or 11-point Calibri, double spacing and a page number in the top right corner.
- Student papers do not need a running head or abstract unless your instructor asks for one; professional papers do.
- APA has five heading levels: Level 1 is centered and bold; Levels 2 and 3 are flush left; Levels 4 and 5 are indented and run into the paragraph.
- In-text citations use author and year; for three or more authors, use the first author plus 'et al.' from the first citation.
- The reference list is alphabetical, double-spaced, with a 0.5-inch hanging indent and DOIs written as https://doi.org/ links.
What APA format is
APA format is the set of rules in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, now in its 7th edition (2020), for laying out a paper and citing sources. In practice, it means a standard page setup, a specific title page, a five-level heading system, author–date in-text citations and an alphabetical reference list. Your instructor or journal may add or change requirements, and their instructions always take priority.
The 7th edition distinguishes between student papers (coursework) and professional papers (manuscripts for publication). The differences are mainly on the title page and in the running head, covered below.
Page setup and general formatting
- Margins: 1 inch (2.54 cm) on all sides.
- Font: any widely available, legible font. APA lists examples including 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia and 10-point Computer Modern. Use the same font throughout the main text.
- Line spacing: double-spaced throughout, including the title page, block quotations and reference list. Tables and figures may use single or one-and-a-half spacing where it helps.
- Alignment: flush left with a ragged right edge; do not justify text.
- Paragraph indent: 0.5 inch for the first line of each paragraph.
- Page numbers: top right corner of every page, starting with the title page as page 1.
- Order of pages: title page, abstract (if required), main text, references, then footnotes, tables, figures and appendices if your instructor wants them at the end.
The paper's title is repeated in bold, centered, at the top of the first page of text. The introduction does not get its own Introduction heading.
The APA title page
A student title page includes, in this order, centered in the upper half of the page with double spacing:
- Paper title in bold, title case (three or four lines down from the top margin), followed by one blank double-spaced line
- Author name(s)
- Affiliation: department and university, for example Department of Psychology, Lakeside University
- Course number and name, for example PSY 210: Research Methods
- Instructor name, using the form your instructor prefers
- Assignment due date, written in the usual format for your country, for example March 14, 2025 or 14 March 2025
The page number appears in the top right corner. Student papers do not need a running head unless the instructor requests one.
A professional title page replaces the course details with an author note and adds a running head: a shortened version of the title of no more than 50 characters, in all capital letters, flush left in the page header on every page, with the page number flush right.
APA headings: levels 1 to 5
APA headings show the hierarchy of your sections. Use them in order: a Level 2 heading must sit under a Level 1, and you should have at least two subsections at any level if you use subsections at all. Most student papers need only Levels 1 and 2. All headings use title case and are bold; there are no numbers or letters before them.
| Level | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Centered, bold, title case. Text begins as a new indented paragraph. | Method (centered) |
| 2 | Flush left, bold, title case. Text begins as a new paragraph. | Participants and Recruitment |
| 3 | Flush left, bold italic, title case. Text begins as a new paragraph. | Inclusion Criteria |
| 4 | Indented 0.5 inch, bold, title case, ending with a period. Text continues on the same line. | Online Recruitment. Students were invited through... |
| 5 | Indented 0.5 inch, bold italic, title case, ending with a period. Text continues on the same line. | Follow-Up Reminders. A second email was sent... |
A common structure for an empirical student paper is the title (as the first-page heading), then Level 1 headings for Method, Results and Discussion, with Level 2 headings beneath them. In an essay without set sections, use Level 1 headings for main parts, such as a centered, bold Conclusion heading at the end. The References label is bold and centered at the top of a new page, but it is a section label rather than part of the heading levels.
Want a second pair of eyes? Want your citations, headings and references checked against APA 7? Our editors format your own draft with tracked changes. See formatting & referencing.
In-text citations
APA uses the author–date system. Each citation points to a full entry in the reference list. The examples below use invented authors.
| Situation | Parenthetical | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| One author | (Okafor, 2022) | Okafor (2022) |
| Two authors | (Okafor & Lindqvist, 2022) | Okafor and Lindqvist (2022) |
| Three or more authors | (Haddad et al., 2021) | Haddad et al. (2021) |
| Group author, first citation | (National Council for Rural Energy [NCRE], 2024) | National Council for Rural Energy (NCRE, 2024) |
| Group author, later citations | (NCRE, 2024) | NCRE (2024) |
| No date | (Marsh, n.d.) | Marsh (n.d.) |
| Several works | (Haddad et al., 2021; Okafor, 2022) | — |
Key rules:
- Use & inside parentheses and and in running text.
- Use et al. for three or more authors from the very first citation.
- For direct quotations, add a page number: (Okafor, 2022, p. 214) or a page range with pp. For unpaginated sources, use a paragraph number (para. 4) or section name.
- Quotations of 40 words or more are block quotations: start on a new line, indent the whole block 0.5 inch, omit quotation marks and place the citation after the final punctuation.
- When citing several works in one parenthesis, list them alphabetically, separated by semicolons. Works by the same author in the same year are labelled 2022a, 2022b.
Reference list format and examples
Start the reference list on a new page with the label References bold and centered. Entries are double-spaced, alphabetical by first author's surname, with a 0.5-inch hanging indent. Include up to 20 authors per entry. Titles of articles and books use sentence case; journal names use title case. Present DOIs as links (https://doi.org/...) and do not write Retrieved from unless you also need a retrieval date for content designed to change. Publisher locations are no longer included.
The examples below are invented to illustrate the pattern; in a real reference list, italicise the elements noted in brackets.
- Journal article: Okafor, N. A., & Lindqvist, M. (2022). Peer study groups and first-year persistence among working students. Journal of Student Pathways, 14(3), 211–229. https://doi.org/10.0000/jsp.2022.0143 (the journal name and volume number are italic; the issue number in parentheses is not)
- Book: Haddad, R. (2021). Reading cities: Urban design for everyday life (2nd ed.). Northfield Press.
- Chapter in an edited book: Chen, L. (2019). Measuring sleep in adolescents. In P. Moreno & K. Ito (Eds.), Methods in developmental research (pp. 45–67). Harbour Academic.
- Report by a group author: National Council for Rural Energy. (2024). Community solar in rural districts: A five-year review (Report No. 12). https://www.example.org/reports/community-solar
- Webpage: Marsh, T. (n.d.). How bus fares are set. City Transit Explained. https://www.example.org/fares
- Webpage, same author and site: when the author and the site name are the same, omit the site name from the entry.
Abstracts, tables and figures
If an abstract is required, place it on its own page after the title page, with the label Abstract bold and centered. Write it as a single non-indented paragraph, usually no more than 250 words, summarising the purpose, method, main findings and implications. Keywords, if requested, go on the line below: indent it, write Keywords: in italics, then list the terms in lowercase, separated by commas.
Tables and figures share the same layout. Above each one, give a bold number (Table 1, Figure 1) and, on the next double-spaced line, an italic title in title case. Notes explaining abbreviations, significance markers or sources go below the table or figure, beginning with Note. in italics. Refer to every table and figure in the text (for example, as shown in Table 2) and number them in the order they are first mentioned. You can embed them in the text after their first mention or place them after the references, depending on your instructor's preference.
For numbers, APA generally uses words for zero to nine and numerals for 10 and above, but always uses numerals for statistics, percentages, ages, times, units of measurement and sample sizes, for example a 5-point scale, 8% of respondents or 2-year-olds. In other contexts, write three themes or nine interviews.
Common APA mistakes to check
- Using a running head on a student paper when the instructor has not asked for one.
- Labelling the first section Introduction instead of repeating the paper's title.
- Centering Level 2 headings, or numbering headings.
- Writing et al. only from the second citation (that was a 6th edition rule).
- Listing references in citation order rather than alphabetically, or forgetting the hanging indent.
- Mismatches between in-text citations and the reference list: every source cited must appear in both places, with the same spelling and year.
For the wider writing process, our guide on how to write a research paper shows where formatting fits into revision.
Help with APA formatting
If you have a finished draft and want consistent APA formatting, our formatting and referencing service checks headings, citations and references with tracked changes so you can see and learn from every correction. For long documents such as theses, our thesis and dissertation editing covers language and formatting together, within your university's editing policy.