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Hello, and welcome to the Purdue OWL! My name is Alyssa Fernandez. In this video, I will describe
some of the most important changes made in the 7th edition of the American Psychological
Association’s, commonly known as APA, publication manual, which was released in late 2019.
Today we will be focusing specifically on changes regarding citation.
For additional writing resources, check out the rest of our OWL vidcasts on this channel
or visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab at owl.purdue.edu.
First, Let’s discuss the new rules for citing sources within your text.
After that, we will focus on changes related to the reference list at the
end of a text. While much has remained the same between the 6th and the 7th editions,
it is important to know a few minor changes in the new manual,
whether you are writing a classroom assignment or submitting an article for publication.
The first major change has to do with citing a work with three or more authors.
If you source has three or more authors, you now need to include only the last
name of the first listed author, followed by “et al”, a Latin phrase meaning “and others”
that indicates to the reader that the cited source has multiple authors. In the old 6th edition,
you need to include up to 5 authors the first time you made the citation and then in the
following citation for the same source you’d be able to use et al. But now things are simpler.
If a source has three or more authors, use et al. After the first author’s last name,
whether you are citing it for the first time or the 100th time. The only exception to this rules
occurs when following it would create unnecessary ambiguity. For example, this could happen if two
sources with multiple authors both include the same first listed author. In these cases,
list as many names as it’s necessary to distinguish the two papers, followed by et al.
Another change involves the citation of the traditional knowledge and oral traditions of
indigenous people. These sources of information are now treated as unique source category.
If the information was recorded, for instance, if it was written in the book,
use the normal guideline in place for the appropriate media.
However, if the information was gained another way, like through personal conversation,
personal experience, etc. Use a modified form of the personal communication citation.
Include the person’s name, the indigenous group or nation to which they belong,
their location, any other relevant details, along with the words “personal communication” and
the date on which you spoke with the respective person. If the conversation took place over time,
provide a date range or a general date. Note that, while this information must be
included in the body of your text, it should not appear as a source in your reference list.
This is because there is no physical source for your reader to consult. For example,
a citation for a series of communication with Elese Washines, a member of the Yakama Nation who
lives in Yakima, Washington, which took place over the course of November 2019 might look like this.
In each case, capitalize not only the name of the indigenous groups and nations,
(e.g. Crow, Seminole, Yakama), but also most terms derived from indigenous culture,
(e.g. oral tradition, Elder, traditional knowledge, Vision Quest.)
Finally, work closely with indigenous keepers of traditional knowledge to
ensure that the knowledge is reproduced only with permission of relevant indigenous stakeholders.
Additionally, the new APA 7 guidelines describe how to relate information gained from research
participants. When quoting research participants, use the same formatting as for other quotations.
For any quotation of 40 or more words, use a block quote.
Because quotations from research participants are part of your original research, do not
include them in the reference list, or treat them as personal communications. Instead, simply state
within the text that the quotations are from participants within your primary research.
Furthermore, if any of your research participants will be given a pseudonym,
simply place the pseudonym within quotation marks at the time of their introduction.
You can subsequently refer to them by their pseudonym with quotation marks omitted.
Now onto the reference list. While the rules of the reference list have remained mostly the
same from the 6th edition to the 7th edition, there are a few important changes to note.
First, in the 7th edition, a single reference with more than 20 authors can now be cut off
after the 20th author. All authors following the 20th can be replaced with an ellipsis.
By contrast, in the 6th edition, you can use ellipsis with 8 or more authors.
Second, the words “retrieved from” preceding the URL or DUI
are now only used when a retrieval date is also provided in the citation.
Finally, the new guidelines describe how to use DOIs and URLs when citing sources obtained from
academic research databases or online archives. In short, you can end the archive and database
portion of the citation entry with a period, then provide the DOI or URL. Note, however,
that although database and archive information is not typically included in citation entries,
it should be when the writers need to cite sources that are only available within a certain database.
That’s all for today, thank you for checking out this video. For additional writing resources,
be sure to check out the rest of our YouTube videos as well as the OWL website at owl.purdue.edu.
Stay tuned for more videos on APA 7 in the near future. Happy writing!