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APA 7 for Health Sciences Research

Creating a Reference List

Overview

  • Author names are listed lastname, then initials, with each author separated by a comma. The last author is separated from the others with an ampersand (&).
  • Article and book titles should be in sentence case, which means the first word and any proper nouns are capitalized, but nothing else.
  • Journal publication titles are in title case (every word is capitalized), and in italics.
  • Titles for government reports should be in sentence case an in italics.
  • The DOI number (if using one) is in URL format, starting with https://doi.org/xxxxx

Examples

Journal Article

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/journal-article-references

Viner, R., Russell, S., Saulle, R., Croker, H., Stansfield, C., Packer, J., Nicholls, D., Goddings, A.L., Bonell, C., Hudson, L., Hope, S., Ward, J., Schwalbe, N., Morgan, A., & Minozzi, S. (2022). School closures during social lockdown and mental health, health behaviors, and well-being among children and adolescents during the first COVID-19 wave: A systematic review. JAMA Pediatrics, 176(4), 400–409. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.5840

  • Parenthetical citation: (Viner et al., 2022)

Book

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/book-references

Torino, G. C., Rivera, D. P., Capodilupo, C. M., Nadal, K. L., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.). (2019). Microaggression theory: Influence and implications. John Wiley & Sons.

  • Parenthetical citation: (Torino et al., 2022)

Government Website / Report

With government websites, there is often an authoring organization (the group in charge of the publication), but also a parent organizations. You'll want to list any parent organizations in the publisher spot in your reference. 
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/report-government-agency-references

National Cancer Institute. (2019). Taking time: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2059). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf

  • Parenthetical citation: (National Cancer Institute, 2019)

Healthy People 2030: Healthy People 2030 is considered to be a report, with the author being the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Because Healthy People 2030 is the name of the report, you would italicize this. 

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (n.d.). Chronic pain. Healthy People 2030. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/chronic-pain

  • Parenthetical citation: (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP], n.d.)

Point of Care Database

If an author is named, list the name of the database in the "publication" section (in italics). If no author is named, you can list the database name as the author, and list the company that owns the database as the publisher (if applicable). 
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/clinical-practice-references

Dynamed (2022, June 28). Diabetes mellitus type 2 in children and adolescents​. EBSCO. Retrieved October 21, 2022 from www.dynamed.com

  • Parenthetical citation: (Dynamed, 2022)

Cochrane Review

Cochrane reviews follow the journal article format. Provide the name of the database (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews) in italic title case in the reference, but if you write the name of the database elsewhere in the body of your paper, do not italicize it.

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/clinical-practice-references#2 

Lane, D. A., & Lip, G. Y. H. (2013). Treatment of hypertension in peripheral arterial disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003075.pub3

  • Parenthetical citation: (Lane & Lip, 2013)
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