Purdue Global uses APA 7th edition in all of its courses, its library says, and the house rules sit in the Writing Center's public guide, Common Citations and References in APA Style (7th Ed.), with a PDF copy dated 2024. Purdue Global's own choices are few and specific: a recommended font, a title page with the university and course number, and patterns for Brightspace discussion posts, course resources and your own earlier papers.
EdCitation is not affiliated with Purdue University Global; this follows its public library guide, checked on 2 October 2026. Every rule below was read that day on Purdue Global's own pages, linked under References. The Purdue Global Writing Center is not the Purdue OWL, a separate site that none of the Purdue Global pages we read link to, so it plays no part here. EdCitation publishes this guide; its last section quotes what the free Cite a source and Verify references returned on Purdue Global's sample sources, faults included.
Which citation style does Purdue Global use?
APA 7th edition, in every course. Purdue University Global Library (n.d.-b) tells CM220 students they will follow APA Style rules in all their courses, and that the textbook and other assigned readings need credit as much as anything found by searching. No department exceptions appear on the pages we read, and the Writing Center's title-page notes say to check with your instructor.
The library's APA tools (APA's online Publication Manual and Academic Writer) need a Purdue Global login, and the campus portal's copies of the Writing Center pages would not load for us, so we read the public pages and PDFs.
Is the Purdue Global Writing Center guide a separate style?
No. Purdue Global's Academic Success Center and Writing Center (2020c) says its tutorial follows the seventh edition of the Publication Manual, and warns that most of its examples are fictional. Copy their patterns, never their DOIs: two we tried, 10.1199/001043456787654 and 10.13232323232325, are not registered at doi.org.
What are the Purdue Global Writing Center's APA rules?
Most of the guide is plain APA 7. These are the rules where Purdue Global chooses or adds detail.
The paper and the Purdue Global title page
Purdue Global recommends 11-point Calibri, Word's default, and accepts fonts such as 11-point Arial or 12-point Times New Roman, provided one font runs through the paper (Purdue University Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center, 2024). Margins are 1 inch, every line is double-spaced, and paragraphs are indented 0.5 inch. The title page, in the order the guide's sample sets it out:
- The page number in the header, at the right margin.
- The title in bold title case, three or four lines down.
- One extra double-spaced line, then your name.
- Purdue University Global.
- The course number and name, like the sample's "CM220: College Composition Two".
- Your instructor's name, then the due date.
Our APA 7 paper format guide covers the rest of the layout.
The reference page and the citations in the text
| Rule | What Purdue Global asks | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|
| Reference page | "References" bold and centred; double-spaced; no numbers or bullets; 0.5-inch hanging indent | Common Citations |
| DOIs | Whenever a source has one, print books included, as a https://doi.org/ link | Common Citations |
| Links | No "Retrieved from" or "DOI:" before them; shortDOI and URL shorteners allowed | Common Citations |
| Retrieval dates | Only for a source updated regularly, such as a dictionary or a Facebook page | Common Citations |
| Et al. | From three authors | Common Citations; in-text podcast |
| Many authors | Up to 20 names; from 21, the first 19, an ellipsis and the last | Common Citations |
| Group authors | Abbreviation in square brackets the first time in parentheses, then the abbreviation alone | Common Citations |
| One source over several sentences | One citation, after the last sentence, while author and topic stay the same | In-text podcast |
| Library Cite buttons | Made by computer scripts; check capitals and page numbers | Library, nursing orientation |
| Building and checking each entry | Cite a source, then Verify references | EdCitation |
The cite-once rule is easy to miss: Purdue Global's Academic Success Center and Writing Center (2020b), in its podcast on in-text citations, puts one citation after the last of several sentences drawn from one source. Our APA 7 in-text citations guide covers the general rules.
How do you cite Brightspace discussion posts and course resources?
Give them a reference entry when the person reading your paper can open them, and cite them as a personal communication, in the text only, when that person cannot: that is the Writing Center's test. Your instructor can reach Brightspace, so in a course paper they get full entries. Lectures, emails and unrecorded webinars are personal communications too.
Purdue Global's own patterns
A discussion post takes its author, the date, its title or first 20 words in italics, the course and unit, a retrieval date and the Brightspace address; in the course-resource example, the university is the author. These are Purdue Global's examples from the 2024 PDF, with the full stop after "(n.d.)" that it leaves out:
Sullivan, M. (2011, January 5). Prewriting feedback reflection. CM107 Unit 3 Discussion 1. Retrieved January 29, 2020, from https://purdueglobal.brightspace.com/d2l/le/40068/discussions
Purdue Global. (n.d.). Learning outcomes and assessment UG. Course Resources. Retrieved January 29, 2020, from https://purdueglobal.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content
In the text these are (Sullivan, 2011) and (Purdue Global, n.d.). The retrieval date is there because, the PDF says, such material may read differently on another day. The web page puts "CM107 Unit 3 Discussion 1" inside the italic title; the newer PDF sets it in plain type, as its template's site name, so follow the PDF.
Textbooks and unit readings
Your textbook and each unit's readings are cited like any other source, the CM220 library guide says. Purdue Global's pages do not say whether a published article posted in a unit is cited to Brightspace or to its publisher. Our reading of the Writing Center's test: cite the published work, the version every reader can reach, from its DOI or ISBN in Cite a source, and keep the course-resource pattern for what Purdue Global wrote itself.
Where do Purdue Global's own examples disagree?
In four places.
- Three authors. The guide shows "(Hannah, Lay, & Sleder, 2010)", the old APA 6 form, pages before its own rule that three or more authors take et al. Write (Hannah et al., 2010); see when to use et al..
- The comma before the ampersand. Two-author entries such as "Rios, C. A. & Pickle, M. B." drop it, but the guide's 20-author template keeps it ("Author, S. S., & Author, T. T."). Keep it.
- The university's name. The stand-alone sample title page says "Purdue Global University"; the guide's own sample says "Purdue University Global", the name in the library's footer. Use that.
- Worked examples. Purdue Global's Academic Success Center and Writing Center (2020a) describes an article from May 2020, volume 3, issue 2, then gives the entry as 2009 and 2(3). The sample paper's list drops the Dillon article's DOI, names "University of CA Press", makes Suarez-Orozco author of a book he edited, and reverses I. Elaine Allen's initials.
What does a Purdue Global reference page look like?
Here is a short reference page in exactly Purdue Global's form: the Publication Manual as the Writing Center cites it, an article with a DOI, Purdue Global's self-citation and course-resource examples, a US government page, and the sample paper's edited book, corrected. Each entry takes a 0.5-inch hanging indent.
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
Dillon, P., Wang, R., & Tearle, P. (2007). Cultural disconnection in virtual education. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 15(2), 153–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681360701403565
Foo, J. (2013). My time outdoors: A study in writing and rhetoric [Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Composition, Purdue University Global.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2024, December). Depression. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression
Purdue Global. (n.d.). Learning outcomes and assessment UG. Course Resources. Retrieved January 29, 2020, from https://purdueglobal.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content
Suárez-Orozco, M. M. (Ed.). (2007). Learning in the global era: International perspectives on globalization and education. University of California Press.
The citations in the text: (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020), then (APA, 2020); (Dillon et al., 2007); (Foo, 2013); (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2024), then (NIMH, 2024); (Purdue Global, n.d.); and Suárez-Orozco (2007) in a sentence.
The institute's page names no author and shows "Last Reviewed: December 2024"; its site name repeats the author, so it goes. The book's editor and the accent come from University of California Press (n.d.). The self-citation entry is Purdue Global's own: Purdue Global's Academic Success Center and Writing Center (2020f) allows small portions of earlier coursework, cited as an unpublished paper, asks you to cite the original source, not yourself, when reusing a source from an earlier paper, and sends you to your professor and syllabus. See our guide to self-plagiarism.
How do you cite at Purdue Global, step by step?
- Check the assignment for your instructor's additions. EdCitation's free Check your paper reads instructions into a checklist, each rule beside the sentence it came from.
- Find sources in the Purdue Global Library or in Find sources, which searches about 300 million published works.
- Build each article, book and web page from its DOI, ISBN or address in Cite a source.
- Correct by hand what a record cannot know: an editor, an accent, a capital, a page's group author.
- Write Brightspace posts, course resources and self-citations from Purdue Global's patterns.
- Paste the list into Verify references and resolve every "check this".
Which EdCitation style is closest, and what do you change by hand?
EdCitation's APA 7 is Purdue Global's style, with no house variant to convert. By hand you add what no publisher's record holds: Brightspace entries and self-citations, a group author's abbreviation in the text, "(Ed.)" where a record lists an editor as author, and the occasional capital. Cite a source adds a "Retrieved" date to a page with no date of its own; by Purdue Global's rule, keep it only for a page that changes regularly.
What did EdCitation return on Purdue Global sources?
EdCitation is the best free tool for a Purdue Global reference list, because it looks every entry up in the publisher's record and never writes one, which no chatbot can promise. Purdue University Global Library (n.d.-a) warns that its databases' Cite buttons come from computer scripts and need checking; the runs below show what to check in ours. Cite a source builds APA 7 and five other styles from a DOI, title, PubMed ID, ISBN or web address and screens each source for retraction; Verify references checks a whole list. Both are free, with no account. EdCitation never writes any part of a student's paper: every sentence stays yours, and the tools make sure the sources beneath them are real. We ran both on 2 October 2026; outputs are plain text.
Cite a source on a DOI, an ISBN and two web pages
For 10.1080/14681360701403565, the article the sample paper lists without its DOI, APA matched the reference page above exactly: "Dillon, P., Wang, R., & Tearle, P. (2007). Cultural disconnection in virtual education. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 15(2), 153–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681360701403565".
For the ISBN 9780520254343, the sample paper's book:
Suarez-Orozco, M. M. (2007). Learning in the global era: International perspectives on Globalization and education. University of California Press.
The publisher is right. "Globalization" kept its capital in APA and Vancouver on two runs, so lower it, then add the accent and "(Ed.)".
For the institute's page, the details read gave the title and date but no author. With the institute entered as an organisation, APA gave "National Institute of Mental Health. (2024, December). Depression. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression", Purdue Global's form exactly.
For the library's APA Style Help & Tools page, the details came from the page's code: "Stevons, M. (2026). Purdue global library: APA style help & tools." The name and year come from the page's metadata, its creator and copyright line, and the library's name has lost a capital. With the library as author and no date, APA gave "Purdue University Global Library. (n.d.). APA style help & tools. Library at Purdue Global. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://library.purdueglobal.edu/library/apa".
Verify references on Purdue Global's sample list
We pasted six entries from the Sample APA Research Paper's list, exactly as printed. Verify references returned:
- Allen and Seaman: verified, "The address opens a PDF whose first pages carry the entry's title." The check reads the title, so fix the initials yourself.
- Dillon et al. and Gärdenfors's chapter: verified, "Title, year and first author match a published record."
- Boix-Mansilia and Gardner's chapter: verified with the same reason, but matched to the whole book, so the misspelt surname passed; the chapter's record names Veronica Boix Mansilla.
- The book itself: "check this", "This is the same work as entry 2. A reference list gives each work once." That follows from the match above and is wrong: one is a chapter, the other the book holding it.
- The European Higher Education Area booklet: "check this", "A record with this title exists, but it was published in 2020, not 2009." That record is a different work; the real problem is that the booklet's address now redirects to the organisation's home page.
For a whole paper, Pro ($8 a month) adds References from a file, which checks every reference in the uploaded paper and matches every in-text citation to the list, and Max ($24 a month) adds Theoretics QA, which judges the paper against its assignment and rewrites nothing. See pricing. No tool here promises a grade.
Quick questions
Does Purdue Global use APA 7?
Yes. Purdue Global's library says students follow APA Style in all their courses, and the Writing Center's guides follow the seventh edition.
What font does Purdue Global recommend for APA papers?
11-point Calibri, Word's default; 12-point Times New Roman and similar fonts are accepted if one font runs throughout.
How do I cite a Brightspace discussion post at Purdue Global?
Give the author, the date, the post's title in italics, the course and unit, "Retrieved" with the date, and the Brightspace address; if your reader cannot open Brightspace, cite it as a personal communication.
Is the Purdue OWL the same as the Purdue Global Writing Center?
No. The Purdue Global Writing Center publishes its own APA guides at purdueglobalwriting.center, and none of the Purdue Global pages we read link to the Purdue OWL.
Can EdCitation build Purdue Global references in APA 7?
Yes, for published sources: EdCitation's Cite a source builds APA 7 from a DOI, ISBN or web address. Brightspace posts and self-citations are written by hand.
References
- Purdue University Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center. (2020a). Basic documentation guidelines. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/basic-documentation-guidelines-2/
- Purdue University Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center. (2020b). Basic in-text citations podcast (APA 7th ed.) [Podcast transcript]. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/basic-in-text-citations/
- Purdue University Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center. (2020c). Common citations and references in APA style (7th ed.). https://purdueglobalwriting.center/common-citations-and-references-in-apa-style/
- Purdue University Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center. (2020d). Formatting an APA style title page [Includes sample title page PDF]. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/formatting-an-apa-style-title-page-video/
- Purdue University Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center. (2020e). Sample APA research paper [PDF]. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/apasampleresearchpaper-1.pdf
- Purdue University Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center. (2020f). Self-citation policy. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/self-citation-policy/
- Purdue University Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center. (2024). APA (7th edition) common citations and references [PDF]. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/apa-common-citations-and-references-4.pdf
- Purdue University Global Library. (n.d.-a). APA citation information [Nursing library orientation]. https://library.purdueglobal.edu/nursinglibraryorientation/apa
- Purdue University Global Library. (n.d.-b). APA style essentials [Library resources for CM220]. https://library.purdueglobal.edu/cm220/apa
- Purdue University Global Library. (n.d.-c). APA style help & tools. https://library.purdueglobal.edu/library/apa
- University of California Press. (n.d.). Learning in the global era: International perspectives on globalization and education. https://www.ucpress.edu/books/learning-in-the-global-era/paper