How to Cite a Source With No Date in APA
The APA Publication Manual is direct: when no date can be identified, place (n.d.) where the year normally appears. That applies in the reference list entry and in the in-text citation. The rule for how to cite a source with no date in APA has not changed between the sixth and seventh editions. What traps students is not knowing the rule; it is applying it incorrectly, writing the date slot as blank, writing "undated," or skipping the in-text change entirely. This guide gives you the exact formats verified against the APA Style website's date guidance and the Publication Manual seventh edition, with copy-ready reference examples for the source types you are most likely to encounter.
What Is (n.d.) in APA?
(n.d.) is an abbreviation for "no date." APA 7th edition instructs writers to use it whenever a source carries no discernible publication year, revision year, or copyright year. It signals to the reader that the date is genuinely unknown, not that the writer forgot to record it. The abbreviation appears in lowercase, inside parentheses, and with a period after each letter.
The APA Publication Manual, seventh edition, section 9.17, specifies that the date element of a reference is the year of publication. When that year cannot be identified, (n.d.) replaces it. The same rule applies whether the source is a webpage, a PDF report, a book, or any other format.
Where (n.d.) Goes in the Reference Entry
In a standard APA reference entry, the order of elements is: Author. (Year). Title. Source. The (n.d.) replaces the year exactly. The parentheses that normally hold the year now hold (n.d.), and the period that follows the closing parenthesis stays in place.
Correct: Smith, J. (n.d.). Article title. Website Name. URL
Incorrect: Smith, J. Article title. Website Name. URL (missing date slot entirely)
Incorrect: Smith, J. (no date). Article title. (spelling out "no date" instead of using the abbreviation)
How to Write an APA In-Text Citation With No Date
The in-text citation follows the same Author-Year pattern as every other APA citation, with n.d. substituted for the year. The APA apa in-text citation rule is consistent: whatever appears in the date position of the reference entry also appears in the in-text citation.
| Citation type | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Parenthetical paraphrase | (Author, n.d.) | (World Health Organization, n.d.) |
| Parenthetical direct quote | (Author, n.d., p. X) | (World Health Organization, n.d., p. 4) |
| Parenthetical, paragraph number | (Author, n.d., para. X) | (World Health Organization, n.d., para. 2) |
| Narrative citation | Author (n.d.) | World Health Organization (n.d.) states that... |
| No author, no date | ("Shortened title," n.d.) | ("Mental Health Facts," n.d.) |
| No author, no date, italicized title | (Shortened Title, n.d.) | (Mental Health Guide, n.d.) |
APA in-text citation formats when no date is available. Use the page or paragraph locator for direct quotes.
A comma separates the author from the year in APA in-text citations. With n.d., the comma remains: (Smith, n.d.), not (Smith n.d.) or (Smith, n.d,). This comma is required by the APA Publication Manual and is one of the most frequently dropped characters when students adapt a standard citation for a no-date source.
APA No Date Reference Examples by Source Type
The apa reference no date format is identical in structure to a dated entry for the same source type. Only the year slot changes. Below are correctly formatted reference-list entries for the three source types most likely to carry no date, verified against the APA Style reference examples page.
Webpage or Online Article With No Date
A webpage reference in APA 7th edition follows: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of page. Site Name. URL. When the year is absent, (n.d.) replaces it exactly.
| Element | Value in this example |
|---|---|
| Author | National Institute of Mental Health |
| Date | (n.d.) |
| Title | Depression: Overview |
| Site Name | National Institute of Mental Health |
| URL | https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression |
The five elements of a no-date webpage reference entry in APA 7th edition.
Formatted reference entry:
National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Depression: Overview. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression
In-text citation: (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.)
APA 7th edition instructs you to omit the site name when it is the same as the author, to avoid redundancy. So the formatted entry above becomes: National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Depression: Overview. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression. Check the official guidance at apastyle.apa.org if your source involves a government department or institutional author where this overlap is common.
Report or PDF With No Date
Institutional reports and PDFs follow the same pattern. If the publisher is different from the author, include the publisher name before the URL. If the publisher and author are the same entity, omit the publisher name to avoid redundancy.
World Health Organization. (n.d.). Mental health: Strengthening our response (Fact sheet). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health
In-text: (World Health Organization, n.d.)
Book or Book Chapter With No Date
Undated books appear most often with older print volumes that carry no copyright page year, or with some openly licensed online texts. The format places (n.d.) after the author and before the title, with the publisher following the title.
Jones, R. T. (n.d.). Foundations of cognitive psychology. Academic Press.
For an undated chapter in an edited book:
Jones, R. T. (n.d.). Memory and learning. In A. B. Editor (Ed.), Handbook of cognitive psychology (pp. 45-78). Academic Press.
In-text for the chapter: (Jones, n.d., p. 52)
When a Retrieval Date Is Also Required
Adding a retrieval date is a separate question from adding (n.d.). The APA Publication Manual, seventh edition, section 9.16, specifies that a retrieval date is needed only when the content is designed to change over time and no archived or stable version is available. Most sources do not meet this threshold.
Content That Changes Without Notice
Wikipedia entries, live government dashboards, and pages on platforms that update continuously without archiving older versions fall into this category. Because the page you read today may differ from the page a reader visits tomorrow, the retrieval date tells readers when you accessed the version you cited.
The format adds "Retrieved [Month Day, Year], from" before the URL:
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Climate change. In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 9, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change
In-text: (Wikipedia contributors, n.d.)
Wikipedia article pages display a "Last edited" timestamp at the bottom of each article, which often functions as a date. If you can identify that date, use it instead of (n.d.). The APA Style website explicitly covers Wikipedia citations and recommends using the "last edited" timestamp where visible. A retrieval date is still recommended for Wikipedia regardless, because the content can change between your access and a reader's access.
Content That Does Not Change
A PDF report, an archived news article, a published dataset with a stable URL, and most institutional websites do not require a retrieval date even when they carry no publication date. The APA Style guidance on retrieval dates confirms that "most works do not require a retrieval date" and that retrieval dates apply only to content that is specifically "designed to change" without a version record.
| Source type | (n.d.) needed? | Retrieval date needed? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static webpage, no date visible | Yes | No | Add URL directly after source name |
| Wikipedia (no last-edit date found) | Yes | Yes | Format: Retrieved [Date], from URL |
| Government live dashboard | Yes (if no date) | Yes | Data changes; version not archived |
| Institutional PDF, no date | Yes | No | PDF does not change after download |
| Archived news article (no date) | Yes | No | Archive preserves the version |
| University lecture slides (no date) | Yes | No | Material fixed at time of access |
Decision table: (n.d.) applies whenever the year cannot be identified. A retrieval date applies only when the content updates without archiving.
Citing Multiple No-Date Sources by the Same Author
APA format disambiguates multiple works by the same author in the same year by appending lowercase letters: (2021a), (2021b). The apa reference no date logic follows exactly the same pattern: two no-date sources by the same author become (n.d.-a) and (n.d.-b).
Using (n.d.-a) and (n.d.-b)
Assign the letters alphabetically by the title of each source. The source whose title comes first alphabetically gets (n.d.-a); the next gets (n.d.-b), and so on. Both the reference list entries and the in-text citations use the same suffixed form.
| Source | Title | Date slot | In-text citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source 1 (title: "Anxiety disorders") | Anxiety disorders | (n.d.-a) | (Smith, n.d.-a) |
| Source 2 (title: "Depression: An overview") | Depression: An overview | (n.d.-b) | (Smith, n.d.-b) |
Two no-date sources by the same author: alphabetically "Anxiety" precedes "Depression," so it receives (n.d.-a).
This rule applies to any number of no-date sources. A third source by the same author with a title beginning with "E" would receive (n.d.-c). The pattern continues as long as needed.
In Zotero, Mendeley, and most other reference managers, set the publication year field to "n.d." and the software will render it correctly in APA exports. For the (n.d.-a) / (n.d.-b) disambiguation, you may need to add the suffix manually in the date field as the manager may not handle it automatically. Always check your final output against the APA Style guidelines at apastyle.apa.org before submission.
Common Mistakes With APA No Date Citations
Reviewing APA no date errors in student submissions, four patterns appear more than any others. Each produces a citation that looks plausible but fails the formatting standard.
| Mistake | Wrong format | Correct format |
|---|---|---|
| Leaving the date slot blank | Smith, J. Title. Website. | Smith, J. (n.d.). Title. Website. |
| Writing "no date" in full | Smith, J. (no date). Title. | Smith, J. (n.d.). Title. |
| Dropping comma in in-text | (Smith n.d.) | (Smith, n.d.) |
| Adding retrieval date to all no-date sources | Retrieved June 9, 2026, from URL (for a stable PDF) | URL only; no retrieval date needed for stable content |
| Forgetting to update in-text when date is absent | The organization (2021) found... | The organization (n.d.) found... |
The five most common APA no date formatting errors and their corrections.
For a broader look at APA citation format across other source types, the APA website citation guide covers the standard dated case in full. If you are citing a source that also lacks an identifiable author, the APA no-author citation guide walks through how to handle both gaps simultaneously.
And if your assignment involves AI-generated text, the APA citation guide for AI tools like ChatGPT shows the format APA recommends for those sources, which also often carry a version date rather than a traditional publication year.
APA Citation Generator
Generate correctly formatted APA 7th edition reference entries and in-text citations for any source type. Handles no-date, no-author, and other edge cases automatically.
The citations hub at university resources citations covers all 15 major referencing styles, so if your department requires Harvard, MLA, or Vancouver instead of APA, the same tool handles those formats. The university resources hub brings all of these tools together in one place.
Key Takeaways
- When a source has no identifiable publication date, APA 7th edition requires (n.d.) in the year position of the reference entry. The abbreviation is lowercase, inside parentheses, and followed by a period: (n.d.).
- The APA in-text citation follows the same substitution: (Smith, n.d.) for a paraphrase, (Smith, n.d., p. 4) for a direct quote. The comma between author and n.d. is required.
- Before writing (n.d.), check thoroughly: look at the page footer, the URL structure, metadata, web archive records, and any copyright year in the source. A copyright year qualifies as a publication date.
- A retrieval date is required only for content designed to change without archiving, such as live wiki pages. Most static webpages, PDFs, and archived documents do not need a retrieval date even when the source carries no publication year.
- For two or more no-date sources by the same author, append lowercase letters alphabetically by title: (n.d.-a), (n.d.-b). Use the same suffixes in both the reference list and the in-text citations.
- The five most common mistakes: leaving the date slot blank, writing "no date" in full, dropping the comma in the in-text citation, adding a retrieval date to every no-date source, and forgetting to update the in-text citation to match.
- The APA Style website at apastyle.apa.org and the Publication Manual seventh edition, sections 9.16-9.17, are the authoritative sources for these rules. Always verify against them if your institution provides conflicting guidance.
