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How to Cite a Thesis or Dissertation in APA

In this citation guide, you will learn how to reference and cite an undergraduate thesis, master’s thesis, or doctoral dissertation. This guide will also review the differences between a thesis or dissertation that is published and one that has remained unpublished. The guidelines below come from the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020a), pages 333 and 334. Please note that the association is not affiliated with this guide.

Alternatively, you can visit EasyBib.com for helpful citation tools to cite your thesis or dissertation .

Guide Overview

Citing an unpublished thesis or dissertation, citing a published dissertation or thesis from a database, citing a thesis or dissertation published online but not from a database, citing a thesis or dissertation: reference overview, what you need.

Since unpublished theses can usually only be sourced in print form from a university library, the correct citation structure includes the university name where the publisher element usually goes.

Author’s last name, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case [Unpublished degree type thesis or dissertation]. Name of institution.

Ames, J. H., & Doughty, L. H. (1911). The proposed plans for the Iowa State College athletic field including the design of a reinforced concrete grandstand and wall [Unpublished bachelor’s thesis]. Iowa State University.

In-text citation example:

• Parenthetical :  (Ames & Doughty, 1911)
• Narrative :  Ames & Doughty (1911)

If a thesis or dissertation has been published and is found on a database, then follow the structure below. It’s similar to the format for an unpublished dissertation/thesis, but with a few differences:

• The institution is presented in brackets after the title
• The archive or database name is included

Author’s last name, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case (Publication or Document No.) [Degree type thesis or dissertation, Name of institution]. Database name.

Examples 1:

Knight, K. A. (2011). Media epidemics: Viral structures in literature and new media (Accession No. 2013420395) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Trotman, J.B. (2018). New insights into the biochemistry and cell biology of RNA recapping (Document No. osu1523896565730483) [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses & Dissertations Center.

In the example given above, the dissertation is presented with a Document Number (Document No.). Sometimes called a database number or publication number, this is the identifier that is used by the database’s indexing system. If the database you are using provides you with such a number, then include it directly after the work’s title in parentheses.

If you are interested in learning more about how to handle works that were accessed via academic research databases, see Section 9.3 of the Publication Manual.

In-text citation examples :

• Parenthetical citation : (Trotman, 2018)
• Narrative citation : Trotman (2018)

Author’s last name, F. M. (Year Published). Title in sentence case [Degree type thesis or dissertation, Name of institution]. Name of archive or collection. URL

Kim, O. (2019). Soviet tableau: cinema and history under late socialism [Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh]. Institutional Repository at the University of Pittsburgh. https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/37669/7/Olga%20Kim%20Final%20ETD.pdf

Stiles, T. W. (2001). Doing science: Teachers’ authentic experiences at the Lone Star Dinosaur Field Institute [Master’s thesis, Texas A&M University]. OAKTrust. https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2001-THESIS-S745

It is important to note that not every thesis or dissertation published online will be associated with a specific archive or collection. If the work is published on a private website, provide only the URL as the source element.

In-text citation examples:

• Parenthetical citation : (Kim, 2019)
• Narrative citation : Kim (2019)
• Parenthetical citation : (Stiles, 2001)
• Narrative citation : Stiles (2001)

We hope that the information provided here will serve as an effective guide for your research. If you’re looking for even more citation info, visit EasyBib.com for a comprehensive collection of educational materials covering multiple source types.

If you’re citing a variety of different sources, consider taking the EasyBib citation generator for a spin. It can help you cite easily and offers citation forms for several different kinds of sources.

To start things off, let’s take a look at the different types of literature that are classified under Chapter 10.6 of the Publication Manual :

• Undergraduate thesis
• Master’s thesis
• Doctoral dissertation

You will need to know which type you are citing. You’ll also need to know if it is published or unpublished .

When you decide to cite a dissertation or thesis, you’ll need to look for the following information to use in your citation:

• Author’s last name, and first and middle initials
• Year published
• Title of thesis or dissertation
• If it is unpublished
• Publication or document number (if applicable; for published work)
• Degree type (bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral)
• Thesis or dissertation
• Name of institution awarding degree
• DOI (https://doi.org/xxxxx) or URL (if applicable)

Since theses and dissertations are directly linked to educational degrees, it is necessary to list the name of the associated institution; i.e., the college, university, or school that is awarding the associated degree.

To get an idea of the proper form, take a look at the examples below. There are three outlined scenarios:

• Unpublished thesis or dissertation
• Published thesis or dissertation from a database
• Thesis or dissertation published online but not from a database

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

American Psychological Association. (2020b). Style-Grammar-Guidelines. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/parenthetical-versus-narrative

Published August 10, 2012. Updated March 24, 2020.

Written and edited by Michele Kirschenbaum and Elise Barbeau. Michele Kirschenbaum is a school library media specialist and the in-house librarian at EasyBib.com. Elise Barbeau is the Citation Specialist at Chegg. She has worked in digital marketing, libraries, and publishing.

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
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• et al Usage
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• Multiple Authors
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Parenthetical Citations
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
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Citation Examples

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To cite a published thesis in APA style, it is important that you know some basic information such as the author, publication year, title of the thesis, institute name, archive name, and URL (uniform resource locator). The templates for an in-text citation and reference list entry of a thesis, along with examples, are given below:

In-text citation template and example:

Use the author surname and the publication year in the in-text citation.

Author Surname (Publication Year)

Cartmel (2007)

Parenthetical:

(Author Surname, Publication Year)

(Cartmel, 2007)

Reference list entry template and example:

The title of the thesis is set in sentence case and italicized. Enclose the thesis and the institute awarding the degree inside brackets following the publication year. Then add the name of the database followed by the URL.

Author Surname, F. M. (Publication Year). Title of the thesis [Master’s thesis, Institute Name]. Name of the Database. URL

Cartmel, J. (2007). Outside school hours care and schools [Master’s thesis, Queensland University of Technology]. EPrints. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/17810/1/Jennifer_Cartmel_Thesis.pdf

To cite an unpublished dissertation in APA style, it is important that you know some basic information such as the author, year, title of the dissertation, and institute name. The templates for in-text citation and reference list entry of an online thesis, along with examples, are given below:

Author Surname (Year)

Averill (2009)

(Author Surname, Year)

(Averill, 2009)

The title of the dissertation is set in sentence case and italicized. Enclose “Unpublished doctoral dissertation” inside brackets following the year. Then add the name of the institution awarding the degree.

Author Surname, F. M. (Publication Year). Title of the dissertation [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Name of the Institute.

Averill, R. (2009). Teacher–student relationships in diverse New Zealand year 10 mathematics classrooms: Teacher care [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Victoria University of Wellington.

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Helpful Resources

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) APA 7 

APA Style - American Psychological Association

Creating an APA Research Paper

• Formatting the Paper General formatting and style. From The OWL at Purdue .
• Citing Within a Paper (Parenthetical Citations) How to cite references within paragraphs in a paper.
• The Reference List How to cite references and format the References Page of an APA paper. From The Writing Center at UW-Madison .
• APA Style This website, published by the APA, provides assistance with the APA style including tips, an FAQ page, and help with citing electronic resources.
• Sample APA-Formatted Paper Sample paper (pdf) with explanations throughout. From The OWL at Purdue .

Basic Citation Formats

These are basic guidelines to citing sources for your works cited page using APA 7 style.

Author, A. A. (Year of publication).  Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle . Publisher Name.

Shanker, J. L., & Cockrum, W. A. (2014).  Reading inventory (6 th ed.). Pearson Education.

Book with an Editors Instead of Authors

Editor, E. E. (Ed.). (Year of publication).  Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle . Publisher.

Flood, J., & Anders, P. L. (Eds.). (2005). Literacy development of students in urban schools: Research and policy. International Reading Association.

Journal article read in print or from a database, no doi assigned

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article.  Title of Periodical, volume number (issue number), pages.

Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening.  The New Criterion, 15 (3), 5 – 13.

Journal article, with doi

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article.  Title of Periodical, volume number (issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

​ Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented digital research with service-learning.   Purdue  Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement, 6 (1), 11 –  16.                                                                                https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979  

Note: For more information on DOI numbers see the box below or refer to the APA Style Manual, 7th Edition.

Journal article with three to twenty authors Miciak, J., Stuebing, K. K., Vaughn, S., Roberts, G., Barth, A. E., Fletcher, J.        M., & VanDerHeyden, A. (2014).  Cognitive attributes of adequate and        inadequate responders to reading intervention in middle school.  School        Psychology Review, 43 , 407-427.

Dissertation from a database

Lastname, F. M. (Year).  Title of dissertation/thesis  (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation/Master’s thesis, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree]. Database or Archive Name.

Crittenden, E. M. (2013).  The effectiveness of two spelling approaches on         vocabulary development for Hispanic learners (Publication No. 3560525) [Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University].         ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. 

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date).  Title of page . Site name. URL

C larke, B. L. (2014). Rurality and reading readiness:  The mediating role of        parent engagement (R 2 Ed Working Paper No. 2014-1).  The National Center for Research on      Rural Education   http://r2ed.unl.edu/workingpapers/2014/2014_1_Clarke.pdf 

Citing Electronic Journal Articles with DOIs

APA 7 Style Rule for DOI

When citing journal articles (print or electronic), APA style requires the inclusion of the DOI, if it is available (see example below).

What it is:

A DOI is a unique "digital object identifier" that is permanently attached to a specific article. It is a cross of numbers and letters, and always begins with a "10."

When & How to Cite a DOI:

If a DOI is available for an article being cited, it must be included (as the final element, without a full stop/period) in the reference.

When used, the DOI replaces an article's URL in the reference.

Neither the URL nor an access date are included when the DOI is used in a reference.

Locating the DOI

You can find the DOI either...

1) in the database record (there will be a field in the article record that says "DOI") or

2) on the first page of the article, usually near the copyright information.

No Apparent DOI?

If you don't see a DOI in the online article information or printout, you can query it's DOI status by clicking  http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/ and entering in your citation information.

Further Info

For more information, consult the APA Style Manual. The APA website also has a helpful  video tutorial on finding DOIs.

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Thesis and Dissertation

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• Thesis and Dissertation Formatting

For theses, the Purdue Polytechnic Institute has adopted the APA, parenthetical citation format as implemented by Purdue University as the format for theses and dissertations. For students in departmental or school MS programs (AT, BCM, CGT, CIT and TLI [IT]), additional information may be available on your department's graduate web site.

Formatting Your Thesis

TECH 646 (a required course for most students) assists the student in developing their proposal and therefore covers how to format the thesis or dissertation. Students who are not required to take TECH 646 may use the following guidelines to ensure their thesis or dissertation is acceptably formatted.

Foremost, students should use the University Microsoft Word Thesis template which is available on the graduate school's web site . This template has styles included within it to make formatting less cumbersome. The Graduate School also holds seminars on use of the template and following the formatting requirements.

Students should NOT use the LaTeX format provided by the university. Instead, if a student desires to use LaTeX, they should use the attached template .

Note that there are a few things that the Word template will not do. Even when using the thesis template, students must:

• Ensure that they do not use vertical lines in tables.
• Properly format captions for tables and figures (including proper italics for each).
• Ensure proper tabs for each paragraph and proper hanging indents on references.

Other specifics of the format can be seen in this example document that can be used as a guide for formatting theses and dissertations.

Formatting Review for Theses

Students are required to meet with the their Thesis Format Advisor at least two weeks before they defend their thesis. The last date to meet with the Thesis Advisor for a thesis formatting appointment is two weeks prior to the last day to defend the thesis. A thesis formatting appointment is mandatory. Students who do not meet with the Purdue Polytechnic Thesis Advisor and get the appropriate approval signature on the Form 9 will not graduate at the end of the semester.

Thesis advisors in the Purdue Polytechnic include the following:

The Thesis Formatting Review requires the following steps:

• Scheduling the meeting to occur before the thesis/dissertation defense.
• Submitting an electronic copy of the thesis via email to the Thesis Advisor two days prior to the review meeting for submission to the iThenticate plagiarism checking software.
• Attending the Thesis review meeting.

Note that the thesis format review does not apply to directed projects. Only theses and dissertations are reviewed for format requirements.

Scheduling Formatting Appointment

To make a thesis formatting appointment with the Thesis Advisor, students will need to email the contact shown above. Once the thesis has been approved, the student may schedule a defense. It is recommended that students make an appointment with the thesis advisor as early as possible.

Providing an iThenticate Copy

Two days prior to your scheduled Thesis Advising appointment, you should email a complete copy of your thesis as a single Word or PDF document with no images to your Thesis Advisor. After receiving your document, the Thesis Advisor will submit your electronic document to the iThenticate application to verify there is no plagiarism within the document. At the Thesis Advising appointment you will be able to review the results of the check as well as receive the electronic results.

NOTE: You should bring a USB drive or other storage media with you to the Thesis Advising appoint so that you may receive a copy of the iThenticate results.

Attending the Formatting Appointment

Please e-mail Dr. Newton ( [email protected] ) a copy of your dissertation two days prior to your formatting appointment.

Thesis Pre-review

If a student is in doubt whether their document is formatted correctly, they may email a sample from their thesis to the Thesis Format Advisor for review and comment. “Pre-review” meetings are also a possibility but must occur before the sixth (6th) week of each semester.

Three-Article Dissertation Format (Alternative)

Having an article-based dissertation is a collection of 3 (minimum) published (or accepted for publication without further revision) research articles in high quality refereed journals related to a common theme. Prior to submission to the journals for publication, the candidate must obtain approval of each article and the journals from all current Committee members. The relationship between the articles and theory bases they are drawn from must be described in an introductory chapter. Crosscutting themes, conclusions, implications and recommendations that may be drawn from across the articles must be described in a concluding chapter. 

Students are required to be first author, and confirm their contributions of each article before their listings according to the following Multiple Author Policy.

Requirements

Multiple Author Policy

(Adapted from Morgan, 1984)

A author is a person who has used professional skills to make a significant contribution to a published article and who can take public responsibility for its content.

A significant contribution is a contribution without which the article would have been seriously compromised in scope or quality. A significant contribution to a research project may be made by an author in one or more of the following research phases:

• Conceptualization and design,
• Methodology and/or simulation design,
• Data Collection,
• Conclusions, and/or
• Recommendations

Types of work that are specifically excluded from this definition are as follows:

• Referring subjects to researchers,
• Performing routine laboratory work, data entry, or analysis,
• Any nonprofessional work, and
• Proofreading or correction of the format or style of the article.

Unjustified multiple authorship dilutes the value of authorship, reduces the credibility of the study and can violate the essential principle that science can advance only through the work of those who understand what they are saying.

Reference: Morgan, P. P. (1984). How many authors can dance on the head of an article? Canadian Medical Association Journal, 130, 842.

Student authors are required to confirm contributions to each paper with the following statement.  My contributions within the parameters of this article are:  _____________________________________________.  List each author and their contribution to this article. An example may look like this style from the Transportation Research Record:

Author Contributions

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design: Author1lastname, I.; data collection: Author2lastname, X.; analysis and interpretation of results: Author3last, Z, and Author1lastname, I.; draft manuscript preparation: Author1lastname, I. and Author4last, Y. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

A dissertation authored using this structure will need to include acknowledgement of prior publication within the respective chapter, and permission from the Journal for publication with the following statements.  The Journal of ________________________ ________________________________ provided permission for me to publish this article titled ___________________________________________ in this dissertation.  Please attach permission letters in Appendices.

Although each journal may have specific statement requirements, the acknowledgment should be single spaced and appear 3 single spaces under the chapter title. Consult your publisher regarding required information that should appear in this acknowledgment.

Three-Article Dissertation Contents

All dissertations will conform to Purdue Polytechnic and Purdue Graduate School formatting and format review guidelines. A typical article-based dissertation will use the following structure:

Preliminary pages

• Statement of Approval and authorship page
• Dedication (optional)
• Acknowledgments (optional)
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures

Main Body pages

• Introduction of Dissertation Research and Overview of Purpose and Significance of Research.  Research question(s) addressed overall, and the question(s) addressed in each published article. Discussion of how these articles address the research question. Additional information may need to be provided; e.g. the survey development may need more discussion and to be supplemented with the IRB information and a copy of the survey instrument; or other pertinent research details that may not appear in the specific articles. 
• Published Article #1
• Published Article #2
• Published Article #3
• Additional Published Articles numbered
• Discussion of overall contribution supported by the contributions of each article. Crosscutting themes, conclusions, implications and recommendations that may be drawn from across the articles must be described.

Back Matter pages

• Appendix (Include Permission Letters for Previously Published Articles)
• Vita (optional)
• List of Publications (optional)
• Forms and Documents
• Graduation Candidate Resources
• Grade Appeals
• University Graduate Student Resources

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Citation Management

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The templates below have been built to ensure a consistent look among most theses and dissertations submitted to the Graduate School. These templates should be used as a guide in formatting your thesis or dissertation with the understanding that your department may require modifications of the template to fit your discipline’s style. Please contact your department’s Format Advisor to discuss any necessary changes.

The Thesis & Dissertation Office recommends using the PurdueThesis.cls file.

Please take note that Overleaf SHOULD NOT be used for writing, editing, or publishing documents or research papers that contain data subject to EAR, ITAR, DFARS Clause 252.204-7012, and other controlled data designators due to the increased security required for these types of data.

Get PurdueThesis

Sign up for your FREE Overleaf  Pro+ account today and access the PurdueThesis.cls!

Please download the following template to begin your thesis/dissertation. Formatting within the template is already set up for your convenience.

You will need to select the appropriate answer for all dropdown boxes on page 1.  Ex. Thesis/Dissertation, Choose Degree, Choose Department, Choose Campus Location, Choose Graduation Term.

You will need to manually input your committee information on page 2. We ask that you only list your committee member's primary department. The name after "Approved by:" should match the name listed on your Form 9 as "Thesis Form Head".

Follow instructions within the template to complete the rest of your thesis/dissertation. Please be careful when making changes so that you do not override/change the template formatting.

Please contact us if your department is not listed, or with other questions. 

Last modified January 16, 2024.

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