APA Style

American Psychological Association (APA) Style is a set of rules developed to assist reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences. Designed to ensure clarity of communication, the rules are designed to "move the idea forward with a minimum of distraction and a maximum of precision." The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association contains the rules for every aspect of writing, especially in the social sciences from determining authorship to constructing a table to avoiding plagiarism and constructing accurate reference citations.

The Publication Manual was established in 1929 as a seven-page document with a set of procedures to increase the ease of reading comprehension (APA, 2009a, p. xiii).[ Created under the sponsorship of the United States National Research Council, its originators included psychologists, anthropologists, and publishing professionals.

In 1952, the booklet was expanded and published as a 55-page supplement in Psychological Bulletin with revisions made in 1957 and 1967 (APA, 1952, 1957, 1967).[3][4][5] The first edition covered word choice, grammar, punctuation, formatting, journal publication policies, and "wrapping and shipping" (APA, Council of Editors, 1952, p. 442).

In response to the growing complexities of scientific reporting, subsequent editions were released in 1974, 1983, 1994, and 2001. Primarily known for the simplicity of its reference citation style, the Publication Manual also established standards for language use that had far-reaching effects. Particularly influential were the "Guidelines for Nonsexist Language in APA Journals," first published as a modification to the 1974 edition, which provided practical alternatives to sexist language then in common usage.[6][7] The guidelines for reducing bias in language have been updated over the years and presently provide practical guidance for writing about race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status (APA, 2009, pp. 70–77; see also APA, 2009b).[8]
The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association was released in July 2009 after 4 years of development. The Publication Manual Revision Task Force of the American Psychological Association established parameters for the revision based on published criticism, user comments, commissioned reviews, and input from psychologists, nurses, librarians, business leaders, publishing professionals, and APA governance groups (APA, 2007a, 2007b)[9][10]. To accomplish these revisions, the Task Force appointed working groups of four to nine members in seven areas: Bias-Free Language, Ethics, Graphics, Journal Article Reporting Standards, References, Statistics, and Writing Style (APA, 2009, pp. xvii-xviii).

Thoroughly reorganized and updated, the sixth edition was significantly revised to incorporate the technological advances that had affected virtually all areas of scientific communication since the previous edition was published (APA, 2001). Specific revisions in the sixth edition include

1.Expanded ethics guidance on determining authorship, sharing data, plagiarism, and self-plagiarism;
2.A new section on Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS), stressing the need for precision and consistency in reporting methodology and providing practical guidelines for achieving this consistency;
3.New, simplified heading style for easier comprehension of online articles;
4.Expanded guidelines on reducing bias in language, including a new section on presenting historical language that is inappropriate by present standards;
5.New guidelines for reporting inferential statistics as well as thoroughly revised and expanded tables of statistical abbreviations and measures;
6.New procedures and examples for the electronic presentation of data;
7.New formats for electronic references, with a focus on the digital object identifier, or DOI, as the most reliable way to locate online information;
8.Expanded information about the publishing process, including a new discussion of the peer review process;
9.All new examples and illustrative material to demonstrate revised standards of style.