APA STYLE

'American Psychological Association (APA) style' is a widely accepted format for writing research papers, particularly for social science manuscripts and theses. APA style specifies, for example, the names and order of headings, formatting and organization of citations and references, and the arrangement of tables, figures, footnotes, and appendices. APA style is probably most widely known for its use of Harvard referencing, also known as the author-date system of citations and parenthetical referencing.
APA style officially refers to ''The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association'', a style manual of over 400 pages now in its fifth edition (ISBN 1-55798-791-2). It is published by the American Psychological Association, which is the main scholarly organization for academic psychologists in the United States. A well-known alternative approach is the MLA style manual. The APA manual had its origins in 1929 as a seven-page guideline published in the ''Psychological Bulletin''.^[1]

Contents

Format

Headings

Citation

Reference list

Print sources

Online sources

See also

Notes

External links

Format

Although adopting certain aspects of APA style may be resented by some authors, it is widely agreed that it serves a useful purpose. Uniform style across journals helps readers to navigate and access material more efficiently. Scholars who experience uncertainty when writing may find the ''Manual'' a useful guide. For example, the "Nondiscriminatory Language" sections of the manual discourage authors from writing that is derogatory to women and minorities. Scholarly journals that require APA style sometimes allow their authors to deviate from it when this increases clarity.

Headings

Following APA style, headings are used to organize articles and give them a hierarchical structure. APA style prescribes a specific format for headings (from one to five levels) within an article. They are referred to on page 113 of the 5th edition of the Publication Manual using the following level numbers:

★ Level 5: CENTERED UPPERCASE HEADING

★ Level 1: Centered Uppercase and Lowercase Heading

★ Level 2: ''Centered, Italicized, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading''

★ Level 3: ''Flush Left, Italicized, Uppercase and Lowercase Side Heading''

★ Level 4: ''Indented, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.''
According to APA style, if an article has:

★ One level: use Level 1 headings

★ Two levels: use Level 1 (superordinate) and Level 3 (subordinate) headings

★ Three levels: use Level 1, ''Level 3'' and ''Level 4'' (from superordinate to subordinate)

★ Four levels: use Level 1, ''Level 2'', ''Level 3'' and ''Level 4'' (from superordinate to subordinate)

★ Five levels: use Level 5, Level 1, ''Level 2'', ''Level 3'' and ''Level 4'' (from superordinate to subordinate)
No guidelines are provided for articles with six or more levels of headings. Note that APA style does not permit preceding numbers or letters for the headings.

Citation

Reference citations in text are those which are referenced within a passage of text in the body of an article. As APA calls for Harvard referencing, typically a citation involves enclosing the author's family name and the date of publication within parentheses (as well as the page number if needed). The citations are generally placed immediately after the reference or at the end of the sentence in which the reference is made.
Full bibliographic information is then provided in a Works Cited or Reference section at the end of the article. APA style defines that the reference section may only include articles that are cited within the body of an article. This is the distinction between a document having a Reference section and a Bibliography, which may incorporate sources which may have been read by the authors as background but not referred to or included in the body of a document.
;Single author: Format should be Author's last name (no initials) followed directly by a comma, then the year of publication. When one makes the reference to the author(s) directly as a part of the narrative, then only the year (and page number if needed)would remain enclosed within brackets. The same holds for multiple authors.

★ A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Pauling, 2005).

★ Pauling (2005) discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.
;Two authors: Authors should be presented in order that they appear in the published article. If they are cited within closed brackets, use the ampersand (&) between them. If not enclosed in brackets then use expanded "and".

★ A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Pauling & Liu, 2005).

★ Pauling and Liu (2005) discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.
;Three to five authors: With three to five authors, the first reference to an article includes all authors. Subsequent citations in the same document may refer to the article by the principal author only plus "et al." However, all authors must be present in the references section.

★ A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Pauling, Liu, & Guo, 2005).

★ Pauling, Liu, and Guo (2005) conducted a study that discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.

★ Pauling et al. (2005) discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.

★ A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Pauling et al., 2005).
;Six authors or more: Starting with the first author mentioned in text, the correct format is (Author et al., Year) In the reference section, all six authors' names should be included.

★ Pauling et al. (2005) discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.
;Multiple publications, same author: If an author has multiple publications that you wish to cite, you use a comma to separate the years of publication in chronological order (oldest to most recent). If the publications occur in the same year, the ''Publication Manual'' recommends using suffixes a, b, c, etc. (note that corresponding letters should be used in the reference list, and these references should be ordered alphabetically by title).

★ A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Pauling, 2004, 2005a, 2005b).

★ Pauling (2004, 2005a, 2005b) conducted a study that discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism
;Multiple publications, different authors: Follow the rules for one author above, and use a semicolon to separate articles. Citation should first be in alphabetical order of the author, then chronological.

★ A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Alford, 1995; Pauling, 2004, 2005; Sirkis, 2003)
;Direct quotes: The same rules as above apply here, the format being (Author, Year, Page Number).

★ When asked why his behavior had changed so dramatically, Max simply said "I think it's the reinforcement" (Pauling, 2004, p. 69).

Reference list

The APA style guide prescribes that the ''References'' section, bibliographies and other lists of names should be ordered by surname first, and mandates inclusion of surname prefixes. For example, "Martin de Rijke" should be sorted as "De Rijke, M." and "Saif Al Falasi" should be sorted as "Al-Falasi, Saif." (The preference for Arabic names now is to hyphenate the prefix so that it remains with the surname.)

Print sources

'Book by one author:'

Sheril, R. D. (1956). ''The terrifying future: Contemplating color television.'' San Diego: Halstead.

'Book by two or more authors:'

Smith, J., & Peter, Q. (1992). ''Hairball: An intensive peek behind the surface of an enigma.'' Hamilton, ON: McMaster University Press.

'Article in an edited book:'

Mcdonalds, A. (1993). Practical methods for the apprehension and sustained containment of supernatural entities. In G. L. Yeager (Ed.), ''Paranormal and occult studies: Case studies in application'' (pp. 42–64). London: OtherWorld Books.

'Article in a journal with continuous pagination:'

Rottweiler, F. T., & Beauchemin, J. L. (1987). Detroit and Narnia: Two foes on the brink of destruction. ''Canadian/American Studies Journal, 54,'' 66–146.

'Article in a journal paginated separately:'

Crackton, P. (1987). The Loonie: God's long-awaited gift to colourful pocket change? ''Canadian Change, 64''(7), 34–37.

'Article in a monthly magazine:'

Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today's schools. Time, 135, 28-31.

'Article in a newspaper'

Wrong, M. (2005, August 17). Misquotes are "Problematastic" says Mayor. ''Toronto Sol.'' p. 4.

'Government document'

Revenue Canada. (2001). ''Advanced gouging: Manual for employees'' (MP 65–347/1124). Ottawa: Minister of Immigration and Revenue.

Online sources

For electronic references, websites and articles online, the APA Style website asserts some basic rules. The first is to direct readers specifically to the source material and the second is to provide references that work.
'Internet article based on a print source'

Marlowe, P., Spade, S., & Chan, C. (2001). Detective work and the benefits of colour versus black and white [Electronic version]. ''Journal of Pointless Research, 11,'' 123–124.

'Article in an Internet-only journal'

Blofeld, E. S. (1994, March 1). Expressing oneself through Persian cats and modern architecture. ''Felines & Felons, 4,'' Article 0046g. Retrieved October 3, 1999, from http://journals.f+f.org/spectre/vblofeld-0046g.html

'Article in an Internet-only newsletter'

Paradise, S., Moriarty, D., Marx, C., Lee, O. B., Hassel, E., et al. (1957, July). Portrayals of fictional characters in reality-based popular writing: Project update. ''Off the beaten path, 7''(3). Retrieved October 3, 1999, from http://www.newsletter.offthebeatenpath.news/otr/complaints.html

'Stand-alone Internet document, no author identified, no date'

''What I did today.'' (n.d.). Retrieved August 21, 2002, from http://www.cc.mystory.life/blog/didtoday.html

'Document available on university program or department Web site'

Rogers, B. (2078). ''Faster-than-light travel: What we've learned in the first twenty years.'' Retrieved August 24, 2079, from Mars University, Institute for Martian Studies Web site: http://www.eg.spacecentraltoday.mars/university/dept.html

'Electronic copy of a journal article, three to five authors, retrieved from database'

Costanza, G., Seinfeld, J., Benes, E., Kramer, C., & Peterman, J. (1993). Minutiæ and insignificant observations from the nineteen-nineties. ''Journal about Nothing, 52,'' 475–649. Retrieved October 31, 1999, from NoTHINGJournals database.
'E-mail or other personal communication (cite in text only)'

(A. Monterey, personal communication, September 28, 2001).
'Book on CD'

Nix, G. (2002). Lirael, Daughter of the Clayr [CD]. New York: Random House/Listening Library.
'Book on tape'

Nix, G. (2002). Lirael, Daughter of the Clayr [Cassette Recording No. 1999-1999-1999]. New York: Random House/Listening Library.

See also

★ MLA style

★ Comparison of reference management software

Notes

1. Roediger, R. (2004). "What should they be called?" ''aps Observer'', Association for Psychological Science, 17.4, p. 1.

External links

★ APA Style - official homepage

★ Citation Styles Guidebook - University of Illinois

★ Introduction to APA Style - Purdue University

★ Citing References: APA Style (5th ed.) a reference from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

★ APA Style Guide - Mark Plonsky, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

★ APA Format Citation Machine - StudentABC.com

★ Citation Machine generates APA style citations.

★ Clear guide to writing APA Research Papers.

★ APA style template for tex (.cls)

★ A BibTeX style closely following APA style citations (APA Manual 5th ed.), providing a very good match.

★ APA Basics Summary (pdf) - One page sheet summarizing essential APA Rules.