PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Dissertation

How to Cite a Dissertation in APA 7

An APA 7 dissertation reference lists the author, the year in parentheses, the dissertation title in italics and sentence case, the publication number in parentheses when the database assigns one, the description [Doctoral dissertation, Name of University] in square brackets, the name of the database or repository, and the DOI or URL when readers can open it. The in-text citation is the author's last name and the year: (Lowe, 2019).

A dissertation you got straight from the university, not from a database or repository, is unpublished: write [Unpublished doctoral dissertation] after the title and end with the university's name.

The format

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the dissertation (Publication No. 12345678) [Doctoral dissertation, Name of University]. Database or Repository Name. https://xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

If the dissertation has a DOI, paste it into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA finds it, fills in the author, the year, the title in sentence case, and the university, and sets it up as a published doctoral dissertation. Check the year and the university against the record, then add the repository's name (like Libra or KEEP) in Database or Archive Name, because DOI records don't carry it. Found it on ProQuest through Google Scholar? Paste that ProQuest link. PERRLA reads the record and fills in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global for you. Then add the publication number, take out any city that follows the university's name, and remove the link unless the full text is open to everyone. A ProQuest link copied from your library's database needs a login PERRLA can't use, so enter that one by hand.

Adding one by hand? Choose Dissertations & Theses, then pick A published dissertation or thesis or An unpublished dissertation or thesis, and choose A doctoral dissertation. Fill in the Title of the Work, the Publication Year, and the Institution Name, plus the Database or Archive Name for a published one. For a ProQuest dissertation, type the whole label in Record Identifier, like Publication No. 22587287, and leave the URL blank when the link needs a library login. If the title is in title case, PERRLA points it out and offers to put it in sentence case. PERRLA adds the italics, the parentheses, and the square brackets, and it moves the university into the brackets for a published dissertation and to the end for an unpublished one.

A DNP project? Paste the project's repository link. When PERRLA reads Doctor of Nursing Practice as the degree, it writes the bracket as [Doctor of nursing practice final project, Name of University], the wording APA uses. If PERRLA offers a repository page as a webpage instead, skip that result and enter it as a dissertation by hand. Entered by hand, the bracket reads [Doctoral dissertation, Name of University].

Look up
Paste a DOI, get the reference

10.18130/V31R6G

Lowe, M. A. (2019). An exploratory study of the influence of perceived organizational support, coworker social support, the nursing practice environment, and nurse demographics on burnout in palliative care nurses (Publication No. 22587287) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author

Start with the author's last name, a comma, and their initials. A dissertation almost always has one author. Don't list the advisor or the committee members, even though the title page and the repository name them.

Lowe, M. A.

2. Year

Put the year the degree was awarded in parentheses, followed by a period. Use the year on the dissertation's title page or in the database record, not the day it was posted online. Dissertations take the year only, never a month or day.

(2019).

Older dissertations are often scanned and posted years later. A repository may show the posting date beside the real one. Use the year the work was completed.

3. Title

Write the title in italics and in sentence case: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Title pages and databases usually print dissertation titles in title case or all capitals, so you'll lower-case most of the words.

Instructional leadership perceptions and practices of elementary school leaders

4. Publication number

If the database assigns a number to the dissertation, put it in parentheses right after the title, not in italics, with the words Publication No. in front of it. ProQuest assigns these numbers. Most university repositories don't, so this part usually drops out for them.

(Publication No. 22587287)

Use the publication number, not the longer document ID in the ProQuest link. For Lowe's dissertation, the link ends in /docview/2311052333, but the publication number is 22587287.

5. Description in square brackets

After the title and any publication number, describe the work in square brackets. For a published dissertation, write Doctoral dissertation, a comma, and the name of the university that awarded the degree. Don't italicize the brackets or anything in them.

[Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham].

For an unpublished dissertation, the bracket holds only the description, and the university moves to the end of the reference: [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia.

For a DNP project, APA describes the work as it is: [Doctor of nursing practice final project, Arizona State University]. The same idea works for other projects, as long as the wording matches what the work really is.

6. Database or repository

For a published dissertation, give the name of the database, repository, or archive where you found it, then a period. Write a repository's name the way the site writes it. For ProQuest, APA's manual writes ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, and its website also uses ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, so either works.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

This is one of the few times APA 7 asks for a database name. Dissertations count as works of limited circulation, so readers need to know where to find them. ProQuest's dissertation database is the exception to the rule that leaves ProQuest out of journal article references.

7. URL or DOI

End with the DOI or URL if readers can open it without a login. Most university repositories link to the full text, so their dissertations end with a link. Don't put a period after it.

https://doi.org/10.18130/V31R6G

If the link needs a library login, as ProQuest's do, end the reference with the database name and leave the link out. Unpublished dissertations usually have no link at all.

Examples

A dissertation from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global

Marcia A. Lowe's doctoral dissertation on burnout in palliative care nurses, completed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2019. ProQuest gives it publication number 22587287. Its ProQuest page needs a library login to read, so the reference ends with the database name.

  • Parenthetical citation(Lowe, 2019)
  • Narrative citationLowe (2019)

A dissertation from a university repository, with a DOI

Leslie Harris's Doctor of Education (EdD) dissertation from the University of Virginia, posted in Libra, UVA's online archive of scholarship. The repository gives it a DOI, so the reference names Libra and ends with the DOI.

  • Parenthetical citation(Harris, 2014, p. 45)
  • Narrative citationHarris (2014, p. 45)

A DNP project

Princess Darko-Amoako's Doctor of Nursing Practice project at Arizona State University, completed in 2023 and posted in ASU's KEEP repository. APA uses this same project as its DNP example. The bracket describes it as a final project, not a dissertation, and PERRLA builds this reference from the KEEP link.

  • Parenthetical citation(Darko-Amoako, 2023)
  • Narrative citationDarko-Amoako (2023)

An unpublished dissertation

The same Harris dissertation, cited the way APA cites it in its own unpublished example: a copy that came straight from the University of Virginia, not from a database or repository. The bracket says unpublished, and the university becomes the source. If you read it in Libra, use the published reference above instead.

  • Parenthetical citation(Harris, 2014)
  • Narrative citationHarris (2014)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for a dissertation gives the author's last name and the year, the same way it does for a book. Add a page number when you quote, or when you point to one specific passage.

  • Parenthetical: (Lowe, 2019)
  • Narrative: Lowe (2019) studied burnout in palliative care nurses.
  • A quote: add the page: (Harris, 2014, p. 45)
  • Published or unpublished: the in-text citation looks the same either way. Only the reference changes.

If you cite two different works by the same author from the same year, add a lowercase letter after the year in both the reference and the citation: (Harris, 2014a) and (Harris, 2014b). That doesn't apply to the two Harris examples on this page, because they're the same work cited two ways. Your paper would use only one of them.

Common mistakes

  • (Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.[Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.That's the APA 6 format. APA 7 puts the description in square brackets instead of parentheses and drops "Retrieved from" before the database name.
  • (Publication No. 2311052333)(Publication No. 22587287)The number in a ProQuest link is the document ID. The publication number is the shorter one ProQuest lists with the dissertation's details.
  • Harris, L. (2014). Instructional leadership perceptions and practices of elementary school leaders [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia.Harris, L. (2014). Instructional leadership perceptions and practices of elementary school leaders [Doctoral dissertation, University of Virginia]. Libra. https://doi.org/10.18130/V31R6GA dissertation in a database, repository, or archive counts as published. If you read it online in a repository, cite the repository, even if an older reference called it unpublished.
  • [Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2311052333[Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.Leave out a link that needs a library login, because your reader can't open it. End with the database name.
  • Motivational interviewing training for psychiatric medication adherence [Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University].Motivational interviewing training for psychiatric medication adherence [Doctor of nursing practice final project, Arizona State University].Only the title is italic. And a DNP project gets a description that says what it is, not "Doctoral dissertation."
  • [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.[Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia.APA 7 dropped the university's city and state. Give the name only.

Quick checklist

  • The author only, not the advisor or committee
  • The year the degree was awarded, in parentheses
  • Title in italics and sentence case
  • Publication No. in parentheses when ProQuest gives one
  • [Doctoral dissertation, University] for published, [Unpublished doctoral dissertation] plus the university for unpublished
  • The database or repository name for a published dissertation
  • A DOI or URL only when readers can open it without a login

Questions students ask

Is a dissertation in ProQuest published or unpublished?

Published. APA 7 counts any dissertation you found in a database like ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, a university repository, or an archive as published. Unpublished means you got the copy from the university itself, like a bound copy in the library or a file the author sent you.

Do I include the ProQuest URL?

Only if readers can open it without logging in. Most ProQuest dissertation links need a library login, so the reference ends with the database name. If the dissertation is open access and the link works for anyone, add it at the end.

Where do I find the ProQuest publication number?

It's in the dissertation's details on ProQuest, and in the short citation line ProQuest shows with the record, right after the year. It's usually seven or eight digits. Don't use the longer document ID that appears in the page's link.

How do I cite a DNP project in APA 7?

Use the published dissertation format, but describe the work as it is: [Doctor of nursing practice final project, Name of University]. Then give the repository's name and the URL. If your program calls it something else, like a DNP scholarly project, check with your faculty on the wording.

What if the dissertation was later published as a journal article or a book?

Cite the version you actually read. If you read the journal article, cite it as a journal article. If you read the dissertation, cite the dissertation, even though an article came out of it later.

Do I list the dissertation chair or committee?

No. Only the author goes in the reference. The chair and committee appear on the title page and in repository records, but APA 7 leaves them out.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.10–8.11, 9.7–9.37 (especially 9.30 on database and archive sources and 9.34–9.36 on DOIs and URLs), and 10.6, and the APA Style website's published and unpublished dissertation pages, its database information page, and its nursing reference examples. Example sources verified against each dissertation's ProQuest record, UAB Digital Commons, UVA's Libra record and its DOI, and ASU's KEEP record.

PERRLA puts every part of a dissertation reference in the right place, from the italic title to the square brackets.

Try PERRLA free for 7 days