When do I italicize the title in a reference?
Answer
If a title stands on its own, the title is italicized. If a work is inside of a source with other works, like a magazine article inside of a magazine, then the source name is italicized instead of the title of the work you have used.
It is not always easy to determine whether a work is inside of something else. Webpages, for instance, are considered stand alone works. The table below, which is adapted form the APA 7 Website, identifies those works that are stand alone, and those that are part of a greater whole.
| Work stands alone (italic title) | Work is part of a greater whole (italic container) |
|---|---|
| Books | Journal articles |
| Reference works (e.g., whole dictionaries, encyclopedias, diagnostic manuals) | Magazine articles |
| Stories on new websites | Newspaper and newsletter articles |
| Webpages | Blog posts |
| Gray literature (e.g., brochures, fact sheets, press releases) | Edited book chapters |
| Ethics codes | Dictionary and encyclopedia entries |
| Conference presentations (except symposium contributions) | Conference symposium contributions |
| Dissertations and theses | Entries in mobile app reference works |
| Unpublished and informally published works (e.g., preprint articles, monographs in ERIC) | TV series episodes |
| Data sets and unpublished raw data | Podcast episodes |
| Software and mobile apps | Songs |
| Tests, scales, and inventories | |
| Films, movies, TED Talks, webinars, YouTube videos, whole TV shows | |
| Music albums, podcasts | |
| Artwork, maps, photographs | |
| PowerPoint slides | |
| Social media posts | |
| Government reports, annual reports |