Research Guides: APA Style 7th Edition: Citing Your Sources: Thesis/Dissertation

Standard Format

Unpublished Dissertations and Theses
Who	When	What	Where
Author, A. A.	(year).	Title of dissertation/thesis: Use sentence case [Unpublished doctoral dissertation/master’s thesis].	Name of Institution Awarding the Degree
Published Dissertations and Theses
			Where
Who	When	What	Database or archive name	URL
Author, A. A.	(year).	Title of dissertation: Use sentence case [Doctoral dissertation, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree]. Title of thesis. [Master’s thesis, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree].	Database Name. Archive Name.	https://xxxx...

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

Formatting Rules

Formatting:

Italicize the title
Identify whether source is doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis in parentheses after the title

Various Examples

Thesis, from a commercial database	Lope, M. D. (2014). Perceptions of global mindedness in the international baccalaureate middle years programme: The relationship to student academic performance and teacher characteristics (Order No. 3682837) [Doctoral disertation, University of Maryland]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Dissertation, from an institutional database	Andrea, H. (2014). Effective networked nonprofit organizations: Defining the behavior and creating an instrument for measurement (Doctoral dissertation). https://etd.ohiolink.edu/
Unpublished master’s thesis	Curry, J. (2016). A guide to educating single mothers about early gang intervention and prevention (Unpublished master’s thesis). Pacific Oaks College.

See Ch. 10 pp. 313-352 of APA Manual for more examples and formatting rules