Create a spot-on reference in APA 7 and 6
Basic rules
The APA Manual of Style (7th edition) sets rules for citing preprints published in specialised online repositories, on government and personal websites, etc. Such publications are considered to be informally published works. To cite such a preprint in a list of references under the requirements of APA, include in the reference the following elements: data of the author(s), year when the document was completed, title of the online repository, and the material's DOI or URL.
For referencing an unpublished manuscript, indicate the data of the author(s), year, title of the manuscript followed by its status ('Manuscript submitted for publication', 'Manuscript in preparation', 'Unpublished manuscript') in square brackets, and source, if it is known (for instance, a university department).
Attention: do not indicate the title of the journal to which the manuscript was submitted.
How to cite in a bibliography
Preprint in an online repository
Basic reference template:
Author(s). (Year). Preprint title. Repository. DOI or URL
Examples of references:
Molkeri, A., Srivastava, A., Osovski, S., & Needleman, A. (2020). Influence of grain size distribution on ductile intergranular crack growth resistance. engrXiv. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4045073
Lloyd, P. (2020). Modelling consciousness within mental monism: An automata-theoretic approach. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202003.0072.v1
Unpublished manuscript
Basic reference template:
Author(s). (Year). Manuscript title [Status]. Source (university department, etc.).
Example of reference:
Wilfried-Right, A. (2018). Philosophy of Hegel re-imagined [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Faculty of Philosophy, James Cook University.