References Example for an APA 7 Reference List
See APA 7 references examples for a journal article, a book, and a webpage, plus how one reference example fits on the reference list.
A references example is a finished entry from the reference list at the end of a paper, or a short list of those entries. In APA 7th edition, every entry uses four elements in the same order. The author comes first. The date comes next. The title comes after the date. The source comes last. The full list starts on a new page under the bold, centered label References.
The sections below show a journal article, a book, and a webpage. Each entry is copied from APA Style, with the same punctuation and italics. These entries are examples of the pattern. They are not sources to paste into a paper that did not use those works.
When a sentence in the paper restates a source, the reference entry still has to identify that source. Rephrase AI can suggest a clearer paraphrase of material you are allowed to reword. Rephrase AI does not format a reference list. Check the rewrite against the source, keep the citation, and take the author, date, title, and source from the work itself.
What each element does
APA Style defines a reference list entry as the author, the date, the title, and the source. The author is the person or group responsible for the work. The date is the publication date. The title is the name of the work. The source tells a reader where to retrieve the work.
| Element | What to record | APA Style form |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Who is responsible for the work | Surname first, then initials |
| Date | When the work was published | The year inside parentheses, then a period |
| Title | What the work is called | Sentence case, with italics only for a standalone work |
| Source | Where a reader can retrieve the work | Journal, publisher, or website, plus a DOI or URL when the work has one |
Capitalize a title in sentence case. Capitalize the first word of the title, the first word of a subtitle, and proper nouns. Leave a journal article title or a book chapter title in roman type, because that work is part of a larger publication. Italicize a book title, a report title, or a webpage title, because that work stands alone.
Invert each person's name so the surname comes first, then a comma, then the initials. Put a period and a space after each initial. Separate one author from the next with a comma, even when the work has only two authors, and use an ampersand before the last author. List up to 20 authors this way. When a work has 21 or more authors, include the first 19 names, insert an ellipsis with no ampersand, and then add the final author's name.
Purdue OWL shows the initials with a placeholder. Jane Marie Smith begins the entry as Smith, J. M. A first name with no middle name begins as Smith, J. When several works list the same authors in the same order, Purdue OWL says to arrange those entries from earliest to most recent.
How the reference list is set up
APA's reference list setup gives the page rules.
- Start the list on a new page after the text of the paper.
- Label the page References, in bold and centered. Do not use Works Cited, Bibliography, or Reference List. A page with only one entry may use the singular label Reference.
- Type each entry as its own paragraph, aligned to the left margin.
- Alphabetize entries by the first word. That word is usually the first author's surname. A work with no author is alphabetized by its title.
- Apply a hanging indent of 0.5 in. The first line stays at the left margin, and the lines after the first line indent.
- Double-space the whole list. Do not add blank lines between entries.
- A DOI or URL may appear as a blue underlined link or as plain text with no underline.
APA Style also asks for a check in both directions. Every work cited in the paper belongs in the reference list, and every entry in the list is cited in the paper. Personal communications cannot be retrieved, so they stay in the text only. A general mention of a website also stays in the text, with a link there. References in a meta-analysis are the other exception. Those references can appear in the list without an in-text citation.
The APA Style student paper checklist says the beginning of the reference entry, usually the first author's surname, and the year should match the in-text citation.
Journal article reference example
APA Style's journal article page publishes this reference example.
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
The article title is not italic. The journal title and the volume number are italic. The issue number sits after the volume and is not italic. APA Style says to include the issue number, and to include the DOI when the article has one.
The same page prints the matching in-text forms for this article together with two other articles.
Parenthetical citations: (Grady et al., 2019; Pope & Wall, 2025; Rybaczewska & Sparks, 2022)
Narrative citations: Grady et al. (2019), Pope and Wall (2025), and Rybaczewska and Sparks (2022)
The Grady article uses Grady et al. in those lines. The two-author articles on that page use both surnames. This guide shows only the Grady reference entry, not a full in-text guide.
Book reference example
APA Style's book page uses the same format for a print book and an ebook. The page says to leave out the publisher location, and to leave out the ebook format, platform, or device. This example has no DOI.
Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books.
The book title is italic. The period after the title is not italic.
APA Style puts edition information in parentheses after the title, without italics, and with no extra period between the title and the edition. This second example also ends with a DOI.
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000
APA Style prints 2019 in that example. The same page says to use the copyright date on the book's copyright page as the year, even when that date differs from the release date. The DOI registry record for this work lists 2020, so confirm the year on the copy you used.
Webpage reference example
APA Style's webpage page uses this format for a story on a news website. The story title is italic sentence case. The site name is not italic. The entry ends with the URL. The date gives the year first, then the month and day.
Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e
APA Style says to use a newspaper-article reference instead when the story comes from a newspaper site such as The New York Times or The Washington Post. This page stays with the news-website format above.
References example in list order
APA Style says to alphabetize by the first word of each entry. The list below places the webpage, the journal article, and the Sapolsky book in that order. The Jackson book stays in the book section, where the edition and the DOI are the point.
Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books.
Bologna comes before Grady, and Grady comes before Sapolsky, because the list is alphabetized by the first author's surname. A real reference list also uses the hanging indent and double spacing from the setup section. A blog line cannot show that indent, so apply the indent in the document rather than in this example.
What to check before you submit
- The label is References, centered and bold, on a new page.
- Each entry has an author, a date, a title, and a source, unless APA Style says an element is missing.
- Article titles stay in roman type. Book titles, webpage titles, journal titles, and volume numbers are italic.
- The surname and year at the start of the entry match the in-text citation.
- Every cited work appears in the list, and every list entry is cited, aside from the exceptions above.
- Names, dates, page numbers, and the DOI or URL come from the work you used.
For the choice between a paraphrase and a quotation, see paraphrase vs quote. A paraphrase still needs a citation. For the line between a real paraphrase and a near-copy, see paraphrasing vs plagiarism.
FAQ
Reword the paraphrase, then write the entry
A reference entry does not repair a paraphrase that stays too close to the source. For one paragraph you are allowed to reword, the paragraph rephraser can suggest a clearer version. Compare that version with the source, restore any detail the rewrite dropped, and write the reference entry from the source itself.
