Why citation styles keep changing, and who decides

Nobody votes on a citation style. Each of the six styles students meet most has an owner: a learned society, a university press, two authors, an engineering society's staff, or medical editors working with a national library. When the owner decides the rules no longer fit what people cite, a new edition appears, and each university picks its own date to follow it.

EdCitation publishes this guide to who decides and why, from the owners' own pages and three universities', read on 26 September 2026. What each edition changed is in et al. and other rules that changed between editions. EdCitation's free Cite a source builds the editions it offers now from the publisher's record, and Verify references checks that each source exists, whichever edition a list follows.

Who decides when a citation style changes?

The style's owner decides, and no two owners work the same way.

APA: a style team that asks first

The APA Style team values consistency, since stable rules are easier to learn, but updates the style as research and publishing change, after weighing user feedback and expert advice (American Psychological Association, 2022, 2026). The seventh edition's accessibility guidance was written in consultation with accessibility experts (American Psychological Association, 2020), and its reporting standards draw on a task force report of APA's Publications and Communications Board (Appelbaum et al., 2018).

MLA and Chicago: a society and a university press

The MLA calls itself the creator of the MLA Handbook (Modern Language Association, n.d.-b); no page we found names a handbook committee, so we claim none. The press's own editors revise Chicago, and for the 15th edition, of 2003, consulted a first-ever advisory board (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-a). The 18th drew on publishing professionals inside and outside the press, and on readers' suggestions sent through its Q&A (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver: authors, staff and editors

Nobody owns the name Harvard, as where Harvard referencing came from explains. The version many UK universities follow, Cite Them Right, is written by Richard Pears, a faculty librarian at Durham University, and Graham Shields (Pears & Shields, 2025). IEEE style is its journals' house style, applied by staff editors, with Chicago consulted for grammar (IEEE Publishing Operations, 2024). The ICMJE calls itself "a small working group" of general medical journals, joined by invitation (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, n.d.-b); it sends reference details to the NLM's Citing Medicine (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, n.d.-c), whose second edition the NLM based on a national standard, ANSI/NISO Z39.29 (Backus, 2015).

Why do citation styles change?

Mostly because what people cite changes. The owners give four reasons.

Sources moved online

The web comes first. Chicago ties its 15th edition to the web's growth and its 16th, of 2010, to digital workflows (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-a). The MLA's eighth edition, of 2016, "rethinks documentation" for digital publication (Modern Language Association, n.d.-a). APA 7 turned DOIs and URLs into links with no "DOI:" label (American Psychological Association, 2020); the background is in how the DOI was born. Cite Them Right's 12th edition, of May 2022, added TikTok, Zoom and Teams (Pears & Shields, 2022). In 2015 the NLM asked whether "[Internet]" was still needed after a title, now that everyone knows a web address (Backus, 2015).

Language and accessibility

APA 7 endorsed singular "they" and simplified in-text citations partly for screen-reader users (American Psychological Association, 2020). MLA 9 added a chapter on inclusive language (Modern Language Association, 2021). Chicago's 18th accepts generic singular they and adds guidance on alt text (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b). The longer story is in singular they from Chaucer to APA.

AI tools

Every owner has answered generative AI, most of them between editions. APA replaced its 2023 advice on ChatGPT in September 2025 (McAdoo et al., 2025); the MLA revised its own on 13 August 2025, adding the model's name (Modern Language Association, 2025). Chicago's 18th and Cite Them Right's 13th cover AI-generated material (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b; Pears & Shields, 2025), IEEE wants AI-generated content disclosed in the acknowledgments (IEEE Publishing Operations, 2024), and the ICMJE refuses AI-generated material as a primary source in a reference list (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, n.d.-c). Today's forms: how to cite ChatGPT and AI tools.

How long does an edition of a citation style last?

From under two years to about ten, and some styles now change by numbered version rather than by edition. Each date was read at the owner's pages or a publisher record.

Sources, row by row: American Psychological Association (2010) and Lee (2019); Modern Language Association (n.d.-a, 2021); University of Chicago Press (n.d.-a); Pears and Shields (2022, 2025) and Bloomsbury Publishing (n.d.); IEEE Publication Operations (2023, 2025); International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (n.d.-a, 2026); Patrias (2007).

Between editions, the rules still move

APA posts changes made between editions (American Psychological Association, 2022), and the NLM updates Citing Medicine a chapter at a time: journals last on 18 May 2018, conference papers on 5 August 2020 (Patrias, 2007). "The current edition" can mean last month's web page.

Is there an APA 8th edition?

Not on any APA page we read. APA's About page, updated in June 2026, still gives the seventh edition as the manual to cite (American Psychological Association, 2026), so a site selling "APA 8" rules is not quoting APA.

What should you do when a new edition appears mid-degree?

Keep to the edition your course names, and let your university set the date of the switch. APA left that date to institutions and advised finishing a paper already begun in the older edition (Lee, 2019). Three universities drew the line differently:

• Walden University moved coursework to APA 7 from its summer terms of 2020; doctoral students with final approval of their study by the end of 2020 could finish in APA 6, agreed with their chair, and every capstone followed APA 7 from 1 January 2021 (Nastachowski & Ball, 2020).
• The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, told students arriving in 2024/25, and anyone starting a thesis, to use Chicago 18, while continuing students near submission could hand in with the 17th (UWI St. Augustine Campus Libraries, 2024).
• The University of the Highlands and Islands accepted either Cite Them Right edition in 2025/26, if references were clear, accurate and consistent, and expects the 13th from 2026/27 (Hughes, 2025).

Each ties the old edition to work already under way, and none allows mixing.

1. Find the edition your brief names. Paste the brief into EdCitation's free Check your paper; the style, and often its edition, comes back as a rule quoted from the brief.
2. Ask before you switch. If the brief names a replaced edition, ask the module leader or supervisor, in writing.
3. Keep one edition per paper. A list mixing Chicago 17 and 18 entries is wrong under both.
4. Build each entry from the record in Cite a source, then adjust it for an older edition with the changes guide.
5. Check every source is real in Verify references before you hand in.

Which EdCitation tool follows the current editions?

Cite a source is the best tool for it, because a new edition changes form, not facts: author, year, title and journal stay what the publisher's record says. Cite a source copies them from that record rather than writing them, lays them out in the six styles it offers (Harvard by Cite Them Right's 12th edition, Chicago 18 in author-date form), and screens the source for retraction, free with no account. It builds those editions only, so its entry matches your course only when the course uses one of them.

One DOI in all six styles

On 26 September 2026 we gave it 10.1037/amp0000191, the task force report behind APA 7's reporting standards. It found Crossref's record, reported no retraction, listed a 2018 correction as a notice, and returned:

• APA 7: Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M., & Rao, S. M. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. American Psychologist, 73(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000191
• MLA 9: Appelbaum, Mark, et al. “Journal Article Reporting Standards for Quantitative Research in Psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board Task Force Report.” American Psychologist, vol. 73, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 3–25, https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000191.
• Chicago 18: Appelbaum, Mark, Harris Cooper, Rex B. Kline, Evan Mayo-Wilson, Arthur M. Nezu, and Stephen M. Rao. 2018. “Journal Article Reporting Standards for Quantitative Research in Psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board Task Force Report.” American Psychologist 73 (1): 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000191.
• Harvard: Appelbaum, M. et al. (2018) ‘Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report’, American Psychologist, 73(1), pp. 3–25. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000191.
• IEEE: M. Appelbaum, H. Cooper, R. B. Kline, E. Mayo-Wilson, A. M. Nezu, and S. M. Rao, “Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report,” Amer. Psychol., vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 3–25, Jan. 2018, doi: 10.1037/amp0000191.
• Vancouver: Appelbaum M, Cooper H, Kline RB, Mayo-Wilson E, Nezu AM, Rao SM. Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. Am Psychol. 2018 Jan;73(1):3-25. doi: 10.1037/amp0000191.

APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE stand as returned; IEEE's journal name comes abbreviated, Amer. Psychol. Two need a hand:

• Harvard. Newcastle University's 2025 Cite Them Right sheet allows et al. in the list only above ten authors (Newcastle University, 2025), so write all six: Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M. and Rao, S. M. (2018).
• Vancouver. Citing Medicine capitalises only a title's first word and proper nouns, and its examples lower-case the word after a colon: "the APA Publications" (Patrias, 2007).

Verify references, whatever the edition

Verify references looks each entry up, so an old edition's form does not stop it. Pasted in APA 6 form, with "doi:" before the number, the paper was marked verified, and so was its MLA 7 form ending "Print."

An APA 6 entry for the manual's sixth edition, dated 2010, was marked "check this", with the reason: "A book with this title and author is catalogued, but no edition from 2010 is recorded. Check the edition and year." Open Library holds a sixth edition dated 2010 (American Psychological Association, 2010), so the check was stricter than needed; "check this" means compare with the title page, never that the book does not exist.

Pro, at $8 a month (pricing), adds References from a file, which pairs each in-text citation with its entry, and Mechanics QA, which checks formatting against the style. EdCitation never writes any part of your paper.

Quick questions

Why do citation styles keep changing?

Because what people cite changes. The owners name online sources and DOIs, inclusive language, accessibility and, since 2023, generative AI.

Who decides the rules of APA style?

The American Psychological Association, through its APA Style team, which weighs user feedback and expert advice before an update.

Is there an APA 8th edition?

None was announced on the APA pages we read on 26 September 2026; the seventh, released in October 2019, is current.

Can I keep the old edition after a new one comes out mid-degree?

Often, for work already under way, if your university allows it, as Walden, UWI St. Augustine and UHI did for a set period. Keep one edition per paper.

Which editions does EdCitation build?

The current ones only: EdCitation's Cite a source offers APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 in author-date form, Cite Them Right's 12th edition for Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver.

References

• American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) [Catalogue record]. Open Library. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23186506M
• American Psychological Association. (2020). Introduction [PDF]. In Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition-introduction.pdf
• American Psychological Association. (2022). Updates and additions to APA Style. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/updates
• American Psychological Association. (2026). About APA Style. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/about-apa-style
• Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M., & Rao, S. M. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. American Psychologist, 73(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000191
• Backus, J. (2015). 2015 foreword. In K. Patrias, Citing medicine (2nd ed.). National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/citmed/foreword_2015/
• Bloomsbury Publishing. (n.d.). About Cite Them Right. https://www.citethemrightonline.com/about
• Hughes, R. (2025, August 9). Referencing update: Cite Them Right 13th edition. UHI Library Blog. https://libguides.uhi.ac.uk/blogs/UHI-library-blog/referencing-update-cite-them-right-13th-edition
• IEEE Publication Operations. (2023). IEEE reference guide (V 11.29.2023). Archived December 17, 2023, at https://web.archive.org/web/20231217074336/https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
• IEEE Publication Operations. (2025). IEEE reference guide (V 3.28.2025). https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
• IEEE Publishing Operations. (2024). IEEE editorial style manual for authors. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE-Editorial-Style-Manual-for-Authors.pdf
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (n.d.-a). Archives. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/archives/
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (n.d.-b). ICMJE membership. https://www.icmje.org/about-icmje/faqs/icmje-membership/
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (n.d.-c). Preparing a manuscript for submission to a medical journal. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/preparing-for-submission.html
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2026). Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/
• Lee, C. (2019, October 1). The transition to seventh edition APA Style. APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/transition-seventh-edition
• McAdoo, T., Denneny, S., & Lee, C. (2025, September 9). Citing generative AI in APA Style: Part 1, reference formats. APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-generative-ai-references
• Modern Language Association. (n.d.-a). What's new in the eighth edition. MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/whats-new/
• Modern Language Association. (n.d.-b). About the MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/about-the-mla-style-center/
• Modern Language Association. (2021). What's new in the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook. MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/ninth-edition-whats-new/
• Modern Language Association. (2025, August 13). How do I cite generative AI in MLA style? (Updated and revised). MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai-updated-revised/
• Nastachowski, B., & Ball, T. (2020, May 6). APA 7 at a glance: Changes and support for the switch [Webinar transcript]. Walden University. https://academicanswers.waldenu.edu/faq/346058
• Newcastle University. (2025). Cite Them Right Harvard style sheet [PDF]. https://www.ncl.ac.uk/mediav8/academic-skills-kit/file-downloads/manage-info/2025%20Cite%20Them%20Right%20Harvard%20Style%20Sheet.pdf
• Patrias, K. (2007). Citing medicine: The NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (2nd ed.). National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/
• Pears, R., & Shields, G. (2022). Cite them right (12th ed.) [Publisher page]. Bloomsbury Academic. Archived May 18, 2022, at https://web.archive.org/web/20220518034723/https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/cite-them-right-9781350933446/
• Pears, R., & Shields, G. (2025). Cite them right (13th ed.) [Publisher page]. Bloomsbury Academic. Archived October 12, 2025, at https://web.archive.org/web/20251012181522/https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/cite-them-right-9781350477261/
• University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-a). About The Chicago Manual of Style. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/help-tools/about.html
• University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-b). What's new in the 18th edition. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/help-tools/what-s-new.html
• University of Chicago Press. (2024, April 16). Announcing The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition. CMOS Shop Talk. https://cmosshoptalk.com/2024/04/16/announcing-the-chicago-manual-of-style-18th-edition/
• UWI St. Augustine Campus Libraries. (2024, November 26). Referencing with Chicago 17th author-date format. The University of the West Indies. https://libguides.uwi.edu/cmos17authordate