A Guideline on APA (American Psychological Association

8/3/2019 A Guideline on APA (American Psychological Association

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A Guideline on APA(American Psychological

Association) Style


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Spacing

Double-spacing is required throughoutmost of the manuscript.

Single spacing can be used for tabletitles and headings, figure captions,references (but double-spacing isrequired between references),

footnotes, and long quotations.

Space once after commas, colons,semicolons, and punctuation marks atthe end of sentences


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Text DetailsMake sure the text is left aligned and

not justified.

Footnotes are rarely used in APApapers.

Use a 12 point font.

Indent 5-7 spaces (one-half inch, 1.25

cm) within paragraphs.


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Text Details

Margins should be 0.98 all around.

Page numbers are required on every page (topof the page and right alignment).

The page header summarizes the title in a fewwords.

Use header top left corner; font size - 8-10. xx

No spacing between the paragraphs


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Headings Level 1- Centered Uppercase and LowercaseHeading

Level 2- Centered, Italicized, Uppercase andLowercase Heading

Level 3 Flush left, Italicized, Uppercase and

Lowercase

Level 4- Indented, Italicized, lowercase

Level 5- CENTERED UPPERCASE HEADING


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HeadingsAPA headings follow a complex hierarchy, with

provision for up to five levels. These come, in

descending order, as levels 5, 1, 2, 3, 4. But, ifone, two, or three levels of headings arerequired in a paper, use levels 1, 3, and 4, inthat order. If four levels are required,interleave level 2 between levels 1 and 3. If

five levels are required, start with level fiveand work down the remaining hierarchy in

order (5, 1, 2, 3, 4).


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CommasUse commas before "and" in lists.

Use commas between groups of threedigits, for example, 1,453.

Use commas to set off a reference in aparenthetical comment (Patrick, 1993).

Use commas in exact dates, forexample, April 18, 1992 (but not in April1992).


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Italics (Underlining)Do not italicize or underline common

foreign abbreviations (vice versa, et al.,

a priori).


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uotation Marks

For quotations over 40 words inlength, indent and single space thewhole block.


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Abbreviations

Explain what an abbreviation means thefirst time it occurs: American

Psychological Association (APA).


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Numbers

Use digits to express numbers 10 and above.

Use words to express numbers below 10.

Use digits to represent statistical ormathematical functions, fractional or decimalquantities, percentages, ratios, and

percentiles.

Use digits to represent time, dates, ages,sample or population size, scores, and exactsums of money.


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Tables and Figures

Type the table number and then (on thenext double spaced line) type the table

title flush left and italicized.

Each row and column must have aheading.

Use a zero before the decimal pointwhen numbers are less than one.

Add notes to explain the table contents.


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Figures Center each figure on the page.

Italicize the word 'figure' and the number, for example,

Figure 1. The effects of...


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Reference Citations (In-

Text) Examples include Some fact (last name, year)., Last

name (year) noted that...

For two-author citations, spell out both authors on alloccurrences. For example: As Smith and Sarason (1990)point out, the same argument was made by in an earlierstudy (Smith & Sarason, 1990).

For multiple-author citations (up to five authors) nameall authors the first time, then use et al., so the first timeit is Smith, Jones, Pearson, and Sherwin (1990), but thesecond time it is Smith et al.


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Reference Citations (In-

Text) If citing multiple works by the same author at the same

time, arrange dates in order. For example: Severalstudies (Johnson, 1988, 1990a, 1990b).

Multiple citations in parentheses are placedalphabetically and are separated by a semicolon and aspace. For example, Some fact (Carlson, 1972; Moon,1968; Partin, 1980).


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Reference Formats For

Back Page Alphabetize the reference list by authors last names.

Use a hanging indent for references (all lines after the first lineof each entry in the list should be intended one-half inch fromthe left margin). Example-

Deutsch, F. M., Lussier, J. B., & Servusm L. J. (1993). Husbandsat home: Predictors of parentalparticipation in childcareand housework. Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology, 65, 1154-1166.

If you have more than one work by an author, order them bypublications date, oldest to newest

When an author appears both as a sole author and, in anothercitation, as the first author of a group, list the one author

entries first


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Back Page If no author is given for a source, alphabetize using the

title of the work, which will be listed in place of theauthor.

Use& instead of and when listing multiple authorsof a single work.

Italicize titles of books and journals.


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Back Page Journal Article, with Continuous Pagination by Volume

Deutsch, F. M., Lussier, J. B., & Servusm L. J. (1993). Husbands athome: Predictors of parentalparticipation in childcare andhousework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

65, 1154-1166.

Journal Article, Paginated by IssueGreen, B. J. (2000) Picture books and teaching science. Science and

Children, 38 (2), 43-45.

Magazine ArticlePosner, M. I. (1993, October 29). Seeing the mind. Science , 262,673-674.

Newspaper Article, No AuthorNew drug appears to sharply cut risk of death from heart failure.

(1993, July 15). Washington Post, p. A12.


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Back Page Edited Book

Gibbs. J. T., & Huang, L. N. (Eds.). (1991). Children of color:Psychological interventions with minority youth. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Book, No Author or Editor

Merriam-Websters' collegiate dictionary. (10th ed.).(1993). Springfield, Ma: Merriam-Webster.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

Massaro, D. (1992). Broadening the domain of the fuzzylogical model of perception. In H. L. Pick, Jr., P.van denBroek, & D. C. Knill (Eds.), Cognition: Conceptual andmethodological issues (pp. 51-84). Washington, DC:

American Psychological Association.


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Back Page Encyclopedia or Dictionary

Sadie, S. (Ed.). (1980). The new Grove dictionary of musicand musicians. (6th ed., vols. 1-20). London: Macmillan.

Government Publications (Gpo)

National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical trainingin serious mental illness (DHHS Publication No. ADM90-1679). Washington, DC: U.S. Government PrintingOffice.

Article in an Internet-only Journal

Needham,C. L. (2000). Exploring the deep ocean floor.Oceanographic Journal. Retrieved fromftp://ftp.woodshole.edu/harad/Oceanographic/2000.vol

ume7/ocean.00.7.011.oceanfloor.needham


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Appendixes If only one appendix then label it Appendix (centered

at the top of the page).

If more than one appendix then label Appendix A,Appendix B, etc.

Begin each appendix on a separate page

Documents

A Guideline on APA (American Psychological Association