AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION FORMATTING GUIDELINES 7th ed.
WEBSITE FOR REFERENCE:
OWL at Purdue Website http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
Online tutorial for APA style. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/664/01/
Textbook for formatting all assignments:
American Psychological Association. Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association. (2010). 7th ed. American Psychological Association.
FORMATTING PAPERS IN APA FORMAT:
Double spaced with 1” margins all around.
Font: 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, and 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode as well as serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, 10-point Computer Modern.
Parts: Title page, Abstract, Introduction (do not write out), Methods, Results, and Discussion. Sub titles are used for each.
Indent first line of each paragraph 3-5 spaces.
Use only one space after a period at the end of a sentence.
Page header or Running head at the top of every page type “TITLE OF YOUR PAPER” in the header flush left using all capital letters. It is a shortened version of your paper’s title and not over 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.
Page numbers- insert page numbers flush right
See Sample paper in APA Manual
GENERAL WRITING RULES
GENDER, RACE, ETHNICITY AND RELIGIOUS EQUITY
-Never identify author’s gender. If discussing their findings, state “The author stated:
For the research study, you can identify the differences in males or females, race, ethnicity or religious identification etc. on behaviors or scores only if relevant to the study and a part of the variables of the research. Otherwise, call them males and females and/or the participants. If more than one group use participant in A group and participants in B group. Never refer to participants as he or she or hers or his or infants, students, children, teens boys, girls, athletes, etc. Don’t use race or religious examples as: Jewish or Catholic, Caucasian or Asian unless it is relevant to the study. If not relevant, call the study group the participants.
DO NOT REFER TO YOURSELF
-Do not refer to yourself. Don’t say say I, my or mine or other references to yourself. You can say the author(s) stated but that is all.
TITLE PAGE Professional paper APA title page- see sample https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
APA Abstract Page
Headings
Level
Format
1
Centered, Bold, Title Case Heading
Text begins as a new paragraph.
2
Flush Left, Bold, Title Case Heading
Text begins as a new paragraph.
3
Flush Left, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading
Text begins as a new paragraph.
4
Indented, Bold, Title Case Heading, Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph.
5
Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading, Ending With a Period. Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph.
CITATIONS WITHIN A DOCUMENT:
IN TEXT CITATIONS WITHIN A DOCUMENT TEXT (NOT A FULL REFERENCE)
Quotes: Use quotation marks before and after for direct quotes; use “if words are left out;
include author, year, and page citation (use p. or pp.). If not a DIRECT quotation, do not put page numbers.
Use double quotation marks instead of italics to refer to linguistic examples.
In document text in a sentence using quotation marks for one author
They found out that “it was real” (Baird, 2019, p.10). OR
The author stated, “it was difficult to ascertain an exact change between the 2 groups ” (Jones, 2018, p. 199), but did not offer an explanation as to why.
In document text in a sentence using quotation marks more than one author
Two Authors: Coker & Anderson (2016) found a remarkable correlation between the two groups and said: “It was significant” (p. 82).
One or 2 authors, one page
(Michaels, 2019, p. 276) (Jameson & Kindall, 2020; Hamilton, Nemiz, & Jacobs, 2018, p. 345)
More than 3 authors, list the name of the first author followed by et al.
Two or more separate sources; more than one page; More than 3 authors
(Michaels et. al, 2019, pp. 276-278; Roberts et al., 2019, pp. 6, 8, 10).
No Quotes (article information paraphrased):
Two separate sources; more than one page (Michaels et. al, 2019; Roberts,
2017).
Two authors or Multiple (Michaels et al., 2019).
Block Quotes-40 or more words; omit quotes; start on new line; indent 5 spaces
from left; type subsequent lines flush with indent; type entire quotation double spaced.
REFERENCE LIST AT THE END OF A DOCUMENT
Formatting:
References: place the word Reference at the top and center it.
Ordered alphabetically by first author’s last name
DOUBLE SPACE ALL REFERENCES.
Double space between references. If your computer is set to double space already, hit enter one time (2 times puts 4 spaces between)
No indention first line, flush left margin; indent 5 spaces each subsequent line after (2nd, 3rd, etc.).
No quote marks are used in APA format for references list at end.
Only one space after each period in a reference list.
TIPS FOR REFERENCES LIST AT END AND SEE EXAMPLES BELOW:
APA format is very specific and must be done exactly as required. Look at each sample below for the different types of references and duplicate what is shown here exactly.
Please review each carefully for upper or lower case, italics or not, spacing, indentations, margins, abbreviations for author first and last names. and punctuation as , . 🙁 )
ALL REFERENCES MUST HAVE AN AUTHOR, EVEN IF AN ORGANIZATION.
MAY NOT PUT n.d. FOR A REFERENCE (even websites have a date published or date posted).
DO NOT ABBREVIATE OR USE ACRONYMS IN REFERENCES LIST AT END. All organizations, journal names, etc. must be written out fully.
Do not highlight urls or underline in blue. Keep in black ink.
Notice titles of websites and books are italicized and lower case except first letter and proper names or after :. Use format listed below.
Notice names of journals are italicized and upper case first letter of each word (except and, of, etc.) Use format listed below. This is different from websites or books.
Page numbers here do not use a p. See below.
No Wikepedia, online dictionaries, or other generic references. Look for credible health references. Anyone can post anything on these websites. Research journal articles are the gold standard.
Doi’s are formatted the same as URLs. Ex: https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2018.1560449
Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors for all authors listed should be provided in the list.
Must list all authors up to twenty authors; More Than Twenty Authors list first 19 authors, use an ellipsis and add final author’s name.
List by last names and initials; commas separate author names. After the first 19 authors’ names, use an ellipsis in place of the remaining author names. Then, end with the final author’s name (do not place an ampersand before it). There should be no more than twenty names in the citation in total.
MORE THAN 20 AUTHORS:
Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D.., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R., DelSole,
R., Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H., Gottschalck, J., Metzger, E. J., Barton,
N. P., Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R., . . . Kim, H. (2019). The subseasonal
experiment (SubX): A multimodel subseasonal prediction experiment. Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society, 100(10), 2043-2061.
https://doi.org/19.2345/EDM-D-23-0370.2
For REFERENCES LIST AT END (Put References at the top and centered and double space to begin the first reference):
References
For a Book:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle.
Publisher.
Anspaugh, D. J., & Ezell, G. (2019). Teaching today’s health: Wellness maintenance.
Allyn and Bacon.
Jones, C. F. (2018). Becoming healthy with theoretical programs. Syndicated Publishers.
E-Book (same as book except add url; must include publisher)
Bowen, M. (2020). Women in early British history: Pioneers and historians. Sprager
History. https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2473-2
Journals
For a hard cover Journal:
Brownlie, D. (2019). Toward effective poster presentations: An annotated
bibliography. European Journal of Marketing, 6(41), 1245-1283.
For a Journal accessed online with doi number:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy
Ashton, P.T. (2017). Improving the preparation of teachers: Best practices. Educational
Researcher, 8(10), 21-22. https://doi.eeg/xy.xyz/wwww
Online journal with website (no doi):
American College Testing, Inc. (2018, March 7). Information for life’s transitions. American
College Testing, Inc Home. https://www.act.org
Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L. A. (2017).
Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 10(78), 443-449. https://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
For Online resources and websites not research articles (these should be kept to a minimum; Research journals are always better references or ):
Author, A. A. & Author B. B. (Date of publication). Title of page [Format description when
necessary], pages. https://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
Bernstein, M. (2016). A list apart: For people who make websites, 149.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving