APA Style

Cynthia Kane

Professor and Director of Assessment

Emporia State University Libraries and Archives

ckane1@emporia.edu

620-341-5480

PHILOSOPHY:

The APA style is designed specifically for scientific research with an eye towards publication. The MLA (Modern Language Association) style is designed for humanities disciplines.

APA FAQs: “Rules of style in scientific writing encourage full disclosure of essential information and allow us to dispense with minor distractions.”

THEREFORE:

APA in-text references and citations focus upon: YEAR of the publication ACCURACY of complex material, such as tables and statistics

Comparing Differences in APA and Other Citation Styles!

APA:

Camenga, D. R., Cavallo, D. A., Kong, G., Morean, M. E., Connell, C. M., Simon, P., . . . Krishnan-Sarin, S. (2015). Adolescents’ and young adults’ perceptions of electronic cigarettes

for smoking cessation: A focus group study. Nicotine &  Tobacco Research, 17(10), 1235-1241.

Chicago Manual of Style (Author-Date):

Camenga, Deepa R., Dana A. Cavallo, Grace Kong, Meghan E. Morean, Christian M. Connell, Patricia Simon, Sandra M. Bulmer, and Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin. 2015. "Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Perceptions of Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation: A Focus Group Study." Nicotine & Tobacco Research 17 (10): 1235-1241.

MLA:

Camenga, Deepa R., et al. "Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Perceptions of Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation: A Focus Group Study." Nicotine & Tobacco  Research 17.10 (2015): 1235-41. PsycINFO. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.

See the Differences?

CHECK the citation generated from a “Cite” or “Citation Tools” feature from a database. Depending upon the original metadata, it may need to be edited for the correct APA style (or corresponding citation style).

EXAMPLE (APA citation copied and pasted directly from Academic Search Premier):

Ashok, P., Apte, G., Wagh, G., & Joshi, A. R. (2013). Psychological Well-Being & Obesity in Peri-Menopausal and Post-Menopausal Women. National Journal Of Physiology, Pharmacy & Pharmacology, 3(1), 97-101.

Can you identify the errors?

But Even Then…

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2009).

Updates: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/24

APA Frequently Asked Questions, http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/what-is-apa-style.aspx

WAW Library Electronic Databases

Many offer a “citation tools” or “cite” feature that will convert a bibliographic record into a citation style WARNING – the tools are ONLY as good as the metadata within the bibliographic record! Proofread the citation

against the American Psychological Association Publication Manual.

APA Style Blog, http://blog.apastyle.org/ Official companion to the APA Publication Manual; weekly posts about APA style questions and areas not

necessarily covered in the Manual!

OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue, APA Formatting and Style Guide, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

APA Style Guide (WAW Library), http://emporia.beta.libguides.com/apa

Help with APA Style

http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/

APA Tutorial (from the American Psychological Association)

Freely available bibliographic software programs Zotero – download for Firefox browser, with “extensions” for Google Chrome and Safari

https://www.zotero.org RefME – Web based and supports Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and

Opera https://www.refme.com/

Both allow downloading of citations in various formats, creation of bibliographies in different citation styles, and creating “collections” (Zotero) or “projects” (RefME) for organizing information

Zotero: Integrates with Microsoft Word to import in-text citations and bibliographies while writing

RefME: Copy and paste bibliographic citations; create, copy, and paste “pages/notes” to add page numbers and direct quotes or paraphrasing

Zotero and RefME

APA Style

Cynthia Kane

Professor and Director of Assessment

Emporia State University Libraries and Archives

ckane1@emporia.edu

620-341-5480