APA style (also known as APA format) is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences, including  sociology, education, nursing, criminal justice, and anthropology, as well as psychology. It is described in the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), which is titled the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The guidelines were developed to aid reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of communication, and for "word choice that best reduces bias in language". APA style is widely used, either entirely or with modifications, by hundreds of other scientific journals, in many textbooks, and in academia (for papers written in classes). The current edition is its seventh revision.

The APA became involved in journal publishing in 1923. In 1929, an APA committee had a seven-page writer's guide published in the Psychological Bulletin. In 1944, a 32-page guide appeared as an article in the same journal. The first edition of the APA Publication Manual was published in 1952 as a 61-page supplement to the Psychological Bulletin, marking the beginning of a recognized "APA style". The initial edition went through two revisions: one in 1957, and one in 1967. Subsequent editions were released in 1974, 1983, 1994, 2001, 2009, and 2019. The increasing length of the guidelines and its transformation into a manual have been accompanied by increasingly explicit prescriptions about many aspects of acceptable work. The earliest editions were controlled by a group of field leaders who were behaviorist in orientation and the manual has continued to foster that ideology, even as it has influenced many other fields. 

According to the American Psychological Association, APA format can make the point of an argument clear and simple to the reader. Particularly influential were the "Guidelines for Nonsexist Language in APA Journals", first published as a modification to the 1974 edition, which provided practical alternatives to sexist language then in common usage. The guidelines for reducing bias in language have been updated over the years and presently provide practical guidance for writing about age, disability, gender, participation in research, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality (APA, 2020, Chapter 5). 

A typical APA-style research paper fulfills 3 levels of specification. Level 1 states how a research paper must be organized by including a title page, an abstract, an introduction, the methodology, the results, a discussion, and references. In addition, formatting of abstracts and title pages must be as per the APA manual of style. Level 2 specifies the style of writing. It must be clear and formal without slang, pop culture references, biased language, and humor. It must minimize literary devices, use technical terms appropriately, and be direct. Level 3 specifies the mechanics such as double-spacing, using title case for headings, using numerals for numbers 10 and above, hyphenating compound adjectives, using in-text citations for sources, left aligning all tables and figures, and using footnotes sparingly.

Seventh edition of the Publication Manual
The seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the current one, published in October 2019. The goal of the book is to help people become better writers and communicators by promoting clarity, precision, and inclusivity. 

The manual has new resources for students, including a student title page, student paper formats, and student-related reference formats such as classroom course pack material and classroom website sources. The book also includes new journal article reporting standards for qualitative and mixed methods research in addition to updated standards for quantitative research. The bias-free language guidelines have also been updated to reflect current best practices for talking about people's personal characteristics.

The manual addresses accessibility for people with disabilities for the first time. APA worked with accessibility experts to ensure APA style is accessible. For example, the in-text citation format is shortened so that the citations are easier to read for people who, for example, use screen readers or have cognitive disabilities.  

Running heads are used in papers that follow APA Style. The running head is an abbreviated version of the paper title that is included in the header of professional papers along with the page number. In student papers, the page number is placed in the header but the page title is not, unless otherwise stated by the course instructor or educational institution. 

The manual has hundreds of reference examples, including formats for audiovisual media, social media, and webpages. There are many sample tables and figures, including basic student-friendly examples such as bar graphs. There are also sample papers for professionals and students.

Since the seventh edition, APA also provides an APA Style website and APA Style blog to help people with APA style and answer common questions.

Sixth edition of the Publication Manual
The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association was in effect from 2009 to 2019, after four years of development. The Publication Manual Revision Task Force of the American Psychological Association established parameters for the revision based on published critique; user comments; commissioned reviews; and input from psychologists, nurses, librarians, business leaders, publishing professionals, and APA governance groups.  To accomplish these revisions, the Task Force appointed working groups of four to nine members in seven areas: bias-free language, ethics, graphics, Journal Article Reporting Standards, references, statistics, and writing style (APA, 2009, pp. xvii–xviii).

The APA explained the issuing of a new edition only eight years after the fifth edition by pointing to the increased use of online source or online access to academic journals (6th edition, p. XV). The sixth edition is accompanied by a style website as well as the APA Style Blog which answers many common questions from users.

Errors in the first printing of the 6th edition
Sample papers in the first printing of the sixth edition contained errors. APA staff posted all of the corrections online for free in a single document on October 1, 2009, and shortly thereafter alerted users to the existence of the corrections in an APA blog entry. These errors attracted significant attention from the scholarly community and nearly two weeks later, on October 13, 2009, the article "Correcting a Style Guide" was published in the online newspaper Inside Higher Ed that included interviews with several individuals, one of whom described the errors as "egregious". All copies of the printing with errors were soon after recalled in 2009 (including those from major retailers such as Amazon.com) and a new printing correcting all the errors, with a copyright date of 2010, was issued.

In-text citations 
APA Style uses an author–date reference citation system in the text with an accompanying reference list. That means that to cite any reference in a paper, the writer should cite the author and year of the work, either by putting both in parentheses separated by a comma (parenthetical citation) or by putting the author in the narrative of the sentence and the year in parentheses (narrative citation).

Reference list 
In the APA reference list, the writer should provide the author, year, title, and source of the cited work in an alphabetical list of references. If a reference is not cited in the text, it should not be included in the reference list. The reference format varies depending on the document type (e.g., journal article, edited book chapter, blog post, webpage), but broadly speaking always follows the same pattern of author, date, title, source. If the source is undated, the abbreviation n.d. (no date) is used.

 If a DOI is assigned to the work, give the DOI. If the item is available online but does not have a DOI, and it has a URL that will work, give the URL. Do not give a URL that will not work. 
 Always include the publisher in the source element for books and reference works; exceptions to this guideline include when the author and publisher are the same, and in this case, you omit the publisher from your reference. 
 In the seventh edition, the title of a webpage is always italic.
 As of the seventh edition, the issue number of a journal is always listed in a reference citation if one is available. Prior to the seventh edition, if the journal cited employed continuous pagination throughout a volume, only the volume number was listed in the reference list.
 According to the seventh edition, it is no longer obligatory to provide the publisher's location when citing a book.

See also
Citation
Comparison of reference management software
 MLA style
 Chicago style

References

Bibliography
 (spiral bound)
 (spiral bound)

External links

American Psychological Association's APA Style website
APA Formatted Paper Template at Indian River State College's Library site.
APA Formatted Paper Template at LibreOffice (GPL License).
Interactive APA at Massey University's OWLL site.
APA resources at Purdue University's Online Writing Lab

Academic style guides
Works about psychology
Style guides for American English
American Psychological Association books
APA 스타일(APA style)은 미국심리학회(American Psychological Association: APA)가 정한 영어 작문 및 인용법에 관한 스타일 가이드로 영어권에서 널리 쓰이는 문서 작성 양식 중 하나이다.

주로 사회과학 분야(심리학, 교육학 등)에서 많이 사용하며, 일부 자연과학 분야(생물학, 식물학, 지구과학)에서도 사용한다. 본문에는 저자-연도 형식으로 인용하고, 논문 끝의 참고 문헌 목록을 이름 순으로 정리하는 것이 특징이다. 구글 스콜라를 이용하면 논문 별 인용양식을 쉽게 얻을 수 있다.

기본적으로 APA 스타일 논문 가이드라인에 페이지 레이아웃은 표준 사이즈 레터용지(8.5” x 11”)에 줄 간격 2.0으로 내용을 입력하고, 사방에 1”(2.54cm)의 여백을 둔다. 모든 단락의 첫 줄은 0.5인치 들여쓰기를 해야 한다. 연구 논문 섹션 구성은 총 7 섹션으로 나뉘어 진다. 그중 첫번째는  제목 페이지(Title Page)이다.  APA 연구 논문 양식에 따르면 제목은 10에서 12 단어 사이여야 하며 논문의 요지를 반영해야 한다. 제목을 쓴 다음에는 본인의 이름 뒤에 대학 이름을 적는다. 또한 MS Word의 “머리글 보기” 기능을 사용해 페이지 머리글을 만들고, 제목 페이지에는 난외표제(running head)를 포함한다.

구획 
APA 양식 논문은 보통 다음과 같은 구획으로 구성되며, 각각은 새 쪽으로 시작한다.
 제목 쪽
 초록
 본문
 참고 문헌
 각주
 표 (표마다 새 쪽)
 그림 캡션
 그림 (그림마다 새 쪽)

제목 
수준별 제목 형식은 다음과 같다. (한글에는 대소문자가 없고 기울임체도 잘 쓰이지 않기 때문에 제목 형식을 따르는 경우는 별로 없다.)
0수준: Center Uppercase and Lowcase Heading
1수준: Ideal Institute of Technology
2수준: Engineering college
3수준: Indented, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.
4수준: CENTERED UPPERCASE HEADING

인용
본문 중에 저자명, 간행연도, 페이지 등을 괄호로 묶어 표시하고(예: 홍길동, 2000), 논문 끝의 참고 문헌에서 찾아볼 수 있도록 한다.

저자 1명
A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Pauling, 2005).
Pauling (2005) discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.

저자 2명
A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Pauling & Liu, 2005).
Pauling and Liu (2005) discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.

저자 3~5명
A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism (Pauling, Liu, & Guo, 2005).
Pauling, Liu, and Guo (2005) conducted a study that discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.
Pauling et al. (2005) discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.
A recent study found a possible genetic cause of alcoholism  (Pauling et al., 2005).

저자 6명 이상
Pauling et al. (2005) discovered a possible genetic cause of alcoholism.

직접 인용
When asked why his behavior had changed so dramatically, Max simply said, "I think it's the reinforcement" (Pauling, 2004, p. 69).

참고 문헌 목록

인쇄물
1명이 저술한 책
Sheril, R. D. (1956). The terrifying future: Contemplating color television. San Diego: Halstead.

2명 이상이 저술한 책
Smith, J., & Peter, Q. (1992). Hairball: An intensive peek behind the surface of an enigma. Hamilton, ON: McMaster University Press.

편집된 책의 기사
Mcdonalds, A. (1993). Practical methods for the apprehension and sustained containment of supernatural entities. In G. L. Yeager (Ed.), Paranormal and occult studies: Case studies in application (pp. 42–64). London: OtherWorld Books.

학술지에 실린, 개별적으로 쪽이 매겨진 논문
Crackton, P. (1987). The Loonie: God's long-awaited gift to colourful pocket change? Canadian Change, 64(7), 34–37.

학술지에 실린, 연속적으로 쪽이 매겨진 논문
Rottweiler, F. T., & Beauchemin, J. L. (1987). Detroit and Narnia: Two foes on the brink of destruction. Canadian/American Studies Journal, 54, 66-146.

주간지 기사
Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today's schools. Time, 135, 28–31.

신문 기사
Wrong, M. (2005, August 17). "Never Gonna Give You Up" says Mayor. Toronto Sol, p. 4.

정부 문서
Revenue Canada. (2001). Advanced gouging: Manual for employees (MP 65–347/1124). Ottawa: Minister of Immigration and Revenue.

전자 매체
인쇄물이 원본인 인터넷 문서 (원본 형식 그대로인 것)
Marlowe, P., Spade, S., & Chan, C. (2001). Detective work and the benefits of colour versus black and white [Electronic version]. Journal of Pointless Research, 11, 123–124.

인쇄물이 원본인 인터넷 문서 (원본과 형식이 다른 것)
Marlowe, P., Spade, S., & Chan, C. (2001). Detective work and the benefits of colour versus black and white. Journal of Pointless Research, 11, 123–124. Retrieved October 25, 2007, from http://www.pointlessjournal.com/colour_vs_black_and_white.html

인터넷판만 있는 저널의 논문
Blofeld, E. S. (1994, March 1). Expressing oneself through Persian cats and modern architecture. Felines & Felons, 4, Article 0046g. Retrieved October 3, 1999, from http://journals.f+f.org/spectre/vblofeld-0046g.html

인터넷판만 있는 신문의 기사
Paradise, S., Moriarty, D., Marx, C., Lee, O. B., Hassel, E., et al. (1957, July). Portrayals of fictional characters in reality-based popular writing: Project update. Off the Beaten Path, 7 (3). Retrieved October 3, 1999, from http://www.newsletter.offthebeatenpath.news/otr/complaints.html

저자 및 작성일이 표시되지 않은 독자적 인터넷 문서
What I did today. (n.d.). Retrieved August 21, 2002, from http://www.cc.mystory.life/blog/didtoday.html [Fictional entry.]

대학교 교육 프로그램 웹사이트의 문서
Rogers, B. (2078). Faster-than-light travel: What we've learned in the first twenty years. Retrieved August 24, 2079, from Mars University, Institute for Martian Studies Web site, http://www.eg.spacecentraltoday.mars/university/dept.html [Fictional entry.]

저널 논문의 전자복제본, 3~5명 저자, retrieved from database
Costanza, G., Seinfeld, J., Benes, E., Kramer, C., & Peterman, J. (1993). Minutiæ and insignificant observations from the nineteen-nineties. Journal about Nothing, 52, 475–649. Retrieved October 31, 1999, from NoTHINGJournals database. [Fictional entry.]

전자우편 또는 기타 개인적인 의견교환
(A. Monterey, personal communication, September 28, 2001)

CD 책'Nix, G. (2002). Lirael, Daughter of the Clayr [CD]. New York: Random House/Listening Library.

테이프 책
Nix, G. (2002). Lirael, Daughter of the Clayr [Cassette Recording No. 1999-1999-1999]. New York: Random House/Listening Library.

영화
Gilby, A. (Producer), & Schlesinger, J. (Director). (1995). Cold comfort farm'' [Motion picture]. Universal City, CA MCA Universal Home Video.

각주

같이 보기 
 시카고 매뉴얼 오브 스타일
 MLA 스타일 매뉴얼

외부 링크 
  홈페이지.
 

스타일 가이드