APA 7 Reference Page Format With Hanging Indent Examples

An APA 7 reference page starts on a new page at the end of the main text. It has References centered and bold at the top, entries arranged alphabetically, and double-spaced text. Every entry uses a 0.5-inch hanging indent: the first line starts at the left margin; lines that wrap underneath it move half an inch to the right.

That is the essential format, but students often lose time fixing small details such as extra paragraph spacing or a URL that breaks awkwardly. The following examples and instructions show how to assemble a reference page correctly and check it before submitting. The American Psychological Association’s reference-list instructions are the controlling source for these rules.

APA 7 Reference Page Rules at a Glance

APA says to use Reference (singular) if the list contains just one entry, although References is the usual heading. Also, the reference list normally contains the works actually cited in the paper—not everything consulted during research. The official guidance identifies exceptions for personal communications and general mentions of entire websites, which are handled in the text.

What an APA Reference Page Looks Like

Imagine you have cited a professional handbook, a journal article and a government publication. The entries should be alphabetized by their first author or organizational author. This example uses real bibliographic records from APA's published citation examples and publication information; it is an illustration, not the reference list for the article you are currently reading.

References (center this heading and make it bold in your document)

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

National Cancer Institute. (2019). Taking time: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2059). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf

Formatting note: The lines above are readable Markdown, not an exact visual simulation of an APA page. In Google Docs or Word, select the actual reference paragraphs, enable double spacing, and set a half-inch hanging indent. Don't insert blank lines between them. The alphabetic order—American Psychological Association, Grady, National Cancer Institute—is already correct.

These real examples demonstrate that each source type retains its own reference fields. A book reference includes its edition, a journal article includes volume/issue/pages and DOI, and a report identifies its issuing organization. See APA's reference list setup, journal article examples, and government-report examples for the underlying patterns.

What exactly is a hanging indent?

A hanging indent changes where subsequent lines of a single paragraph begin. It does not put the first line inward. Think of it as the opposite of a typical first-line essay indent.

A simplified diagram makes the distinction clear:

Left margin
|
| Writer, A. A., & Writer, B. B. (2024). Example title of an
|      article long enough to wrap onto a second line.
|      Example Journal, 12(3), 45–60.
|

The spaces in this diagram are purely illustrative; in your editor, use the Hanging: 0.5 inch paragraph setting. That keeps the indent accurate even if you change fonts, add a DOI or edit a title.

How to Make a Hanging Indent in Google Docs

Google Docs allows you to apply the indent to all entries simultaneously:

1. Type the references as separate paragraphs and put them in alphabetical order.
2. Select the reference entries only. Leave the centered References heading unselected.
3. Open Format → Align & indent → Indentation options.
4. Find Special indent and choose Hanging.
5. Enter 0.5 if the ruler uses inches (equivalent to 1.27 cm), then choose Apply.
6. Set the selected text to double spacing, with no additional spacing before or after paragraphs.
7. Inspect at least one long entry to ensure its second line indents while the first stays at the normal left margin.

If the interface or the measurement unit differs, use the equivalent half-inch value rather than blindly typing 0.5 centimetres. Google Docs updates menus periodically; the settings may be reached differently on mobile or in other languages. The official Google Docs indentation help is the relevant product reference, although that help page could not be fully loaded during this editorial check.

Why not just press Tab?

Pressing the Tab key manually does not consistently create a hanging indent. If the paragraph reflows or you add a word to an author name, the line breaks will move. The paragraph-format setting automatically indents whatever lines wrap, which is why it is safer.

If only one entry looks wrong, select that complete paragraph and reapply the hanging-indent setting. Avoid using spaces to line up individual words.

How to Apply APA Hanging Indents in Microsoft Word

Word has an explicit hanging-indent control. The following general method is supported by Microsoft’s Word documentation:

1. Select the reference entries, excluding the References heading.
2. Open the Paragraph settings dialog from the Home tab or your platform’s equivalent Paragraph menu.
3. Under Indentation, locate Special and choose Hanging.
4. Set the distance to 0.5 inch (1.27 cm).
5. Confirm with OK, then apply double line spacing.
6. In Paragraph spacing, remove unwanted extra space Before or After if your document's style adds it.

Word for Mac and Word for Windows can display slightly different menus. The principle stays the same: use paragraph formatting, not manual spaces or tabs. After applying it, click in a reference and inspect the ruler if you want visual confirmation.

How to Alphabetize APA References Correctly

Most entries begin with an author's surname, so sorting them alphabetically is straightforward. When there is a group author, sort by the group’s full name. When there is no author, the work's title moves into the author position, and you alphabetize by its first significant word.

For example, an author named Adams comes before Baker. A report authored by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sorts under C, rather than under the report's title. A reference with no author and a title beginning The Future of Learning is sorted by Future, ignoring “The.” The USC APA reference guide and University of Nevada, Reno guide explain the detailed order rules.

Same first author, different publications

Do not simply alphabetize by article title when the same writer appears more than once. APA has additional rules for identical authors, different coauthor combinations and publication years. A practical check is to compare complete author sequences first, then consult the official reference-list guidance if multiple works share the same authors.

If you cite two works by the same author from the same year, you may need year suffixes such as 2023a and 2023b in both references and in-text citations. Those letters cannot be assigned randomly; the relevant APA ordering rules determine them. This becomes especially important when references look similar.

Should APA references be numbered?

No. APA reference pages are alphabetical, not numbered. Even when your introduction cites a source by Patel first and a source by Adams later, Adams comes first on the reference page. Numbered reference systems, such as IEEE, use a different convention; don't mix the two.

Double Spacing and Page Layout: Small Details That Matter

Double-spacing means the text is consistently spaced within each reference and between references. The editor should not add an extra blank line after every paragraph. If the reference list appears to have unusually large gaps, the culprit is often “space after paragraph,” not the line-spacing option itself.

Continue the page number from the rest of the paper. If the last body-text page is numbered 6, the reference page begins on 7; it does not start again at 1. In a typical APA 7 student paper, the page number belongs at the upper-right corner. The same standard page margins and acceptable paper font used elsewhere should be retained.

An entry can break across pages. APA explicitly allows a reference near the bottom of one page to continue onto the next; let the word processor handle wrapping naturally. Don't force unusual line breaks to keep an entry together unless your instructor has a separate formatting requirement.

Are blue and underlined DOI links acceptable?

Yes. APA allows DOI and URL text to appear as active blue underlined hyperlinks or as plain text that is not underlined. Both forms can be acceptable in a digital submission. More important is that the address actually points to the source and that DOI links use the correct format, such as https://doi.org/....

Common APA 7 Reference Page Errors and Fixes

One efficient final check is to open the body text and reference page side by side. Read each author–year pair in the text, then confirm that a matching entry exists on the reference page. Next, scan the entries and ask whether each one supports an in-text citation. This catches omissions that purely visual checks miss.

APA References vs. an Annotated Bibliography

An APA reference page ordinarily lists source identification details only. An annotated bibliography adds a paragraph of evaluation or summary after each reference and is a separate assignment format. The presence of annotations changes how the assignment is assembled, so follow your instructor's instructions about whether annotations are indented or spaced differently.

Likewise, a general bibliography may include works you read but did not cite; that is not automatically an APA reference list. For a standard APA student paper, the goal is to connect cited claims to the exact retrievable sources on the last page.

Final APA Reference Page Checklist

Before exporting the document, verify each of these points:

• The references begin on a new page, after the body text.
• The heading References is centered and bold.
• Every entry begins at the left margin and has a 0.5-inch hanging indent on following lines.
• Every line is double-spaced with no extra empty paragraph between entries.
• Entries are alphabetized appropriately; they are not numbered.
• Page numbers continue at the upper right.
• Source details, DOI/URLs and capitalisation follow the correct source-specific APA format.
• References and in-text citations match, apart from recognised exceptions such as personal communications.

Export your document to PDF or use Print Preview once before submitting. That final visual check can reveal formatting that looked correct in the editing window but changed after export.

Conclusion

A correct APA 7 reference page is primarily a matter of consistent paragraph formatting and accurate source identification. Start with References in bold centered type, alphabetize the entries, use double spacing, and apply the half-inch hanging indent with your editor's built-in paragraph control. Then check that every author–date citation has its corresponding reference. If you get those parts right, you avoid most of the formatting problems that make an otherwise well-researched paper look unfinished.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a reference page if I cited only one source?

Yes, a standard APA paper with an in-text citation to a retrievable work needs a corresponding reference entry. If only one work appears, APA permits the heading Reference in the singular, although the conventional label for a list is References. Certain nonrecoverable sources, such as personal communications, are cited in text only rather than listed as ordinary references.

Is the heading “References” bold or plain in APA 7?

Bold and centered. Place it at the top of a new page without quotation marks. APA 7 does not use the heading “Works Cited,” and the page heading is not an invitation to bold each entire reference entry.

How many spaces equal a 0.5-inch hanging indent?

There is no reliable fixed number of spaces. The width of spaces changes with the font, and paragraph wrapping may change during edits. Set the hanging indent to 0.5 inch (1.27 cm) in the word processor so it works automatically across every wrapped line.

Should there be an extra blank line between APA references?

No. Double-space the entire reference list and remove extra paragraph spacing. In Microsoft Word or Google Docs, the appearance of an extra blank line is often caused by paragraph “After” spacing. You can adjust that without changing APA's double-spacing requirement.

Does the reference page count in APA page numbering?

Yes. The reference page continues the same page-number sequence as the rest of the paper. Place the page number in the top-right page header, including on subsequent reference-list pages if the list extends beyond one page.