In the social sciences the most influential writing and documentation style is that of the American Psychological Association (APA). APA style is widely used not only in psychology but also sociology, anthropology, political science, education, business, and other social science disciplines. Be aware, though, that different fields or teachers may have requirements that differ in some respects.

Nuts and Bolts presents here a concise guide to APA style. The full APA format is available in a book, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 4th ed. (a Spanish-language edition is also available). The manual may be ordered directly from the APA at http://www.apa.org/books/4200040.html ($21.95). The manual is primarily intended as a style guide for publishable manuscripts, but an appendix addresses undergraduate writing.

APA document formats

Paper and binding

Use sturdy white, unlined 8.5" by 11" paper. Essays should be stapled or paper-clipped in the upper left corner. Don't use binders or plastic covers unless your teacher wants them. Don't hold your paper together by folding or tearing pages—this sets teachers' teeth on edge.

Margins, line spacing, and paragraphs

Except for page numbers (see below), use margins of one inch on all sides. The paper should be double-spaced throughout (including quotations, notes, and the list of references), with no blank lines between paragraphs. The first line of each new paragraph is indented a half-inch on the left (or five to seven spaces if you use a typewriter). Set-off quotations are indented one inch on the left.

Text runs flush-left and ragged right.

Printing and fonts

Type or print; don't turn in handwritten formal work. Print on only one side of the page, in black ink. Use a plain serif font such as Times Roman or Courier, or a plain non-serif font like Aria. 12-point is the usual size.

Page numbers and the manuscript header

APA format requires use of a manuscript header, not just a page number. The manuscript header includes the first two or three words of the title followed by five spaces, and then the page number. The header is placed flush right, a half-inch from the top. (Word processors, of course, can automate this process.)

Begin page numbers on the title page, which is page 1. The text of the paper begins on page two (or three if you include an abstract: see below).

Running head (for manuscripts submitted for publication)

APA format for manuscripts submitted for publication requires use of a running head flush left on the first text line of each page (an inch from the top of the page).. This is a short version of the title in all capitals (not more than 50 characters including spaces), included for the convenience of the manuscript editor. Papers submitted in courses typically don't use running heads.

Emphasis

Use either italics or underlining for emphasis throughout your paper (including titles of books). Whichever you choose, be consistent

Spaces

In the old days of typewriters and nonproportional fonts (in which every letter, from i to w, takes up the same space), the rule was to put two spaces between sentences to improve readability. But if you print from a computer, you should put just one space between sentences.

Don't put spaces between periods in abbreviations: a.m. and U.S.A., not a. m. or U. S. A. If an abbreviation ends a sentence, its final period also counts as the sentence's terminal punctuation.

Tip: when you're at the stage of final proofing, use a global search-and-replace to get rid of inadvertent multiple spaces.

Late corrections

Sometimes you will discover mistakes in what you thought was a final draft, when you no longer have time to print out a corrected version. In such cases, you should hand-correct the printed version (that's one reason to double-space essays). It's usually okay to turn in a paper with one or two such corrections. How to do it: Cross out the mistake with a single horizontal line. Mark the insertion point with a caret (^). Neatly write in the correction above the printed line. Don't write below the line or in the margin. If you need to make a more substantial correction, make a clean printout.

The basic sections of an APA paper are a title page, the text of the paper, and a list of references. Other elements may be added as needed, following this order (where relevant, the title of the page is given in parentheses):

• title page
• abstract
• text
• references (References)
• appendices (Appendix 1, Appendix 2, etc.)
• author identification notes [Included with manuscripts submitted for publication]
• footnotes (Footnotes)
• tables (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) [In course papers it's usually acceptable to include these in the text]
• figure captions [Kept separate for manuscripts submitted for publication]
• figures [In course papers it's usually acceptable to include these in the text]

All these elements will be numbered consecutively with the same manuscript header format.

Title page

APA style requires a separate title page. Center the title (typically ten to twelve words) and put it about halfway down the page. Below the title put your name, school or course, professor (if appropriate), and date the paper is turned in. Don't italicize or underline the title or put it in quotation marks (though if you use a book title in your paper's title, you should italicize or underline it, and a quotation should be put in quotation marks).

Make sure your essay has a meaningful title that is more than a bare-bones identifier (not Essay #1 or Essay on Management). It should signal to the reader what your essay is about. A common academic device to create a bit of elegance is to use a title and subtitle, separating them with a colon. Typically the titles are balanced so that one is broad and the other more focused, or the former is pithy and the second more substantial and explanatory:

Here's an example of college paper's title page, APA-style:

Abstract

The abstract (often not required in college papers) is placed on a separate page (page 2). The word Abstract appears centered on the first line (not italics or quotation marks). Double-space the abstract but don't indent it. The abstract is a short, professional-sounding summary of the paper, not more than 960 characters long including spaces and punctuation. Abstracts often follow a set format: topic in the first sentence; then purpose, thesis, and scope; then kinds of sources used or data collected; and finally conclusions.

Text of the paper

The text of the paper begins on page 2 or 3, depending on whether the paper has an abstract. The title is centered on the first line. The text begins on the next line:

Headings

APA style allows various levels of headings for denoting different sections of a paper. From highest-level to lowest:

Level 1. Centered uppercase and lowercase

Legislative Intent

Level 2. Centered, underlined (or italicized), uppercase and lowercase

European Market Growth, 1993-1999

Level 3. Flush left, underlined (or italicized), uppercase and lowercase

The Assessment Controversy

Level 4. Indented, underlined (or italicized), only first letter capitalized, with a period

Alternative explanations.

Level 5. Centered uppercase

METHODS

Now the twist. There are APA guidelines on which levels to use, depending on how many levels of headings a paper requires:

Whew.

Tables and figures

See the APA Publication Manual for full details on the use and construction of tables and figures. The basic label format looks like this:

The label is centered and either italicized or underlined. Numbers tables and figures consecutively in separate series. Explanatory text accompanying tables and figures is double-spaced.

Tables and figures may be placed at the end of the paper (follower the order given above), one to a page, or inserted in the text of the paper. Different teachers will have different requirements.

Scholarly writing in the social sciences doesn't tend to employ as many quotations as humanities scholarship; social science scholarship more often cites rather than quotes. But quotations are acceptable and at times necessary. The follow the following formats:

Short quotations

Quotations of 40 words or fewer are woven into your text, enclosed in quotation marks. The parenthetical citation goes after the closing quotation mark, but before the final period, comma, or semicolon:

If the quotation ends in a question and exclamation mark it's a bit more complicated. If the punctuation mark is part of the quotation it goes before the parenthetical; if it's your addition it goes after the parenthetical:

Page references must go in the parenthetical citation, but the author and year may either be woven into the text or put in the parenthetical: see below for more on this.

Long quotations

Quotations longer than 40 words are set off from the text, beginning on a new line indented a half-inch (or five spaces on a typewriter) from the left margin. Quotation marks are not used to mark the quotation. The quotation is double-spaced and put in the same font as the regular text, and there is no blank line before or after the quotation. If the quotation includes one or more full paragraphs, their first lines should be indented another half-inch. The parenthetical citation comes after the closing punctuation mark (note that this is different from the practice with short quotations):

Now we turn to detailed how-to's on APA citations and references.

Basic APA citation style

An APA citation is a brief in-text citation (not a footnote) that provides information on a text's author and date of publication. This brief citation is keyed to a full reference in an alphabetical list of works included at the end of the paper. A complete bibliographic citation thus has two parts: (1) the in-text citation in the body of the paper, and (2) the bibliographic reference in the list of works cited.

Let's consider first the in-text citation and then the list of references and individual references.

In-text citations

A typical APA citation is simple: an author, a year, and a page reference if a specific passage is being cited: (Geertz, 1980, p. 99). In-text citations are often referred to as parenthetical citations, but this term can be misleading because some citations don't require a parenthetical element. There are several ways to present the information required in the in-text citation:

Usually in-text citations comprise two elements: a signal phrase or pointer in the body of the paper, and a parenthetical:

The signal phrase and parenthetical should divide up, not duplicate, the citation data:

But it's okay to repeat information if additional material between the signal phrase and the parenthetical might make for ambiguity:

You'll find more detailed advice on using signal phrases to introduce quotations in the earlier section on Effective quoting. See also the examples below for lots of help with citing different kinds of sources.

List of references

APA style requires you to list your sources with full bibliographic information at the end of the paper. The title is References (no italics, underlining or quotation marks). The list begins on a new page and continues the paper's page numbers. Like other page numbers, the page number appears as part of the manuscript header in the upper-right hand corner, half an inch from the top and flush with the right margin (all margins are one inch).

The title is centered, an inch from the top of the page. Double-space between title and the first entry, but don't insert an additional blank line.

There are two APA styles for formatting references. One is primarily for manuscripts that will be submitted for publication: each entry is flush with the left margin, with the first line indented half an inch. The whole list is double-spaced with no blank line between entries.

The other, more common style for college papers, is to use hanging indents: the first line of each reference has no indentation, and subsequent lines are indented a half-inch. That's the style displayed here.

If the list of references extends to more than one page, subsequent pages follow without the title but with the manuscript header.

Detailed help for different kinds of sources is provided below.

Bibliographic references

The point of a bibliographic reference is to allow your readers to track down your sources. As the examples in the list of works cited above show, you need to include standard bibliographic information: author, title, place of publication, publisher, and year of publication.

Titles

Get the title from the title page, not the cover or another source. Give spelled-out equivalents of symbols like &. When a title consists of two phrases on separate lines, join them with a colon.

Alphabetization

Alphabetize the list by author, or for any anonymous works by title (ignoring but not deleting A, An, and The).

Capitalization

Regardless of how the original source is capitalized, follow these formats: capitalize only the title's first word, the first word after a colon (that is, the subtitle's first word), proper names, and acronyms like FBI or ADR.

Underlining/italics and quotation marks

The titles of works published independently (not within another volume) are typically formatted with underlining or italics. These include books, plays, long poems published as books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, journals, films, radio and television programs, web sites, CDs, software, ballets, operas, paintings, and other works and artifacts that stand on their own.

The titles of works published within other works are presented in plain text. These include articles, essays, chapters, encyclopedia entries, sections of online documents, short poems, stories, songs, and individual episodes of broadcast programs.

Page numbers

Page numbers are not compressed: 127-148 and 221-229, not 127-48 or 221-9. In certain cases the abbreviations p. and pp. are used before page numbers: see for instance the format for citing a chapter from an anthology.

APA citation and reference details

Nuts and Bolts helps with many questions about APA citations and references. Each entry below shows how to format the in-text citation and the bibliographic reference, and provides examples when needed. For full details and hundreds of special cases, consult the APA Publication Manual .

Here are the types of sources detailed below (the next section treats Internet sources):

1. Basic book format

Citation

Reference

The publisher's state or country is given if it would not be clear from the city's name.

2. Basic article format

Citation

Reference

Note the lack of quotation marks around the article title. Note also that the volume number is italicized (or underlined) along with the journal title. If the journal restarts page numbers with each issue, it's necessary to indicate the particular issue, either by number or other identifier used by the journal. This is placed in parentheses, and follows the volume number with no space.

3. Two or more works by the same author

Citation. The name-year format makes it easy to point to a specific work even if you are citing various works by an author:

Reference. Works by the same author are arranged chronologically, earliest to latest. Works with the same publication year are distinguished by letters added to the year (again arranged chronologically).

As the last entry above shows, if a particular author is also listed as a co-author, that work is referred to by its co-authors and is alphabetized separately.

4. Chapter from an anthology

Citation. No different than a normal citation: (Moore, 1993, p. 195). Cite the author of the specific text you wish to refer to in the citation, not the editor of the whole book (unless you're referring to the whole book, of course).

Reference

5. Work with an unknown author

Citation. If no author information is given, cite by the first few words of the title (indicating that this is title by putting it in quotation marks). If the author is listed as "Anonymous," use that plus the date in a normal author-date citation (Anonymous, 2000).

Reference. If no author is given, alphabetize by the title. If the author is listed as "Anonymous," alphabetize by that.

A, An, and The are disregarded (but not deleted) when alphabetizing references by title.

6. Article from an anonymous reference book

Citation. Cite the title or a short version.

Reference

7. Introduction to a book (when the authors differ)

Citation. Cite the author of the introduction, not the author of the whole work.

Reference

8. Two authors with the same last name

Citation. Specifying the year usually eliminates ambiguity. If not, add the author's first initial(s): (C. L. Parker, 1998, 225-37).

Reference

If one of the authors is part of a collaboration, there will be no confusion of citations (Wilson, 2000; Wilson & Adkins, 2000).

9. Work by two authors

Citation. Give the last name of each author: (Wildavsky & Drake, 1990, p. 44). If you cite the names in the text instead of putting them in the parenthetical, spell out and: "Wildavsky and Drake (1990) argue that. . . ."

Reference

10. Work by three, four, or five authors

Citation. For the first citation of the work, cite all the authors. In any subsequent citations, give the first author's last name followed by et al. (an abbreviation of he Latin for and others).

Reference. List all the authors.

11. Work by six or more authors

Citation. Cite only the first author's last name, followed by et al.: Jansen et al., 1999, p. 223.

Reference. Follow the format for other multiple-author works.

12. Work by a corporate author (an organization)

Citation. Treat the organization as the author, and cite the name or a short version of it: (Modern Language Association)

Reference

13. Multivolume work—referencing one volume

Citation. As usual—author-year format: (Lay, Churchill, & Nordquist, 1973, pp. 217-28).

Reference

If you cite other volumes, give them separate entries in the list of references.

14. Government publication

Citation. Use as much of the author as necessary to identify the reference.

Reference

Legal documents are presented in plain text (no italics or underlining).

15. Published by the author

Citation. As usual.

Reference

16. Magazine article

Some periodicals (such as The Economist) routinely use different titles for articles on the contents page and at the beginning of the article itself. In such cases, use the title from the contents page.

Citation. For the date give only the year.

Reference

17. Anonymous magazine article

Citation. Identify by a short version of the title: ("Preserving life").

Reference

Citation. As usual.

Reference

19. Unsigned editorial or article

Citation. Identify by a short title.

Reference. Alphabetize by the first substantive word (disregard but don't delete a, an, and the) and use a label in brackets.

20. Letter to the editor

Citation. As usual.

Reference

21. Book review

Citation. As usual.

Reference

22. Pamphlet or brochure

Reference. Treat a pamphlet or brochure like a book, except that you add a label in brackets after the title:

23. Doctoral dissertation

Citation. As usual.

Reference. Reference a dissertation you've physically retrieved like this:

Reference a dissertation accessed via microfilm like this:

24. More than one work in a single reference

Citation. Use semicolons to separate the citations: (Pitkin, 1984, pp. 38-41; Johnson, 2000, p. 203).

Reference. As usual for each work.

But avoid putting too many works in a single reference. It's usual to use one note per work. If you wish to group several works together, treat them in a note rather than with an in-text citation.

25. Second or subsequent edition

Citation. As usual.

Reference

26. Indirect source (when you want to cite a work discussed in another text)

Citation. Whenever possible use original texts. If you do cite an indirect source (for instance a book review), name or refer to the original work in your text, giving a citation for the indirect source (using the phrase "as cited in").

Reference. Refer to the secondary or indirect source, not the original text. In other words, give a reference to the text you actually looked at.

27. Personal communication

Things like notes of lectures, letters, email, telephone conversations, memos, and interviews differ from published references in that they are not recoverable by others. You may cite them, but do not include them in the list of references.

Citation. Provide name, including first initial(s), the phrase "personal communication," and a date: (M. Harvey, personal communication, September 20, 2000). The citation may be woven into the text or put in a parenthetical, or divided between these.

Reference. Not included in the list of references.

APA Internet citations and references

Student citations from the web are often inadequate. Here's an all-too-common kind of citation: www.hoovers.com.

What's missing? Lots—information about the type of online resource, a specific URL to a particular document, and data on author, title, when online material was posted, and when you retrieved it (that means when you downloaded or printed the information, not when you wrote it into your paper). It's important to provide dates because the web is a dynamic medium, with content and web sites constantly changing.

Citations of online documents follow the same basic format as other APA references: alphabetization by author (or title), a title, and publication information. One difference: references to online documents typically have two dates, the date the material was posted or updated, and the date it was retrieved. Since the web is a dynamic medium with content and web sites constantly changing, it's important to note retrieval dates.

The following style formats are based on the APA's most recent electronic reference formats, which are available online (http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html). The online version of Nuts and Bolts will stay current with future updates to APA's guidelines. One distinctive feature of APA's guidelines for electronic references: no period is used after the URL which ends the reference.

What are you citing?

But if the citations are to different documents it's best to put in a separate reference for each, even if they're accessed from the same home page. Keep in mind the underlying rationale: what will make it easier for readers to find your sources for themselves?

The page problem

One complication of online documents is that they usually lack page numbers, so it's not easy to point readers to particular passages. In order to direct readers as closely as possible to the right source passage, the APA recommends counting by paragraphs using the symbol ¶: (Ford, 2000, ¶ 5). If this symbol is not available, use the abbreviation "para.": (Ford, 2000, para. 5; Firestone, 2000, paras. 7-9). It's also useful to look for pointers in the online document like division numbers, section titles or words like Introduction Conclusion.

What's your source?

Another source of confusion with online documents is the profusion of uncontrolled copies of texts. With the way the web works, anyone can upload any document they want to. In general, make sure that if you're quoting from an article or other text, you try to track down the copyright holder or other responsible organization, rather than taking the text and URL from a personal page or other idiosyncratic source. That increases the chances you'll get a good copy and reassure readers about your scholarly care (for more on online research, see Research and the Internet).

Here are the types of sources detailed below:

1. Private or personal web site

Citation. Name the site and its author; include the URL in a parenthetical.

Reference. No reference.

2. Organizational or corporate web site

Citation. Name the site and its author; include the URL in a parenthetical.

Reference. No reference.

3. Online book

Citation. As usual: author and year of publication.

Reference

4. Online book or similar independent document, no author

Citation. As with other anonymous works: by short title and date: (Electronic reference formats, 2000).

Reference

5. Article in an online journal or magazine

Citation. As usual.

Reference

6. Newspaper article

Citation. As usual.

Reference

Other types of texts—editorials, letters to the editor, reviews, and so on, parallel the usual APA citation style (see above), with the use of online information (most importantly retrieval date and URL) instead of page information.

7. Government publication

Citation. As usual.

Reference

8. Other Web materials

Citation. As usual—by author or, if necessary, short title, as well as date. If a title is used, make sure to put it in quotation marks: ("Microstrategy," 2000).

Reference. When possible put a descriptive phrase after the title (e.g., chart, MP3, video, photograph, map).

9. Forum or conference posting

Citation. As usual: (Jensen, 2000).

Reference

10. Email

Citation. Email is cited as a form of personal communication: (T. Scout, personal communication, September 21, 2000).

Reference. As with other personal communication citations, no reference is given.

In its online document on electronic reference formats, the APA cautions that email poses special problems of verifiability, since it's easy to send email in another's name. Authors should take pains to establish the accuracy of any cited email communication, and bear the responsibility for its accuracy.

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