Psychology: APA Format

Basic Rules - Purdue OWL APA Style

• Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.

• Use words to express approximations of days, months, and year.

• Do not use a zero before the decimal point when the number cannot be greater than one

• The sixth edition provides explicit rules for direct quotations and states that you must credit the source when “paraphrasing, quoting an author directly, or describing an idea that influenced your work” (p. 170)
• Do NOT include the date of access unless the material is likely to change. 
• Give the city AND state where the publisher is located. 
• When the author is also the publisher use Author to indicate the publisher

• Typed
• Line Spacing: double-spaced for the entire paper (including title page and reference section) 
• 1" margins on all sides.
• Paragraph Alignment: left 
• Page number alignment: right (number all pages) 
• APA recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
• APA suggests using two spaces after periods ending sentences to aid readability.
• Paragraphs: indent the first line of every paragraph. (Use the TAB key) 

Title Page

• Include a page header  (also known as the "running head") at the top of every page.
• To create a page header/running head, go to Format --> Document --> check "Different first page" 
• Type "Running Head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER in the header flush left using all capital letters. The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.
• Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. APA recommends that your title be no more than 12 words in length and that it should not contain abbreviations or words that serve no purpose. Your title may take up one or two lines. 
• Beneath the title, type the author's name: first name, middle initial(s), and last name. Do not use titles (Dr.) or degrees (PhD).
• Beneath the author's name, type the institutional affiliation, which should indicate the location where the author(s) conducted the research.

Article or chapter title

Capitalize only the first word of the title and of the subtitle, if any, and any proper nouns; do not italicize the title or place quotation marks around it. Finish the element with a period.

Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis.

There's more to self-esteem than whether it is high or low: The importance of stability of self-esteem.

Web site usability for the blind and low-vision user.

Friends' influence on students' adjustment to school.

Books and reports

Capitalize only the first word of the title and of the subtitle, if any, and any oper nouns; italicize the title. 

APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication.

Consequences of growing up poor.

Periodicle Title

Give the periodicle title in full, in uppercase and lowercase letters. Italicize the name of the periodical.

Maintain the punctuation and capitalization that is used by the journal in its title. (Example: &) 

Educational Psychologist

European Journal of Social Psychology

Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology

The sixth edition provides explicit rules for direct quotations and states that you must credit the source when “paraphrasing, quoting an author directly, or describing an idea that influenced your work” (p. 170).

(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

• Italicize or underline the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections, movies, television series, documentaries, or albums: The Closing of the American Mind;The Wizard of Oz; Friends.
• Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles, articles from edited collections, television series episodes, and song titles: "Multimedia Narration: Constructing Possible Worlds"; "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry."
• APA requires you to include the publication year because APA users are concerned with the date of the article (the more current the better).
• If the work has more than seven authors, list the first six authors and then use ellipses after the sixth author's name.
• For more information: Purdue OWL In-Text Citations

If the quotation is less than 40 words, incorporate the quotation into the text and place quotation marks round the quotation. Cite the source immediately after the quotation and continue with the sentence.

Porter (1998) has stated that, “The internetworked classroom has the potential (not yet realized) to empower students” (p. 5), and this research project examines this potential.

If the quotation you are using falls at the end of the sentence, enclose the quotation with quotation marks without including the quotation’s original punctuation. Here’s a sentence as it appears in the original text:

“Semantic frames/domains represent one of the two major organizing principles for conceptual structure” (Croft & Cruse, 2004, p. 32).

Here’s what the sentence looks like when quoted within a text:

In arguing for frame semantics, Croft and Cruse (2004) asserted, “Semantic frames/domains represent one of the two major organizing principles for conceptual structure” (p. 32).

If the quotation has more than 40 words, use a block quotation. Begin the quotation on a new line and indent a half-inch from the left margin. Double-space the entire quotation, and at the end of the quotation, provide citation information after the final punctuation mark.

Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work for up to and including seven authors. If the work has more than seven authors, list the first six authors and then use ellipses after the sixth author's name. After the ellipses, list the last author's name of the work.

Plath, S.

Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R.

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E.

Coltheart, M., Curtis, B., Atkins, P., & Haller, M.

Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., Harlow, T., & Bach, J. S.

Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.)