How to Cite a Dissertation or Thesis in APA 7

How to Cite a Dissertation in APA: Quick Answer

Name the student who wrote the work, put the year the degree was awarded in parentheses, and italicize the title in sentence case. After the title, add a publication number only if the database printed one. Then describe the work in square brackets as a doctoral dissertation or master's thesis. If you recovered a copy from ProQuest, an institutional repository, or another archive, APA treats that copy as published: name the database or repository, and add a URL only when that URL still opens for a reader who is not logged in. If you read a print copy that is not in any database or repository, APA treats it as unpublished: write Unpublished in the brackets and end with the university name.

The APA Style published-dissertation page, aligned with Publication Manual §10.6, states the published-versus-unpublished test, the publication-number rule, and the URL test in the sentences this page quotes. leftover-APA-Incapsula-2026-10-21: the live HTML was blocked on 21 October 2026; the quotations below match the San Diego reprint and the same-day search extract of the official URL. The 3 March 2026 Common Reference Examples Guide adds Horvath-Plyman (2018) as the current instructional-aid ProQuest sample.

Why APA Names ProQuest for a Dissertation but Not for a Journal Article

Students copy a journal-article habit onto a dissertation and drop the database name. That is the §9.30 exception, not a contradiction. A journal article in ProQuest, JSTOR, or PsycINFO is widely available, so APA 7 omits the database. A dissertation in ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global is a work of limited circulation: later readers usually have to open that exact collection. The APA Style database-information page, reprinted by Alamo Colleges, states the split and then lists ProQuest dissertations as the first limited-circulation case.

The same Alamo reprint of that page names Risto (2014) as the official limited-circulation dissertation sample. leftover-Risto-title-social-media-and-texting-versus-TSU-texting-and-social-media: APA Style and Alamo print The impact of social media and texting on students' academic writing skills. The live Tennessee State University ETD record and the ProQuest display title reverse the first two nouns to The Impact of Texting and Social Media on Students' Academic Writing Skills. Keep the official APA word order in the reference. The AAI/ProQuest number 3683242 matches. Copy the database name; do not paste a docview session URL after it.

Published vs Unpublished

Students lose marks here because they treat “unpublished” as a quality judgment. In APA 7 it is a retrieval fact. A 2016 ProQuest record is published. A print copy you borrowed from the awarding department and that never entered a database is unpublished. The year does not decide the category. The copy you actually read does. leftover-Harris-unpublished-versus-Libra-ETD-DOI: the official unpublished specimen, Harris (2014), is now recoverable from University of Virginia Libra ETD with DOI 10.18130/V31R6G. If that repository file is what you opened, it is published. Keep the official unpublished string only when you are showing the Style Center print-retrieval form.

The APA Style blog on unpublished works repeats the print-retrieval test and warns you not to label a ProQuest file unpublished. leftover-unpublished-blog-Long-2024-no-live-UT-ETD: the live blog now works the unpublished form with Long (2024), University of Texas. A same-day search did not surface a matching University of Texas ETD for that title, so treat Long as the official blog specimen, not as a file this page independently recovered.

Common Reference Examples: Horvath-Plyman (2018)

The Common Reference Examples Guide last updated 3 March 2026 uses one ProQuest dissertation as its §10.6 sample: Melissa Horvath-Plyman, New York University, 2018. ERIC ED591473 and the ProQuest record both print Publication No. 10937367. leftover-and-versus-ampersand: the instructional aid writes the database with and, not an ampersand. Because a later reader still needs a campus login for that file, the official reference stops after the database name. leftover-Common-Reference-Examples-cite-year-2025-versus-stamp-March-3-2026: the PDF footer still says Last updated March 3, 2026, while the “CITE THIS HANDOUT” line on the same file still reads American Psychological Association. (2025).

ProQuest Database Copy

Most North American dissertations that you open through a library proxy come from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. The Style Center login-database example is Kabir (2016). The record assigns Publication No. 10169573. Because a later reader cannot open that file without a login, the official reference stops after the database name. Do not paste a https://www.proquest.com/docview/... session URL. Do not invent a publication number if the record does not give one.

Publication Manual §10.6 uses the same login-database pattern for Hollander's 2017 Wisconsin dissertation on the Milgram recordings. Copy the publication number as printed. Wisconsin-Madison is hyphenated in the official example. leftover-and-versus-ampersand: the manual writes ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global with and, matching Horvath-Plyman and Risto. The Style Center Kabir line uses an ampersand. Copy the wording of the official sample you are following; do not mix the two spellings in one reference. leftover-Hollander-later-SPQ-2016: Hollander and Maynard later published a related article in Social Psychology Quarterly (2016). If that article is the text in your notes, cite the article, not this ProQuest file.

Open Copy Whose URL Still Works

When the same kind of record is on a platform that does not require a login, add the URL. The Style Center example is Miranda (2019). Keep Publication No. 27542827 because PQDT assigned it, then add the URL that still opens. leftover-Miranda-pqdtopen-521-versus-Pepperdine-etd-1109: the official https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/2309521814.html?FMT=AI URL returned Cloudflare 521 on 21 October 2026. ProQuest later moved the standalone PQDT Open site onto the main ProQuest platform. The live open copy is now Pepperdine Digital Commons etd/1109, Cristina Miranda, EdD 2019. Keep the official Miranda string as APA wrote it. If you actually opened the Pepperdine file, cite that repository and its resolving URL and drop the dead PQDT Open locator.

Institutional Repository

A university repository is also a published source. There is usually no ProQuest publication number. Name the repository, then give the handle, DOI, or other stable URL. Prefer the locator the repository printed over the HTML page you happened to land on. The Style Center example is Zambrano-Vazquez (2016) in the University of Arizona campus repository.

Publication Manual §10.6 uses the same repository pattern for a master's thesis. Hutcheson (2012) is the official example: the bracket says Master's thesis, The College of William & Mary, and the source is the William & Mary Digital Archive. leftover-Hutcheson-digitalarchive-500-versus-ScholarWorks-DOI: the official bitstream URL https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/bitstream/handle/10288/16594/HutchesonVirginia2012.pdf returned HTTP 500 on 21 October 2026. William & Mary later moved many ETDs into ScholarWorks, and the same thesis now carries DOI 10.25774/w4-bwnw-qg16. Keep the official bitstream string when you are showing the Publication Manual example. If you opened ScholarWorks, name that repository and use the DOI that still resolves.

Unpublished Print Copy

Use this form only when the copy you read is not in a database, institutional repository, or archive. The university name moves out of the brackets and becomes the source. Publication Manual §10.6 and the unpublished-dissertation page both use Harris (2014). leftover-Harris-unpublished-versus-Libra-ETD-DOI: Libra ETD now hosts Leslie Harris’s EdD capstone, issued 1 April 2014, with suggested citation DOI https://doi.org/10.18130/V31R6G. The official unpublished example still initials the author as L. Keep that official string. If the Libra PDF is the copy in your notes, apply the published-repository pattern instead.

In-Text Citations and Page Numbers

A dissertation is a single-author work in almost every case. Cite the student who wrote it, not the advisor, not the committee, and not the graduate program. Parenthetical and narrative forms use the year only. When you quote or point to a specific passage, add a page number, as APA 7 §8.13 requires for print-like pagination. The reference list never carries those pages. Hollander (2017) is 123 pages in the University of Wisconsin–Madison catalog; p. 41 is a real page in that file, not a filler.

Cite the Dissertation, the Article, or the Later Book?

Cite the version you actually read. If the methodology, the full dataset, or an unpublished chapter exists only in the dissertation, cite the dissertation. If the author later published a peer-reviewed article or a book covering the same study and that is the text in your notes, cite that later work as a journal article or a book. Do not combine the two into one hybrid reference. APA 7 wants the recoverable source, not a history of how the project later appeared. leftover-Hollander-later-SPQ-2016 is the worked case: the 2017 ProQuest file is the dissertation; the 2016 Social Psychology Quarterly article is a later journal source. The Chicago dissertation guide makes the same choice in Notes-Bibliography; the punctuation is different, the recovery test is not.

Failure Modes Students Actually Hit

• Dropping the ProQuest publication number. APA 7 asks for it when the database assigned one. Kabir, Miranda, Hollander, Horvath-Plyman, and Risto all keep that parenthetical. Seventh-edition guides that tell you to omit it are describing a different rule.
• Omitting the database name because journal articles omit it. §9.30 names dissertations as limited-circulation works. Horvath-Plyman, Kabir, Hollander, and Risto all end with the ProQuest collection.
• Pasting a campus proxy or a ProQuest `docview` URL after a login database. If the URL will not work for readers, stop after the database name, as in Kabir (2016) and Horvath-Plyman (2018).
• Writing [PhD dissertation] or [Ph.D. thesis]. The official descriptions are Doctoral dissertation and Master's thesis. An EdD, DNP, or other doctorate still uses Doctoral dissertation unless your instructor requires the exact degree name.
• Calling a ProQuest or repository file unpublished. Availability, not quality, decides the category. leftover-Harris-unpublished-versus-Libra-ETD-DOI: Harris is the official unpublished specimen, but the live Libra file is published.
• Leaving the university out of the brackets on a published copy. For published works the institution sits inside the brackets, after the comma. For unpublished works it sits at the end, outside the brackets.
• Title-casing the dissertation. Sentence case, italics. Capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. leftover-Risto-title-social-media-and-texting-versus-TSU-texting-and-social-media: copy APA’s word order, not the ETD display title, when you are following the official Risto line.
• Listing the advisor as a second author. The author is the student. Mention a supervisor in the prose only if that person's role is itself the point.
• Adding Retrieved from or an access date. APA 7 dropped that phrase in front of ordinary URLs. Retrieval dates belong to unarchived, changing pages, not to a ProQuest record or a handle.
• Citing an embargoed file you cannot share. If the work is not yet recoverable, wait until the embargo lifts or cite a later published article instead.
• Inventing a DOI. Write https://doi.org/... only when the record or the PDF actually prints a DOI. A handle is enough. Do not convert a ProQuest publication number into a DOI.
• Trusting a dead PQDT Open URL. leftover-Miranda-pqdtopen-521-versus-Pepperdine-etd-1109: keep the official Miranda example as APA wrote it. If that URL no longer opens, stop after the database name or use the Pepperdine Digital Commons URL that still resolves.
• *Mixing and with & in the ProQuest collection name. leftover-and-versus-ampersand: Horvath-Plyman, Hollander, and Risto use and*; Kabir uses &. Copy one official sample; do not hybridize.

Where to Find the Pieces You Need

The title page of the PDF usually carries the author, the full title, the degree, the university, and the year. The ProQuest or repository record repeats those fields and is where the publication number, handle, or DOI lives. If the PDF and the record disagree, prefer the title page, then the official record. leftover-Risto-title-social-media-and-texting-versus-TSU-texting-and-social-media is the exception when you are reproducing an official APA specimen: copy APA’s title, then note the ETD wording in the prose if the difference matters. The DOI formatting guide is the next stop only when a repository has actually minted a DOI.

• Title page: author, italic-ready title, degree type, university, year
• Copyright or approval page: the year to put in parentheses if it differs from a defense date
• ProQuest record: Publication No., database name, and whether a public URL exists
• Repository record: repository name plus handle, DOI, or PURL

Titles in Another Language

Keep the original title, in italics and sentence case. Immediately after it, add an English translation in square brackets, still in sentence case and not italic. Then add the usual degree description in a second set of brackets. Do not translate the author's name. Do not replace the original title with the English wording.

Related guides

• How to cite a dissertation in Chicago (CMOS 18)
• How to cite a journal article in APA 7
• How to cite books in APA 7
• How to cite a conference paper in APA 7
• How to format DOIs in APA, MLA, and Chicago
• One formatted APA dissertation line