APA's Publication Manual
provides complete style guidelines and should be consulted first in
all matters concerning APA style. Apastyle.org offers these FAQs to
help clarify frequent areas of confusion.
Apastyle.org is an auxiliary companion to the Publication Manual,
but is not intended as a replacement for it. To help style users,
Apastyle.org provides — in addition to these FAQs — online
guidelines for commonly asked questions concerning electronic
references and a list of changes in the 5th
edition. If your question involves more complex expressions of
writing, visit our style tips
area.
FAQS
What is APA
style? Can you send it to me? My paper is due, and it must be in APA
style, especially references.
Why is APA
style needed?
Why is there
a specific APA style?
Can you help
with my research for my psychology paper? I'm looking for articles
on a particular topic.
The
instructions in the Publication Manual for citing documents
available on the Internet require inclusion of a date of publication
or retrieval, yet Examples 73, 74, and 76 do not include "retrieved
from" dates. Why is this?
Does APA
offer a workbook on APA style?
In
referencing periodicals, what's the difference between using "p." or
"pp." for page numbers?
I publish
frequently in APA journals, and I've noticed that subjects is
often changed in copyediting, most often to participants.
Why?
How do I
format a bibliography in APA style?
How do I cite
an entire Web site (but not a specific document on that
site)?
How do I
reference a Web page that lists no author?
How do I
cite Web site material that has no author, no year, and no page
numbers?
What format
should I follow to cite an interview?
How do I
cite a source that I found in another source?
In typing
class I learned that two spaces always follow a period, but your
Publication Manual says one space should follow all
punctuation. Why is this?
Q: What is APA style? Can you send
it to me? My paper is due, and it must be in APA style, especially
references.
A: The reference format for APA style is described in the
5th edition of the Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association, which is a large
reference book that contains hundreds of guidelines on how to format
references, statistics, tables, punctuation, and grammar. It also
contains writing tips and instructions about how to format
manuscripts. You can find a full description and ordering
information here. You may also
find a copy of the Publication Manual in your school library
or even a local bookstore.
Here are some basic reference forms to get you started:
Journal article:
Fine, M. A., & Kurdek, L. A.
(1993). Reflections on determining authorship |
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credit and authorship order on
faculty-student collaborations. American Psychologist,
48, 1141-1147. |
Book:
Nicol, A. A. M., & Pexman, P. M.
(1999). Presenting your findings: A |
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practical guide for creating
tables. Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association. |
Book chapter:
O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992).
Men's and women's gender role journeys: |
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Metaphor for healing, transition, and
transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues
across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York: Springer.
|
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questions
Q: Why is APA style needed?
A: An author writing for a publication must follow the
rules established by the publisher to avoid inconsistencies among
journal articles or book chapters.
For example, without rules of style, three different manuscripts
might use sub-test, subtest, and Subtest in one issue
of a journal or book. Although the meaning of the word is the same
(in this case, subtest is APA style), such variations in
style may distract or confuse the reader.
The need for a consistent style becomes more apparent when
complex material is presented, such as tables or statistics.
back
to questions
Q: Why is there a specific APA
style?
A: APA style focuses on the needs of presenting
psychological information. APA style omits general rules explained
in widely available style books and examples of usage with little
relevance to the behavioral and social sciences.
Among the most helpful general guides to editorial style are
Words into Type (Skillin & Gay, 1974) and the Chicago
Manual of Style (University of Chicago Press, 1993).
Style manuals agree more often than they disagree. Where they
disagree, the Publication Manual, because it is based on the
special requirements of psychology, takes precedence for APA
publications.
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to questions
Q: Can you help with my research
for my psychology paper? I'm looking for articles on a particular
topic.
A: We are not able to send you specific information
related to your topic, but APA might have information in one of its
databases that will help you to find literature that's already been
written on your topic. These databases, which contain summaries of
the literature and full-text APA articles, can serve as useful tools
in completing your assignments.
APA's bibliographic databases and printed indexes provide
summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and other
scholarly documents in psychology and related disciplines. The
bibliographic literature references are accessible via a number of
resources, including the PsycINFO online database, the ClinPSYC
CD-ROM databases, and the printed index Psychological
Abstracts.
Many university libraries and other research institutions
subscribe or provide access to one or more of these resources. If
you are unable to gain access through such an institution, however,
another option is to establish an account through a commercial
online service and do your own searching. Information is available
on our PsycINFO Web site
about your various access options, including access to online
services via the Internet.
APA also provides "pay-per-view" access to these databases. You
can get 24-hour access to APA's PsycINFO database (PsycINFO Direct) and retrieve
individual APA journal articles (PsycARTICLES Direct).
There is a fee for using these products.
We also recommend that you read APA's online pamphlet, "Library Research in
Psychology: Finding It Easily." This pamphlet will help steer
you toward additional resources.
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to questions
Q: How do I cite an entire Web site
(but not a specific document on that site)?
A: When citing an entire Web site, it is sufficient to
give the address of the site in just the text. For example,
Kidspsych is a wonderful interactive web site for children
(http://www.kidspsych.org).
back
to questions
Q: The instructions in the
Publication Manual for citing documents available on the
Internet require inclusion of a date of publication or retrieval,
yet Examples 73, 74, and 76 do not include "retrieved from" dates.
Why is this?
A: This is an oversight. Each of these examples should
include a retrieval date after the word retrieved and before
the word from. Corrected examples appear in APA Style
Guide for Electronic Resources as well as in the second and
later printings of the manual.
APA Style Guide for Electronic Resources is a downloadable
PDF that is available for $11.95 from our web site.
Download APA
Style Guide for Electronic Resources now
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to questions
Q: Does APA offer a workbook on APA
style?
A: Yes. Mastering APA
Style is a workbook for learning APA style.
back
to questions
Q: In referencing periodicals,
what's the difference between using "p." or "pp." for page
numbers?
A: If a periodical includes a volume number, italicize it
and then change to regular type and give the page range without
"pp." If the periodical does not use volume numbers, include "pp."
before the page numbers so the reader will understand that the
numbers refer to pagination. Use "p." if the source is a page or
less long.
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to questions
Q: I publish frequently in APA
journals, and I've noticed that subjects is often changed in
copyediting, most often to participants. Why?
A: A couple of guidelines in chapter 2's Guidelines to
Reduce Bias in Language are at work here. One is to acknowledge
human participation. The other is to be specific. Subjects is
a fairly nondescriptive, passive term. Identifying human subjects as
participants, respondents, children, patients, clients, and
so forth increases specificity. (Subjects is perfectly
appropriate when the person cannot him- or herself provide informed
consent.)
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to questions
Q: How do I format a bibliography in
APA style?
A: APA style calls for a list of References instead of a
bibliography. The requirements of a reference list are that all
references cited in the text of a paper must be listed
alphabetically by first author's last name in the list of References
and that all references listed must be cited within the text. A
bibliography, on the other hand, typically includes resources in
addition to those cited in the text and may include annotated
descriptions of the items listed. In general, the list of References
is double-spaced and listed alphabetically by first author's last
name. For each reference, the first line is typed flush with the
left margin, and any additional lines are indented as a group a few
spaces to the right of the left margin (this is called a hanging
indent, see here for an example).
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to questions
Q: How do I reference a Web page
that lists no author?
A: When there is no author for a Web page, the title moves
to the first position of the reference entry:
New child vaccine gets
funding boost. (2001). Retrieved March 21, 2001, |
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from
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/story_13178.asp |
The text citation would then just cite a few words of the title
to point the reader to the right area of your reference list: …are
most at risk of contracting the disease ("New Child," 2001).
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to questions
Q: How do I cite Web site material
that has no author, no year, and no page numbers?
A: Because the material does not include page numbers, you
can include any of the following in the text to cite the quotation
(from p. 120 of the Publication Manual):
- A paragraph number, if provided; alternatively, you could
count paragraphs down from the beginning of the document.
- An overarching heading plus a paragraph number within that
section.
- Nothing. Just put quotation marks around the words you're
using, which the reader can use as a search string.
Because there is no date and no author, your text citation would
include the first couple of words from the title and "n.d." for no
date (e.g., para. 5, "Style List," n.d.). The entry in the reference
list might look something like this:
Style list for references.
(n.d.). Retrieved January 1, 2001, |
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from http://www.apa.org
|
back to
questions
Q: What format should I follow to
cite an interview?
A: An interview is not considered recoverable data, so no
reference to this is provided in the References. You may, however,
cite the interview within the text as a personal communication. For
example,
(J. Smith, personal communication, August 15, 2001)
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to questions
Q: How do I cite a source that I
found in another source?
A: To cite secondary sources, refer to both sources in the
text, but include in the References list only the source that you
actually used. For instance, suppose you read Feist (1998) and would
like to paraphrase the following sentence within that book: Bandura
(1989) defined self-efficacy as "people's beliefs about their
capabilities to exercise control over events that affect their
lives" (p. 1175).
In this case, your in-text citation would be "(Bandura, 1989, as
cited in Feist, 1998)." Feist (1998) would be fully referenced
within the list of References. Bandura (1989) would not be listed.
For more information on citing secondary sources, see Example 22 on
p. 247 of the Publication
Manual.
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to questions
Q: In typing class I learned that
two spaces always follow a period, but your Publication Manual says
one space should follow all punctuation. Why is this?
A: Unlike manual typewriters, word-processing software
uses fonts that result in proportional spacing, so additional
spacing around periods is no longer necessary. Uniform spacing
around punctuation also saves a step in preparing word-processing
files for electronic editing. As a publisher, APA does not return
manuscripts on the basis of the spacing around punctuation.
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to questions |