If you are asked to
use APA style when writing a research paper, the instructor is
referring to the format published in the Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association, 5th
edition. Some of the examples in this handout come
directly from this work.
Format of the Manuscript:
Have a minimum of a one-inch
margin on all sides of each page of your paper.
Double-space your entire
paper, including all references.
Do not right-justify your
paper or hyphenate words at the end of a line. Leave the
right margin ragged.
Indent each paragraph
consistently; set the tab to either five or seven spaces.
Space only once after commas,
colons, semicolons, and punctuation marks at the end of
sentences (periods, question marks, exclamation points).
Provide volume numbers for
all periodicals.
Italicize periodical
titles in your reference list through the comma after volume
numbers. Example: Psychological Review, 16,
75-90.
Print sources: Use the author-date method of
citation within your paper. The author's last name and the
year the work was published are included in the text.
Examples:
Smith (1990) compared
research methods...
In 1990 Smith compared
research methods...
Electronic sources with page
numbers: Note the page, chapter, figure, table, or equation
at the appropriate point in the text. Always give page numbers
for quotations. the words page and chapter are
abbreviated in such text citations.
Examples:
(Cheek & Buss, 1981,
p. 332)
(Shimamura, 1989,
chap. 3)
Electronic sources without
page numbers: Use the paragraph number, if available,
preceded by the paragraph symbol or the abbreviation para. If
you don't see either paragraph or page numbers, cite the heading
and the number of the paragraph following it to direct the
reader to the location of the information.
For short quotations (less than
40 words) do not indent. Enclose the quotation with
double quotation marks. Include the author, year, and
specific page citation in the text. Punctuation marks
appear after the parentheses.
Place long quotations (more than
40 words) in an indented block with no quotation marks.
Start the quotation on a new line. Indent five spaces
from the left margin and keep that margin throughout the
quote. Double-space the entire quote.
Each source cited in the document
must be included in the reference list and only those sources.
The reference list is double-spaced
on a separate page at the end of the paper.
Indentation: Use hanging indent, which means that the first
line is flush with the left margin, but all other lines in the
reference citation are indented five spaces.
Authors: type the last name first,
followed by the initials, of all authors of the work.
Alphabetize by author's last name. If no author
is given, alphabetize by the title of the item. Use the ampersand
(&) instead of and when listing multiple authors
of a single work.
Capitalize only the first word of
a title or subtitle. Italicize (do not underline)
titles of books and periodicals.
Sample Reference List Formats:
Book:
Witkin, H., Dyk, R. B., Faterson, H. F., Goodenough. D. R., &
Karp, M. R. (1962). Psychological differentiation: Studies of
field dependency. New York: Wiley.
Periodical Article:
Cohen, G. (1075). Hemisphere differences in the effects of cuing
in visual recognition tasks. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1, 366-373.
(Use the volume number
only if the periodical uses continuous pagination throughout the
year; if each issue begins with page 1, you should list the issue
number also.)
Electronic copy of a journal
article retrieved from a database: Lin, A. C. (2004). Are
foreign scientists good for the US scientific workforce?
Bioscience, 54, 10, 892. Retrieved November 12, 2004 from
Academic Search Premier.
Daily newspaper article,
electronic version:
Hilts, P. J. (1999, February 16). In forecasting their
emotions, most people flunk out. New York Times.
Internet Sources: Writers
using and citing Internet sources should keep the following two
points in mind: 1) Reference specific documents rather than home or menu pages, if
possible. 2) Make sure the URLs actually work. At the very least,
Internet source documentation should provide a document title, a
date (either the date of publication or update or the date of
retrieval), and an address (in Internet terms, this is called the
URL, or uniform resource locator). The URL is the most
important part of the reference citation. The parts of the
URL break down as follows:
http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct00/workplace.html http=protocol apa=host name monitor/oct00/=path to document workplace.html=file name of specific document
Internet articles based on a
print source: Currently, most articles retrieved online are
exact duplicates of their print versions. If this is the
case, use the same basic print reference form (see Periodical
Article above), but add in brackets after the article title.
[Electronic version]. If you have reason to believe the
electronic version is different from the original, add the date you
accessed the information.
VandenBos, G. (2001). Role of
reference elements in the selection of resources by
psychology
undergraduates [Electronic version]. Journal of
Bibliographic Research, 5,
