How to Cite a Dissertation or Thesis in APA 7th Edition

Quick Answer

APA 7th edition has two reference formats for dissertations and theses, and the right one depends on whether the work is published (deposited in a database or repository where readers can retrieve it) or unpublished (held only by the author or the awarding institution).

Format 1 - Published dissertation or thesis (in a database or repository):

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dissertation (Publication No. xxxxxxxx) [Doctoral dissertation, Name of Institution]. Database or Archive Name. URL

Format 2 - Unpublished dissertation or thesis:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dissertation [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Name of Institution.

Worked example, published dissertation:

Hutchison, R. M. (2021). Functional connectivity dynamics in the resting human brain (Publication No. 28547283) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Western Ontario]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/28547283

Worked example, unpublished thesis:

Okonkwo, A. M. (2024). Code-switching and identity in second-generation Nigerian-American adolescents [Unpublished master's thesis]. New York University.

In-text citation: (Hutchison, 2021) or (Okonkwo, 2024)

Three rules that catch most people out:

• The bracketed descriptor changes based on publication status. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation] and [Unpublished master's thesis] are used only when the work has not been deposited anywhere retrievable. [Doctoral dissertation, Institution] and [Master's thesis, Institution] are used for retrievable works.
• Title is italicized and in sentence case. Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. The descriptor in square brackets is not italicized.
• The institution moves position depending on the format. For unpublished work, the institution is the source (last element). For published work, the institution sits inside the descriptor brackets and the database or repository becomes the source.

Need to format this automatically? Paste the title or the ProQuest URL into the AllCitations APA 7 generator and the descriptor, publication number, and source fields are filled in correctly without you having to remember which slot the institution belongs in.

The Official APA Rule

The relevant guidance lives in Section 10.6 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), which treats dissertations and theses as a distinct reference category alongside reports and gray literature. Section 10.6 sets out two templates - one for unpublished and one for published works - and several supporting principles in Sections 9.30 (group authors and institutions), 9.34 (database information), and 10.6 itself.

The four standard reference elements (author, date, title, source) all apply, with two extra wrinkles unique to this category:

• A bracketed descriptor after the title, identifying the type of work (doctoral vs. master's, published vs. unpublished) and, for published works, the awarding institution.
• A publication number in parentheses after the title, when the work is held in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global or another commercial database that assigns one. Institutional repositories do not use publication numbers.

For a broader walkthrough of how the four reference elements work in APA 7, see our companion guide on How to Cite a Report in APA 7, which uses the same template family.

Published vs. Unpublished: How to Decide

This single decision determines the format. APA's rule is functional: a work is "published" if a reader can plausibly retrieve it through a database, repository, or library catalog. In practice:

• Published: the dissertation appears in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, an institutional repository (e.g., MIT DSpace, Stanford Digital Repository), or a national thesis database (EThOS, DART-Europe, TROVE). It has a stable URL or DOI that anyone can use to retrieve it.
• Unpublished: the dissertation exists only as a bound copy on the institution's library shelves or in the awarding department, with no online record. This is increasingly rare for doctoral work, but it is still common for master's theses and honors theses at smaller institutions.

If a dissertation is technically retrievable but only behind a paywall (ProQuest counts), it is still considered published for APA purposes. The reader's institution may or may not have access, but APA references describe the work, not the reader's path to it.

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Worked Examples

The eight examples below cover the most common dissertation and thesis scenarios. Each shows the reference list entry and the matching in-text citation. If you are working through a long bibliography, the AllCitations APA 7 generator handles all of these formats and exports to BibTeX or RIS.

1. Doctoral Dissertation from ProQuest

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global is the largest database of doctoral and master's work, and it assigns each entry a unique publication number. Include the publication number in parentheses after the title, and use ProQuest as the source.

Reference entry:

Hutchison, R. M. (2021). Functional connectivity dynamics in the resting human brain (Publication No. 28547283) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Western Ontario]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/28547283

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Hutchison, 2021)
• Narrative: Hutchison (2021) demonstrated that resting-state networks fluctuate on a sub-minute timescale.

The publication number sits in regular parentheses (not square brackets) directly after the title, before the bracketed descriptor. The institution name is part of the descriptor, separated from the work type by a comma.

2. Doctoral Dissertation from an Institutional Repository

Most universities now host dissertations in their own repositories (MIT DSpace, Harvard DASH, Stanford Digital Repository, Oxford Research Archive). Institutional repositories do not assign publication numbers, so the parenthetical publication number is omitted.

Reference entry:

Lin, S. Y. (2022). Trust calibration in human-autonomous vehicle interaction [Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. DSpace@MIT. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/142718

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Lin, 2022)
• Narrative: Lin (2022) found that drivers under-corrected for system error after as few as three uneventful trips.

The repository name (DSpace@MIT) takes the slot where ProQuest sat in the previous example. Use the handle URL or DOI provided by the repository, not a search-results URL.

3. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation

If the dissertation is held only by the awarding institution and is not online, treat it as unpublished. The descriptor changes to [Unpublished doctoral dissertation] and the institution becomes the source (the final element).

Reference entry:

Carrington, T. P. (1987). Boundary maintenance in early Quaker meetings [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Pennsylvania.

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Carrington, 1987)
• Narrative: Carrington (1987) traced the disciplinary procedures used in Philadelphia-area meetings during the 1690s.

There is no URL element, no publication number, and no database. The institution stands alone as the source, with a period at the end. This is the only APA 7 dissertation format that does not include a URL.

4. Master's Thesis from a Database

Master's theses follow the same template as doctoral dissertations, but the descriptor changes from "doctoral dissertation" to "master's thesis". The lowercase "m" in "master's" is intentional - APA uses it consistently in the descriptor.

Reference entry:

Okafor, C. N. (2023). Linguistic accommodation in remote-team Slack channels (Publication No. 30245761) [Master's thesis, University of California, Berkeley]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/30245761

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Okafor, 2023)
• Narrative: Okafor (2023) reported convergence on shared emoji and abbreviation conventions within four weeks of new-member onboarding.

If the institution name itself contains a comma (e.g., "University of California, Berkeley"), keep the comma. Do not introduce additional punctuation to disambiguate.

5. Unpublished Master's Thesis

Less common online, but still the right format for theses housed only at the awarding institution.

Reference entry:

Reyes, M. J. (2025). Code-switching and identity in second-generation Nigerian-American adolescents [Unpublished master's thesis]. New York University.

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Reyes, 2025)
• Narrative: Reyes (2025) interviewed twelve adolescents over a six-month period.

If your reader needs to access an unpublished thesis, they generally need to contact the awarding department or the author directly. APA does not require you to flag this in the reference; the absence of a database or URL implicitly signals it.

6. Dissertation with a DOI

Some institutional repositories assign DOIs to deposited dissertations. When a DOI exists, use it as the source instead of the repository URL. APA 7 prefers DOIs over URLs whenever both exist (Section 9.34).

Reference entry:

Patel, R. (2024). Bayesian inference for sparse longitudinal panel data [Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University]. Stanford Digital Repository. https://doi.org/10.25740/zr215pq8123

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Patel, 2024)
• Narrative: Patel (2024) introduced a hierarchical prior that outperformed lasso regularization on simulated panels with fewer than 50 observations per unit.

The repository name still appears as the source, with the DOI directly after. Do not omit the repository name even when a DOI is present; APA 7 includes both elements when they are both available.

7. Dissertation in a Non-English Language

For a non-English dissertation, give the original title in the language of publication, then provide an English translation in square brackets after the title. Do not translate the institution name unless an official English version is published by the institution itself.

Reference entry:

Morales, F. J. (2020). Efectos del bilingüismo en la memoria de trabajo [The effects of bilingualism on working memory] (Publication No. 27895442) [Doctoral dissertation, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/27895442

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Morales, 2020)
• Narrative: Morales (2020) found that simultaneous bilinguals outperformed sequential bilinguals on a Stroop-style task.

The bracketed translation is not italicized even though the original title is. If the original title is in a non-Roman script (Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic), transliterate the title before the bracketed translation, following the transliteration system standard in your discipline.

8. Embargoed Dissertation

When a dissertation is embargoed (delayed full release while the author publishes from it), the metadata - title, author, abstract - is usually visible in ProQuest or the institutional repository even though the full text is not. Cite the available metadata; do not wait for the embargo to lift.

Reference entry:

Whitfield, K. D. (2025). Algorithmic fairness in pretrial risk assessment: a multi-state audit [Doctoral dissertation, Yale University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/31802199

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Whitfield, 2025)
• Narrative: Whitfield (2025) documented disparate false-positive rates across all six jurisdictions audited.

You can quote from publicly available sections (the abstract is fair game) but be careful about quoting embargoed material you accessed through institutional channels. If the embargo is the reason your reader cannot retrieve the work, that is a reader-side problem, not a citation-side problem.

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Special Cases

Honors Theses and Undergraduate Theses

APA 7 does not give honors theses or undergraduate theses their own descriptor, but the underlying logic of Section 10.6 extends naturally. Use [Unpublished undergraduate honors thesis] or [Undergraduate honors thesis, Institution] as the descriptor, depending on whether the work is retrievable.

Garrett, L. C. (2024). Civic engagement among first-generation college students [Unpublished undergraduate honors thesis]. Williams College.

If the honors thesis is in an institutional repository, use the published format and treat the repository as the source, exactly as you would for a master's or doctoral thesis.

Citing a Specific Page or Chapter

For direct quotes or detailed paraphrases, add a page number to the in-text citation, exactly as you would for a book.

• Direct quote: (Hutchison, 2021, p. 47)
• Range: (Lin, 2022, pp. 112-118)

The reference list entry does not change; only the in-text citation gains the page number. If the dissertation is paginated by chapter rather than continuously (some older dissertations and a few engineering theses use this convention), include the chapter and page: (Patel, 2024, ch. 3, p. 14).

When the Author Has Since Published the Dissertation as a Book

This is one of the most common APA dissertation situations and one of the most often misformatted. If a dissertation has been substantially revised and republished as a book or as journal articles, you have two distinct works and should cite whichever you actually consulted.

If you read the dissertation, cite the dissertation. If you read the book, cite the book. Do not cite the dissertation and add "later published as..." or hybridize the entries. APA treats them as different sources because their content, audience, and editorial processes differ.

For the book version, see our guide on How to Cite a Book in APA 7.

Group Authorship and Co-Authored Theses

Doctoral dissertations are almost always single-authored. Master's theses are sometimes co-authored, particularly in professional and clinical programs (MSW, MA in Education, some MBA programs). When co-authored, list both authors in the standard APA format with an ampersand:

Reyes, M. J., & Tanaka, H. (2025). Co-designed clinical pathways for adolescent eating-disorder care [Master's thesis, Northwestern University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/31845603

In-text uses both surnames: (Reyes & Tanaka, 2025). The standard APA "et al." rule applies if a thesis somehow has three or more authors.

Dissertations in Older Editions of APA

If you are reading a citation guide written before October 2019 (the APA 7 release), you may see one of these older formats:

• APA 6: included database accession numbers, the city and state of the institution, and the phrase "Available from" before ProQuest.
• APA 5 and earlier: treated published dissertations as a category of journal article.

Both are obsolete. APA 7 dropped the "Available from ProQuest..." phrasing, the city/state, and the accession-number-as-source approach. If you have references generated by an older Microsoft Word style or by an older version of Zotero or Mendeley, regenerate them through the AllCitations APA 7 generator or update them by hand using Section 10.6.

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Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Confusing the publication number with a DOI. The publication number is a ProQuest-internal identifier (8 to 10 digits, sometimes prefixed with letters). It is not a DOI and does not begin with "10.". The publication number sits inside parentheses after the title; the DOI, if any, sits at the end of the reference as the source URL.

Writing "Doctoral Dissertation" with capitalized words. The descriptor is sentence case: [Doctoral dissertation, ...] and [Master's thesis, ...]. Capitalizing every word ("[Doctoral Dissertation, ...]") is APA 6 style, not APA 7.

Italicizing the descriptor. The title is italicized; the bracketed descriptor is not. The most common mistake is to italicize everything inside the brackets along with the title. Only the title between the date and the bracketed descriptor is italicized.

Using "Doctoral dissertation" for a master's thesis or vice versa. The work type matters. Doctoral dissertations are PhD or DPhil work; master's theses are MA, MSc, MS, MFA, MSW, or equivalent. If you cannot tell from the document, the institution's repository metadata almost always specifies it.

Dropping the institution from a published-format reference. A published dissertation reference always includes the institution inside the descriptor brackets, even when the database or repository is named after the institution itself. "[Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University]. Stanford Digital Repository." is correct; dropping the first half because the second half mentions Stanford is incorrect.

Citing the abstract as if it were the full dissertation. If you only read the abstract from a results page, you have only consulted the abstract. Either retrieve the full text and cite the dissertation normally, or cite the abstract source explicitly and limit your claims accordingly. Citing the dissertation while having only seen the abstract is academically dishonest.

Using "Retrieved from" before the URL. APA 7 dropped that phrasing for stable web sources, including dissertations in stable databases. Provide the URL directly, with no period after it.

Writing the institution name inconsistently. Use the institution's official English name from the institution's website, not the form printed on the title page (which may be in Latin or use abbreviated form). "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", not "M.I.T." or "Mass Inst Tech".

Forgetting the period after the source for unpublished work. Unpublished references end with the institution name followed by a period. There is no URL to displace that period.

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Quick-Reference Table

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Tools and Resources

• AllCitations APA 7 Generator: Paste a ProQuest URL, an institutional repository handle, or a DOI and the generator builds a correctly formatted APA 7 dissertation reference, including the publication number and the right descriptor. Exports to BibTeX or RIS.
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global: The most complete database of doctoral and master's work in English. Most North American and many UK and Australian institutions deposit here, alongside or instead of their own repository.
• OpenDOAR: Directory of open-access institutional repositories worldwide. Useful when you have an author and institution but no URL.
• OATD: Open Access Theses and Dissertations: Aggregates over 7 million openly accessible theses and dissertations. Better for retrieving full text than for citation metadata, but a useful cross-check.

You can browse all citation styles supported by AllCitations on our citation styles page.

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