APA Research Paper Example: Annotated APA 7 Student Paper Sample (Title Page to References)

Quick answer

An APA 7 student research paper has a title page (title, author, school, course, instructor, due date, page number), the paper title repeated on page 2, body text with up to five heading levels, author–date in-text citations such as (Watts et al., 2018), and a reference list on a new page with hanging indents. Use one font such as Times New Roman 12 or Calibri 11, double-spacing and 1-inch margins.

What an APA Research Paper Looks Like (APA 7)

APA Style is the format most used in psychology, education, nursing, business and the social sciences. The current version is the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020). It has two versions of a paper: a student paper (for class assignments) and a professional paper (for journal submission). Unless your teacher says otherwise, use the student version.

An APA 7 student research paper is put together in this order:

1. Title page (page 1)
2. Abstract (page 2, only if your instructor asks for one)
3. Text – starts on a new page with the paper title repeated at the top
4. References – starts on a new page
5. Tables, figures and appendices if used (or tables and figures placed in the text)

Below is an annotated APA research paper example, built part by part. All excerpts are original and illustrative: the student, school, course and study are made up, and only the three works in the reference list are real published papers. Every rule is checked against the official APA Style website and its free guides, linked in each section.

Updated October 2026.

1. Title page — Page 1
2. Abstract — Only if required
3. Text — Title repeated, no "Introduction" heading
4. References — New page, hanging indent
5. Tables/figures/appendices — If used

General APA 7 Format Settings

Set these up before you start typing:

• Font: use one font throughout. APA lists options such as Calibri 11, Arial 11, Georgia 11, Times New Roman 12 and Aptos 12 (APA: Font).
• Margins: 1 inch (2.54 cm) on all sides (APA: Margins).
• Line spacing: double-space everything, including the title page, headings, block quotes and references (APA Student Paper Setup Guide, PDF).
• Paragraphs: indent the first line 0.5 inch with the Tab key or paragraph settings (not the space bar), and align text to the left, not fully justified (APA: Paragraph alignment and indentation).
• Page numbers: top right of every page, starting with the title page as page 1 (APA: Title page setup).
• Running head: not required for student papers unless your instructor or school asks for it (APA: Page header).

Your instructor's or university's rules always come first. Many Philippine and Indian universities, for example, have their own thesis manuals that change margins or require a running head.

APA Title Page Example (Student Paper)

The student title page has these elements, each centered on its own double-spaced line, with the bold title in the upper half of the page (APA: Title page setup; Student Title Page Guide, PDF):

Illustrative title page (made-up student and course):

• Page number (top right): 1
• Retrieval Practice and Exam Performance Among First-Year Psychology Students (bold, title case, 3–4 lines down)
• (one blank double-spaced line)
• Ana M. Reyes
• Department of Psychology, Example State University
• PSY 201: Research Methods in Psychology
• Dr. Jordan Lee
• October 31, 2026

Annotations:

• Title: bold, centered, title case. Make it specific: name the variables and the population. For ideas, see research title examples.
• Affiliation: department first, then the school.
• Course: number and name as written on the syllabus.
• Date: the due date, written in the format usual in your country, with the month spelled out.
• No running head and no author note in a student paper unless requested.

APA Abstract Example

Abstracts and keywords are not usually required for student papers unless your instructor asks. In journals, abstracts are usually limited to 250 words, and APA suggests three to five keywords (APA Abstract and Keywords Guide, PDF).

Format: on page 2, write the label Abstract in bold and centered. The abstract itself is one paragraph with no first-line indent. Keywords go one line below, indented, with the label Keywords: in italics.

Illustrative abstract (made-up study, about 115 words):

Students often reread notes before exams, although testing oneself may be more effective. This study examined whether retrieval practice improves exam performance among first-year psychology students. Using a within-subjects design, 64 students at one university studied two textbook chapters: one by rereading and one by answering short recall quizzes. One week later, students completed a 20-item multiple-choice exam on both chapters. Scores were higher for the retrieval practice chapter (M = 14.2, SD = 2.6) than for the reread chapter (M = 12.1, SD = 3.0), t(63) = 5.10, p < .001, d = 0.64. Most students nevertheless predicted that rereading would work better. These findings suggest instructors could add short weekly quizzes to introductory courses.

Keywords: retrieval practice, testing effect, study strategies, undergraduates

Why it works: background, aim, method, results with numbers, and a practical conclusion, in that order. See more models in abstract examples.

First Page of Text and Introduction Example

The text starts on a new page. Repeat the paper title at the top in bold, centered title case. It works as a Level 1 heading. Do not use the heading "Introduction"; text at the start of the paper is assumed to be the introduction (APA: Paragraph alignment and indentation; Student Paper Setup Guide, PDF).

Illustrative introduction excerpt (citations are to real papers listed in the reference example below):

Retrieval Practice and Exam Performance Among First-Year Psychology Students

Many students judge a study method by how easy it feels, not by how much it helps them remember. Choosing the right strategy matters, but single studies can mislead: small samples and flexible analyses make many published findings less reliable than they appear (Ioannidis, 2005), and publication bias can turn weak claims into accepted "facts" (Nissen et al., 2016). Even famous results may shrink when tested again. Watts et al. (2018) replicated the well-known marshmallow test with a larger and more diverse sample and found an association about half the size of the original. For this reason, the present study tested a common classroom claim, that self-testing beats rereading, in a new student population.

Annotations:

• The first sentence names the problem in plain words.
• Each claim from other work has an author–date citation.
• The last sentence states the aim. A full paper would then state hypotheses.

APA Headings: Levels 1–5 With Examples

APA has five heading levels. Most student papers only need Levels 1 and 2. Format comes from the official APA headings page and the student heading template (PDF):

• Level 1: Centered, Bold, Title Case. Text starts as a new paragraph.
• Level 2: Flush Left, Bold, Title Case. Text starts as a new paragraph.
• Level 3: Flush Left, Bold Italic, Title Case. Text starts as a new paragraph.
• Level 4: Indented, Bold, Title Case, Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same line.
• Level 5: Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case, Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same line.

Illustrative heading outline for the Method section:

• Method (Level 1, centered bold)
• Participants (Level 2, flush left bold)
• Materials (Level 2)
• Study Chapters (Level 3, flush left bold italic)
• Recall Quizzes. Each quiz had five short-answer questions... (Level 4, indented bold, run-in)
• Scoring Rules. Answers were scored by two raters... (Level 5, indented bold italic, run-in)
• Procedure (Level 2)

Use headings in order: do not jump from Level 1 to Level 3. A section needs at least two subsections before you split it.

APA In-Text Citation Examples

APA uses the author–date system (APA: Author–date citation system). Every in-text citation must match an entry in the reference list.

• One author: (Ioannidis, 2005) or Ioannidis (2005) argued...
• Two authors: use "&" in parentheses and "and" in the sentence: (Author & Author, 2020) or Author and Author (2020).
• Three or more authors: first author plus "et al." from the very first citation: (Nissen et al., 2016) or Watts et al. (2018) found... (APA: What's new in the 7th edition, PDF).
• Direct quotation: add the page or other location, for example (Author, 2020, p. 14). Quotes under 40 words go in double quotation marks in the text; 40 words or more become an indented block quotation. APA prefers paraphrasing.
• Several works at once: put them in alphabetical order, separated by semicolons: (Ioannidis, 2005; Nissen et al., 2016).

Narrative vs parenthetical: in a narrative citation the author is part of your sentence ("Watts et al. (2018) showed..."); in a parenthetical citation, both author and year sit in brackets at the end of the clause.

APA Reference List Example

Start the reference list on a new page with the label References in bold and centered. Double-space all entries, use a 0.5-inch hanging indent, and order entries alphabetically by the first author's surname (APA: Reference list setup). For journal articles, italicize the journal name and volume, put the issue in parentheses without italics, use an en dash in page ranges, and end with the DOI as a https://doi.org/ link with no period after it (APA: Journal article references).

Example reference list (real papers, formatted in APA 7):

• Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine, 2(8), Article e124. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
• Nissen, S. B., Magidson, T., Gross, K., & Bergstrom, C. T. (2016). Publication bias and the canonization of false facts. eLife, 5, Article e21451. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21451
• Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., & Quan, H. (2018). Revisiting the marshmallow test: A conceptual replication investigating links between early delay of gratification and later outcomes. Psychological Science, 29(7), 1159–1177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618761661

Annotations:

• Sentence case for article titles (only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns are capitalized); title case for journal names.
• Article numbers (e124, e21451) replace page ranges in online journals: write "Article" before the number.
• All three papers are free to read: you can open them from published research papers PDF.

On Ocean of Papers, every search result has a cite button that copies an APA citation (also MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver and BibTeX). Always check the copied citation against the rules above: automatic citations can have capitalization errors.

APA 7 Student Paper vs Professional Paper

The main differences are on the title page and in the page header. The body text, headings, citations and references follow the same rules. Sources: APA: Title page setup, APA: Page header, APA Abstract and Keywords Guide. APA also publishes full sample papers of both kinds.

Common APA Mistakes (and Fixes)

These are the errors teachers mark most often in APA format research papers:

1. Using APA 6 rules. The 7th edition dropped the student running head, the publisher location for books, and "Retrieved from" before most URLs. It also uses "et al." from the first citation for three or more authors.
2. Adding an "Introduction" heading. Repeat the paper title instead.
3. Wrong heading format. Level 2 is flush left and bold, not centered. Level 3 is bold italic.
4. Mismatched citations. Every in-text citation needs a reference entry and every reference must be cited. Check the spelling and year of each name.
5. Title case in article titles. Reference-list article titles use sentence case.
6. DOI written as "doi:10..." Use the https://doi.org/ link format with no full stop at the end.
7. Spacing tricks. Do not add extra blank lines between paragraphs or references, and do not use the space bar for indents.
8. No page numbers. Every page, including the title page, needs one in the top right.
9. Citing only websites. Most research papers need peer-reviewed journal articles. Find them free with the PDF filter on Ocean of Papers.

More APA Paper Examples and Next Steps

To see the whole APA format research paper sample with every page laid out, use APA's own sample papers. To learn how real published psychology and social science papers argue and report results, open the free PDFs in research paper samples.

Related guides:

• How to write a research paper – the full process from topic to final draft.
• Abstract examples – six annotated abstracts, including an APA one.
• Quantitative research example – how to report statistics like the example above.
• Review of related literature example – for Chapter 2 of a thesis.
• IEEE paper format – if your course uses IEEE instead of APA.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an APA research paper example?

It is a sample paper that shows APA 7 formatting in practice: a title page, an optional abstract, the body with APA headings and author–date citations, and a reference list. The annotated sections above form a complete APA research paper example, and APA publishes official sample papers on its website.

What does an APA format research paper sample include for students?

A student title page (title, name, department and school, course, instructor, due date, page number), the title repeated on the first page of text, the body, and references. An abstract is only included if the instructor requests it.

What changed in the APA 7th edition paper example compared with APA 6?

Student papers no longer need a running head, works with three or more authors use "et al." from the first citation, DOIs are written as https://doi.org/ links, and more fonts are allowed, such as Calibri 11 and Arial 11.

Do I need an abstract in an APA student paper?

Not usually. APA says abstracts and keywords are not required for student papers unless the instructor asks for them. Professional papers usually require them.

How many heading levels does APA have?

Five. Level 1 is centered bold; Level 2 is flush left bold; Level 3 is flush left bold italic; Levels 4 and 5 are indented, end with a period and run into the paragraph (bold, and bold italic).

What font and spacing does APA 7 require?

Use one readable font throughout, such as Times New Roman 12, Calibri 11, Arial 11, Georgia 11 or Aptos 12; double-space the whole paper; and use 1-inch margins.

How do I cite a source with three or more authors in APA?

Write the first author's surname followed by "et al." and the year, for example (Watts et al., 2018) or Watts et al. (2018), starting with the first citation.

Where can I find sources for an APA research paper?

Search your topic on Ocean of Papers. It searches six scholarly databases, shows free legal PDFs, and copies an APA citation for each result.

Related guides

• Research paper examples (annotated, free PDFs)
• Abstract examples for research papers
• IEEE paper format: template + example
• How to write a research paper

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