MLA Style to APA Style References (7th Edition)

Creating References
Transitioning from MLA Style (Handbook, 9th ed., 2021)
to
APA Style 7th edition (Publication Manual, 7th ed., 2020) 

Created by Prof. Mike Strahan
Updated 3/7/2022

Found the following work while searching one of the Library databases, and retrieved online through direct subscription with publisher.

Floor Effects Associated With Universal Screening and Their Impact on the Early Identification of Reading Disabilities
Hugh W. Catts, Yaacov Petscher, Christopher Schatschneider, Mindy Sittner Bridges and Katherin Mendoza
Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 42, No. 2, 163-176 (2009). doi:10.1177/0022219408326219
 

MLA Works Cited entry (retrieved from publisher web site):

Catts, Hugh W., Yaacov Petscher, Christopher Schatschneider, Mindy Sittner Bridges 

          and Katherin Mendoza. "Floor Effects Associated With Universal Screening and

          Their Impact on the Early Identification of Reading Disabilities." Journal of Learning

          Disabilities, vol. 42, no. 2, Mar./Apr. 2009, pp. 163-176. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219408326219. 

[Note that if we had found the full-text of this article in an online database, the name of the database
in italics would be inserted between the page numbers and DOI.]
 

APA Reference entry 7th edition. DOI assigned. Must include issue number when provided:

Catts, H. W., Petscher, Y., Schatschneider, C., Bridges, M. S., & Mendoza, K. (2009).

          Floor effects associated with universal screening and their impact on the early

          identification of reading disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42(2), 163-176. 

          https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219408326219

 

When using 7th edition style, here is how to cite in-text:

Parenthetical: (Catts et al., 2009)

Narrative: Catts et al. (2009)

Direct quote: (Catts et al., 2009, p. 163)

 

Explanation of APA reference components

 

Reference
Section
APA format & notes
Author

Use last name, first and middle initials. For works with one author, list it. For works with two authors, list both and separate by an ampersand ( & ).

New for 7th edition: For works with 3 thru 20 authors, list all of them, and add an ampersand (&) before the last author. For works with 21 or more authors list first 19, an ellipse (three dots ... ) then last author. These are major changes from APA Style 6th edition guidelines.

Publication Year For journal articles, only provide the year. For magazine articles, include year followed by month. For example: (2008, June). For newspaper articles, provide: year, month, and day (2008, July 10).
Article Title Only capitalize first letter of first word for title and subtitle. Also capitalize proper names, acronyms, & abbreviations. Unlike MLA, no quotation marks.
Journal Title Capitalize all words except articles. Entire title in italics.
Volume Number

Italics

If the publication year is also used for the volume number, provide that year in the volume position of the reference.

Issue Number

New for 7th edition: When issue number is provided, it must be included in the reference.

Page Numbers

Include all page numbers where article appears. Do not use sloppy format, such as 163-76; instead write complete range: 163-176.

New for 7th edition: If journal is published online-only and articles  are numbered or assigned an eLocator, provide that number preceded by the word: Article

Examples:

Article 55

Article e4567

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

Unique number assigned to primarily journal articles, and some 
e-books and e-book chapters.

Note that not all articles are assigned a DOI, especially popular magazine and newspaper articles. The DOI always begins with 10 followed by a period and four digits and a slash. Example: 10.1177/

Remaining part of identifier may be all numbers, all letters, or combination of letters and numbers.

APA style 7th edition continues with the following format of the DOI to begin with https://doi.org/ 
followed by the assigned DOI. 

Example: https://doi.org/10.1080/14763141.2017.1391324

Researchers & students are expected to follow the current standard format for the DOI in their APA references.

 

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