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APA Format in Writing a Research Paper

APA stands for American Psychological Association and is the most common referencing style used when writing academic papers in various disciplines. There are set guidelines on how students should structure their papers and how they should cite references in the text under the APA formatting style. These guidelines also apply when creating graphs and charts that add value to the research.

If you're not sure how to write a research paper in APA format, we can help out by providing expert advice and quality examples. Our website has been designed to offer everything you need when it comes to citing references and formatting your paper the right way.

Using APA Format for Your Social Science Research Paper

There are certain rules you must stick to if you want your social science research paper to stand out.

First, any reference list should only include sources that directly relate to the subject of your research paper. It's not acceptable to include information about concepts or phenomena that go beyond the topic area.

Next, it's important to make a clear distinction between in-text citations and the reference list. In-text citations should be placed immediately after a quote or statement from another source. The reference list should only include sources you actually consulted while writing your assignment.

Finally, every time you use information from another source, you must reference it clearly. APA is an abbreviation for the American Psychological Association which prefers authors to use a referencing style that includes in-text citations and a corresponding reference list. It's used primarily in the sciences and humanities disciplines, although there are some variations like APSA (American Political Science Association) and CMS (Chicago Manual of Style).

The Basic Rules of Writing APA Citations

In-text Citation

Intext citations are references that the author of an article (or another kind of paper) gives within his text, but he does not provide a direct quote. The reference is only about the source, without citing any part of it.

This type of citation can be used to make connections between various research work and ideas.

Intext citations can be a shortened form of the author-date system or they can be full sentences enumerating keywords from the original source.

In this paper, we use this second notation as it is considered to be more formalized and appropriate for academic writing.

The following example demonstrates what an intext citation looks like:

(Hickey, 2010)

In this case, the reference is from a paper written by Ron Hickey called "Personal Digital Archiving". The date of publication is 2010. In this example, we can directly see that the author used some ideas from his previous research as well as the names of some authors and their published works.

The Reference List

The American Psychological Association (APA) is one of the most popular referencing styles used in psychology. Here are some tips about how to include basic APA reference list within your paper:

1.      It is essential to indicate the date at which an article was published. You can find it on the first page of every source.

2.      It is necessary to give the name of the author or authors.

3.      You have to include all titles of an article in italics or quotation marks followed by the year in which it was published, its volume number and its first and last page numbers. For example: "How Children Learn About Politics". American Psychologist, 43(4), (1988), 293-303.

4.      It is not necessary to write the name of the journal, if it is clear by the context which one you refer to. For example: " […] in this paper we used data from psychology journals". You can also use abbreviations for both journal names and volume numbers, but this is optional. For example: " […] we used data from APA Journals".

5.      If you are citing two or more references in the same paragraph, include them in the same style but write the last author's name once with all of them after it separated by a comma. Insert 'and' before the last author's name. For example: "As Hossack and Green (2011), Jussim et al. (1996) and Smith, Wilson & Totten (2002) all noted…"

6.      Make sure that you have included the full references both in the reference list at the end of your research paper and within the text itself. APA guidelines require a writer to provide a reference for every idea taken from another author, no matter whether it is a direct quote or not.

7.      There are four types of APA references:

a.      Books – for a book with one author, the reference should include last name and initials of that author (without commas) followed by a comma and the year in which it was published. For example: Smith, J. (2016). How to write an essay. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

b.      Books – for a book with two authors, include both of their last names followed by '&' and the year in which it was published. If there are three or more authors, list only the first author followed by 'et al.' and the year. For example: Smith, J., Green, D., & Wilson, T. (2016). How to write an essay. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

c.       Journal article – in these references you have to mention all authors' names followed by '&' and the year in which it was published. If there are three or more authors, list only the first author followed by 'et al.' and the year. You can also use abbreviations of all authors' names (for example: et al.). For example: Smith, J., Green, D., & Wilson, T. (2017). How to write an essay. Educational Psychology, 37(2), 272-290.

d.      Articles from a non-serial journal – list the first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year in which it was published. For example: Smith, J., Green, D., & Wilson, T. (2017). How to write an essay. Educational Psychology, 37(2), 272-290.

e.      Articles from a serial – list only the first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year in which it was published (for example: Smith et al., 2016). You can also use abbreviations of all authors' names (for example: et al.). For example: Smith et al., 2016.

8.      The DOI number is a permanent reference to journal articles and other sources that have electronic versions, such as online libraries. In the text of your paper you can refer to an article by its author(s) name(s) and year of publication (for example: (Smith, Green & Wilson, 2017). If you use the DOI number, replace 'Smith, Green & Wilson' with 'doi:10.1016/j.joep.2016.12.006'.

Citations vs the Reference List

In-text citations should be placed immediately after a quote or statement from another source. The reference list should only include sources you actually consulted while writing your assignment.

Citation Formats in APA Style

Every time you use information from another source, you must reference it clearly. According to APA style guidelines, there are several citation formats that can be used:

·       The author-date method. This is the default style used in social sciences papers, especially psychology but also sociology and political science.

·       The author-title method. It's primarily used for literary works, such as novels or poems.

When inserting citations into your paper, make sure to use the correct style depending on what type of source you've used.

APA Reference List Entries

There are a few basic rules to follow when creating a reference list:

All entries must be alphabetized by the author's last name or, for sources with no authors, the first word of the title.

Entries should have a hanging indent and double-spacing throughout. There should be one-inch margins on all sides of the page.

Source names should be written in full. Titles should also be included, but they don't need to be written in italics or quotation marks.

The first line of an entry should not include any punctuation, unless it is a period after an abbreviation such as 'ibid.'

Author names should be written as follows: last name, comma, first name. For an online source without a print equivalent, include the author's name in the by-line beneath the article title.

If there is more than one work published by a particular author, use three hyphens and a period after the first entry of the author's name. For example, the following would show up in the reference list:

Smith, J. C., & Brown, D. (1990). The test of time. Journal of Psychology, 124(3), 249-253.

Smith, R. L., & Brown, D., & Jones Jr., O. (2015). The effect of cell phones on productivity. American Psychologist, 70(1), 26-32.

For the second example above, if something like ibid. is used in the main text, there should be no entry for Smith et al. (2015) in the reference list. Instead write 'Smith et al., 2015'.

Do not abbreviate any words in the reference list except for 'ibid.', which is acceptable.

When creating a reference list, make sure to use hanging indents whenever a citation spans more than one line:

Brown, J., Reyner, L. A., & Mitchell, D. C. (2009). The influence of a television show on the public's perception of a real-life incident. Memory, 17(6), 676-683.

Brown, J., Reyner, L. A., & Mitchell, D. C., 2009. The influence of a television show on the public's perception of a real-life incident. Memory, 17(6), 676-683.

Common mistakes people make when writing in APA style

Do not include the publication year in references.

When creating a reference list, make sure to use hanging indents whenever a citation spans more than one line.

Include only sources you actually consulted while writing your assignment. For example, if you used another student's notes or a professor's lecture slides while researching and writing your assignment, do not include them in the reference list.

Do not abbreviate any words, except for 'ibid.'

Whenever a citation spans more than one line, use hanging indents.

Do not italicize or place quotations around titles of books or articles that appear in the reference list. For example: (Publication Manual 2011, p. 104).

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

. (2011). Washington, DC: Author.

References should be written as follows: Brown, J., Reyner, L. A., & Mitchell, D. C. (2009). The influence of a television show on the public's perception of a real-life incident. Memory, 17(6), 676-683.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (pp. 104). Washington, DC: Author.

References should be written as follows: Brown, J., Reyner, L. A., & Mitchell, D. C. (2009). The influence of a television show on the public's perception of a real-life incident. Memory, 17(6), 676-683.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (pp. 104). Washington, DC: Author.

What is the Difference Between MLA and APA?

APA and MLA are two of the most widely used formats for writing academic papers. If you're having trouble deciding between APA vs MLA, contact us as we can help!

The differences between these styles can be difficult to understand, but our team has experience in various disciplines and will answer all your questions. We also provide unlimited revisions so you can work with us until you're satisfied.

When to Use APA Format

APA format should be used when writing papers for Psychology, Nursing, Business and other liberal arts disciplines where there is a lot of empirical data that needs to be cited. However, if your paper falls under another discipline, such as Sociology or Education, MLA format is the better option.

If you are not sure which style to use, talk to us as we can help.

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