APA 7th Edition Paper Format: Step-by-Step Setup

Published by the American Psychological Association, APA style is the author–date system most often used across psychology, education, nursing, business and the social sciences, and its current release is the 7th edition. Here you will find the rules that count most while preparing a research paper: page layout, title page, abstract, the five heading levels, in-text citations, the reference list, and tables and figures. Wherever a journal's own instructions disagree with APA, follow the journal.

Situations Where APA Style Applies

Choose APA if your intended journal, department or course requires it, or if the journal asks for “author–date” and gives APA-style examples. Because the JMVRA author guidelines present a full journal reference in APA style, it is a sensible default for most JMVRA submissions; whichever style you pick, apply it uniformly from the first citation through the final reference. Confirming the required style before drafting saves a tedious reformatting pass later.

APA separates a student paper (written for a course) from a professional paper (written for publication). They differ chiefly in the title page and running head: professional papers carry an author note and a running head, whereas student papers give course details in their place. Unless the journal states otherwise, manuscripts submitted to journals use the professional layout.

Page Setup

Configure these settings in the styles of your word processor before writing. Most formatting mistakes arise from trying to fix spacing and indentation after the draft is complete. A saved template makes the setup reusable for future manuscripts.

Title Page

Place the title in bold, centred in the top half of the page and in title case. Beneath it, list the authors (using middle initials if you do so consistently) and their affiliations. In a professional paper, an author note near the foot of the page holds ORCID iDs, affiliation changes, disclosures, acknowledgements and the corresponding author's contact details.

• Make the title brief and precise: name the topic, the population or setting and, if you can, the key variable or result.
• Leave out abbreviations and filler such as “A study of”, which lengthen a title without informing the reader.
• When the review is double-blind, supply a separate title page and strip any identifying information from the manuscript.

Abstract and Keywords

Begin the abstract on a fresh page, headed by the bold, centred label Abstract. It should be one unindented paragraph, normally within 250 words unless the journal sets another limit, covering the problem, method, main results and conclusion. On the line beneath, indent and type Keywords: in italics, then three to five lower-case keywords separated by commas. Further help: Abstract Writing: What Every Sentence Must Do and Choosing Keywords That Get Your Paper Found.

Five Levels of Headings

Do not give the introduction an “Introduction” label; the paper's title, repeated above the first page of text, acts as its heading. Include only the levels your paper requires, and apply them in sequence, never skipping from Level 1 to Level 3.

In-Text Citations

In APA, a citation gives the author's surname with the year of publication. It may be parenthetical — (Kumar, 2023) — or narrative — Kumar (2023) found…

APA 7 shortens works by three or more authors to “et al.” starting with the first citation. Always cite the original source you have really read; should you need to cite a source through another, write “(Original, 1998, as cited in Recent, 2022)” and put only the source you consulted into the references.

The Reference List

Open the reference list on a separate page under the bold, centred heading References. Order entries alphabetically by the first author's surname, double-spaced, with a 0.5-inch hanging indent. Each in-text citation needs a matching reference entry, and each entry must be cited somewhere in the text.

• Name as many as 20 authors; when there are 21 or more, give the first 19, then an ellipsis, then the final author.
• Write the article title in sentence case without italics, while the journal name and volume number appear in italics.
• Show each DOI as a link starting with https://doi.org/. Where the article comes from an academic database and has no DOI, finish the reference after the page range.
• If an article has an article number rather than page numbers, place that number after the issue, as in “12(3), Article 45.”

Reference managers can keep this uniform automatically — see Mendeley vs Zotero vs EndNote — yet you should still proof-read what they produce, since imported metadata is frequently incomplete. Our guide to citing a journal article sets APA beside IEEE, Vancouver and Chicago.

Tables and Figures

Number tables and figures in two separate series, following the order of first mention in the text (Table 1, Figure 1). Put the number in bold above the table or figure, with the title in italic title case on the following line. Explanatory notes, abbreviation definitions and copyright credits go in a note underneath. Tables use only horizontal rules and never vertical ones. For figure preparation, read preparing figures and tables.

Numbers, Lists and Abbreviations Explained

• Numbers: write numerals for 10 and over and words for one to nine; numerals are also used for statistics, measurements, ages, percentages and any number placed before a unit (5 mg, 3 years, 4%).
• Statistics: set statistical symbols in italics (M, SD, t, p), and give exact p values with two or three decimal places.
• Abbreviations: spell out each one when it first appears, then keep to it; do not abbreviate a term that occurs only once or twice.
• Lists: inside a sentence, mark items (a), (b), (c); use numbering for steps in a sequence and bullets for everything else.
• Bias-free language: refer to people with precise, respectful wording and skip labels that serve no purpose.

APA Formatting Checklist

1. Page setupMargins of 1 inch, double line spacing, numbered pages
2. Title pageCentred bold title, then authors, affiliations and author note
3. AbstractA single paragraph that stays within the word limit and ends with keywords
4. HeadingsRight levels, applied in sequence
5. CitationsAuthor–date style, with et al. when there are three or more authors
6. ReferencesAlphabetical order, hanging indent, DOIs as links, every entry cited

Avoiding Common Slips When Formatting an APA Paper

Most formatting rules are easy to follow once set up, but small slips repeat across a long document. These practical habits help you catch them before a lecturer or editor does.

• Build styles into your word processor. Define heading, body and reference styles once, then apply them throughout. Changing a style updates the whole document instantly and removes the need to adjust individual paragraphs by hand.
• Match citations to references. Before finishing, check that every in-text citation has a reference entry and that every entry is cited somewhere. Mismatches are among the easiest errors for a careful reader to find.
• Use a reference manager carefully. Reference software saves time but can copy mistakes from online records. Review each generated entry for capitalisation, author names and missing details rather than trusting the output blindly.
• Proofread on paper. Print the draft and read it slowly, or use a text-to-speech tool. Spacing, punctuation and inconsistent italics stand out far more clearly outside the editing window.

Set up styles early, reconcile citations with references, and proofread away from the screen to produce a clean paper.

Questions Researchers Often Ask

In Summary

Consistency is the heart of APA formatting: set the document up properly, apply heading levels in sequence, cite by author and year, and compile the references with a hanging indent and DOIs. Begin with the journal's own instructions and leave the repetitive details to a reference manager. A final read-through against a checklist catches most remaining slips.

References and Sources

• APA Style (American Psychological Association)
• APA Style — Journal article references