Introductory
information
Rules
Abbreviations
Capitalization
Commas
Hyphenation
Italics
Miscellaneous
Numbers
Quotation
marks
Reference formats
Abbreviating
within a reference
Alphabetizing
within reference lists
In-text
references
Books
Journal
Articles
Reference
list formats
Online
materials
Note: The APA publication manual specifies underlining in cases
where italics will be printed. However, the opposite is true
in this document: italics are used to show underlined passages. This
is because Netscape and other browsers may use
underlining to indicate links.
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APA style is the style of writing specified in the Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.,
2001). The publication manual began as an article published in Psychological
Bulletin in 1929. That article reported results of
a 1928 meeting of representatives from anthropological and psychological
journals, "to discuss the form of journal manuscripts
and to write instructions for their preparation." By 1952 the guidelines
were issued as a separate document called the
Publication Manual. Today the manual is in its fourth edition, and
the APA format described in it is a widely recognized
standard for scientific writing.
Some of the more commonly used rules and reference formats from the
manual are listed here. However, this web page is no
substitute for the 439 page manual itself, which should be purchased
by any serious psychology student in the U.S., or by
students in other countries who are writing for a journal which uses
APA format. The APA manual can be found in almost any
college bookstore as well as in many large, general-purpose bookstores,
in the reference and style guide section. It can be
obtained directly from the APA order department at 1-800-374-2721.
The fifth edition of the style manual, issued in 2001, contained these additions and changes to the pre-existing APA style:
Abstracts are now limited to 960 characters
including spaces.
Bibliographic entries should be indented five
to seven spaces on the first line, just like other paragraphs.
Electronic references should have an address
permitting retrieval (see the discussion in the Reference list examples
section).
Horizontal rules (lines) should be typed into
tables; do not draw them in by hand.
Hyphenation should not occur at the end of
lines, only between words when necessary.
Institutional affiliation should appear in
the byline, departmental affiliation in the author note.
Italics should be indicated on a word processor
by underlining, not italics. [However, see the note above. Italics are
used throughout this document in place of
underlining.]
Journal names are now underlined continuously
from the title through the comma after the volume number, for example,
Journal of Psychoneuromimmunology, 6, 7-8.
Justification should be set to "off" or "left
margin only" (the right margin should be uneven).
Margins should be at least 1" all around.
Paragraphs should be indented five to seven
spaces.
Running heads should be placed before the
title.
Following is a summary of rules and reference examples in the APA style
manual. The manual itself contains all this
information and more, organized and worded differently, indexed and
illustrated. If in doubt about a specific rule or example,
consult the manual itself.
Avoid abbreviations except for long, familiar
terms (MMPI).
Explain what an abbreviation means, the first
time it occurs.
If an abbreviation is commonly used as a word,
it does not require explanation (IQ, LSD, REM, ESP).
Do not use the old abbreviations for subject,
experimenter, and observer (S, E, O).
The following abbreviations should NOT be
used outside parenthetical comments:
cf. [use compare]
e.g. [use for
example]
etc. [use and
so forth]
i.e. [use that
is]
viz. [use namely]
vs. [use versus]
Use periods when making an abbreviation within
a reference (Vol. 3, p. 6, 2nd ed.)
Do not use periods within degree titles and
organization titles (PhD,, APA).
Do not use periods within measurements (lb,
ft, s) except inches (in.).
Use s for second, m for meter.
To form plurals of abbreviations, add s alone,
without apostrophe (PhDs, IQs, vols., Eds).
In using standard abbreviations for measurements,
like m for meter, do not add an s to make it plural (100 seconds is
100 s), and when referring to more than one
page in an book excerpt, use the abbreviation pp. (with a period after
it and
a space after the period).
Do not use the abbreviation "pp" for magazine
or journal citations; just give the numbers themselves. Do use "pp" for
citations of encyclopedia entries, multi-page
newspaper articles, chapters or articles in edited books.
Use two-letter postal codes for U.S. state
names (GA).
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Capitalize formal names of tests (Stroop Color-Word
Interference Test).
Capitalize major words and all other words
of four letters or more, in headings, titles, and subtitles outside reference
lists,
for example, "A Study of No-Win Strategies."
Capitalize names of conditions, groups, effects,
and variables only when definite. (Group A was the control group; an
Age x Weight interaction showed lower weight
with age.)
Capitalize the first word after a comma or
colon if, and only if, it begins a complete sentence. For example, "This
is a
complete sentence, so it is capitalized."
As a counter example, "no capitalization here."
Capitalize specific course and department
titles (GSU Department of Psychology, Psych 150).
Do not capitalize generic names of tests (Stroop
color test). "Stroop" is a name, so it remains capitalized.
Capitalize nouns before numbers, but not before
variables (Trial 2, trial x).
Do not capitalize names of laws, theories,
and hypotheses (the law of effect).
Do not capitalize when referring to generalities
(any department, any introductory course).
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Commas
Do not use commas to separate parts of measurement
(9 lbs 5 oz). Use the metric system, as a rule.
Use commas before "and" in lists, for example,
height, width, and depth.
Use commas between groups of three digits,
for example, 1,453.
Use commas to set off a reference in a parenthetical
comment (Patrick, 1993).
Use commas for seriation within a paragraph
or sentence. For example, "three choices are (a) true, (b) false, and (c)
don't know." Use semicolons for seriation
if there are commas within the items. For example, (a) here, in the middle
of
the item, there are commas; (b) here there
are not; (c) so we use semicolons throughout.
Use commas in exact dates, for example, April
18, 1992 (but not in April 1992).
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Do not hyphenate -ly and superlative words
(widely used test, best informed students).
Do not hyphenate common prefixes (posttest,
prewar, multiphase, nonsignificant) unless needed for clarity (pre-existing).
Do not hyphenate foreign, letter, numeral
terms (a priori hypothesis, Type A behavior) when the meaning is clear
without
it (least squares solution, heart rate scores).
Do not hyphenate if a noun comes first (a
therapy was client centered, results of t tests).
Hyphenate adjectival phrases (role-playing
technique, high-anxiety group, two-way analysis).
Hyphenate compound adjectives preceding nouns
(client-centered therapy, t-test scores) unless the compound adjective
involves a superlative (best written paper).
Hyphenate if the base is an abbreviation or
compounded (pre-UCS, non-college bound).
Hyphenate if the base word is capitalized
or a number (pre-Freudian, post-1960).
Hyphenate if the words could be misunderstood
without a hyphen (re- pair, un-ionized, co-worker).
If in doubt, consult a recently published
dictionary. Standards change. For example, "data base" is now "database,"
and
"life-style" is now "lifestyle."
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Do not underline common foreign abbreviations
(vice versa, et al., a priori).
Do not underline for mere emphasis.
Underline for titles of books and articles,
species names, introduction of new terms and labels (the first time only),
words
and phrases used as linguistic examples, letters
used as statistical symbols, and volume numbers in reference lists.
Note: Journal titles and vol numbers
are NOT underlined in this text because they would be interpreted by brouser
as a hypoertext link. We use italics instead.
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Miscellaneous: Colons, dashes, parentheses, numbering paragraphs, biased language etc.
Do not use "and/or." Write things out. For
example, "Monday, Tuesday, or both" is preferable to "Monday and/or
Tuesday."
Do not use a colon or other punctuation after
an introduction which is not a complete sentence such as
this one, or
any other sentence in the body of text which flows into an extended quote.
The quote "picks up
where the sentence
leaves off" and provides the punctuation.
Use a dash (rendered on typewriters and some
word processors as a double hyphen) when there is a sudden
interruption like this one--zoiks!--in the
flow of a sentence. Overuse "weakens the flow of the writing."
Use parentheses to introduce an abbreviation,
for example, the galvanic skin response (GSR).
Use "appendixes" (appendices) as the plural
of "appendix." Use datum as singular, data as plural. Use matrix as singular,
matrices as plural. Use schema as singular,
schemas (not schemata) as plural.
When listing separate paragraphs in a series,
use a number and a period, not parentheses.
1.The first paragraph goes
here.
2.The second paragraph goes
here.
Avoiding Biased and Pejorative Language
In general, avoid anything that causes offense. The style manual makes the following suggestions:
DO NOT use...
when you can use...
ethnic labels (for example, Hispanic)
geographical labels (Mexican Americans)
"men" (referring to all adults)
"men and women"
"homosexuals"
"gay men and lesbians"
"depressives"
"people with depression"
Currect use of the terms "gender" and "sex"
The term "gender" refers to culture and should be used when referring
to men and women as social groups, as in this example
from the publication manual: "sexual orientation rather than gender
accounted for most of the variance in the results; most gay
men and lesbians were for it, most heterosexual men and women were
against it."
The term "sex" refers to biology and should be used when biological
distinctions are emphasized, for example, "sex differences
in hormone production."
Avoid gender stereotypes. For example, the manual suggests replacing
"An American boy's infatuation with football" with "An
American child's infatuation with football."
Sensitivity to labels
Be sensitive to labels. A person in a clinical study should be called
a "patient," not a "case." Avoid equating people with their
conditions, for example, do not say "schizophrenics," say "people diagnosed
with schizophrenia." Use the term "sexual
orientation," not "sexual preference." The phrase "gay men and lesbians"
is currently preferred to the term "homosexuals." To
refer to all people who are not heterosexual, the manual suggests "lesbians,
gay men, and bisexual women and men."
In racial references, the manual simply recommends that we respect current
usage. Currently both the terms "Black" and
"African American" are widely accepted, while "Negro" and "Afro-American"
are not. These things change, so use common
sense.
Capitalize Black and White when the words are used as proper nouns to
refer to social groups. Do not use color words for
other ethnic groups. The manual specifies that hyphens should not be
used in multiword names such as Asian American or
African American.
Labels can be tricky, and the manual has a lot to say about them. For
example, "American Indian" and "Native American" are
both acceptable usages, but the manual notes that there are nearly
450 Native American groups, including Hawaiians and
Samoans, so specific group names are far more informative.
The terms Hispanic, Latino, and Chicano are preferred by different groups.
The safest procedure is use geographical
references. Just say "Cuban American" if referring to people from Cuba.
The term Asian American is preferable to Oriental, and again the manual
recommends being specific about country of origin,
when this is known (for example, Chinese or Vietnamese). People from
northern Canada, Alaska, eastern Siberia, and
Greenland often (but not always!) prefer Inuk (singular) and Inuit
(plural) to "Eskimo." But some Alaska natives are non-Inuit
people who prefer to be called Eskimo. This type of difficulty is avoided
by using geographical references. For example, in
place of "Eskimo" or "Inuit" one could use "people from northern Canada,
Alaska, eastern Siberia, and Greenland."
In general, call people what they want to be called, and do not contrast
one group of people with another group called "normal" people. Write "we
compared people with autism to people without autism" not "we contrasted
autistics to normals." Do not use pejorative terms like "stroke victim"
or "stroke sufferers." Use a more neutral terminology such as "people who
have had a
stroke." Avoid the terms "challenged" and "special" unless the population
referred to prefers this terminology (for example,
Special Olympics). As a rule, use the phrase "people with _______"
(for example, "people with AIDS," not "AIDS sufferers").
In referring to age, be specific about age ranges; avoid open-ended
definitions like "under 16" or "over 65." Avoid the term
"elderly." "Older person" is preferred. "Boy" and "Girl" are acceptable
referring to high school and and younger. For persons 18 and older use
"men" and "women."
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Spell out common fractions and common expressions
(one-half, Fourth of July).
Spell out large numbers beginning sentences
(Thirty days hath September...).
Use numerals for numbers 10 and above, or
lower numbers grouped with numbers 10 and above (for example, from 6
to 12 hours of sleep).
Spell out numbers which are inexact, or below
10 and not grouped with numbers over 10 (one-tailed t test, eight items,
nine pages, three-way interaction, five trials).
To make plurals out of numbers, add s only,
with no apostrophe (the 1950s).
Treat ordinal numbers like cardinal numbers
(the first item of the 75th trial...).
Use combinations of written and Arabic numerals
for back-to-back modifiers (five 4-point scales).
Use combinations of numerals and written numbers
for large sums (over 3 million people).
Use numerals for exact statistical references,
scores, sample sizes, and sums (multiplied by 3, or 5% of the sample).
Here is another example: "We used 30 subjects,
all two year olds, and they spent an average of 1 hr 20 min per day
crying.
Use metric abbreviations with figures (4 km)
but not when written out (many meters distant).
Use the percent symbol (%) only with figures
(5%) not with written numbers (five percent).
Use quotation marks for an odd or ironic usage
the first time but not thereafter, for example, "This is the "good-outcome"
variable, but as it turns out, the good-outcome
variable predicts trouble later on...
Use quotation marks for article and chapter
titles cited in the text but not in the reference list. (In Smith's (1992)
article,
"APA Style and Personal Computers," computers
were described as "here to stay" (p. 311).)
Extended quotations
Add emphasis in a quotation with underlining,
immediately followed by the words [italics added] in brackets.
Brackets are not necessary when changing the
first letter of a quotation to upper case.
For quotations over 40 words in length, indent
and double space the whole block. (However, single-spacing is
acceptable.) Indent five more spaces if there
are paragraphs within the long quotation. Always provide author, year,
and
page citation. Use brackets if introducing
or altering material.
Reproduce a quote exactly. If there are errors,
introduce the word sic underlined and bracketed, for example, [sic]
immediately after the error.
Use three dots (ellipsis points) when omitting
material, four if the omitted material includes the end of a sentence.
Do not
use dots at the beginning or end of a quotation
unless it is important to indicate the quotation begins or ends in
midsentence.
When not to use quotes
Do NOT use quotes to...
...cite a linguistic example; instead, underline
the term (the verb gather).
...hedge, cast doubt, or apologize (he was
"cured"). Leave off the quotes.
...identify endpoints on a scale; underline
instead (poor to excellent).
...introduce a key term (the neoquasipsychoanalytic
theory).
References are citations of other works such as books, journal articles,
or private communications. References in text are
treated somewhat differently from references in the complete list at
the end of a paper.
Abbreviating within a reference
Here are approved abbreviations for use in a reference list:
chap. for chapter
ed. for edition
rev. ed. for revised edition
2nd ed. for second edition
Ed. for Edited by
(Eds.) for multiple editors
Trans. for Translated by
p. for page number, with a space after the
period
pp. for page numbers in encyclopedia entries,
multi-page newspaper articles, chapters or articles in edited books, but
not in journal or magazine article citations,
where numbers alone should be used (see examples of reference formats).
Vol. for Volume
vols. for volumes
No. for Number
Pt. for Part
Suppl. for Supplement,
Tech. Rep. for Technical Report
Alphabetizing within reference lists
Use prefixes in alphabetizing names if commonly
part of the surname (De Vries).
Do not use "von" in alphabetizing (Helmholtz,
H. L. F. von).
Treat Mc and Mac literally; Mac comes before
Mc.
Disregard apostrophes and capitals in alphabetizing;
D'Arcy comes after Daagwood.
Single-author citations precede multiple-author
citations (Zev, 1990 then Zev et al., 1990).
Alphabetize corporate authors by first significant
word. Do not use abbreviations in corporate names.
Use the author-date format to cite references
in text. For example: as Smith (1990) points out, a recent study (Smith,
1990) shows...
For two-author citations, spell out both authors
on all occurrences.
For multiple-author citations (up to five
authors) name all authors the first time, then use et al., so the first
time it is Smith,
Jones, Pearson and Sherwin (1990), but the
second time it is Smith et al., with a period after "al" but no underlining.
The first time an "et al." reference is used
in a paragraph, give the year, thereafter (if the citation is repeated
in the
paragraph) omit the year.
For six or more authors, use et al. the first
time and give the full citation in references.
Include page reference after the year, outside
quotes but inside the comma, for example: The author stated, "The effect
disappeared within minutes" (Lopez, 1993,
p. 311) , but she did not say which effect. Another example would be: Lopez
found that "the effect disappeared within
minutes" (p. 311). Notice also that the sentence is capitalized only if
presented
after a comma, as a complete sentence.
If two or more multiple-author references
which shorten to the same "et al." form, making it ambiguous, give as many
author names as necessary to make them distinct,
before et al. For example: (Smith, Jones, et al., 1991) to distinguish
it
from (Smith, Burke, et al., 1991).
Join names in a multiple-author citation with
and (in text) or an ampersand (&) in reference lists and parenthetical
comments. For example: As Smith and Sarason
(1990) point out, the same argument was made by in an earlier study
(Smith & Sarason, 1990).
If a group is readily identified by its initials,
spell it out only the first time. For example, "As reported in a government
study (National Institute of Mental Health
[NIMH], 1991), blah blah..." and thereafter, "The previously cited study
(NIMH, 1991) found that...
If the author is unknown or unspecified, use
the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title), for
example:
("Study Finds," 1992).
If citing multiple works by the same author
at the same time, arrange dates in order. In general, use letters after
years to
distinguish multiple publications by the same
author in the same year. For example: Several studies (Johnson, 1988,
1990a, 1990b, 1995 in press-a, 1995 in press-b)
showed the same thing.
For old works cite the translation or the
original and modern copyright dates if both are known, for example: (Aristotle,
trans. 1931) or (James, 1890/1983).
Always give page numbers for quotations, for
example: (Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 332) or (Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3,
p. 5).
For email and other "unrecoverable data" use
personal communication, for example: (V.-G. Nguyen, personal
communication, September 28, 1993). These
do not appear in the reference list.
Note: wherever you see italics below, you should actually underline
when preparing your paper. Italics are used here
because many browsers use underlines to indicate links. References
should be indented 5 to 7 spaces on the first line, just like
other paragraphs. In examples below, the 5 white spaces are represented
by 5 underscores (_____) because most browsers
ignore white space.
Note: The APA publication manual contains 77 examples of different reference types (pp. 195-221). Here are a few examples of the most commonly used formats. Remember, because internet brousers interpret underlines as links we cannot show them in the reference list as they should be. Also, the line (____) before the author name is NOT part of the reference. It merely needs to be in this text to preserve the indent.
Anonymous or unknown author (common in newspapers):
_____Caffeine linked to mental illness. (1991, July 13). New York Times, pp. B13, B15.
_____Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan.
_____American Psychiatric Association. (1990). Diagnostic and statistical
manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.).
Washington, DC: Author.
(note: "Author" is used as above when author and publisher are identical.)
_____Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.),
The standard edition of the complete
psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 19, pp. 3-66). London: Hogarth
Press. (Original work published 1923)
In text this would be cited as (Freud, 1923/1961).
The manual specifies (for example) that an FTP retrievable file be referenced like this:
Bixley, T. S. (1995) Sentient microfilaments: A tempest in a tubule.
[On-line]. Available FTP: 128.112.128.1 Directory:
pub/harnad File: psyc.95.3.26.consciousness.11.bixley.
Increasingly, internet addresses are specified using a URL (uniform
resource locator). The words "on-line" and "available" are
redundant if you use a URL, because the whole purpose of a URL is to
give "on-line availability" of a document. The URL
indicates the type of resource (FTP, gopher, WWW) followed by two forward
slashes followed by an exact location (machine, site, directory, and file).
The URL permits anybody reading the document to copy the address into a
WWW browser and
retrieve the document.
APA format with a URL address would look something like this:
FTP:
_____Bixley,
T. S. (1995) Sentient microfilaments: A tempest in a tubule. Retrieved
from:
ftp://blahblah.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/psyc.95.3.26/consciousness/11/bixley.
Gopher:
_____Bixley,
T. S. (1995) Sentient microfilaments: A tempest in a tubule. Retrieved from
gopher://somecomputer.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/psyc.95.3.26/consciousness/11/bixley.
World Wide Web page:
_____Bixley, T. S. (1995) Sentient microfilaments Home Page. Retrieved from
http://www.microfilaments.com/consciousness/synchronicity/quantumtube.html.
Note that use of URLs is now specified in the APA style manual 5th edition.
The URL is increasingly recognized as the standard
way of specifying addresses for retrievable documents on the internet.
In general, give information which permits retrieval of the document. If
it is on a CD-ROM, give the publisher; if it is from an on-line database,
give the sponsoring organization or
publisher.
_____Spitch, M. L., Verzy, H. N., & Wilkie, D. M. (1993). Subjective
shortening: A model of pigeons' memory for event
duration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal BehaviorProcesses,
9, 14-30.
Letter to the editor
_____O'Neill, G. W. (1992, January). In support of DSM-III [Letter to the editor]. APA Monitor, p. 4-5.
Note: The line before the author name is NOT included and journal articles and vol numbers should be underlined.
Magazine article
_____Gardner, H. (1991, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today, pp. 70-76.
Newsletter article
_____Brown, L.S. (1993, Spring). My research with orangs. The Psychology Department Newsletter, 3, 2.
The date is given as it appears on the publication. For anonymous newspaper
articles, see the previous section titled
"Anonymous or unknown authors."
Pamphlet
_____Just Say No Foundation. (1992). Saving our youth. (9th ed.) [Brochure].
Washington, DC: Author.