APA 7th edition
How to cite a software or code repository in APA 7th edition
Research software requires exact version numbers and deposit DOIs (e.g. Zenodo) to ensure algorithmic reproducibility.
THE FORMAT
A software or code repository in APA, at a glance
Developer, A. A. (Year). Title of software (Version x.x) [Computer software]. Repository Host. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
Pedregosa, F., & Varoquaux, G. (2023). Scikit-learn: Machine learning in Python (Version 1.3.0) [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.594782
(Pedregosa & Varoquaux, 2023)
In prose: Pedregosa and Varoquaux (2023) developed the Python ML toolkit.
Copyeditor formats APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE automatically — cite a source once and the references builds itself. See how citations work .
BEFORE YOU FORMAT
What APA needs from a software or code repository
Elements to collect
- Software developer or organization
- Release year
- Title of the software package
- Version tag or release number
- Archive or repository host (Zenodo, GitHub)
- DOI or repository URL
Rules specific to this entry
- Include the software version in parentheses after the title.
- Specify [Computer software] or [Programming language] in square brackets.
Building the entry, step by step
Collect the details
Before you format anything, gather every element APA needs for a software or code repository: Software developer or organization; Release year; Title of the software package; Version tag or release number.
Build the references entry
Arrange those details in the APA order: Developer, A. A. (Year). Title of software (Version x.x) [Computer software]. Repository Host. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
Add the in-text citation
In the body of your paper, cite it as (Pedregosa & Varoquaux, 2023) — or work the same reference into your sentence as Pedregosa and Varoquaux (2023) developed the Python ML toolkit..
Check it against the exceptions
Include the software version in parentheses after the title.
APA RULES
The conventions behind every APA entry
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) is the authority. Where a journal or department publishes its own house rules, those win — check your submission guidelines before the references is final.
The rules that apply across every source — author order, capitalization, how the references is sorted, and where APA entries most often go wrong — are collected on the APA 7th edition guide.
The same software or code repository in another style
Switching styles late in a draft is normal. Here is the same source formatted five other ways.
Questions about APA and software repositories
What if the software or code repository has no author?
Move the title into the author position and alphabetize by the first significant word of that title — ignoring an initial “A”, “An” or “The”. In the text, use a shortened form of the title where the author name would go.
What do I need before I can cite a software or code repository?
Software developer or organization, Release year, Title of the software package, and the rest of the elements listed above. Research software requires exact version numbers and deposit DOIs (e.g. Zenodo) to ensure algorithmic reproducibility.
Is there anything unusual about a software or code repository in APA?
Include the software version in parentheses after the title.
What else catches people out here?
Specify [Computer software] or [Programming language] in square brackets.
Can I reformat this software or code repository in another style later?
By hand, you would retype the entry — the element order, punctuation and italics all differ between styles. In Copyeditor, sources are stored as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole reference list at once.
Cite it once
and never reformat it again
Copyeditor keeps sources as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole references at once.
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