Research Guides: Citation and style manuals: American Psychological Association (APA)

American Psychological Association (APA) style is a widely accepted style of documentation, particularly in the social sciences. APA style specifies the names and order of headings, formatting, and organization of citations and references, and the arrangement of tables, figures, footnotes, and appendices, as well as other manuscript and documentation features. APA style uses the author-date style of parenthetical referencing, with such source citations keyed to a subsequent list of "References." Also known as the Harvard Style.

Style manuals

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association : the official guide to APA style. by American Psychological Association Staff
Call Number: BF76.7 .P83 2020

ISBN: 9781433832161

Publication Date: 2020
APA Style Guide to Electronic References
Call Number: PDF

ISBN: 9781433803093

Publication Date: 2007

Example sites

American Psychological Association official site, includes print product information and information on the latest updates to the format.
APA Formatting and Style Guide from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University. A thorough guide on the 7th edition APA style including print and electronic sources.
APA Citation from the University at Albany, State University of New York.
Flowchart for using DOIs and URLs in citations from APA.org

Output styles

Citing data sets

Minimum requirements based on instructions and example for dataset reference:

Milberger, S. (2002). Evaluation of violence against women with physical disabilities in Michigan, 2000-2001 (ICPSR version) [data file and codebook]. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03414

With optional elements:

Milberger, S. (2002). Evaluation of violence against women with physical disabilities in Michigan, 2000-2001 (ICPSR version) [data file and codebook]. Detroit: Wayne State University [producer]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03414