American Psychological Association

(APA) Formatting Guidelines

Developed for Florida Gulf

Coast UniversityBy Writing

Center Staff

APA Style is used in research writing for several majors. Always check with your professor if you’re not sure which format to use.

BusinessEducation

CriminologyEconomicsPsychologySociologyNursing

• Header should read “Running head:” followed by shortened title in capitals, followed by the page number:

Running head: PRIMARY EDUCATION 1• The running head should be no more than 50 characters

(including spaces and punctuation)• Full title (12 or fewer words) should be centered in the upper

half of the page• Title is followed by student’s name and university.

Title page

Title page

Running head: SHORT TITLE ALL CAPS IN HEADER 1 1

Full Title of Paper: Sentence Case, Centered Left to Right

Name of Student Author

Name of University

No more than 50 characters

Full title is centered in upper half of the page

Abstracts

When required, an abstract should be placed on the page immediately following the title page.

• Indicate the thesis and main points of the paper.• Touch on the conclusions or implications of the research.• Do not indent on the first line.

Abstract

Source: Lambert, S., et al. (2005). Risk factors for community violence exposure in adolescence. American Journal of Community Psychology. 36(1-2), pp. 29-49.

Brief summary describing purpose and findings of the paper

Average length 150- 250 words Written as a single paragraph

with no indentations Word “Abstract” centered at the

top Includes a header (title and

page number)

RISK FACTORS 2

Abstract

Community violence is

recognized as a significant

public health problem. However,

only a paucity of research has

examined risk factors for

community violence exposure

across domains relevant to

adolescents or using longitudinal

data. This study examined youth

aggressive behavior in relation

to community violence.

Page FormattingFont Times New Roman 12-point Margins 1 inchSpacing double 5-space indent at

the beginning of each paragraph

Justification Left

INTERACTIVE CONFLICT

5

Begun primarily with the focus on the study of peace and

prevention of war (Harty & Modell, 1991), the field of conflict

resolution has since expanded its influence to all spheres

from family, to business and community, to international

relations.

The effort, in fact, has been to shift international conflict

resolution from being primarily the domain of the government

and the military to that of social scientists.

The most difficult aspect of intergroup and international

conflicts is their tendency to become protracted. Azar (1990)

suggests that such conflicts occur “when communities are

deprived of satisfaction of their basic needs on the basis of

their communal identity” (p. 12).

Paraphrase

Writers cannot claim the words OR ideas of another as their own.

Each time you paraphrase another author (put his or her ideas in your own words or summarize a passage), you must credit the source in the text.

Paraphrase

In your own words

Cite with author and year of publication

Critics of the workshops again called into question the applicability of a

very intense method of human-relations training (the Tavistock model)

to the situations of sensitive and volatile intergroup relations (Fisher,

1997).

Appears exactly the way it does in the original text Surrounded by quotation marks Cited with author, year of publication, and page number. If no page number, use paragraph number.

Short quotesfewer than 40 words

Azar (1990) suggests that such conflicts occur when “communities are

deprived of satisfaction of their basic needs on the basis of their

communal identity” (para. 12).

Such conflicts occur when “communities are deprived of satisfaction of

their basic needs on the basis of their communal identity” (Azar, 1990,

p. 12).

Short quotesfewer than 40 words

Block Quotes

• Longer than 40 words

• No quotation marks

• Starts on a new line

• Double-spaced

• Whole quote indented ½”

• Citation after the period

Block Quote

Contrary to conclusions reported by Dylan (1979) and Forbes

(1980), new research demonstrated many things about placebo

effects on behaviors. The placebo effect, which had been

verified in previous studies, disappeared when behaviors

were studied in this manner. Earlier

studies were clearly premature in attributing the results to a

placebo effect. (Smith, 1982, p. 234)

Such future work must be both methodologically and

scientifically sound.

Citing multiple authors

Use ‘&’ in parenthetical citations One author

Two authors

Three to five authors (first citation)

• Six and more authors

Jones and Smith (2000) or (Jones & Smith, 2000)

(Williams, Jones, Smith, & Torrington, 2003)

(Williams et al., 2003)

Smith (2002) or (Smith, 2002)

Citing an indirect sourceName the original source in your signal phrase.List the secondary source in your reference listInclude the secondary source in the parentheses.

Levine (1998) (as cited in Barr, 2000) feels that students often fail to

maximize their potential.

Reference list: Use secondary source (Barr).

Citing using titleswhen no author is listed

Book title

Article or chapter title

Organization name

(Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2000)

(“Rats and Placebos,” 2003)

(National Institute of Mental Health, 2001)

Citation <---> ReferenceIn-text citations must always match with the reference entries:

In-text Citation

Reference Entry

“The club-and-bar scene is a new addition to the [student fun] list” (Levine

& Cureton, 1998).

Levine, A., & Cureton, J. (1998). When hope and fear collide: A portrait of

today’s college student. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.

ReferencesAlphabetize by author’s last name Double-spaceHanging indent for each entryArticle title - only capitalize first wordBook title - italicize, only capitalize first word Journal title - italicize and capitalize all words

References GUIDE TO WRITING 5

References

Fine, M., & Kurdek, L. (1993). Reflections on determining authorship credit and

authorship order on faculty-student collaborations. American

Psychologist, 48, 1141-1147.

GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.gatech.edu/gvu/ usersurveys/survey1

Nicol, A., & Pexman, P. (1999). Presenting your findings: A practical guide for

creating tables. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

ResourcesTutorial about APA style

• http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm

Sample APA paper

• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090212013008_560.pdf

For more information

please refer to the APA Manual or

go to or go to www.apastyle.org