APA 7 Literature Review Format: A Simple Formatting Guide
Formatting a literature review trips people up more than almost any other part of academic writing. You’ve done the research, you’ve read the articles, and then you sit down to write, and suddenly nothing seems right. Where do I put references? How do the headings work? Do we even have to introduce this thing? These are real questions, and people always ask these things. This guide walks you through APA 7 formatting for a literature review in plain, practical terms so you can stop second-guessing and start writing.
What is a Literature Review
Before we get into formatting, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what this document is supposed to accomplish. A literature review is not one article after another summary. It’s a dialogue between sources. You are showing your reader what researchers know about a topic, where they agree, where they disagree, and where a gap still exists that your own paper or project fills.
Your writing and formatting are all directed by that purpose. You’re making a list, not an argument.
Basic Page Formatting in APA 7
Start with the basics. Your document must have one-inch margins on all sides. Use a readable font throughout. Times New Roman 12 pt. or Arial 11 pt. Both are fine. Double-space everything. (Reference list at end too.) No extra spacing between paragraphs either. The APA 7 style keeps things tidy and consistent throughout the whole paper.
Need more formatting help? Read our APA 7th Edition Example for Nursing Papers guide.
Every page has page numbers at the top right corner. According to the APA 7 style guide, student papers do not need to include a running head unless requested by your instructor. Still, many people add it because of the habit of APA 6. Don’t do that unless someone tells you to.
Title and Introductory Section
Your literature review should open with your title at the top of the first page, centered and bold. Below that, your introduction starts right away without a heading that says Introduction. That’s an APA rule that people get wrong all the time.
Your opening section has three quick jobs to do. What we will cover, why it matters, and how we have structured the sections below: Stay on your focus. People don’t need a long buildup before you get to the actual content.
Headings to Help You Organize Your Review
This is where many students either over-format or under-format. APA 7 has five heading levels, but most literature reviews only require two, sometimes three.
Level 1 Headings are centered, in bold type, and use standard title capitalization. These are your big sections. Thematic groupings, periods, methodological categories, whatever organizational scheme you choose for your review.
Level 2 headings sit flush with the left margin, also bold, also title case. These are subsections that break down within a major section. Use these when a section is long enough that it requires internal organization.
Don’t add headings just for the sake of it. If a section is two paragraphs long, it probably doesn’t need a Level 2 heading in it. Let the content decide.
In-text citations throughout.
“Every idea I borrow from a source must be cited in the body of my review. Not one exception. In APA 7, the basic format is to include the author’s last name and the year in parentheses at the end of the sentence: (Martinez, 2022).
Direct quotes include a page number: (Martinez, 2022, p. 47). But try to keep direct quotes rare in a literature review. You are synthesizing ideas, not replicating them. Paraphrase most of the time, and save quotes for when the actual wording really does matter.
There are two authors listed each time with an ampersand in between them: (Chen & Patel, 2021). For three or more authors, the citation is abbreviated to the first author’s name followed by et al. from the first citation: (Thompson et al., 2020).
No author? First few words of title in italics. No date? ‘ Use n.d. in place of the year. Simple fixes people tend to overthink.
Synthesizing Sources Instead of Summarizing Them
This isn’t strictly a formatting point, but it affects how your citations look on the page, so it’s worth mentioning here. Strong literature reviews group ideas together rather than moving through one source at a time.
Instead of writing one paragraph about Study A and then another paragraph about Study B, you write a paragraph about a finding or theme and use multiple sources to back that up. Your in-text citations begin to appear in batches: (Chen & Patel, 2021; Martinez, 2022; Thompson et al., 2020). That’s a sign you’re synthesizing, not just summarizing. It’s also a signal to your reader that the point you’re making is widely supported in the literature.
The Bibliography
Your list of references begins on a separate page at the end of the document. Center the text References At the top, bold it, and start listing every source you referred to in the review. Do not include anything you read but did not cite. That’s padding, and teachers can see it.
Use a hanging indent for each entry. First line flush left. indent every line thereafter 1/2 inch; List references in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author.
Here is what a journal article looks like:
Nguyen, T. A., & Brooks, S. L. (2023). Evidence based interventions in community nursing practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing Practice, 51( 4 ), 203-214. *Journal name and volume number in italics*https://doi.org/10.1098/janp.2023.051 (parentheses) issue number, not in italics DOI as full working link. ” That’s all.
Before You Submit
Check your citations and your reference list together. Every in-text citation must match an entry in the reference list. Every entry in the reference list should be cited somewhere in the body of the review. One of the most common, and most preventable, mistakes people make are mismatches.
Then read the whole thing out loud. You hear it and awkward sentences and missing transitions are so much easier to catch.
