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APA Publication Manual Crib Sheet
Psych Web has a separate guide for writing a laboratory report.
Note: The APA publication manual specifies underlining in cases where italics will be printed. However, the opposite is true in this document: italics are used to show underlined passages. This is because Netscape and other browsers may use underlining to indicate links.
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Introductory information
APA style is the style of writing specified in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association (4th ed., 1994). The publication manual began as an article published in Psychological Bulletin in 1929. That article reported results of a 1928 meeting of representatives from anthropological and psychological journals, "to discuss the form of journal manuscripts and to write instructions for their
preparation." By 1952 the guidelines were issued as a separate document called the Publication Manual. Today the manual is in its fourth edition, and the APA format described in it is a widely recognized standard for scientific writing.
Some of the more commonly used rules and reference formats from the manual are listed here. However, this web page is no substitute for the 368 page manual itself, which should be purchased by any serious psychology student in the U.S., or by students in other countries who are writing for a journal which uses APA format.
The fourth edition of the style manual, issued in 1994, contained these additions and changes to the pre-existing APA style:
- Abstracts are now limited to 960 characters including spaces.
- Bibliographic entries should be indented five to seven spaces on the first line,
just like other paragraphs.
- Electronic references should have an address permitting retrieval (see the
discussion in the Reference list examples section).
- Horizontal rules (lines) should be typed into tables; do not draw them in
by hand.
- Hyphenation should not occur at the end of lines, only between
words when necessary.
- Institutional affiliation should appear in the byline, departmental
affiliation in the author note.
- Italics should be indicated on a word processor by
underlining, not italics. [However, see the note above. Italics
are used throughout this document in place of underlining.]
- Journal names are now underlined continuously from the title
through the comma after the volume number, for example, Journal of
Psychoneuromimmunology, 6, 7-8.
- Justification should be set to "off" or "left margin only" (the right margin should be uneven).
- Margins should be at least 1" all around.
- Paragraphs should be indented five to seven spaces.
- Running heads should be placed before the title.
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Following is a summary of rules and reference examples in the APA style manual. The manual itself contains all this information and more, organized and worded differently, indexed and illustrated. If in doubt about a specific rule or example, consult the manual itself.
RULES
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Abbreviations
- Avoid abbreviations except for long, familiar terms (MMPI).
- Explain what an abbreviation means, the first time it occurs.
- If an abbreviation is commonly used as a word, it does not require explanation (IQ, LSD, REM, ESP).
- Do not use the old abbreviations for subject, experimenter, and observer (S, E, O).
- The following abbreviations should NOT be used outside parenthetical comments:
- cf. [use compare]
- e.g. [use for example]
- etc. [use and so forth]
- i.e. [use that is]
- viz. [use namely]
- vs. [use versus]
- Use periods when making an abbreviation within a reference (Vol. 3, p. 6, 2nd ed.)
- Do not use periods within degree titles and organization titles (PhD,, APA).
- Do not use periods within measurements (lb, ft, s) except inches (in.).
- Use s for second, m for meter.
- To form plurals of abbreviations, add s alone, without apostrophe (PhDs, IQs, vols., Eds).
- In using standard abbreviations for measurements, like m
for meter, do not add an s to make it plural (100 seconds is 100 s), and
when referring to more than one page, use the abbreviation pp. (with a
period after it and a space after the period).
- Use two-letter postal codes for U.S. state names
(GA).
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Avoiding Biased and Pejorative Language
In general, avoid anything that causes offense. The style manual makes the
following suggestions:
DO NOT use... when you can use...
"men" (referring to all adults) "men and women"
ethnic labels (for example, Hispanic) geographical labels (Mexican Americans)
"homosexuals" "gay men and lesbians"
"depressives" "people with depression"
Currect use of the terms "gender" and "sex"
The term "gender" refers to culture and should be used when referring to men and
women as social groups, as in this example from the publication manual: "sexual
orientation rather than gender accounted for most of the variance in the results;
most gay men and lesbians were for it, most heterosexual men and women were
against it."
The term "sex" refers to biology and should be used when biological distinctions
are emphasized, for example, "sex differences in hormone production."
Avoid gender stereotypes. For example, the manual suggests replacing "An American
boy's infatuation with football" with "An American child's infatuation with
football."
Sensitivity to labels
Be sensitive to labels. A person in a clinical study should be called a
"patient," not a "case." Avoid equating people with their conditions, for
example, do not say "schizophrenics," say "people diagnosed with schizophrenia."
Use the term "sexual orientation," not "sexual preference." The phrase "gay men
and lesbians" is currently preferred to the term "homosexuals." To refer to all
people who are not heterosexual, the manual suggests "lesbians, gay men, and
bisexual women and men."
In racial references, the manual simply recommends that we respect current usage.
Currently both the terms "Black" and "African American" are widely accepted,
while "Negro" and "Afro-American" are not. These things change, so use common
sense.
Capitalize Black and White when the words are used as proper nouns to refer to
social groups. Do not use color words for other ethnic groups. The manual
specifies that hyphens should not be used in multiword names such as Asian
American or African American.
Labels can be tricky, and the manual has a lot to say about them. For example,
"American Indian" and "Native American" are both acceptable usages, but the
manual notes that there are nearly 450 Native American groups, including
Hawaiians and Samoans, so specific group names are far more informative.
The terms Hispanic, Latino, and Chicano are preferred by different groups. The
safest procedure is use geographical references. Just say "Cuban American" if
referring to people from Cuba.
The term Asian American is preferable to Oriental, and again the manual
recommends being specific about country of origin, when this is known (for
example, Chinese or Vietnamese). People from northern Canada, Alaska, eastern
Siberia, and Greenland often (but not always!) prefer Inuk (singular) and
Inuit (plural) to "Eskimo." But some Alaska natives are non-Inuit people
who prefer to be called Eskimo. This type of difficulty is avoided by using
geographical references. For example, in place of "Eskimo" or "Inuit" one could
use "people from northern Canada, Alaska, eastern Siberia, and Greenland."
In general, call people what they want to be called, and do not contrast one
group of people with another group called "normal" people. Write "we compared
people with autism to people without autism" not "we contrasted autistics to
normals." Do not use pejorative terms like "stroke victim" or "stroke sufferers."
Use a more neutral terminology such as "people who have had a stroke." Avoid the
terms "challenged" and "special" unless the population referred to prefers this
terminology (for example, Special Olympics). As a rule, use the phrase "people
with _______" (for example, "people with AIDS," not "AIDS sufferers").
In referring to age, be specific about age ranges; avoid open-ended definitions
like "under 16" or "over 65." Avoid the term "elderly." "Older person" is
preferred. "Boy" and "Girl" are acceptable referring to high school and and
younger. For persons 18 and older use "men" and "women."
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Capitalization
- Capitalize formal names of tests (Stroop Color-Word Interference
Test).
- Capitalize major words and all other words of four letters or more, in
headings, titles, and subtitles outside reference lists, for example, "A Study
of No-Win Strategies."
- Capitalize names of conditions, groups, effects, and variables only when
definite. (Group A was the control group; an Age x Weight interaction showed
lower weight with age.)
- Capitalize the first word after a colon if and only if it begins a
complete sentence. For example, "This is a complete sentence, so it is
capitalized." As a counter example, "no capitalization here."
- Capitalize specific course and department titles (GSU Department of
Psychology, Psych 150).
- Do not capitalize generic names of tests (Stroop color test).
- Capitalize nouns before numbers, but not before variables (Trial 2,
trial x).
- Do not capitalize names of laws, theories, and hypotheses (the law
of effect).
- Do not capitalize when referring to generalities (any department,
any introductory course).
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Commas
- Do not use commas to separate parts of measurement (9 lbs 5 oz). Use the metric system, as a rule.
- Use commas before "and" in lists, for example, height, width, and depth.
- Use commas between groups of three digits, for example, 1,453.
- Use commas to set off a reference in a parenthetical comment (Patrick, 1993).
- Use commas for seriation within a paragraph or sentence. For
example, "three choices are (a) true, (b) false, and (c) don't know." Use
semicolons for seriation if there are commas within the items. For
example, (a) here, in the middle of the item, there are commas; (b)
here there are not; (c) so we use semicolons throughout.
- Use commas in exact dates, for example, April 18, 1992 (but not in
April 1992).
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Hyphenation
- Do not hyphenate -ly and superlative words (widely used test, best
informed students).
- Do not hyphenate common prefixes (posttest, prewar, multiphase,
nonsignificant) unless needed for clarity (pre-existing).
- Do not hyphenate foreign, letter, numeral terms (a priori
hypothesis, Type A behavior) when the meaning is clear without it
(least squares solution, heart rate scores).
- Do not hyphenate if a noun comes first (a therapy was client
centered, results of t tests).
- Hyphenate adjectival phrases (role-playing technique, high-anxiety
group, two-way analysis).
- Hyphenate compound adjectives preceding nouns (client-centered
therapy, t-test scores) unless the compound adjective involves a
superlative (best written paper).
- Hyphenate if the base is an abbreviation or compounded (pre-UCS,
non-college bound).
- Hyphenate if the base word is capitalized or a number (pre-Freudian,
post-1960).
- Hyphenate if the words could be misunderstood without a hyphen (re-
pair, un-ionized, co-worker).
- If in doubt, consult a recently published dictionary. Standards
change. For example, "data base" is now "database," and "life-style" is
now "lifestyle."
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Italics (Underlining)
- Do not underline common foreign abbreviations (vice versa, et al.,
a priori).
- Do not underline for mere emphasis.
- Underline for titles of books and articles, species names,
introduction of new terms and labels (the first time only), words and
phrases used as linguistic examples, letters used as statistical
symbols, and volume numbers in reference lists.
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Miscellaneous: Colons, dashes, parentheses, numbering paragraphs,
- Do not use "and/or." Write things out. For example, "Monday,
Tuesday, or both" is preferable to "Monday and/or Tuesday."
- Do not use a colon or other punctuation after an introduction which
is not a complete sentence such as
this one, or any other
sentence in the body of text which flows into an extended quote. The
quote "picks up where the sentence leaves off" and provides the
punctuation.
- Use a dash (rendered on typewriters and some word processors as a
double hyphen) when there is a sudden interruption like this one--zoiks!--in
the flow of a sentence. Overuse "weakens the flow of the writing."
- Use parentheses to introduce an abbreviation, for example, the
galvanic skin response (GSR).
- Use "appendixes" (appendices) as the plural of "appendex." Use
datum as singular, data as plural. Use matrix as singular, matrices as
plural. Use schema as singular, schemas (not schemata) as plural.
- When listing separate paragraphs in a series, use a number and a
period, not parentheses.
- The first paragraph goes here.
- The second paragraph goes here.
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Numbers
- Spell out common fractions and common expressions (one-half, Fourth
of July).
- Spell out large numbers beginning sentences (Thirty days hath
September...).
- Use numerals for numbers 10 and above, or lower numbers grouped
with numbers 10 and above (for example, from 6 to 12 hours of
sleep).
- Spell out numbers which are inexact, or below 10 and not grouped
with numbers over 10 (one-tailed t test, eight items, nine pages, three-
way interaction, five trials).
- To make plurals out of numbers, add s only, with no apostrophe (the
1950s).
- Treat ordinal numbers like cardinal numbers (the first item of the
75th trial...).
- Use combinations of written and Arabic numerals for back-to-back
modifiers (five 4-point scales).
- Use combinations of numerals and written numbers for large sums
(over 3 million people).
- Use numerals for exact statistical references, scores, sample
sizes, and sums (multiplied by 3, or 5% of the sample). Here is another
example: "We used 30 subjects, all two year olds, and they spent an
average of 1 hr 20 min per day crying.
- Use metric abbreviations with figures (4 km) but not when written
out (many meters distant).
- Use the percent symbol (%) only with figures (5%) not with written
numbers (five percent).
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Quotation Marks
- Use quotation marks for an odd or ironic usage the first time but
not thereafter, for example, "This is the "good-outcome" variable, but
as it turns out, the good-outcome variable predicts trouble later on...
- Use quotation marks for article and chapter titles cited in the text
but not in the reference list. (In Smith's (1992) article,
"APA Style and Personal Computers," computers were described
as "here to stay" (p. 311).)
Extended quotations
- Add emphasis in a quotation with underlining, immediately
followed by the words [italics added] in brackets.
- Brackets are not necessary when changing the first letter of a
quotation to upper case.
- For quotations over 40 words in length, indent and double space
the whole block. (However, single-spacing is acceptable.) Indent five
more spaces if there are paragraphs within the long quotation. Always
provide author, year, and page citation. Use brackets if introducing
or altering material.
- Reproduce a quote exactly. If there are errors, introduce the word
sic underlined and bracketed, for example, [sic]
immediately after the error.
- Use three dots (ellipsis points) when omitting material, four if
the omitted material includes the end of a sentence. Do not use dots
at the beginning or end of a quotation unless it is important to
indicate the quotation begins or ends in midsentence.
When not to use quotes
Do NOT use quotes to...
- ...cite a linguistic example; instead, underline the term (the verb
gather).
- ...hedge, cast doubt, or apologize (he was "cured"). Leave off the
quotes.
- ...identify endpoints on a scale; underline instead (poor to
excellent).
- ...introduce a key term (the neoquasipsychoanalytic
theory).
REFERENCE FORMATS
References are citations of other works such as books, journal
articles, or private communications. References in text are treated
somewhat differently from references in the complete list at the end of
a paper.
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Abbreviating within a reference
Here are approved abbreviations for use in a reference list:
- chap. for chapter
- ed. for edition
- rev. ed. for revised edition
- 2nd ed. for second edition
- Ed. for Edited by
- (Eds.) for multiple editors
- Trans. for Translated by
- p. for page number, with a space after the period
- pp. for page numbers, with a space after the period
- Vol for Volume
- vols. for volumes
- No. for Number
- Pt. for Part
- Suppl. for Supplement,
- Tech. Rep. for Technical Report
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Alphabetizing within reference lists
- Use prefixes in alphbetizing names if commonly part of the surname
(De Vries).
- Do not use "von" in alphabetizing (Helmholtz, H. L. F. von).
- Treat Mc and Mac literally; Mac comes before Mc.
- Disregard
apostrophes and capitals in alphabetizing; D'Arcy comes after
Daagwood.
- Single-author citations precede multiple-author citations (Zev,
1990 then Zev et al., 1990).
- Alphabetize corporate authors by first significant word. Do not use
abbreviations in corporate names.
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In-text references
- Use the author-date format to cite references in text. For example:
as Smith (1990) points out, a recent study (Smith, 1990) shows...
- For two-author citations, spell out both authors on all
occurrences.
- For multiple-author citations (up to five authors) name all authors
the first time, then use et al., so the first time it is Smith, Jones,
Pearson and Sherwin (1990), but the second time it is Smith et al.,
with a period after "al" but no underlining.
- The first time an
"et al." reference is used in a paragraph, give the year, thereafter
(if the citation is repeated in the paragraph) omit the year.
- For six or more authors, use et al. the first time and give the
full citation in references.
- Include page reference after the year, outside quotes but inside
the comma, for example: The author stated, "The effect disappeared
within minutes" (Lopez, 1993, p. 311) , but she did not say which
effect. Another example would be: Lopez found that "the effect
disappeared within minutes" (p. 311). Notice also that the sentence is
capitalized only if presented after a comma, as a complete sentence.
- If two or more multiple-author references which shorten to the same
"et al." form, making it ambiguous, give as many author names as
necessary to make them distinct, before et al. For example: (Smith,
Jones, et al., 1991) to distinguish it from (Smith, Burke, et al.,
1991).
- Join names in a multiple-author citation with and (in text) or an
ampersand (&) in reference lists and parenthetical comments. For
example: As Smith and Sarason (1990) point out, the same point was made
by in an earlier study (Smith & Sarason, 1990).
- If a group is readily identified by its initials, spell it out only
the first time. For example, "As reported in a government study
(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH}, 1991), blah blah..." and
thereafter, "The previously cited study (NIMH, 1991) found that...
- If the author is unknown or unspecified, use the first few words of
the reference list entry (usually the title), for example: ("Study
Finds," 1992).
- If citing multiple works by the same author at the same time,
arrange dates in order. In general, use letters after years to
distinguish multiple publications by the same author in the same year.
For example: Several studies (Johnson, 1988, 1990a, 1990b, 1995 in
press-a, 1995 in press-b) showed the same thing.
- For old works cite the translation or the original and modern
copyright dates (Aristotle, trans. 1931) or (James, 1890/1983).
- Always give page numbers for quotations, for example: (Cheek &
Buss, 1981, p. 332) or (Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3, p. 5).
- For e-mail and other "unrecoverable data" use personal
communication, for example: (V.-G. Nguyen, personal communication,
September 28, 1993). These do not appear in the reference list.
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Reference list formats
NOTE: wherever you see italics below, you should actually
underline when
preparing your paper. Italics are used here because many browsers use
underlines to indicate
links. References should be indented 5 to 7 spaces on the first line,
just like other
paragraphs. In examples below, the 5 white spaces are represented by 5
underscores (_____)
because most browsers ignore white space.
The APA publication manual contains 77 examples of different reference
types
(pp. 195-221). Here are a few examples of the most commonly used
formats.
Anonymous or unknown author (common in newspapers):
_____Caffeine linked to mental illness. (1991, July 13). New York
Times, pp. B13, B15.
Books:
_____Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of
style (3rd
ed.). New York: Macmillan.
_____American Psychiatric Association. (1990). Diagnostic and
statistical manual
of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
(note: "Author" is used as above when author and publisher are
identical.)
_____Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed. and
Trans.), The
standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund
Freud
(Vol. 19, pp. 3-66). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published
1923)
In text this would be cited as (Freud, 1923/1961).
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Electronic media
The manual specifies (for example) that an FTP retrievable file be
referenced
like this:
Bixley, T. S. (1995) Sentient microfilaments: A
tempest in a
tubule. [On-line]. Available FTP: 128.112.128.1 Directory:
pub/harnad
File: psyc.95.3.26.consciousness.11.bixley.
Increasingly, internet addresses are specified using a URL (uniform
resource locator). The
words "on-line" and "available" are redundant if you use a URL, because
the whole purpose
of a URL is to give "on-line availability" of a document. The URL
indicates the type of
resource (FTP, gopher, WWW) followed by two forward slashes followed by
an exact location
(machine, site, directory, and file). The URL permits anybody reading the document to copy the address into a WWW browser and retrieve the document.
APA format with a URL address would look something like this:
FTP:
_____Bixley, T. S. (1995) Sentient microfilaments: A tempest in a tubule.
[On-line]. Available:
ftp://blahblah.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/psyc.95.3.26/consciousness/11/bixley.
Gopher:
_____Bixley, T. S. (1995) Sentient microfilaments: A tempest in a tubule.
[On-line]. Available:
gopher://somecomputer.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/psyc.95.3.26/consciousness/11/bixley.
World Wide Web page:
_____Bixley, T. S. (1995) Sentient microfilaments Home Page.[On-line]. Available:
http://something.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/psyc.95.3.26/consciousness/11.html.
The use of URLs is not specified in the APA style manual. However, the URL is increasingly recognized as the standard way of specifying addresses for retrievable documents on the internet.
Group or institutional authors
_____University of Pittsburgh. (1993) The title goes here. Journal
of Something, 8, 5-9.
Journal article
_____Spitch, M. L., Verzy, H. N., & Wilkie, D. M. (1993).
Subjective shortening: A model of pigeons' memory for event duration.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal BehaviorProcesses, 9,
14-30.
Letter to the editor
_____O'Neill, G. W. (1992, January). In support of DSM-III [Letter to
the editor]. APA Monitor, p. 4-5.
Magazine article
_____Gardner, H. (1991, December). Do babies sing a universal song?
Psychology Today, pp. 70-76.
Newsletter article
_____Brown, L.S. (1993, Spring). My research with orangs. The
Psychology Department Newsletter, 3, 2.
The date is given as it appears on the publication. For anonymous
newspaper articles, see the previous section titled "Anonymous or
unknown authors."
Pamphlet
_____Just Say No Foundation. (1992). Saving our youth. (9th ed.)
[Brochure]. Washington, DC: Author.
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