APA Thesis and Dissertation Citation Generator

Use the APA Thesis and Dissertation Citation Generator to create an APA 7 reference and matching in-text citation for a thesis or dissertation. Enter the author, year, title, degree type, awarding institution, and, when relevant, the database, repository, publication number, DOI, or public URL.

The reference format depends on whether the thesis or dissertation is published and retrievable through a database, institutional repository, archive, or website, or unpublished and available only from the author or institution. Check that status before using the citation.

How to Cite a Dissertation or Thesis in APA 7

APA 7 treats published and unpublished theses or dissertations differently.

Published dissertation or thesis in a database

A general pattern is:

**Author, A. A. (Year). *Title of dissertation or thesis* (Publication No. xxxxx) [Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis, University Name]. Database Name.**

A publication number is included only when one is provided.

Published dissertation or thesis in an institutional repository or archive

A general pattern is:

**Author, A. A. (Year). *Title of dissertation or thesis* [Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis, University Name]. Repository or Archive Name. URL**

Unpublished dissertation or thesis

A general pattern is:

**Author, A. A. (Year). *Title of dissertation or thesis* [Unpublished doctoral dissertation or unpublished master’s thesis]. University Name.**

The in-text citation normally uses the author’s surname and year:

Parenthetical: (Author, Year) Narrative: Author (Year)

The important difference is where the university, database, repository, publication number, and URL belong.

First Decide: Published or Unpublished?

This is the most important step before formatting the reference.

In APA citation guidance, a thesis or dissertation is generally treated as published when readers can retrieve it from a source such as:

• a dissertation database
• an institutional repository
• a university archive
• another publicly accessible online archive
• a personal or institutional website where the work is available

A thesis or dissertation is generally treated as unpublished when it is not retrievable through a publication database, repository, archive, or public website and must instead be obtained directly from the author or institution.

Do not assume that “published” means commercially published as a book or journal article. Repository availability can affect how APA formats the reference.

What Information Do You Need?

For a thesis or dissertation, check the following:

The title is italicized and written in sentence case.

Step 1: Enter the Author

Begin with the author of the thesis or dissertation.

The author is the student or researcher who wrote the work, not:

• the thesis supervisor
• dissertation committee members
• the university
• the repository
• the database provider

Format the author’s name in the normal APA reference-list form:

Surname, Initials.

For example:

Carter, M. J.

The in-text citation also uses the dissertation or thesis author.

Step 2: Check the Year

Use the year associated with the thesis or dissertation record you are citing.

This will often be the year the degree work was completed, submitted, awarded, or published in the repository or database.

If different dates appear in the source and repository record, confirm which date identifies the cited version rather than guessing.

Do not use:

• the year you downloaded the file
• the current year
• the repository website’s copyright year
• the date you happened to discover the thesis

Step 3: Enter the Title

Use the complete title and subtitle of the thesis or dissertation.

The title is italicized in the reference and written in sentence case.

Review the source for:

• subtitle wording
• proper nouns
• acronyms
• scientific terminology
• capitalization that carries meaning

Repository metadata may reproduce the title exactly as deposited, which does not always mean its capitalization is already formatted for APA.

Step 4: Identify the Degree Type

APA distinguishes the nature of the work in square brackets after the title.

Common descriptions include:

• [Doctoral dissertation, University Name]
• [Master’s thesis, University Name]
• [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]
• [Unpublished master’s thesis]

Use the description that accurately represents the work.

Do not call a master’s thesis a doctoral dissertation or infer a degree type from the length of the document.

Step 5: Enter the Awarding Institution

For a published thesis or dissertation, the university or institution that awarded the degree is normally included inside the square-bracketed description.

For example:

[Doctoral dissertation, Example University]

For an unpublished thesis or dissertation, the institution appears as the source after the bracketed description:

[Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Example University.

This distinction is one of the main reasons the publication status matters.

Step 6: Add the Publication Number When Available

Some dissertation databases assign a publication or accession number.

If a publication number is provided, include it in parentheses after the title and before the bracketed description.

For example:

**Author, A. A. (Year). *Title of dissertation* (Publication No. 12345678) [Doctoral dissertation, Example University]. Database Name.**

Do not invent a publication number.

A repository identifier, DOI, database accession number, and university student number are not automatically interchangeable.

Use only the identifier that belongs in the bibliographic record.

Step 7: Add the Database, Repository, or Archive

For a published thesis or dissertation, identify where the work is retrievable.

This can be:

• a dissertation database
• an institutional repository
• a university archive
• another archive or public website

Database version

If the work is retrieved from a dissertation database, include the database name.

A database reference can include a publication number when one exists.

Institutional repository or archive

If the work is publicly available from a university repository or archive, include the repository or archive name and an appropriate public URL.

Do not use a temporary login-session URL if a stable public record is available.

Step 8: Add a DOI or Public URL When Appropriate

If the thesis or dissertation has a DOI, include it in URL form when applicable:

https://doi.org/xxxxx

For a publicly available repository version, use a stable public URL.

Prefer a persistent record or handle when the repository provides one rather than a temporary download link.

Avoid:

• signed URLs
• private cloud-storage links
• local file paths
• university-session links requiring your personal login
• URLs containing access tokens

APA Dissertation and Thesis Citation Examples

The examples below are fictional and exist only to demonstrate common APA 7 structures.

Dissertation in a database

Reference

Carter, M. J. (2025). *Characterizing uncertainty in personal radiofrequency exposure assessment* (Publication No. 12345678) [Doctoral dissertation, Example University]. Example Dissertations Database.

Parenthetical citation

(Carter, 2025)

Narrative citation

Carter (2025)

Dissertation in an institutional repository

Reference

Rahman, L. A. (2024). *Environmental determinants of urban electromagnetic exposure* [Doctoral dissertation, North Valley University]. North Valley Research Repository. https://repository.example.edu/handle/1234/5678

Parenthetical citation

(Rahman, 2024)

Master’s thesis in a repository

Reference

Morgan, T. R. (2026). *Evaluating wearable sensor performance in dynamic environments* [Master’s thesis, Meridian University]. Meridian Institutional Repository. https://repository.example.edu/theses/1042

Unpublished dissertation

Reference

Ellis, D. K. (2023). *Methods for uncertainty analysis in distributed environmental measurements* [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Example Institute of Technology.

Parenthetical citation

(Ellis, 2023)

All institutions, titles, publication numbers, and URLs in these examples are fictional.

Published Dissertation vs. Unpublished Dissertation

The wording can be confusing because dissertations are not always “published” in the same sense as books or journal articles.

For citation purposes, focus on retrievability.

Published/retrievable

The work can be found through a database, archive, repository, or public site.

The reference identifies the degree and institution in brackets and then identifies the database or repository.

Unpublished

The work is not available through a retrievable published source and must be obtained directly from the university or author.

The bracketed description includes the word Unpublished, and the institution appears as the source.

University APA 7 guides from institutions including UniSQ, the University of Melbourne, and Cranfield University consistently make this published-versus-unpublished distinction.

Dissertation Database vs. Institutional Repository

These are not always formatted identically.

Dissertation database

A database may provide:

• publication number
• formal database name
• bibliographic record
• sometimes a public or restricted full-text record

A general form is:

**Author. (Year). *Title* (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation, University]. Database Name.**

Institutional repository

A university repository normally provides:

• institution
• repository or archive name
• stable public URL
• sometimes a DOI or persistent handle

A general form is:

**Author. (Year). *Title* [Doctoral dissertation, University]. Repository Name. URL**

Check the actual record rather than treating every repository as a database or every database as an ordinary website.

Do You Include a ProQuest URL?

For dissertations from a subscription database such as ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, APA guidance commonly omits a database URL when it is not publicly usable by every reader.

The database name identifies the source.

If a dissertation is instead publicly available from an open repository or archive, include the public URL as appropriate.

Do not paste a temporary institutional login URL into the citation simply because that is how you accessed the database.

What If the Dissertation Has a DOI?

Some theses and dissertations have DOIs.

If the DOI identifies the work you used, include it in the appropriate URL form:

https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

A DOI is preferable to a fragile download URL when it provides a persistent identifier for the same work.

As with other metadata, check what the DOI actually resolves to before adding it.

What If I Downloaded the Dissertation as a PDF?

The PDF does not determine the citation type.

A thesis or dissertation remains a thesis or dissertation even when you downloaded it as a PDF.

Identify:

• the author
• title
• degree type
• awarding institution
• database or repository
• publication number if applicable
• stable public identifier or URL

APA Citation Builder does not currently claim automatic PDF extraction. Enter the bibliographic details using the thesis/dissertation workflow.

Dissertation vs. Journal Article

A researcher may later publish a journal article based on dissertation research.

The dissertation and the journal article are different sources and need separate references.

Dissertation

Identified by:

• degree type
• university
• repository or dissertation database
• possibly a publication number

Journal article

Identified by:

• journal title
• volume
• issue
• pages or article number
• DOI

If you actually used the journal article rather than the dissertation, use the APA Journal Article Citation Generator.

Do not cite the dissertation merely because it was the original research project if your evidence came from the published article.

Thesis vs. Dissertation

APA citation structure is similar for doctoral dissertations and master’s theses, but the bracketed description should identify the correct type.

For example:

[Doctoral dissertation, University Name]

or

[Master’s thesis, University Name]

Do not standardize every graduate work as “dissertation” if the institution identifies it as a master’s thesis.

Terminology can differ between countries and universities, so use the degree-work description supported by the source and adapt it to the appropriate APA category.

What If the Thesis Is From a University Outside the United States?

The core APA citation principles do not depend on the university being in the United States.

Use the official institution name and identify the work appropriately.

Do not translate an institution’s proper name unless the source or authoritative English-language form supports that translation.

Likewise, do not change a degree description in a way that misrepresents the academic level of the work.

What If the Dissertation Has No Publication Number?

Leave it out.

A publication number is not required simply because the source is a dissertation.

Many institutional repositories do not assign the same kind of publication number used by large dissertation databases.

The citation can still be complete with:

• author
• year
• title
• degree type
• institution
• repository/archive
• URL

Do not invent a number from the repository record ID unless that identifier is actually presented as the publication number you are citing.

What If the Dissertation Has No DOI?

A DOI is also not required.

For a repository version, use an appropriate stable public URL.

For a dissertation retrieved from a database where APA does not require a URL, identify the database according to the applicable format.

A missing DOI does not make the source incomplete.

Direct Quotes From a Thesis or Dissertation

For a direct quotation from a paginated thesis or dissertation, include the page number in the in-text citation.

For example:

(Carter, 2025, p. 84)

For material spanning multiple pages:

(Carter, 2025, pp. 84–85)

If the source has no conventional page numbers, use an appropriate locator only when it helps the reader find the passage.

The reference entry still describes the thesis or dissertation as a whole.

Common APA Dissertation Citation Mistakes

Treating every dissertation as unpublished

A thesis or dissertation available in a database, repository, archive, or public website is generally handled as a published/retrievable work for APA reference purposes.

Calling every thesis a doctoral dissertation

Use the actual degree-work type.

Using the university as the author

The student who wrote the thesis or dissertation is the author.

Putting the university in the wrong place

For a published work, the institution usually appears inside the bracketed description.

For an unpublished work, the institution is the source after the bracketed description.

Adding a publication number that does not exist

Use a publication number only when the source record provides one.

Using a temporary database URL

Do not paste a university login/session URL into a citation when the database name is the appropriate source element.

Treating the PDF as the source type

PDF is a file format. The work is still a thesis or dissertation.

Citing the dissertation when you actually used a later journal article

Cite the source you actually consulted.

Assuming repository metadata is automatically correct

Repository records are useful, but check the author’s name, year, title, degree, institution, and URL against the thesis record itself.

Review the Thesis or Dissertation Before Using the Citation

Before adding the source to your reference project, check:

• Is the author correct?
• Is the year correct?
• Is the title complete?
• Is this a doctoral dissertation, master’s thesis, or another work type?
• Which institution awarded the degree?
• Is the work published/retrievable or unpublished?
• Is there a publication number?
• Is it in a database, repository, or archive?
• Does the DOI or URL identify the intended work?
• Are you citing the dissertation itself rather than another publication based on it?

The current APA Citation Builder thesis/dissertation workflow provides fields for this source type, but unusual publication states should still be checked carefully rather than forced into a generic template.

See Accuracy, Source Review, and Limitations for more about the difference between source metadata and formatted output.

Add the Dissertation or Thesis to Your Reference Project

After reviewing the source details, generate the reference and matching in-text citation and add the work to your project.

The main APA Citation Builder lets you keep supported theses and dissertations alongside journal articles, webpages, books, chapters, and reports.

When your source list is complete, use the APA Reference Page guide to check alphabetical order, double spacing, hanging indents, and final document formatting.

For unusual thesis or dissertation cases beyond the supported workflow, consult the official APA Style website or the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition rather than guessing at the reference structure.