Can You Cite a Blog Post in a Thesis: When It Counts and How in APA
When a blog post is acceptable evidence in a thesis and when it is not, a checklist for judging one, and the APA 7 format for blog posts and blog comments.
Can you cite a blog post in a thesis? Yes, if the post is the best evidence for the specific claim you are making and your department accepts it. A blog is rarely the best evidence for a research finding. It can be the right source for an expert's stated view, a public debate, or the blog itself as data.
APA Style gives blog posts a standard reference format, but it does not judge whether a source is suitable. That decision sits with your supervisor and your department. This guide gives you a way to decide, then the exact APA format.
Who decides whether you can cite a blog post
Your supervisor, department and university decide, not the style guide. APA's own May 2026 post says "we do not provide guidance on what sources to use" and that whether a source is appropriate "depends on the context of use."
Blogs are among the source types it lists. The post adds that the APA Style team "cannot give you permission to use a specific source of information" and calls it "paramount that you discuss your source types" with your evaluators. For a thesis, those people are your supervisor and, later, your examiners.
So before you build an argument on blog posts, ask your supervisor directly. A short email works: "I want to cite two posts by [name] as evidence of how practitioners describe [topic]. Is that acceptable in our department?"
When a blog post is acceptable evidence in a thesis
A blog is acceptable when what you claim matches what a blog can show. Match the claim to the source with the table below. The rows are practical guidance, not rules from a style guide.
| What you want to claim | Is a blog post the right source? | What to cite |
|---|---|---|
| A research finding, such as an effect size or a rate | No | The peer-reviewed paper or report that holds the data |
| What a named expert thinks, in their own words | Yes, as their view | The post, framed as opinion: "X argues that..." |
| How a topic is discussed in public or in a profession | Yes, as data | The posts you analysed, with your selection method stated |
| An announcement only a blog carries, such as a project's release note | Sometimes | The official page if one exists, otherwise the post |
| A summary of someone else's paper | No | The paper itself, after you have read it |
| Background a reader may want to explore | Rarely | A textbook, review article or report |
The pattern is simple. A blog post is good evidence of what its author said. It is weaker evidence that what they said is true, unless you can see that the post was reviewed before it went up.
A checklist for judging a blog post
Run these checks before you cite a post. If you cannot answer yes to the first three, look for a better source.
- Named author. Can you identify who wrote it and what they do?
- Relevant expertise. Does the author work or publish in the field they are writing about?
- Sources given. Does the post link to the evidence behind its claims, and do those links work?
- Clear date. Can you see when it was published or last changed?
- Stable home. Is the blog run by an organisation, a university or a known publication, rather than an anonymous page?
- No better source. Have you searched the academic databases for a paper that makes the same point?
If a post passes on author and expertise but fails on sources, cite it only as the author's opinion. Our guide to how to evaluate sources for a literature review sets out further checks on where a source comes from.
How to write about a blog source in your thesis
The wording around a citation tells your examiner how much weight you place on it. Use verbs that match the strength of the source. The phrases below are templates to adapt.
- For an opinion: "[Author] (Year) argues that [view] in a post on [blog name]."
- For practice or debate: "Practitioner blogs describe [pattern]; for example, [Author] (Year) reports that..."
- For blogs as data: "I analysed [number] posts published on [blog names] between [dates], selected by [method]."
Avoid writing "research shows" before a blog citation. If a blog reports a finding, trace the finding to its original paper and cite that instead.
Can you cite a blog post in a thesis using APA? The format
Yes. APA's blog post reference page says "Blog posts follow the same format as journal articles." It also says to "Italicize the name of the blog, the same as you would a journal title."
APA's own example is below. Copy its punctuation and italics exactly.
Ouellette, J. (2019, November 15). Physicists capture first footage of quantum knots unraveling in superfluid. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/study-you-can-tie-a-quantum-knot-in-a-superfluid-but-it-will-soon-untie-itself/
The in-text citations are (Ouellette, 2019) and Ouellette (2019). Note what the example shows: the full date of the post, the post title in plain type, and the blog's name in italics.
Fill-in template for a blog post
Copy the line below and replace each bracketed placeholder. It follows APA's example; it is not a real reference.
[Surname], [Initials]. ([Year], [Month] [Day]). [Title of the post in sentence case]. [Name of the blog]. [URL of the post]
If the post has no named author or no date, use APA's missing information rules. Our guide on how to cite a website with no author in APA works through each case.
Citing a comment on a blog post
APA has a format for comments too. The author is the person who left the comment, shown "using the format that appears with the comment (i.e., a real name or a username)."
APA's example cites a comment left by the username joachimr on APA's own post "The transition to seventh edition APA Style". The in-text citations are (joachimr, 2019) and joachimr (2019). This fill-in template follows the structure of that example; it is not a real reference.
[Name or username]. ([Year], [Month] [Day]). [Comment title or up to the first 20 words of the comment] [Comment on the blog post "[Title of the post]"]. [Name of the blog]. [URL of the comment]
APA says to "Provide the comment title or up to the first 20 words of the comment", followed by the bracketed description. APA says to "Link to the comment itself if possible. Otherwise, link to the blog post."
Blog posts compared with other web sources
Blogs sit in a wider group of material published outside journals and books. Reports, policy papers and working papers can carry more weight than a blog when a named organisation stands behind them. Our guide on how to cite grey literature in APA covers those formats.
Wikipedia raises its own questions. See our guide to whether you can cite Wikipedia in a thesis for what Wikipedia itself advises.
What Thesisroom does with this
Thesisroom does not decide which sources you may use, and it does not write references. Citation Check looks each reference up in eight registries: Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, Retraction Watch, DOAJ, CORE and Unpaywall. It shows which references it could verify, which are retracted, and which need checking by hand.
If a blog post is not among the references it could verify, treat that as a prompt. Confirm the link still works, and ask whether a paper could carry the claim instead.
Frequently asked questions
Are blog posts credible sources for academic writing?
Some are credible for some claims. A post by a named expert is good evidence of that expert's view. It is weak evidence for a research finding, which needs the original study. Ask your supervisor what your department accepts.
How do I cite a blog post in APA 7 in-text?
Use the author's surname and the year of the post: (Ouellette, 2019) or Ouellette (2019), as in APA's example. The full date goes in the reference list entry, and only the year in the text.
Is the blog name italicised in APA?
Yes. APA says to italicise the name of the blog, the same as a journal title. The title of the post stays in plain type, in sentence case.
How many blog posts can I cite in a thesis?
No style guide sets a number. APA says it does not decide which sources you use. Cite a blog only where it is the best evidence for that claim, and agree the approach with your supervisor.
Can I cite a blog that summarises a research paper?
Cite the paper instead, after you have read it. The blog is only someone's account of the study. If you cannot reach the paper, APA's secondary source format applies, and APA says to use it sparingly.
What if the blog post has no author or date?
Follow APA's missing information rules. With no author, the title moves to the author position. With no date, write "n.d." in both the reference and the in-text citation.
Sources
- APA Style blog: We do not decide your source types (Adams, 2026)
- APA Style: Blog post references
- APA Style: Missing reference information
- APA Style: Secondary sources
How this guide was made: Thesisroom drafted this guide with the help of AI writing tools, then checked every fact, figure and source by hand against the references linked above.