If your internet travels have brought you here (welcome!), you’ve probably heard “APA” mentioned in academic circles, and it’s likely you have more than a few questions. In short, APA stands for the American Psychological Association, a professional organization that’s been around since 1892. Today, though, when people say “APA” they’re usually really referring to APA Style, a system for formatting papers and citing sources predominantly used in the social sciences. It’s now in its 7th edition, and if you’ve ever taken a psychology, sociology, nursing, or communications class, you’re probably at least somewhat familiar with it.
What is the APA Style?
You can think of APA Style as a set of ground rules for academic writing, including who gets credit, how content is organized, and how a research paper or discussion post is formatted. The American Psychological Association put it together so that research papers across different fields would all speak the same language, more or less.
The current version is APA 7th edition, and it was published in 2019.
Core components of APA Style
APA Style can be broken down into three major parts: in-text citations, reference lists, and paper format. Let’s take a quick look at each.
In-text citations
APA uses an author-date format for citations. So, whenever you reference someone else’s idea or research, you’ll add a short citation in parentheses such as (Simpson, 2019). It’s a relatively simple way to acknowledge the original source and help readers locate the full reference at the end of the paper.
Reference lists
At the end of your paper, you list every single source you cited (minus personal communications) in alphabetical order by the author(s)’ last name(s). APA has specific rules for how to format each and every type, whether you’re citing a journal article, book, webpage, and so on.
Paper format
APA Style also covers how the paper itself should look, providing rules for such elements as margins, fonts, title pages, abstract pages, appendices, and heading levels used to organize content. It’s quite detailed, but the result is a uniform document that’s more easily read (and graded).
A brief history of APA Style
Knowing a bit of history can help make APA Style a little less mysterious. It wasn’t designed as a headache-inducing hurdle for students. Instead, it was designed to solve a very real problem.
The 1929 origins
The origins of APA Style can be traced back nearly a century ago to 1929, when a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers came together to say, “We need to get on the same page when it comes to writing, particularly when it comes to scientific manuscripts.” The result was a seven-page article in the Psychological Bulletin. Yes, you read that right. Only. Seven. Pages.
Why APA Style was created
Scientific publishing was really coming into its own in the early 1900s, so much so that things were rapidly getting a bit … messy. Every researcher was doing their own thing, making it difficult to follow arguments, verify sources, or compare findings across different studies. In a way, APA Style was a bit of a treaty, one that provided a framework for addressing those issues. Specifically, it addressed three things:
Readability
Consistent formatting meant readers no longer had to decipher papers on a case-by-case basis and could instead focus on what really mattered: a paper’s content.
Crediting sources
Standard citation rules made it easier for researchers to properly credit each other’s work, avoid accusations of plagiarism, and granted readers the ability to trace ideas back to where they started.
Editorial efficiency
Editors and publishers could process manuscripts much faster when everything arrived on their desks in a single format. For them, APA Style resulted in less cleanup, fewer headaches, and perhaps the chance to have a sip of coffee while it was still warm for once.
From seven pages to seven editions
The very first, full-fledged APA Publication Manual was released in 1952 and has been revised six times since. Each edition has expanded to include new research methods, new source types, and new ethical standards. Released in 2019, the 7th edition was a significant overhaul, simplifying several rules, bringing in guidance for citing social media and other digital sources, and generally making things a tad more approachable for student writers in particular.
Conclusion: Why APA matters
The roots of APA Style can be traced back to that original seven-page fix for a messy, inconsistent academic writing landscape. Today, it has become the standard formatting system for the social sciences worldwide. Once you stop seeing it as an arbitrary set of hoops to jump through, you’ll recognize it as a tool for clarity and credibility. At its core, APA Style is about making research easier to read, easier to verify, and easier to build upon.
Frequently Asked Questions about APA
What does APA stand for?
APA stands for the American Psychological Association, founded in 1892. In everyday academic life, though, “APA” almost always means “APA Style” – the association’s official guidelines for formatting research papers, references, and citations.
What is APA format used for?
APA format is used for academic papers in the social sciences, think psychology, sociology, nursing, communications, and more. It covers everything from how your papers is laid out to how you cite sources and what your reference list looks like.
What edition of APA is current?
Today, we’re on APA 7th edition, which was released in October 2019 (and in PERRLA very shortly thereafter). It replaced the 6th edition and cleaned up a lot of the rules people found confusing, especially those involving student papers. It also offered updated formats for digital sources and new guidance on inclusive language.
Is APA only used in psychology?
Nope, but that’s a common misconception. APA Style got its start in psychology, but it’s now used across an array of fields – public health, nursing, sociology, communications, business, criminology, and more. Many universities require it for all social science coursework.