Skip to Main Content
Mendocino College logo

APA Citation Guide - 7th Edition

Citing using the American Psychological Association's Style Guide

Introduction to APA Style

The APA citation style is primarily used by disciplines in the business, social sciences, health, and education fields. The official guide is published by the American Psychological Association and the 7th edition is the current edition:

There are several official resources online to help you with APA:

The main navigation links will show you how to set up your paper in APA format, and how to properly cite a variety of resources, both in your references list and within your paper using in-text citations.

APA Citation Examples

If your paper will follow strict APA formatting, follow the steps below. Your paper should have three major sections: the title page, main body, and references list. The Publication Manual covers these guidelines in Chapter 2; the APA website also has a Quick Answers--Formatting page.

These guidelines will cover how to set up a student paper in APA format. The 7th edition now has specific formatting for student papers versus a professional paper (i.e. one being submitted for publication). If your instructor has requested a different format or additional elements, use your instructor's preferences.

Official Resources

Popular Citation Generators

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account
  • You can create a free account to get additional features like saving and organizing citations

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago, IEEE, AMA, and many more

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, multimedia, communication, online only, legislation, dictionary entries, patents, and more

OTHER FEATURES

  • Automatic citations for books, journals & websites
  • Generates in-text citations from your reference list
  • Offers export to Word or Google Docs
  • Chrome extension and Google Docs add ins available

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account
  • If you want to save your project or be able to access it from any device, you'll have to create an account

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, IEEE, AMA, and many more

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, multimedia, communication, online only, legislation, dictionary entries, patents, and more

OTHER FEATURES

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account
  • If you want to save your project or be able to access it from any device, you'll have to create an account

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, Bluebook, etc. (7 total styles)

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, legislation, YouTube videos, and more (12 citation sources total) 

OTHER FEATURES

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account
  • You can create a free account to get additional features like saving and organizing citations

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, multimedia, communication, online only, etc

OTHER FEATURES

  • Requires you to fill in all information for your source

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account.
  • If you want to save your project or be able to access it from any device, you may need to create a Zotero account or download a Zotero plugin or add-on. These are also free.

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, IEEE, AMA, and many more

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, multimedia, communication, online only, legislation, dictionary entries, patents, and more

OTHER FEATURES

  • To add a source, paste or type its URL, ISBN, DOI, PMID, arXiv ID, or title into the search box. Manual entry of information is also supported.
  • You can copy and paste your reference list or works cited list to RTF or any word processing program.
  • You can also download a Chrome connector to be able to add references through your browser. Zotero also offers a number of plugins to help organize your research.

There are a LOT of options for citation generators. Some are free and some require that you create an account to access additional features such as storing unlimited citations.

How to choose?

  1. Does it offer the citation style you need? APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian
  2. Is the citation style edition the correct one? MLA 9th, APA 7th, etc.
  3. Are citations generated automatically or will you need to manually input the information?
  4. Will you need to create an account to access the features you want?

Ukiah Campus: 707.468.3053 | Coast Center: 707.961.2200 | Lake Center: 707.263.4944 | North County Center: 707.459.6224
Email: Library Webmaster | Mendocino Community College

Powered by Springshare. Login to LibApps