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APA 6th vs. 7th Edition: What Changed? (A Quick Guide for Students)
ByDr. Sara
Table of Contents show
You handed in your assignment. You felt good. Then you got it back with red circles everywhere.
“Wrong citation format.”
“Remove city name.”
“Where is the DOI?”
You are confused because you followed the guide you found on Google. The problem? You likely followed an APA 6th Edition guide, but your university has switched to APA 7th Edition. For APA citation and reference format, there were several changes that occured and it was updated from APA 7 to APA 7.
The American Psychological Association (APA) released the 7th Edition to make citing easier and more inclusive. However, many Malaysian supervisors (who did their PhDs years ago) still “remember” the old rules.
Here is the definitive “Cheat Sheet” to the 5 major changes so you never get flagged again.
Comparison between APA 6th & APA 7th Editions
| Feature | APA 6th Edition (Old) | APA 7th Edition (New) |
| Publisher Location | Required (e.g., New York, NY: Wiley) | Removed (e.g., Wiley) |
| In-Text (3+ Authors) | List all 3-5 authors first time, then “et al.” | Use “et al.” immediately (e.g., Smith et al., 2023) |
| Reference List Authors | List up to 7 authors | List up to 20 authors |
| DOIs | Prefix with doi:10.xxx | URL format: https://doi.org/10.xxx |
| Website URLs | “Retrieved from http://…” | Just the URL: http://... |
| Fonts | Times New Roman (12pt) Only | Flexible (Calibri 11, Arial 11, Georgia 11) |
Change #1: The “Publisher Location” was Removed
In the old days, you had to know that Wiley was in “New York” and Sage was in “Thousand Oaks.” In the internet age, nobody cares where the office is.
- APA 6: Smith, J. (2019). The Book of Logic. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
- APA 7: Smith, J. (2019). The Book of Logic. Penguin Books.
Why this matters: It saves you time Googling “Where is Routledge located?”
Change #2: The “Et al.” Acceleration
This is the biggest time-saver. Previously, if a paper had 5 authors (Ali, Tan, Kumar, Smith, & Jones), you had to list ALL of them the first time you cited them. So when adding a new citation, you needed to write it out in full, including all author names. Then after that every subsequent mention you just use the et al. format. But the APA 7 allows you to actually just use the et al. format directly, saving you the time of adding the full citation the first time.
- APA 6 (First Cite): (Ali, Tan, Kumar, Smith, & Jones, 2019)
- APA 7 (First Cite): (Ali et al., 2019)
Exception: If you have two papers by “Ali et al.” in the same year, you list as many names as needed to tell them apart.
Change #3: DOIs are now URLs
Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are the “IC Numbers” of journal articles. APA 7 wants them to be clickable links. This is to speed up the search time to retrieve references online. Readers can now simply click on the DOI to quickly get to the page that hosts the research work, rather than take the DOI and search for the page of the research work.
- APA 6: doi:10.1037/arc0000014
- APA 7: https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000014
If your reference list has a mix of doi: and https://, you will lose marks for consistency. Change them all to links. Make sure they are clickable.
Change #4: “Retrieved From” is Retired
Unless you are citing a website that changes often (like a Twitter feed or a Google Map), you no longer need to write “Retrieved from.”
- APA 6: Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news
- APA 7: https://www.bbc.com/news
Note: You do still include the Website Name (e.g., BBC News) before the URL.
Change #5: Student Title Page (No “Running Head”)
Good news for undergraduates and Master’s students! You likely no longer need the annoying “Running Head” (that shortened title at the top left of every page).
- APA 6: Required “Running head: TITLE OF PAPER” on page 1, and “TITLE OF PAPER” on page 2.
- APA 7 (Student): No running head. Just the page number in the top right.
Warning: PhD theses and “Professional Papers” submitted to journals still require the Running Head.
The “Supervisor Trap”: When Old Habits Die Hard
Here is the reality of Malaysian academia: Your supervisor might be wrong.
Many senior lecturers have used APA 6 for well over 10 years. They might circle your bibliography and ask, “Where is the publisher city?”
What to do:
- Check your Faculty Thesis Manual: If the manual says “Follow APA 7,” show it to your supervisor politely.
- Be Consistent: The worst thing to do is to mix them. Do not use “et al.” immediately in Chapter 1 but list 5 authors in Chapter 2.
Confused by the commas?
Don’t let a formatting technicality ruin your grade.
- [Citations & References Adjustment] – We scan your entire thesis and instantly convert it to perfect APA 7th Edition (or 6th, if your supervisor insists!).
- [Manuscript Style Formatting] – We handle the margins, fonts, and “Running Heads” so you don’t have to.
