Skip to Main Content

Resources in Physics: APA

About APA style

American Psychological Association (APA) style is commonly used for citing references in student papers in science and social science courses, such as Psychology, Nursing, and Social Work.

The purpose of documentation is to:

  • Identify (cite) other people’s ideas and information used within your essay or term paper.
  • Indicate the authors or sources of these in a References list at the end of your paper.

This guide is based on the APA Manual (6th ed.) that was published in 2009.

About Plagiarism

The best way to Avoid Plagiarism is to cite your sources.

Getting Started!

The following sections provide you with information and examples that will help you to cite the sources that you come across during your research.

General Guidelines

Books

Articles

Websites

Audiovisual Media

Images & Art

Other...

For more detailed information, refer to the APA Manual (6th ed.) available at the library, ask your instructor, or Ask Us.

General Guidelines for APA Style

  • All sources of information and data, whether quoted directly or paraphrased, are cited with parenthetical references in the text of your paper (p. 170).

Example: (Walker, 2003).

  • Double-space your entire paper, including the References list and any block quotes (pp.171, 180).

What's Different in the 6th Edition

APA recently published a new manual of style.

Some of the changes include:

  • the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) in references to print and electronic sources (when available). See pages 188 to 192 in the APA Manual for more information.
  • expanded coverage of online resources

To learn more about the changes made in the new edition, check out the "What's New" section on the official APA Website.

You may also want to check out the APA blog to learn more about the corrections made to the new APA manual (6th ed.). The blog also contains helpful information on such topics as using DOIs and citing specific sources.

Creative Commons License
Eva B. Dykes Library Libguides by Oakwood University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.