APA Style Guidelines

Introduction

The goal of a research paper is to push scientific knowledge forward by exploring new areas of study, describing a gap in knowledge, and explaining why and how the knowledge gap should be filled via the publication of a research paper on the topic of inquiry.

American Psychological Association (APA) formatting is required for nearly all academic research and has been accepted as the preferred publication style since 1929. The longstanding use of APA standards is due to its "uniformity and consistency which enables readers to (a) focus on the ideas being presented rather than the formatting and (b) scan works quickly for key points, findings, and sources" (apastyle.apa.org). Therefore, it is important to use and understand correct APA formatting.

This page will provide you with the basic formatting guidelines of writing in APA 7th edition style. Return to the information on this page and use the external resource links (located to the right and throughout this page) to help answer any questions you may have about the formatting of your writing.

As of October 2019, APA is on its 7th edition Publication Manual. Click here to purchase the 7th edition manual. Ownership is not required, though highly encouraged if you plan to write a thesis or dissertation in the near future.

Resources

Auburn Resources:

Auburn University Office of University Writing
Auburn University Writing Tutorials

APA Style Basics:

APA Reference & Citation Basics:

American Psychological Association Standards

Image of APA Style Guideline book, 7th edition.

The American Psychological Association (APA) citation style is the most commonly used format for manuscripts in the social sciences. As stated above, the American Psychological Association is currently using the 7th edition of their publication manual.

APA style guidelines mainly regulate:

Formatting (i.e. spacing, fonts, page size)
Structure and organization
In-text citations
Reference list composition

Important changes from the 6th edition are:

A running head, author's note, or abstract is no longer required in student papers (unless requested by the instructor).
Page numbers only required in upper right corner.

General Formatting Standards

The style for an APA paper is fairly simple. Along with a professional tone, the following standards should be observed:

Typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11")
1" margins on all sides
Approved style of font. APA has approved the following fonts, though you should always refer to your instructor as they may have a specific preference:
- Serif Fonts: 12-point Times New Roman (most commonly preferred), 11-point Georgia.
- Sans Serif Fonts: 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode.

Structure and Organization

The basic structure and order of an APA style paper is:

Title page
Abstract
Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion
References
Appendix

Use the tabbed sections below to see how to format each of these sections.

The Title Page

Centered, with the title, author's name, institutional affiliation, course, instructor, and due date

Consecutive page numbers with the number alone should go at the top right corner.
In the middle, your heading should be double-spaced and include the following information in exact order:
1. Title (centered, bold, upper half of the page- include an additional double-space after)
2. Author's name,
3. Department/University Affiliation
4. Course number, instructor name
5. Due Date

Abstract

An abstract may or may not be required for your student paper- you should always clarify specifications with your instructor!

The abstract should be a comprehensive summary of the paper & should introduce the research topic, hypothesis, methods, results, and findings.
The abstract should be provided on a separate page right after the title page. No other text or information should appear on the abstract page.
An abstract is usually no longer than 250 words

Introduction

The introduction of your paper should follow the general formatting standards provided above. In addition:

Unlike the abstract, your paper's introduction should provide detail on the background of the subject area, explain the motivation for pursuing the study, and state the aims and objectives of the study.
The introduction of the paper should attempt to place relevance on the practical, usable aspects of the study or its results.
The introduction of your paper should include the page number (page number should occur throughout the paper, placed in the top right header).
Center the full title of the paper at the beginning of the introduction of the paper.
If your instructor does NOT require an introduction, you should still provided the full title centered at the top of the first page of your paper.

Main Body

If you are writing a literature review, the main body of your paper will be your presentation, comparison, and summarization of the literature you have researched on a particular topic. All formatting standards and guidelines provided above should be carried over into the main body of the paper.

If you are writing an experimental report, the main body of your paper will describe your experimental research and include the following sections:

Methods- you will describe the details of the scientific method you used to conduct your study. This includes sample selection process, instruments used, and procedures followed.
- Click here to learn how to write and format a methods section using APA 7 style.
Results- you will provide the findings of your data collection and experimentation.
- Click here to learn how to write and format a results section using APA 7 style.
Discussion- you will explain how your findings relate to your original hypothesis and implications for future research.
- Click here to learn how to write and format your discussion section using APA 7 style.

References

Check APA guidelines for each type of source you use (e.g. book, journal article, webpage, video conference, fact sheet, pamphlet, etc.). Information and helpful links for how to structure and compose references is provided at the top of this page.

References should be listed on a new page.
"References" should be used as a page heading, centered, and in bold.
References should be provided in alphabetical order by last name of the primary author of each work (i.e. the author listed first in the original source).
A hanging indent should be used if references require subsequent lines.

More detail on how to cite specific references is provided below.

Image of APA reference page.

Appendix

The appendix of an APA paper includes supplementary materials which may be useful to the reader, but are not an essential part of the text itself. This information may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the research to those who are deeply interested, but would be considered cumbersome to the informal reader. Some potential appendix materials are:

Maps
Details of measurement instruments
Detailed statistical sets
Pictures
Tables
Interview transcripts
Equipment specifications

The formatting for your appendix is highly dependent upon the information you need to include, so

Click here to learn how to create an APA 7 style appendix

Click here to learn how to format a APA 7 style appendices and footnotes.

Standards for Headings & the Running Head

APA 7 has a unique 5-level heading system to help guide readers through a document. The use of these headers is heavily determined by the topic of the paper, the style of paper being written (literature review vs. experimental report, etc.), and the intended audience. You will need to consult with your instructor on their expectations for headers in your paper. Use the links below to learn more about heading standards and proper use.

The 7th edition of the APA style guidelines does not require a running head on student papers, though your instructor may request that you include one. The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title, and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation. Including the link provided above on APA 7 style headers from APA.org, you can click here to read about guidelines for running heads from APA.org

Standards for in-Text citations

In-text citations in APA style attribute source information to the writer's last name and the year the work was published. You may use parenthetical citations or narrative citations throughout your paper. These two styles may be used to cite direct quotes or to summarize an author's findings in your own words.

The standards and guidelines for using each style is provided in the expanders below, including guidelines for how to cite direct quotes and sources with multiple authors. Utilize the links below and within each expander if you need more guidance on in-text citations.

Click here to read about in-text citation standards from apastyle.apa.org.

Click here to read about in-text citation basics from Purdue OWL.

Parenthetical Citations

Parenthetical citations allow students to cite the work of authors after using the author's idea in a sentence.

Standards for parenthetical citations: (Authors last name, Publication year). E.g. (Jones, 1988) or (Ali, 2008)

Examples of parenthetical citations in sentence framework:

APA style is easy to use, especially after students have mastered the basics (Jones, 1988).
Online learning can significantly impact student learning (Ali, 2008.)

Click here to learn more about parenthetical citations from apastyle.apa.org.

Narrative Citations

Narrative citations allow students to incorporate the author name into the text as part of the sentence and then follow with the year in parentheses.

Standards for narrative citations: Author's name (publication year) sentence referencing author's findings.

Examples of narrative citations in sentence framework:

Jones (1988) found that APA style is easy to use, especially after students have mastered the basics.
Ali (2008) found that online learning can significantly impact student learning.

Click here to learn more about narrative citations from apastyle.apa.org.

Quotation Citations

Quotation citations allow students to pull full statements from readings and add unaltered text directly into writing assignments.

Standards for citing quotations: Include the page number of where the direct quotation can be found. Page number will be included after the date of publication when using parenthetical citations, and page number will be included at the end of the sentence when using narrative citations.

Examples of citing direct quotes using parenthetical and narrative citation styles:

Parenthetical Quotation citation using direct quote:
- "APA style is easy to use, especially after students have mastered the basics" (Jones, 1988, p.199).
- "Online learning can significantly impact student learning" (Ali, 2008, p.22)
- (Author's name, Publication date, p.##)

Narrative quotation citation using direct quote:
- Jones (1988) found that "APA style is easy to use, especially after students have mastered the basics" (p.199).
- Ali (2008) found that "online learning can significantly impact student learning" (p. 22)
- Add (p.##) at end of sentence.

Click here to learn more about citing quotations from apastyle.apa.org.

Block Quote Citations

Block quotes should be used when you are wanting to use a direct quote which is longer than 40 words. Block quotation standards are as follows:

Provide context for the quote (e.g. Researchers outlined the following findings of their study: )
To add the block text, enter onto a new line of text and add an additional 0.5in to the left margin (totaling 1.5in left margin)
Add the quoted text but do not use quotation marks around the quoted text.
Do not add punctuation after parenthesis at the end of a block quote- punctuation should occur before parenthesis.
Block quotes should be double-spaced

Block quotes can be cited using parenthetical and narrative citation styles. Examples:

Parenthetical quotation citation of block quote:

Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves:

Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people’s everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)

Narrative quotation citation of block quote:

Flores et al. (2018) described how they addressed potential researcher bias when working with an intersectional community of transgender people of color:

Everyone on the research team belonged to a stigmatized group but also held privileged identities. Throughout the research process, we attended to the ways in which our privileged and oppressed identities may have influenced the research process, findings, and presentation of results. (p. 311)

Click here to learn more about block quotations from apastyle.apa.org.

(Block quotation examples have been pulled directly from the apastyle.apa.org link above).

Citing Multiple Authors

Citing multiple authors may be necessary for two reasons:

You have multiple publications which support specific content in your paper.
- In this case, use parenthetical citation and include all supporting author's citations (last name and publication year), separated by a semicolon. Example:
  - APA style is easy to use, especially after students have mastered the basics (Jones, 1988; Ali, 2008; Chan, 2000).
There are multiple authors on one research paper/journal article.
- In this case, your citation standards will differ based on how many authors are listed on your source. Guidelines for multiple authors are as follows:

For publications with two authors, cite the last names of the authors in the order they appear on the publication. When using parenthetical citation, separate names using an ampersand (&). When using narrative citation, use "and" to separate names. Add publication date (and page number, if necessary) using the appropriate narrative or parenthetical citation style. Example:

- - Parenthetical: APA style is easy to use, especially after students have mastered the basics (Chan & Ali, 1988).
  - Narrative: Chan and Ali (1988) found that online learning can significantly impact student learning.

For publications with three authors, cite the last names of the authors in the order they appear on the publication. When using parenthetical citation, add an ampersand (&) before the last name of the final author. When using narrative citation, use a comma before the last name of the final author. Add publication date (and page number if necessary) using the appropriate narrative or parenthetical citation style. Example:

- - - Parenthetical: APA style is easy to use, especially after students have mastered the basics (Chan, Ali, & Jones, 1988).
    - Narrative: Chan, Ali, and Jones (1988) found that online learning can significantly impact student learning.

For publications with more than three authors, cite the last name of the first author that appears on the paper and follow their name with "et al." Add publication date (and page number if necessary) using the appropriate narrative or parenthetical citation style. Example:

- - Parenthetical: APA style is easy to use, especially after students have mastered the basics (Chan et al., 1989).
  - Narrative: Ali et al. (2008) found that online learning can significantly impact student learning.

Click here to learn more about citing multiple authors and citing nontraditional authors (e.g. organizations, editors) from Purdue OWL.

Standards for Reference List

As long as it contains references or resources, an APA 7 style reference list should be provided at the end of every paper. Basic standards for a reference list is:

Reference list begins on a separate page.
"References" (the page title) is in bold and centered on the top of the page.
Resources and reference should be listed in alphabetical order as determined by the last name of the lead author.
- If the same author is cited more than once with different publications, list the author should be listed by publications in chronological order with earliest (oldest) publication listed first and latest (newest) publication listed last.
Reference page should be double spaced throughout.
Hanging indent should be given to each new reference entry.
- A 'hanging indent' is characterized by the first line being flush with the left margin and the subsequent lines having 0.5in indent from left margin (0.5in = 1 "tab" key press).

Click here to learn more about standards for reference lists from apastyle.apa.org

Click here to learn more about the basic rules of reference lists from Purdue OWL.

correctly Formatting references

The exact format and style for each reference will vary depending on the type of source you are referencing. Books, journal articles, websites, and even television shows have their own unique style of referencing format. As such, you will heavily rely on the resources linked below, or your APA 7th ed. Publication Manual book to correctly format your reference list.

Click here for examples and instructions on how to format reference citations for textual works, data sets, audiovisual materials, and online media from apastyle.apa.org.

Click here for a how-to on formatting references for multiple authors, books, journal articles, websites, audiovisual materials, and more from Purdue OWL (use the list on the left of the screen to locate resource-specific formatting guidelines).

Example Paper in APA 7th ed. Style

Below, you will see an example paper completed in APA 7th ed. style. This paper provides good examples of properly formatted title and reference pages, cites reference materials in a variety of formats, uses headers correctly, numbers pages appropriately, and even includes a correctly formatted block quote.

Along with the multiple links provided throughout this page, this example paper should be used as a tool to help you correctly format and style your papers in accordance to APA 7th ed. standards.