how to write apa format 6th edition

APA Research Paper Formatting: APA 6th Edition Resources

• Home of APA 7th Edition Resources
• APA 6th Edition Resources

APA (American Psychological Association) style was developed by social and behavioral scientists to standardize scientific writing. It is used for term papers, research reports, empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical articles, methodological articles, and case studies. (APA website)

Writers in the following disciplines usually use APA style:

• Social sciences- psychology, sociology, economics, criminology

*IMPORTANT NOTE: In October 2019 the American Psychological Association released the latest edition of the APA format - the 7th edition. For Spring term 2021 many instructors will have shifted to using APA 7th edition, while some may still request (or allow) students to choose APA 6th edition. It would be a good idea to verify which edition your professor will be requiring.  

As of January 2021, the APA citation generators in the Gale and Ebsco databases are formatting APA citations in 7th edition instead of 6th edition.

This Library Guide will also be updated throughout Spring 2021, to add additional resources for the 7th edition and links that should remain accessible for the 6th edition. 

ALL RESOURCES ON THIS PAGE ARE FOR APA 6TH EDITION.

FOR 7TH EDITION RESOURCES, SEE THE 7TH EDITION TAB AT THE TOP OF THIS GUIDE.

APA - Publication Manual

(In 2021 most instructors will be using the 7th edition instead.)

APA 6th ed. Template & Paper Sample

• APA 6th ed. Paper Sample (including headings)
• APA Template - 6th Edition You are going to love this! Save this template somewhere safe or e-mail it to yourself. Then resave it immediately with the name of your new document. This will keep your template safe and ready to reuse again for future assignments.

How to Use the APA Template

How Do I Write a Thesis Statement?

• Thesis Statement Help - Owl @ Purdue

Free Citation Creation Tools on the Web

• BibMe BibMe is a free automatic bibliography generator that supports MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian formatting.
• Citation Machine Select APA citation style. Then choose they type of resource to cite.
• CiteFast APA citation generator. Choose APA tab at top (if not already selected). Then select the source to be cited.
• KnightCite APA citation generator. Choose type of resource on the left.

How to Generate Citations Using CiteFast

Parenthetical References or In-text Citations

• APA Parenthetical (In-text) Citations - Purdue OWL
• APA Parenthetical (In-text) Citations - EasyBib

Everything APA - 6th Edition

• APA Style - Official 6th Edition Archive
• Purdue OWL - APA 6th ed.

APA Inclusive Language Guidelines

American Psychological Association's Inclusive Language Guidelines and related information can be found here:  https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equity-diversity-inclusion/language-guidelines

• << Previous: Home of APA 7th Edition Resources
• Last Updated: Feb 21, 2024 12:13 PM
• URL: https://libguides.polk.edu/apa

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APA Citation Style, 6th Edition: Three to Five Authors/Editors

• One Author/Editor
• Two Authors/Editors
• Three to Five Authors/Editors
• Chapter in a Book
• Edition Other Than the First
• Electronic Books
• Journal Article with One Author
• Journal Article with Two Authors
• Journal Article with Three to Six Authors
• Journal Article with Seven or More Authors
• Government Publication
• Magazine Articles
• Newspaper Article
• Reference List

Books with Three to Five Authors

(this libguide is for apa 6th edition, click   here   to visit our new   apa 7th edition libguide ).

The formatting guidelines below refer to books with three authors. If the book has four or five authors, you would follow this format and add the fourth and fifth author's after the third.

General Format:

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Author's Last Name, Author's Last Name, & Author's Last Name, year)

In-Text Citation (Direct Quote):

(Author's Last Name, Author's Last Name, & Author's Last Name, year, page number)

References:

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial., Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial., & Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year).  Book title: Subtitle.  Location of publication: Publisher.

In-text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Ledlow, Manrodt, & Schott, 2017)

Note: In the first in-text citation, include all of the three to five author's last names. After the first in-text citation, all subsequent in-text citations include the first author's last name, et al., and the year. For example: (Ledlow et al., 2017). See table below for more information.

In-text Citation (Direct Quote):

(Ledlow, Manrodt,  & Schott, 2017, p. 52)

Ledlow, G. R., Manrodt, K. B., & Schott, D. (2017).  Health care supply chain management: Elements, operations, and strategies.  Burlington, MA: Bartlett & Jones Learning.

Books with Three to Five Editors

The formatting guidelines below refer to books with three editors. If the book has four or five editors, you would follow this format and add the fourth and fifth editor's name after the third.

(Editor's Last Name, Editor's Last Name, & Editor's Last Name, year)

(Editor's Last Name, Editor's Last Name, & Editor's Last Name, year, page number)

Editor's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial., Editor's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial., & Editor's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Eds.). (Year).  Book title: Subtitle.  Location of publication: Publisher.

(Blumenthal, Diclemente,  Braithwaite & Smith, 2013)

Note:  In the first in-text citation, include all of the three to five editor's last names. After the first in-text citation, all subsequent in-text citations include the first editor's last name, et al., and the year. For example: (Blumenthal et al., 2013). See table below for more information.

(Blumenthal, Diclemente, Braithwaite, & Smith, 2013, p. 52)

Blumenthal, D. S., Diclemente, R.J., Braithwaite, D., & Smith, S.A. (Eds.). (2013).  Community-based participatory health research : Issues, methods, and translation to practice.  New York: Springer Pub.

More than Five Authors or Editors?

If you are looking to cite a book with more than five authors or editors, follow the same format as three to five authors/editors. The only difference is with in-text citations. Even in your first in-text citation, you can shorten to the last name of the first author followed by et al., and the year. For example: Rodgers, Chung, Hightower, Collins, Long, Carr, & Thomas (2016) would be (Rodgers et al., 2016) starting with the first in-text citation. See the table below for more information or page 177 of the APA Manual, 6th Edition.

Citing References in Text

Carrie forbes, mls.

Page References

Citation information has been adapted from the APA Manual (6th Edition). Please refer to pages 176-177 and 184 of the APA Manual (6th Edition) for more information.

Helpful Tips

-If two or more references of three or more authors/editors and publication year short to the same in-text citation, cite as many last names as needed to differentiate them. Example from p.175 of APA Manual: both Ireys, Chernoff, DeVet, & Kim, 2001 and Ireys, Chernoff, Stein, DeVet, & Silver, 2001 shorten to (Ireys et al., 2001). Instead, use Ireys, Chernoff, DeVet, et al. (2001) and Ireys, Chernoff, Stein, et al. (2001) respectively. Please refer to page 175 of the APA Manual, 6th Edition for more in depth information.

-Be mindful of hyphenated names, particularly hyphenated first names in your reference list. If an author or editor has a hyphenated first name, include first initials for both separated by a hyphen. For example: Lamour, J.-B. for Jean-Baptiste Lamour.

-If your reference list includes publications by two or more authors with the same last name, you should include the first initial in all in-text citations in order to help the reader avoid confusion.

-Suffixes like "Jr." or "III" are not included in in-text citations but are included in the reference list.

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• Last Updated: Jun 22, 2020 8:29 AM
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APA Style 6th Edition: Citing Your Sources

• Basics of APA Formatting
• In Text Quick View
• Block Quotes
• Books & eBooks

Standard Format

Various examples.

• Thesis/Dissertation
• Conference Presentations
• Course Documents
• Social Media
• Government Documents
• Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
• Additional Resources
• Sample Reference Page

Article Format

Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial., Second Author Surname, First Inital. Second Initial., & Third Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial.  (year of publication).  Title of article.  Title of Periodical , volume number (issue number), page range.  doi: xxxxxxx

Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial., Second Author Surname, First Inital. Second Initial., & Third Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial.  (year of publication).  Title of article.  Title of Periodical , volume number (issue number), page range.  R  etrieved from http://www.journal's home page url

See Ch 7 pp. 198-202 APA Manual for more examples and formatting rules

The following formats apply to all journals, periodicals, magazines, newspapers, etc. whether you found them in an online database, search engine, or in print.

• Volume, issue and page numbers in periodicals:  Continuous pagination throughout a volume: only cite the volume number (in italics), followed by a comma and then the page numbers: 20 , 344-367.
• When each volume begins with new pagination, i.e. page 1, indicate the issue number in parentheses after the volume, followed by a comma and the page numbers: 51 (3) , 23-33. See below for more examples.
• If a DOI has been assigned to the article that you are using, you should include this after the page numbers for the article. If no DOI has been assigned and you are accessing the periodical online, use the home page URL for the resource.  Do Not copy and paste URLS from library databases or other platforms that restrict public access.
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• Last Updated: Sep 22, 2022 11:20 AM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/APA-citation-style

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

General Format

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Note:  This page reflects APA 6, which is now out of date. It will remain online until 2021, but will not be updated. The equivalent APA 7 page can be found here .

Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in APA.

To see a side-by-side comparison of the three most widely used citation styles, including a chart of all APA citation guidelines, see the Citation Style Chart .

You can also watch our APA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel .

General APA Guidelines

Your essay should be typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11"), with 1" margins on all sides. You should use a clear font that is highly readable. APA recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman font.

Include a page header (also known as the " running head ") at the top of every page. To create a page header/running head , insert page numbers flush right. Then type "TITLE OF YOUR PAPER" in the header flush left using all capital letters. The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.

Major Paper Sections

Your essay should include four major sections: the Title Page , Abstract , Main Body , and References .

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name , and the institutional affiliation . Include the page header (described above) flush left with the page number flush right at the top of the page. Please note that on the title page, your page header/running head should look like this:

Pages after the title page should have a running head that looks like this:

After consulting with publication specialists at the APA, OWL staff learned that the APA 6th edition, first printing sample papers have incorrect examples of running heads on pages after the title page. This link will take you to the APA site where you can find a complete list of all the errors in the APA's 6th edition style guide.

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. APA recommends that your title be no more than 12 words in length and that it should not contain abbreviations or words that serve no purpose. Your title may take up one or two lines. All text on the title page, and throughout your paper, should be double-spaced.

Beneath the title, type the author's name : first name, middle initial(s), and last name. Do not use titles (Dr.) or degrees (PhD).

Beneath the author's name, type the institutional affiliation , which should indicate the location where the author(s) conducted the research.

APA Title Page

Begin a new page. Your abstract page should already include the page header (described above). On the first line of the abstract page, center the word “Abstract” (no bold, formatting, italics, underlining, or quotation marks).

Beginning with the next line, write a concise summary of the key points of your research. (Do not indent.) Your abstract should contain at least your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your findings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph, double-spaced. Your abstract should be between 150 and 250 words.

You may also want to list keywords from your paper in your abstract. To do this, indent as you would if you were starting a new paragraph, type Keywords: (italicized), and then list your keywords. Listing your keywords will help researchers find your work in databases.

APA Abstract Page

Please see our Sample APA Paper resource to see an example of an APA paper. You may also visit our Additional Resources page for more examples of APA papers.

How to Cite the Purdue OWL in APA

Individual Resources

The page template for the new OWL site does not include contributors' names or the page's last edited date. However, select pages, like the Citation Style Chart , still include this information.

In the absence of contributor/edit date information, treat the page as a source with a group author and use the abbreviation "n.d." for "no date":

Purdue Online Writing Lab.  (n.d.) .  Title of resource.   Retrieved from http://Web address for OWL resource

Purdue Online Writing Lab.  (n.d.).   General Writing FAQs . Retrieved from  https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/general_writing_faqs.html

The generic APA citation for OWL pages, which includes author/edit date information, is this:

Contributors' names. (Last edited date).  Title of resource . Retrieved from http://Web address for OWL resource

Paiz, J., Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M.,…Keck, R. (2010, May 5).  General format . Retrieved from  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/