What is American Psychological Association (APA) style?
- APA Style was developed by social and behavioral scientists to standardize scientific writing.
- APA style is a set of rules for how you credit sources by writing citations and references.
- The rules change depending on the type/format of a source (e.g. an article with two authors, a book with no date or an article with DOI etc.).
- APA style is used for: term papers; research reports; empirical studies; literature reviews; theoretical articles; methodological articles and case studies.
What are in-text citations and references?
Giving credit to a source is a must to avoid plagiarism. In APA style, there are two ways to credit sources:
- In-text citation: In the body of a paper when a source is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
- References: In an alphabetical order at the end of a paper.
In-text citation and references provide information about a source such as author and publication year that help a reader locate the source in its original form.