What is APA documentation style?

What is APA documentation style?

APA documentation style, also known as APA format, provides a standard system for giving credit to others for their contribution to your work. APA, which stands for American Psychological Association, is used primarily in the social sciences to document sources.

Basic APA Style

The APA style calls for three kinds of information to be included in in-text citations. The author's last name and the work's date of publication must always appear, and these items must match exactly the corresponding entry in the references list. The third kind of information, the page number, appears only in a citation to a direct quotation.

There are three options for placing citations in APA format: idea-focused, researcher-focused, and chronology-focused. Idea-focused: Place the author(s) and date(s) in parentheses at an appropriate place in or at the end of a sentence.

Example:

Researchers have studied how children represent mathematical problems (Alibali, Phillips, & Fischer, 2009; Siegler, 1976).

Researcher-focused: Place only the date in parentheses. Alibali, Phillips, and Fischer (2009) asked, “Did the participants adopt the taught strategies?” (p. 96). Chronology-focused: Integrate both the author and date into your sentence.

Example:

In 2009 Alibali, Phillips, and Fischer reported that third- and fourth-grade students improved their problem representation when they were taught the equalize strategy but did not improve their problem representation when they were taught the add-subtract strategy.

Citing Sources: Within a paragraph, omit the year in citations after the first one if no confusion with other studies will result. Example: Fisher (1999) administered a questionnaire . . . Fisher's results indicated . . . [new paragraph] The questionnaire administered by Fisher (1999) was used by . . .

Sources with 1 or 2 authors: Cite name(s) in first and all subsequent citations

Example:

(Carter & Dunbar-Odom, 2009) Carter and Dunbar-Odom (2009)

Works Cited Page

There are many rules about basic formatting for books. When referring to books, chapters, articles, or Web pages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word. Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals. Examples are not double-spaced, but your References list should be double-spaced. Examples do not show indented lines after the first line, but yours should be indented.

Citing Books

The most basic entry for a book consists of the author's name, year of publication, the title of the book, publisher city, and the publisher name.

Basic Rules for Books: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

The first author's name should be reversed, with the last name coming first, followed by a comma. First names and any middle names are given as initials, each followed by a period. A suffix, such as a roman numeral or Jr./Sr. should appear after the author's first and middle initials, preceded by a comma.

For a book written by two or more authors, separate them by comma, and use an ampersand before the last author's name. If more than six authors are cited, abbreviate the seventh author and any others that follow with "et al."

Book Examples

Cite Book: Sternberg, E. (2000). Just business: Business ethics in action (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Edited Book, No Author: Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Edited Book with an Author and Authors: Plath, S. (2000). The unabridged journals. K. V. Kukil (Ed.). New York, NY: Anchor.

Citing Articles

Basic Rules for Articles: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy

Article Examples

Articles in Journal Paginated by Volume: Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

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

Article in a Newspaper: Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.

Citing Websites

The most basic entry for a website consists of the author name(s), page title, website title, date accessed, and the web address.[1]

Last Name, First. Page Title. Website Title. Retrieved Date Accessed, from Web Address.

When citing an entire Web site (and not a specific document on that site), no Reference List entry is required if the address for the site is cited in the text of your paper. For content that does not easily fit into categories such as journal papers and books, keep in mind the goal of a citation is to give the reader a clear path to the source. For electronic and online materials, include stable URL or database name. Include the author, title, and date published when available. For undated materials, include the date the resource was accessed. [2]

Website Examples

When citing a webpage in APA style, it has similar rules to citing a book. The first author's name should be reversed, with the last name coming first, followed by a comma. First names and any middle names are given as initials, each followed by a period. A suffix, such as a roman numeral or Jr./Sr. should appear after the author's first and middle initials, preceded by a comma.[3]

Ex: Smith, J. (2009, January 21). Obama inaugurated as President. CNN.com. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html

For a page with two or more authors, separate them by comma, and use an ampersand before the last author's name. If more than six authors are cited, abbreviate the seventh author and any others that follow with "et al."[4]

Ex: Smith, J., & Doe, J. (2009, January 21). Obama inaugurated as President. CNN.com. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html

After the author names are listed, include in parentheses the publication date. List the year first, followed by a comma, and then the month and day. Place a period outside of the parentheses. In some cases, a specific date might not be available, and the date published may only be specific to a month or even year. Provide whatever date information is available.

Ex: Smith, J. (2009, January). Obama inaugurated as President. CNN.com. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html

Citing an Entire Website

Ex: Witchcraft in Europe and America is a site that presents the full text of many essential works in the literature of witchcraft and demonology (http://www.witchcraft.psmedia.com/)

Citing a Professional Website

Ex: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2008). Biofuels. Retrieved May 6, 2008, from http://www.nrel.gov/learning/re_biofuels.html