APA Citation Style 7th Edition

General Format

(Author Surname, Year, page [if available] or section heading/paragraph number)

(Author Surname, Year)

Personal or Corporate Author. (Last update or publication date; if not known, use n.d.). Title of specific webpage. Site Name. URL of specific webpage

Example: Website

(Sims, 2018, para. 2)

(Sims, 2018) 

Sims, A. (2018, February 26). The most popular houseplants of spring 2018. Architectural Digest. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/popular-houseplant-trends-spring-2018

Example: Website by a Group Author with a Known Abbreviation

(Human Resources Institute of Alberta [HRIA], 2015, para. 2)     For the first time you cite this source.

(HRIA, 2015, para. 2)     For any subsequent citations.

(Human Resources Institute of Alberta [HRIA], 2015)     For the first time you cite this source.

(HRIA, 2015)     For any subsequent citations 

Human Resources Institute of Alberta. (2015). Protecting the public. http://www.hria.ca/protecting-public 

Tip: When the group author is the same as the site name, you do not need to include the site name (10.16).

Tips

• Find more examples on the official APA Style website and in the APA Manual (10.16).
• Sometimes sources are missing pieces of information that you would typically include in a citation (like an author or a date). Use this Missing Reference Information guide created by APA to help you cite these sources.
• If the website name is the same as the name of the group author, you do not need to include the site name in the reference entry (10.16).
• When citing sources that you find online, most will not require a retrieval date. Only include a retrieval date if the information you viewed is from an unarchived source that is likely to change over time (9.16). If you reference an article from Wikipedia, for example, you would not need a retrieval date because there is an archive available.
• The file type will not impact the citation. To cite a PDF source, determine the type of source (e.g. website, book, article, etc.) and use the format for that source type.

General Format

(Government Author, Year, page or paragraph number [if available])

(Government Author, Year)

Name of Government Agency. (Year). Title of document: Subtitle (Report No. xxx [if available]). Publisher or Parent Agencies (if applicable). URL of specific document

Example

(National Advisory Committee on Immunization [NACI], 2023, para. 2)     For the first time you cite this source.

(NACI, 2023, para. 2)     For any subsequent citations.

(National Advisory Committee on Immunization [NACI], 2023)     For the first time you cite this source.

(NACI, 2023)     For any subsequent citations 

National Advisory Committee on Immunization. (2023). Interim guidance on the use of bivalent Omicron-containing COVID-19 vaccines for primary series (Catalogue no. HP5-158/1-2023E-PDF). Government of Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2023/aspc-phac/HP5-158-1-2023-eng.pdf

Tips

• Authors:
  • If individual person(s) are named on the title page, use them as the author.
  • If no individual person is named as an author, use the government agency, department, or branch as a group author. Give the name of the group author exactly as it appears on the title page.
  • If the group author is also the publisher, omit the publisher element.
  • If the group author has parent agencies, include the parent agencies in the source element as the publisher. (For example, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization is a sub-division of the Public Health Agency of Canada.) The official APA Style website has a longer explanation and an example: Report by a Government Agency References
• Report number. Many government reports in Canada have a catalogue number instead of a report number. If a source does not have a report number or a catalogue number, omit the report number.
• Citing legislation. The APA Manual recommends that legal materials should be cited in the standard legal style (11.1). For Canadian legal citations such as bills, statutes, and case law, use the guidelines in the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (10th ed.), also known as "The McGill Guide."
• More information. See the APA Manual (10.4) for more information and examples.

General Format

(Author Surname, Year, page [if available] or section heading/paragraph number)

(Author Surname, Year)

Personal or Corporate Author. (Publication or last update date; if not know, use n.d.). Title of specific entry. In Name of Book. URL of specific webpage

Example: Entry in Online Dictionary with Group Author

(Merriam-Webster, n.d., Definition of Citation, para. 1).

(Merriam-Webster, n.d.)

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Citation. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citation

Tip: When an online reference work is continuously updated and not archived, your entry should include a retrieval date (the date you viewed the website).

Tip: See the APA Manual (10.3) for more information and examples.

Please note this guidance was recently updated to align with the 7th edition.

General Format (Online Reference Work)

(Author Surname, Year, section heading and/or paragraph number)

(Author Surname, Year)

Personal or Corporate Author. (Publication or last update date; if not know, use n.d.). Title of specific entry. CPS. https://cps-pharmacists-ca

Example

(Canadian Pharmacists Association [CPA], 2021, para. 2)     For the first time you cite this source.

(CPA, 2021, para. 2)     For any subsequent citations.

(Canadian Pharmacists Association [CPA], 2021)     For the first time you cite this source.

(CPA, 2021)     For any subsequent citations.

Canadian Pharmacists Association. (2021). Tylenol® with Codeine No. 4. CPS. https://cps-pharmacists-ca

Tip: Since CPS is a database that requires readers to login, provide the URL of the database login page instead of the URL for the specific document (9.34).

General Format

(Title of Page, Year, Section Heading section)

(Title of Page, Year)

Title of Page. (Publication or last update date; if not know, use n.d.). Lexicomp. Retrieved [today's date], from https://online.lexi.com

Example

(Acetaminophen, 2023, Adverse Reactions section)    

(Acetaminophen, 2023)  

Acetaminophen (Lexi-Drugs). (2023, September 9). Lexicomp. Retrieved September 12, 2023, from https://online.lexi.com

Tip: Since Lexicomp is an unarchived source that is likely to change, include the retrieval date, the date you viewed the source. This indicates to readers that the version of the source they retrieve may be different from the version you used (9.16).

Tip: Since Lexicomp is a database that requires readers to login, provide the URL of the database login page instead of the URL for the specific document (9.34).