APA Publication Manual Crib
Sheet
Prepared by Russ Dewey
(rdewey@gasou.edu)
Contents (click on
hyperlinks to go to...):
Introductory
information
Rules
- Abbreviations
- Avoiding biased and
pejorative language
- Capitalization
- Commas
- Hyphenation
- Italics
(underlining)
- Miscellaneous
- Numbers
- Quotation marks
Reference
formats
- Abbreviating within a
reference
- Alphabetizing within
reference lists
- In-text
references
- Reference list
formats
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
4th 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 5 to 7 spaces on the first line, just like other
paragraphs.
- Electronic references should
have an address permitting retrieval (see discussion in
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. [Italics are
used throughout this document in place of
underlining.]
- Journal names are now
italicized/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.
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
- 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).
- If anybody is still using the
old abbreviations for subject, experimenter, and observer (S,
E, O) they should stop.
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, for example: PhDs, IQs, vols.,
Eds.
Two oddities: 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).
Use two-letter postal codes for
U.S. state names (GA).
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"
"Jane Doe"
"Doe"
Correct 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 or
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, 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 a 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."
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).
Commas
Do not use commas to separate
parts of measurement, for example: 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, for example: (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 semi-colons 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).
Hyphenation
Do not hyphenate -ly and
superlative words (widely used test, less informed
students)
Do not hyphenate common prefixes
(posttest, prewar, multiphase, nonsignificant).
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 "life
style."
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.
Miscellaneous: Colons, dashes,
parentheses, numbering paragraphs
Do not use "and/or." Write things
out, for example: Monday, Tuesday, or both (not 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 "appendix." 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. For
example:
- The first paragraph goes
here.
- The second paragraph goes
here.
Numbers
Spell out common fractions and
common expressions (One-half, Fourth of July).
Spell out large numbers beginning
sentences (Thirty days hath September...)
Spell out numbers below 10 when
grouped for comparison with numbers above ten (Of 20 baby rats, 5
had two heads).
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). Another example: We used 30 subjects, all
2-year-olds, and they spend an average of 1 hr 20 min per day
crying.
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).
Use metric abbreviations with
figures (4 km) but not when written out (many meters
distant).
Use the percent symbol (%) only
with numbers (5%) not with written out (five percent).
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 predicts trouble later on...
Use quotation marks for article
and chapter titles cited in text (but not in the reference list),
for example: This was explained in Smith's (1992) article, "APA
Style and Personal Computers," where computers were described as
"here to stay" (p.311).
Extended quotations
Add emphasis in a quotation with
underlinining, 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.
Abbreviating within a
reference
Here are approved abbreviations
for use in your 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
- pp. for page
numbers
- Vol for Volume
- vols. for volumes
- No. for Number
- Pt. for Part
- Suppl. for
Supplement,
- Tech. Rep. for Technical
Report
Alphabetizing within reference
lists
Use prefixes in alphabetizing
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.
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.
Reference list
formats
NOTE: References should be
indented 5 to 7 spaces on the first line, just like other
paragraphs.
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).
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.92.3.26.consciousness.11.bridgeman.
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.92.3.26/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.92.3.26/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.92.3.26/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 Behavior Processes, 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.
