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APA Style

Why Should I Care?

Some journals (and academics in that same field) use the APA style, which is useful to know.

The Basics

APA stands for American Psychology Association. This group of psychologists share a common style for the publishing of papers, which are scientific, and often use quantitative observations from experiments or field work. The cover page is usually separated from the rest of the paper, so that the revision process is done in a blind fashion. The author’s name must not be printed on the pages other than the cover page.

It is known for a short citation, without first names. In French, this style is called “Auteur-Date”. The style is used by many economists, political scientists, sociologists, and other social science disciplines.

Here is the complete set of guidelines for the Dawson-approved APA style.
http://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/academic-skills-centre/handouts/

Cover Page Format

This is an older version of the APA cover page.

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This is the most recent version of the APA cover page.

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Text Format

The second and subsequent pages follow common formatting.

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Here are some variations of quotes cited in APA style.

Version 1

According to Johnson (2013), the best thing since fried bread is “sliced bread.”

Version 2

According to a leading scientist, fried bread is great, but the best thing since that was invented is “sliced bread” (Johnson, 2013).

Version 3

Johnson likes to say (2013) that the best thing since fried bread is “sliced bread.”

When to use et al. ?

For articles with three or more authors, you can shorten the citation by using the latin phrase "et al." which is short for et alli. For example, using the article below, the citation looks like this:

According to Allcott et al. (2019), many social scientists believe that governments should tax sweet drinks.

References

Allcott, H., Lockwood, B., & Taubinsky, D. (2019). Should We Tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages? An Overview of Theory and Evidence. The Journal of Economic Perspectives. 33(3). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26732328

The APA style does not allow for et al. in the Reference list (bibliography).

Bibliography Format

Last Name, Initial. (YYYY). Book Title. City: Publishing Company.

Last Name, Initial. (YYYY). Article title. Journal title. v(i). Database. Permanent link.


This is an example of a list of sources. Some of these sources are fake, but many are real.


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Dos

  • Use the & for the last author.
  • Indent the second line by half an inch.
  • Italics for Book title, and Journal Title.
  • Use a second line only if needed.

Don'ts

  • Change the order of the authors, being first author matters.
  • If the author is an organization, do not split the name with a comma.
  • Use italics for article title.
  • Use Enter before the end of the reference.


LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/author-date

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