I’ve selected 10 rules from the APA 7th edition manual you might not know. Some of these may apply to your document.
- Only abbreviate a term if you use the abbreviation at least three times in the paper (APA 6.24).
- When presenting a number with a decimal point, do not put a zero before the decimal point unless the number can be greater than 1. For example, as the correlation coefficient cannot exceed 1, it would be written as .7, not 0.7 (APA 6.36).
- Label a table with its number (e.g., Table 3) flush left in bold font above it and the title of the table one double-spaced line below the table number using italic title case (APA 7.9, 7.10).
- Do not use borders around tables and do try to limit the vertical and horizontal lines in tables. Avoid using shading in tables (APA 7.17).
- You may use tables to present qualitative data, for example, lists of themes with example quotes (APA 7.21).
- Label figures using the same format as for tables, i.e., with a number (e.g., Figure 2) flush left in bold font above it and the title of the figure one double-spaced line below the figure number using italic title case (APA 7.23).
- For works with three or more authors, shorten all in-text citations to the name of the first author plus “et al.” This is a new rule in APA 7 (APA 8.17).
- Incorporate direct quotations of fewer than 40 words in the text within double quotation marks. Treat quotations of 40 words or more as block quotations without quotation marks indented 0.5 inches, starting on a new line (APA 8.27).
- You no longer enter the location of the publisher in your reference list (APA 9.29).
- Include a DOI if the work has a DOI whether or not you used the online version. Use a DOI rather than the corresponding URL if the work has both of these (APA 9.34).
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