APA 7 Reference List: Templates for Every Source Type with Examples

How to write an APA 7 reference list - order and formatting, journal article, book, chapter in an edited book, thesis, web page and organisational report, Hebrew and English sources, DOIs - with a template and example for each type.

Part of the series: APA 7 checklist before you submit

The reference list is the easiest place to lose marks - and the easiest place not to. Every source type follows a fixed template. Find the type, copy the template, fill it in. In-text citations: APA in-text citations.

Formatting rules

• Heading: "References", bold and centred, on a new page.
• Alphabetical by the first author's surname.
• Hanging indent: each entry's first line at the margin, the following lines indented (0.5 in / 1.27 cm).
• Double-spaced, no blank lines between entries.
• Hebrew and English sources: most Israeli institutions list Hebrew sources first (in Hebrew alphabetical order), then English sources. Check your guidelines.
• Up to 20 authors are all listed - no et al. in the reference list.

Journal article

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of the article in sentence case. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

Cassady, J. C., & Johnson, R. E. (2002). Cognitive test anxiety and academic performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(2), 270–295. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.2001.1094

The journal name and volume are italic; the issue is in brackets, not italic. The article title is in sentence case - capitals only for the first word (and after a colon) and proper nouns.

Book

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book in sentence case (Xth ed.). Publisher.

Zeidner, M. (1998). Test anxiety: The state of the art. Plenum Press.

APA 7 has no place of publication - just the publisher. Give the edition only if it isn't the first.

Chapter in an edited book

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of the book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.

Note: editors' initials come before the surname, and (Ed.) or (Eds.) for several.

Thesis or dissertation

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the thesis [Master's thesis, University Name]. Database or URL.

For a doctorate: [Doctoral dissertation, University Name].

Web page

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page. Site Name. URL

If the author is also the site name, omit the site name. No date: (n.d.). A retrieval date ("Retrieved...") only for pages whose content is designed to change over time.

Organisational report

Organization Name. (Year). Title of the report (Report No. xxx). URL

DOIs and URLs

• DOIs always as https://doi.org/... - not "doi:" and not "Retrieved from".
• No full stop after a DOI or URL.
• If there's a DOI, include it even if you read the print version.

Ordering special cases

• Same author, several works: earliest year first.
• A sole author before the same author with co-authors: Cohen, A. (2020) before Cohen, A., & Levi, B. (2018).
• Same author and year: 2020a, 2020b - ordered by title.

Common mistakes

• et al. in the list - list all authors up to 20.
• A place of publication (left over from APA 6).
• Title case for article titles - only the journal name is title case.
• "Retrieved from" before a DOI.
• An entry that's never cited - or the reverse. Final check: APA checklist.

FAQ

Do Hebrew and English sources go in one list? At most Israeli institutions - Hebrew first, then English, each in its own alphabetical order. Some departments want one list. Department guidelines decide.

Should I use a citation generator? Generators (such as Google Scholar's or Zotero) save time but get details wrong - capitals, italics, DOIs. Always check against the template.

What if there's no year? (n.d.) in place of the year.

Want your reference list checked? We bring every entry into APA 7 and check it against your in-text citations. Send us the paper.

Last updated: 2026-10-01