APA Style
is a writing style and format for academic documents such as
scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the
field of behavioral and social sciences. It is described in the style guide of
the American Psychological Association (APA), which is titled the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association. The guidelines were developed
to aid reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of
communication, and for "word choice that best reduces bias in language".[1][2]
APA Style is widely used, either entirely or with modifications, by hundreds of
other scientific journals (including medical and other public health journals), in many
textbooks, and in academia (for papers written in classes). Along with AMA
style and CSE style, it is one of the major styles for such work.[citation needed]
History[edit]
The APA got involved in journal publishing in 1923.[3] In 1929, an APA committee
had a seven-page writer's guide published in the Psychological Bulletin.[4][5] In 1944, a
32-page guide appeared as an article in the same journal.[3] The first edition of
the APA Publication Manual was published in 1952 as a 61-page supplement to
the Psychological Bulletin,[6] marking the beginning of a recognized "APA style."[3] In
response to the growing complexities of scientific reporting, subsequent editions were
released in 1974, 1983, 1994, 2001, and 2009.
Primarily known for the simplicity of its reference citation style, the Manual also
established standards for language use that had far-reaching effects. Particularly
influential were the "Guidelines for Nonsexist Language in APA Journals," first
published as a modification to the 1974 edition, which provided practical alternatives
to "sexist" language then in common usage.[7][8] The guidelines for reducing bias in
language have been updated over the years and presently provide practical guidance
for writing about race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status
(APA, 2009, pp. 70–77; see also APA, 2009b).[9]
Sixth edition of the Publication Manual[edit]
The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association is the most current. It was released in July 2009 after four years of
development. The Publication Manual Revision Task Force of the American
Psychological Association established parameters for the revision based on published
critique; user comments; commissioned reviews; and input from psychologists,
nurses, librarians, business leaders, publishing professionals, and APA governance
groups (APA, 2007a, 2007b).[10][11] To accomplish these revisions, the Task Force
appointed working groups of four to nine members in seven areas: bias-free
language, ethics, graphics, Journal Article Reporting Standards,
[12]
references, statistics, and writing style (APA, 2009, pp. XVII–XVIII).
The APA explained the issuing of a new edition only eight years after the fifth edition
by pointing to the increased use of online source or online access to academic journals
(6th edition, p. XV). The sixth edition is accompanied by a style
website, apastyle.org as well as the APA Style Blog, which answers many common
questions from users.
Errors in the first printing[edit]
Sample papers in the first printing of the sixth edition contained errors. APA staff
posted all of the corrections online for free in a single document on October 1, 2009,
and shortly thereafter alerted users to the existence of the corrections in an APA blog
entry.[13] These errors attracted significant attention from the scholarly community and
nearly two weeks later, on October 13, 2009, the article "Correcting a Style Guide"
was published in the online newspaper Inside Higher Ed that included interviews with
several individuals, one of whom described the errors as "egregious".[14] All copies of
the printing with errors were soon after recalled in 2009 (including those from major
retailers such as Amazon.com) and all manuals currently in circulation are unaffected.
Characteristics of APA style citation[edit]
APA style is complex.[15][16] Only a sample of citation and reference formats can be
listed here.
In-text citations[edit]
APA style uses an author-date reference citation system in the text with an
accompanying reference list. That means that to cite any reference in a paper, the
writer should cite the author and year of the work, either by putting both in
parentheses separated by a comma (parenthetical citation) or by putting the author in
the narrative of the sentence and the year in parentheses (narrative citation).
Example narrative citation: Schmidt and Oh (2016) described a fear among the
public that the findings of science are not actually real.
Example parenthetical citation: In our postfactual era, many members of the public
fear that the findings of science are not real (Schmidt & Oh, 2016).
Reference list[edit]
In the APA reference list, the writer should provide the author, year, title, and source
of the cited work in an alphabetical list of references. If a reference is not cited in the
text, it should not be included in the reference list. The reference format varies slightly
depending on the document type (e.g., journal article, edited book chapter, blog post),
but broadly speaking always follows the same pattern of author, date, title, source.
Reference type Template Example
Schmidt, F. L., & Oh, I.-S. (2016). The
crisis of confidence in research findings in
Author, A., & Author, B.
psychology: Is lack of replication the real
(year). Title of
Journal article problem? Or is it something
article. Journal Title,
else? Archives of Scientific Psychology,
Volume, page range. DOI
4,32–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/arc00000
29
Author, A., & Author, B. Brown, B. (2010). The gifts of
(year). Title of imperfection: Let go of who you think
Whole book
book.DOI/URL/Publisher you're supposed to be and embrace who
location: Publisher Name. you are. Center City, MN: Hazelden.
Singh, A. A., Hwahng, S. J., Chang, S. C.,
Author, A., & Author, B. White, B. (2017). Affirmative counseling
(year). Title of chapter. In with trans/gender-variant people of color.
E. Editor & A. Editor In A. Singh & L. M. Dickey
Edited book
(Eds.), Title of book(pp. (Eds.), Affirmative counseling and
chapter
xx-xx). psychological practice with transgender
DOI/URL/Publisher and gender nonconforming
location: Publisher Name. clients (pp. 41–68). https://doi.org/10.103
7/14957-003
American Psychological Association.
Author. (year). Title of
(n.d.). Divisions. Retrieved October 28,
Website page. Retrieved Date,
2018,
from http://xxxxxxx
from http://www.apa.org/about/division/
For book and book chapter references, only one "locator" (DOI, URL, or
Publisher) should be provided. If a DOI is assigned to the work, give the DOI.
If the item is available online but does not have a DOI, give the URL.
Otherwise, give the publisher and publisher location.
Note that the title of a work may be italic or not italic. If the work stands alone,
italicize the title; if it is part of a greater whole, do not italicize the title.
