APA Style Guidelines

General Principles

• The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual provides guidelines for formatting and citing sources in academic writing.
• APA style emphasizes clarity, concision, and simplicity.
• It uses a author-date system, where the author's last name and publication year are included in the in-text citation.

In-Text Citations

• In-text citations are used to credit the original author(s) of a work.
• They consist of the author's last name, publication year, and page number(s) if applicable.
• Examples:
  • One author: (Smith, 2020)
  • Two authors: (Smith & Johnson, 2020)
  • Three or more authors: (Smith et al., 2020)
  • No author: ("Title," 2020)
  • No date: (Smith, n.d.)

Reference List

• The reference list provides full citations for all sources cited in the text.
• It is organized alphabetically by author's last name.
• Each reference includes:
  • Author's last name, initial(s)
  • Publication year
  • Title of the work (in sentence case)
  • Publication information (e.g., journal title, volume, pages, DOI)

Common Reference Types

• Book:
  • Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book. Publisher.
  • Example: Smith, J. (2020). The history of psychology. Routledge.
• Journal Article:
  • Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, Volume(Issue), pp.-pp. doi:xxxx
  • Example: Johnson, K. (2020). The effects of social media on mental health. Journal of Psychology, 20(1), 12-20. doi:10.1037/jou0000123
• Website:
  • Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day of Publication). Title of the webpage. Title of the Website. https://www.url.com
  • Example: Smith, J. (2020, February 10). The impact of climate change. NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov/

Other Guidelines

• Order of authors: List authors in the order they appear on the source.
• Et al.: Use "et al." for sources with 3 or more authors in the in-text citation and reference list.
• DOIs: Include DOIs (digital object identifiers) for online sources whenever possible.
• Abbreviations: Use standard abbreviations for journal titles and common words (e.g., "ed." for "edition").
• Indentation: Use a hanging indent for each reference list entry.