In APA 7 you report Cronbach's alpha with the Greek letter or the word "alpha", two decimal places and no leading zero, for example "α = .87", and you compare it with a cited threshold such as .70 (Nunnally, 1978). The APA manual drops the leading zero for any statistic that cannot exceed 1, which includes alpha, correlations and p values (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020). Report alpha for each scale, usually in the Method section under "Measures" or at the start of the Results chapter, and put several scales in one table.
The formatting rules that matter
- No leading zero: write α = .82, not α = 0.82 (APA, 2020, Section 6.36).
- Two decimals are standard for reliability coefficients.
- Italics: APA italicises statistical symbols written in Latin letters (M, SD, p), but Greek letters such as α are not italicised.
- Name the sample: alpha is a property of scores in your sample, not of the questionnaire, so report the value you obtained, not the one from the original paper. Mentioning the original value as well is good practice.
- Number of items: give the number of items behind each alpha, because alpha depends on scale length (Streiner, 2003).
Sentence templates
For one scale:
Perceived Usefulness was measured with four items (Davis, 1989) on a 5-point scale. Internal consistency was good, α = .87, above the .70 threshold recommended by Nunnally (1978).
For several scales in one sentence:
All scales showed acceptable internal consistency (Nunnally, 1978): Perceived Usefulness, α = .87; Perceived Ease of Use, α = .81; Trust, α = .76; and Intention to Use, α = .90.
When an item was removed:
The initial alpha for Trust was .66. Item TR4 had a Corrected Item-Total Correlation of .18, below the .30 guideline (Field, 2018), and its removal raised alpha to .76. The remaining three items were retained for analysis.
When a value is below .70 and you keep the scale:
Alpha for Social Influence was .64. Values between .60 and .70 are considered acceptable in exploratory research (Hair et al., 2019); this is noted as a limitation.
Worked example with a table
A survey of 240 respondents measured four constructs. After running reliability analysis, the student builds this table. APA 7 tables have a bold number, an italic title on the next line, horizontal rules only, and a note beneath.
Table 2
Internal Consistency of the Study Scales
| Scale | Items | M | SD | α | Item-total r range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perceived Usefulness | 4 | 3.92 | 0.71 | .87 | .64–.79 |
| Perceived Ease of Use | 4 | 3.68 | 0.66 | .81 | .55–.70 |
| Trust | 3 | 3.41 | 0.74 | .76 | .52–.63 |
| Intention to Use | 3 | 3.85 | 0.80 | .90 | .77–.84 |
Note. N = 240. Item TR4 was removed (see text). Threshold for α: .70 (Nunnally, 1978); for Corrected Item-Total Correlation: .30 (Field, 2018).
Notice the formatting: means and standard deviations keep the leading zero because they can exceed 1, while α and the item-total correlations do not. The note states the sample size and the sources of both thresholds, so the reader does not need to hunt for them in the text.
Where to put it
Most supervisors expect reliability in the Results chapter, straight after data screening and descriptive statistics and before hypothesis tests, because it establishes that the scale scores are fit for analysis. Some departments prefer a short statement per scale in the Method section under "Measures". If you also run confirmatory factor analysis or PLS-SEM, report alpha next to composite reliability and average variance extracted in one measurement-model table (Hair et al., 2019).
Common mistakes
- Writing "0.87" or "α = 0.870" (leading zero and three decimals).
- Calling a value "reliable" without a cited threshold.
- Reporting one alpha for the whole questionnaire instead of one per construct.
- Copying the alpha from the original scale's paper instead of computing it on your own data.
Run it free
The free Cronbach's alpha calculator produces the table above, the APA sentence and a Word file, with thresholds already cited. To format the reference list, use the APA citation generator.
FAQ
Is it "Cronbach's α" or "Cronbach's alpha"?
Both are acceptable. Use the symbol in tables and parentheses and either form in running text, consistently.
Do I need to cite Cronbach (1951)?
It is good practice to cite the original source of the coefficient once, and the source of the threshold you apply.
Should I report alpha if item deleted?
Only when you discuss removing an item. Otherwise it is enough to give the range of item-total correlations.
How many decimals for alpha?
Two decimals. APA 7 recommends rounding to the fewest decimals that keep the value meaningful (APA, 2020).
References
- American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
- Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02310555
- Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008
- Field, A. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (5th ed.). Sage.
- Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203
- Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
- Streiner, D. L. (2003). Starting at the beginning: An introduction to coefficient alpha and internal consistency. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80(1), 99–103. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327752JPA8001_18