Content
The APA rules They are a set of regulations and conventions to prepare monographic or research works. This methodological style was developed by the American Psycological Association and it was spread around the world as a standard format for verbatim references and citations.
This regulation is applied, above all, in formal academic research works and unifies the criteria towards a single format that must organize the full text: margins, textual citations, footnotes and final bibliographic references.
The APA standards are regularly updated, in successive versions that are included in their official manuals.
- It can help you: Bibliographic citations
Examples of APA standards
- Sheet margins. The margins of the four sides should be 2.54 cm, along the entire text.
- Footnotes. Notes must be indicated with a successive numeral index (1, 2, 3) in the body of the text. If they are indications that develop what was said in the work, they should go to the foot of the page and can be spread over several sheets. If they are full articles or other additional material, they should go as final notes. Footnotes are not used for bibliographic indications.
- Page numbering. The pages of the text must always be numbered in the upper or lower left corner, with the exception, if any, of the cover page, title page and preliminary pages (acknowledgments, epigraphs, etc.) that will be taken into account in the numbering but not they will be numbered. The page number must be accompanied by the surname of the author of the text: Surname 103
- Bleeding. The first line of each paragraph (with the exception of the initial line of text) must be indented five spaces before the first word. This space is equivalent to a tab (hit of the key tab).
- Abbreviations. Academic texts often use abbreviations in their references, citations or indicative texts:
- chap. (chapter)
- ed. (edition)
- rev. (revised edition)
- trad. (translator or translators)
- s.f. (without date)
- p. (page)
- pp. (pages)
- cabbage. (volume)
- no. (number)
- pt. (part)
- supl (supplement)
- ed (publisher or publishers)
- comp. (compiler)
- comps. (compilers)
- Verbatim citations of less than 40 words or five lines. They must be enclosed in double quotation marks ("") to distinguish themselves from the rest of the text, without altering the paragraph. It must be accompanied by a parenthetical reference:
Gautier affirmed regarding morality that “it is the finest of the arts” (1985, p.4).
- Quotes of more than 40 words or five lines. They are written in a smaller font size (one or two points) than ordinary text, indented with two tabs and without quotation marks, as an aside in the text and accompanied by their parenthetical reference.
- Paraphrase or paraphrase quotes. Paraphrases, that is, the ideas of others summarized in their own words, must always indicate the original authorship. A parenthetical reference is indicated at the end of the paraphrase with the author's last name and the year of publication of his work:
Black holes emit detectable forms of radiation (Hawking, 2002) and ...
- Parenthetical references. All citations and paraphrases of third-party researched content must have your references. References must indicate: last name of the cited author + year of publication of the text + page number (if applicable):
(Soublette, 2002, p. 45)
(Soublette, 2002)
(Soublette, p. 45)
(2002, p. 45)
- Cite two or more authors. If the cited text has more than one author, their respective surnames must be placed in the reference, separated by commas and finally by an "&" symbol:
Two authors: Mckenzie & Wright, 1999, p. 100
Three authors: Mckenzie, Wright & Lloyce, 1999, p. 100
Five authors: Mckenzie, Wright, Lloyce, Farab & López, 1999, p. 100
- Cite a main author and contributors. If the cited text has a main author and collaborators, the name of the main author must be placed in the reference, and then the expression et al:
Mckenzie, et al., 1999.
Mckenzie, Wright, et al., 1999.
- Quote a corporate author. Texts whose author is not a person but are owned by a company or institution are referred to by placing the name or acronym of the company where the author's last name would go:
UN, 2010.
Microsoft, 2014.
- Quote an anonymous. In the case of anonymous authors (which is not equal to unknown authors), the word Anonymous instead of the author's last name and the rest of the format instructions are taken care of:
Anonymous, 1815, p. 10
- List of bibliographic references (bibliography). The end of a research work must contain a list with all the cited bibliography. In this list the authors' last names are organized alphabetically, and add the year of publication of the work in parentheses, the title in italics and the rest of the editorial information:
Surname, Name of the author (year of publication). Title. City, Country of publication: Editorial.
- Refer book excerpts. For a book fragment that was not consulted in full, the following structure is used:
Surname, Name of the author of the fragment (year of publication). "Title of the fragment". In Surname, Compilation or book title (pp. range of pages occupied by the fragment separated with a hyphen). City, Country of publication: Editorial.
- Refer magazine articles. To include a journal article in the bibliography, the editorial information pertinent to the number and volume of the periodical must be included:
Surname, Name of the author of the article (Date of publication). "Article title". Magazine name. Volume (Number), pp. page range of the article.
- Refer articles online. Internet articles cited in the text must have the URL, so that it can be retrieved and consulted:
Surname, Name of the author if there is (Date of publication). "Article title". Name of the online magazine. Retrieved from http: //www. URL address of the article.
- Refer press articles. To cite articles from a journal, complete information on the location of the article is provided, including the author (if any):
With author: Surname, Name of the author (Date of publication). "Article title". Name of the newspaper, page range.
No author: "Article title" (Date of publication). Name of the newspaper, page range.
- Refer web pages. To include an Internet page that is not an online magazine or newspaper, the following format is used:
Surname, Name of the author (Date of publication). Title of the web page. Publishing place: Editors. Retrieved from: http: //www. URL address of the page
- Refer a movie. For all types of film productions, the format takes the director as the author of the work and provides the information of the production company:
Surname, Name of the author (Year of appearance). Film title. Production house.
- Continue with: Topics of interest to expose
