"APA style" is the citation style guide used in health and social sciences.
As the American Psychological Association (APA) states:
When editors or teachers ask you to write in "APA Style," they are referring to the editorial style that many of the social and behavioral sciences have adopted to present written material in the field. APA Style was first developed 80 years ago by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication. Since that time, it has been adopted by leaders in many fields and has been used by writers around the world.
Watch the video below for an introduction to using APA style, 7th edition. To see it in a larger window, click on the link below. This video tutorial was created by TCC librarians.
the in-text citation:
Your TCC Librarians and the Director of the Writing and Tutoring Center encourage you (and your instructors) to use APA 6 through Winter 2020. If you already know APA 6, it would not hurt their feelings if you kept using it through Spring 2020 as well, especially if it means you will be devoting that energy to your researching and writing skills (Urschel et al., 2020).
the References citation:
Urschel, H., Adams, M. K., Cmiel, S., Williams, R., Gillanders, H., & Snoek-Brown, J. (2020). Citing sources: APA (American Psychological Association). TCC Library Research Guides. http://tacomacc.libguides.com/TCCLibrary/research-guides
Wiskunde, B., Arslan, M., Fischer, P., Nowak, L., Van den Berg, O., Coetzee, L., Juárez, U., Riyaziyyat, E., Kimura, Y., Zhang, I., Chakraborty, P., Yang, M. L., Kumar, B., Xu, A., Martinez, R., McIntosh, V., Ibáñez, L. M., Mäkinen, G., Virtanen, E., . . . Kovács, A. (2019). The mathematics of the unicorn's horn. Imaginary Journal of Improbable Mathematics, 27(1), 78–86. http://doi.org/10.0000/3mp7y-537
Webpages and website documents are now treated as stand-alone documents, which means that those titles are in italics and website names appear in normal typeface.
Previously:
Goodman, B. (2020, January 17). Could your Fitbit help detect the flu? WebMD. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20200117/could-your-fitbit-help-detect-the-flu
Now:
Goodman, B. (2020, January 17). Could your Fitbit help detect the flu? WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20200117/could-your-fitbit-help-detect-the-flu
In addition to consulting with TCC Research Librarians and the Writing and Tutoring Center, my student success plan will include bookmarking and using the Purdue OWL (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html) which is a valuable resource for writing and research help and for citation support.
(If you are referring to a single page from a Website, or a document you retrieved from a Website, cite as you would any article, both in-text, and as an entry in your References page.)
TCC Librarians. (2020). Citing sources. TCC Library website: http://tacomacc.libguides.com/Citing_Sources/apa
Centers for Disease Control. (2020). Coronavirus (COVID-19). Retrieved February 29, 2020 from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/index.html
There are a lot more rules... sorry:
General summary for electronic (non-print) sources and the inclusion of retrieval information (DOIs and URLs):
If you do not know what a DOI is, and/or the above doesn't make much sense to you, please see the link below.
References page citations for books used to include the publisher's location (a city, and perhaps state as well). APA no longer requires the publisher's location. This applies to both print books and e-books.
Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. New York: One World.
As with periodicals, if an e-book is accessed through a subscription database, such as EBook Central, do not include a retrieval URL:
Tuck, S. & Gates, H. L. (2014). The night Malcolm X spoke at the Oxford Union: A transatlantic story of antiracist protest. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
And also as with periodicals, if an ebook is available freely online to anyone, include a retrieval URL:
Hurston, N. Z. (1930). Poker! http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/15902/pg15902-images.html
eReader edition of a book? (Kindle for example)
APA 7 no longer requires a format note [Kindle]; cite as you would any other book
The APA is ignoring grammar conventions in favor of reducing bias and gender-binary assumption. APA 7 endorses the use of they/them when the gender of a person is unknown or, as is most common, irrelevant.
This is directly from the APA:
Always put the person first when necessarily describing specific aspects of individuals. Instead of "the homeless" or "homeless people" use "people who are living homeless". Instead of "epileptic" use "person with epilepsy". Similarly, put the identity first, instead of "autistic person", use " a person with autism."
While accessibility is not new to APA 7, there are new, and more specific, guidelines adhering to WCAG
For example, URLs should be formatted as descriptive text, instead of labeling the link, and then providing a URL separately:
Before:
Please click on the link below to read more about APA 7 and accessibility
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/accessibility#urls
Now:
Government documents or reports -- from local, county, state, and/or national government departments -- are cited a little differently in both APA and MLA citation styles. For government documents or data, in most cases the author will be the government department responsible for compiling or publishing the data/report/document.
Click the links below for good guides, with examples, for how to cite Census data, tax forms and other government documents.
Here are some handouts (in both .docx and .pdf formats) featuring examples citations for sources you might find through TCC's Library and the Web.
Use the sites below to plug in the appropriate information and view your citation in APA format. Successful use depends upon entering correct information! Compare your results with an APA style handout available on this page.
While NoodleTools has transitioned to APA 7, Citation Machine is still using APA 6th edition. (2/13/2020)
Below is an example of how the two citation pieces fit together in APA style:
Gordon and Cui (2015) found compelling evidence suggesting that a person’s career outcomes in adulthood are more of a product of the quality of their childhood relationships with their parent(s), or other adult guardians, rather than the quality of the education they received.
. . . . . . . .
References
Gordon, M. S., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y
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