APA Format

APA Format Guidelines

American Psychological Association (APA)

APA style is considered to be one of the most widely used writing styles among editors and teachers. When they ask you to write in APA style, they do not mean writing style. They are referring to the editorial style that many of the social and behavioral sciences have adopted to present written material in the field. Editorial style consists of rules or guidelines that a publisher observes to ensure clear and consistent presentation of written material. Editorial style concerns uniform use of such elements as:

• punctuation and abbreviations
• construction of tables
• selection of headings
• citation of references
• presentation of statistics
• as well as many other elements that are a part of every manuscript

The American Psychological Association (APA) has established a style – APA style - that it uses in all of the books and journals that it publishes. Many people working in the social and behavioral sciences have adopted this style as their standard as well.

Below, you will find how books, journal articles, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedia articles or websites should be cited according to APA format.

Journal or Magazine Article
Wilcox, R. V. (1991). Shifting roles and synthetic women in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Studies in Popular Culture, 13(2), 53-65.

Journal or Magazine Article
Dubeck, L. (1990). Science fiction aids science teaching. Physics Teacher, 28, 316-318.

Newspaper Article
Di Rado, A. (1995, March 15). Trekking through college: Classes explore modern society using the world of Star Trek. Los Angeles Times, p. A3.

Article from an Internet Database
Mershon, D. H. (1998, November-December). Star Trek on the brain: Alien minds, human minds. American Scientist, 86, 585. Retrieved July 29, 1999, from Expanded Academic ASAP database.

Book
Okuda, M., & Okuda, D. (1993). Star Trek chronology: The history of the future. New York: Pocket Books.

Book Article or Chapter
James, N. E. (1988). Two sides of paradise: The Eden myth according to Kirk and Spock. In D. Palumbo (Ed.), Spectrum of the fantastic (pp. 219-223). Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Encyclopedia Article
Sturgeon, T. (1995). Science fiction. In The encyclopedia Americana (Vol. 24, pp. 390-392). Danbury, CT: Grolier.

ERIC Document
Fuss-Reineck, M. (1993). Sibling communication in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Conflicts between brothers. Miami, FL: Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 364932)

Website
Lynch, T. (1996). DS9 trials and tribble-ations review. Retrieved October 8, 1997, from Psi Phi: Bradley's Science Fiction Club Web site: http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/503r.html

Notes on APA format:

• If you are using the style for Copy Manuscripts, double space all lines. If you are using the style for Final Manuscripts, single space all lines and skip a line in between each reference. Ask your professor which style to follow.
• Arrange the items on your reference list alphabetically by author, interfiling books, articles, etc.
• Indent the second and following lines 5 to 7 spaces or one half inch.
• Use only the initials of the authors' first (and middle) names.
• If no author is given, start with the title and then the date.
• If you are using a typewriter that cannot produce italics, then use underlining instead.
• Magazine articles: include the month (and day) as shown under Newspapers.
• Websites: if the date the page was created is not given, use (n.d.).

The rules concerning a title within a title are not displayed here for purposes of clarity.