Psychology

APA style is the standard for formatting papers and citing references in the social sciences, nursing, and education.

The APA Style website has all the key information you'll need to get started. Refer to the full Publication Manual or ask a librarian when you have additional questions.

Additional Resources:

All digital object identifiers (DOIs) need to be in the link format: https://doi.org/xxxxx. It is unusual for recent journals articles not to have a DOI, so look for the link on the article PDF or the journal's website. If you find only the last portion (10.474...), convert it to a link following the format above and then verify that the link works. It should direct the user to the article on the journal's homepage.

Your entire paper should be double-spaced; however, an extra line is added by default after each paragraph in Microsoft Word and Google docs. Look for the Layout or Format menu to remove any extra lines.

Your References page needs to use hanging indention, where the first line is all the way to the left margin and additional lines are indented by 1/2 inch. Both Microsoft Word and Google Docs have a way for this to happen automatically, using "Indentation" options (rather than using tab to indent manually).

You may need refer to long group names, such as the American Psychological Association (APA) in your writing or citations. To learn how, see:

Use citation tools within article databases to simplify the process of creating your list of references.  

Here's how:

• Select the title of the article you want to cite.

• Look for a tools section and click on Cite.

• Copy and paste the article citation into your list of references.

• Verify the citation against official APA style sources, as citations from databases ARE OFTEN formatted incorrectly.

Use citation tools within the SPU catalog to simplify the process of creating your list of references.  

Here's how:

• Identify the book/video you want to cite and click on the quotation marks in the upper right corner.

• Select your preferred citation style to view citation in APA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard, or MLA. You may also choose to export the citation to a citation management tool such as RefWorks.
• Copy the citation to the clipboard to paste where needed.
• Always verify the citation against official APA style sources, as citations can often be formatted incorrectly.