

Research
 JAN 2, 2024

APA Format for Academic

Papers: Guidelines & Examples
for 2024

by Imed Bouchrika, Phd

Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist
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The American Psychological Association (APA) style is one of the most widely used
methods for scientific communication today. Aside from facilitating scholarly
communication, the APA style also provides rules that guide scholars in proper
scientific writing. As such, the APA style is popular among scholars in the health
sciences, behavioral sciences, and social sciences.

According to the American Psychological Association (2010), the APA style helps
scholars write more clearly and concisely and provide proper attribution to their
sources. By mastering how to write an APA style research paper, scholars can also
become more effective at sharing their work with the scientific community and
beyond.

This article discusses how to properly format and structure academic papers using
the APA style, be it how to cite a PowerPoint presentation, an APA format scientific
paper, or videos. It delves deep into the specific elements of APA-formatted papers
as well as provides useful tips and sample papers for better guidance on this
scholarly writing style.

APA Format Table of Contents

1. APA Article Reporting Standards
2. Elements of an APA Academic Paper
3. Useful Tips for Using APA Style
4. Sample Papers

I. APA Article Reporting Standards

Learning APA style writing can be difficult since some writers lack interest in
understanding the elaborate details of the writing style. Others find it challenging
because they are intimidated by all the elements involved in learning the APA
guidelines and rules. As such, many would resort to software for academic
writing that automates APA. However, these are not always accurate. Precise
knowledge of the APA style is a valuable skill for academic writers, researchers,
reviewers, and others who need to understand scholarly text (McDonald, 2011).

Why the Need for Reporting Standards?

Reporting standards offer a level of breadth to information that usually comes in
the form of empirical research articles and reports. The reason for developing
reporting standards originated from various disciplines, especially medical,
educational, social, and behavioral sciences.

Similar reporting standards allow for easy generalization across different fields, to
enable meta-analytical procedures to advance more effectively and to better
comprehend the implications of individual research projects. In addition, policy and
practice decision-makers have stressed the importance of recognizing how the
research was performed and what were the findings. To allow for this recognition,
a set of comprehensive reporting standards is necessary.

Reporting standards are based on how the study being reported was conducted
and the research design. It is not based on the specific journal that may publish the
article or the thematic focus of the research. Further, reporting standards are still
developing and not something fully developed for all kinds of research.

These standards have been designed to help enhance the reporting of particular
research designs. If properly observed by academic writers, reporting standards
allow readers to figure out the design, implementation, and analysis of a study,
critically evaluate the outcomes, and make sense of the conclusions accordingly
(Cash, 2009).

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II. Elements of an APA Academic Paper

This how to write in APA format style guide is based on the Publication Manual of
the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition (APA, 2014).
A. Title
A title should be a brief statement of the main topic and should simply sum up the
main concept of the article. It should identify the theoretical issues or variables
being examined and the relationship between them. If possible, try to frame the
title to quickly elicit interest, such as “Impact of Social Media Behavior on
Depression."

By itself, a title should be fully explanatory. While it is primarily used to inform

readers about the research, a title also functions as a statement of article content
for referencing and abstracting purposes. A good title can be readily compressed
for use as the article’s running head.

Because titles are typically indexed and compiled in numerous reference works,
refrain from including words that have no useful purpose. Titles with useless words
only expand their length and can misinform indexers. For instance, the words
“method" and “results" do not usually appear in a title. Likewise, never use such
terms as “A Research about" or “An Experimental Study of."

At times, terms like “meta-analysis," “fMRI study of," or “a research synthesis

of" express vital information for the potential reader and is included in the title. Do
not use abbreviations in a title and spell out every term to facilitate precise,
thorough indexing of the article.

The recommended length for a title is 12 words or below and should be formatted
in uppercase and lowercase letters. It should be centered between the right and left
margins and positioned in the upper half of the page.

B. Author’s Name and Affiliation

Each manuscript contains the name of the author/s and the institutional
affiliation/s of the author/s when the research was done.

Author’s name. The preferred APA research paper format for the byline is first
name, middle initial(s), and last name of the author. This style decreases the
probability of mistaken identity. It is best practice to use the same format for your
entire career. For instance, if you use your full name (i.e., first name, middle initial,
and last name) in one article, use the same format in all your published works.

Establishing whether Agnes P. Cruise is the same person as A. P. Cruise, A.

Cruise, or A. Cruise can be challenging, especially when citations extend over
several years and several changes in institutional affiliations. Never use any
degree (Ed.D., PsyD, Ph.D.) or title (e.g., Prof., Dr.).

Institutional affiliation. The affiliation establishes the author’s location when the
study was conducted, which is often an institution. Do not include two institutions
unless both have contributed considerably to support the research. Authors can
include up to two affiliations each.
In case an author has no institutional affiliation, place the state or city of residence
under the author’s name. In case there are changes in institutional affiliation, the
current affiliation should be provided in the author note.

For multiple authors, their names should appear based on the order of their
contributions. Their names are centered between the side margins. For authors’
names with suffixes, e.g., II and Jr., use a single blank space (rather than a comma)
to separate the suffix from the rest of the name.

Finally, the institutional affiliation should be centered under the name/s of the
author/s, on the next line, for example:

C. Author Note
Every published manuscript provides an author note to identify the organizational
affiliation of each author. It is also the designated section to allow the author/s to
acknowledge the support given by individuals and organizations, to declare any
perceived conflict of interest or disclaimers, and to offer contact information.
Student theses and dissertations are usually without an author note.

Author notes should be organized as follows:

First paragraph

Departmental affiliation. Provides the complete departmental affiliations of all

authors when the research was being conducted. It is formatted as follows: name
of author (same appearance as the byline), name of department, name of
university; (details of other authors, same format). Within an author’s affiliation, the
entries are separated by commas, while authors are separated by semicolons.

In case the author has no institutional affiliation, provide residential details. For
authors within the United States, provide the city and state. For authors in Australia
or Canada, provide the province. For other locations, provide the author’s city and
country. State names should be given in full, not abbreviated. Author’s degrees are
not provided.

Second paragraph

Changes in affiliation (if any). In case an author’s affiliation has changed during the
conduct of the research, it should be mentioned in this section. The suggested
wording for this is: [author’s name] is now at [department and institution].

Third paragraph

Acknowledgments. Research grants and other financial support should be

recognized. Grant numbers should be cited by themselves without a # sign or No.
Colleagues who provided assistance in the conduct of the study, such as by sharing
insights or critique, should also be acknowledged.
Individuals who are employed by the journal that will publish the manuscript—
editors or peer reviewers, etc.—should never be recognized. However, in case a
particular concept was suggested by a reviewer that substantially improved the
manuscript, the author can acknowledge it within the text where the concept is
discussed.

If the research involved some special agreements regarding authorship, like on how
authors contributed to the study, such arrangements can also be discussed here.
Finally, this paragraph can be concluded by appreciating any personal help received
by the authors, such as in gathering survey instruments.

Special circumstances. Disclose any special circumstances involved in the study in

this paragraph. For instance, if the article is derived from a master’s thesis or is
based on data used in another previously published article, mention it here.
Likewise, explain if there are any relationships that could be seen as a conflict of
interest, such as if you work in a company that owns the patent of the procedure
used in your study.

If an institution that funded your study requested for a disclaimer that states, for
instance, that the research reported does not reflect that institution’s opinions, that
should be included in this paragraph.

Fourth paragraph

Person to contact. To facilitate communication with readers, provide a complete

mailing address. In the last line, put an email address (without any period).

The author note is placed on the title page, under the title, byline, and institutional
affiliation. Center the “Author Note" text. Begin every paragraph (i.e., author
names/s, affiliations, etc.) with an indent. This section is not numbered or cited in
the text.

D. Abstract
An abstract is a concise, inclusive summary of an article’s contents. It enables
readers to quickly check an article’s contents. Similar to a title, it allows readers
interested in the manuscript to access it online or in a physical library. Most online
and print scholarly publications require authors to submit abstracts.

A well-written abstract can be an article’s most essential section. Most readers

experience their first contact with a manuscript by simply viewing the abstract,
often when comparing other abstracts, as they search for related literature.
Likewise, people typically decide whether they will read the whole article or not
based on the abstract. The abstract must be packed with information. You can
improve the likelihood that your article will be found when you embed keywords in
your abstract. A good abstract is:

 Concise: Write briefly and to the point, and make every sentence optimally
informative, particularly the lead sentence. Start the abstract with the most
 essential points. Never repeat the title as this only wastes precious space.
Incorporate only up to five of the most essential ideas, outcomes, or
implications. Use the exact words that you believe your readers will use
when they search online.
 Readable and coherent: Write in succinct and clear language. Use the active
voice instead of passive voice and verb forms over their noun counterparts.
Be careful about the use of tenses. When presenting the actual measured
outcomes or manipulated variables, use the past tense. When describing the
conclusions or study outcomes with continuing, use the present tense.
 Nonevaluative: Present the details of the study. Do not evaluate or share
your opinion about the report.
 Accurate: Make sure that the abstract presents the actual objective and
content of the article or report. Do not add any new information that is not
part of the actual manuscript. If the research replicates or builds upon a
previous study, indicate this in this section and cite the concerned study.
Format an abstract’s content with how the manuscript was written to ensure
its veracity.

Always observe the publisher’s word limit for abstracts when submitting an article.
Word limits differ from one publication to another but often range from 150 to 250
words. Refer to the Record Structure for APA Databases for guidance on how
abstracts are used to retrieve articles (Sick, 2009).

In your manuscript, start the abstract on the second page and mark it with the
abbreviated title or running head and page # 2. At the top of that page, put the
label Abstract at the center in uppercase and lowercase letters. Prepare the
abstract as one, unindented paragraph.

E. Introduction
Present the problem. An article’s body starts with an introduction that describes
the specific problem being examined and presents the research strategy. Since it is
evidently identified by its placement in the article, the introduction does not require
any heading. A good introduction sums up the important arguments and related
studies to provide readers with a solid understanding of what the study is and why
was it conducted.

Explore the importance of the problem. Present the clear rationale of why the
problem needs new research. In applied research, the importance could involve
investigating a possible psychological disorder intervention or a potential solution
to a social issue. In basic research, it could entail the need to further evaluate the
stipulations of a proposed theoretical framework. If a study aims to resolve
contentious issues, all sides in the discussion must be represented equally. Prevent
any hostility and ad hominem line of reasoning in discussing the debate.

Describe relevant scholarship. Present the suitable related literature, but do not
feel constrained to provide an extensive historical description. Presume that your
reader knows enough about the fundamental issue and does not need an
exhaustive discussion of its history. A scholarly account of previous work in the
introduction offers a synopsis of the recent related work and acknowledges the
precedence of other’s work. Providing credit to related previous work are
indications of scholarly and scientific responsibility and are key to the advancement
of collective knowledge.

Show the rational succession between prior studies and the present one. Frame the
problem with clarity and enough breadth to make it broadly understood by as
many scholars and readers as possible. Do not allow the need to be concise to
make you write a statement that is only understood by specialists.

State hypotheses and their relation to research design. Once you have
presented the problem and framed the background elements, describe your
strategy to resolve the problem. For empirical research, this typically entails
articulating your specific question or hypothesis and explaining how these are
logically related to prior studies or were drawn from theory. Clearly frame the
argument for each. For related reading, you can check out our how to write a thesis
statement article.

When creating your manuscript, start the introduction on a new page. Identify it
with the running head and the page # 3. Place your title at the top of the page,
format it in uppercase and lowercase letters and centered, and then type the text.

The succeeding sections follow each other continuously; do not put any break or
force start on a new page, especially when a new heading happens. Every
subsequent page of your manuscript must also have the running head and page
number.

F. Method
This section details the conduct of the study and provides operational and
conceptual definitions of the study’s variables. Various types of research will
require diverse methodologies. A full description of the study methods allows the
reader to analyze the suitability of your methods and the validity and reliability of
your outcomes. It also allows scholars to repeat the research.

The following is an example of such a synopsis:

Identify subsections. It is useful and customary to separate the Method section

into labeled subsections. These typically include a section with a section explaining
the study procedures used and one with the participant or subject descriptions.
When discussing the procedures, it usually includes a description of:

 the research design

 sampling procedures and sample size and precision
 measurement techniques
 any interventions or experimental manipulations used and how they were
provided.
Participant characteristics. Proper identification of study participants is vital to
the science and practice of any scholarly field. This is due to the specific need
to generalize the outcomes, compare across replications, and use the evidence in
research syntheses and secondary data evaluations. Describe the participant
sample sufficiently. Detail the key demographic traits of the sample, such as
gender; age; education; racial group and/or ethnicity; immigrant, generational, or
socioeconomic status, etc.

Sampling procedures. Detail the process for participant selection, including:

 the number of participants who agreed to join the sample

 the percentage from the sample approached that participated
 the sampling method (if a systematic sampling plan was employed).

Sample size, power, and precision. Provide the target size of the sample and the
number of subjects intended to be in every condition, if diverse conditions were
utilized. Mention if the attained sample is not the same from the intended
population. Discuss how this target sample size was established (such as through
analysis of power or precision).

Describe the methodology and outcomes if provisional analysis and stopping rules
were utilized to change the intended sample size. Interpretations and conclusions
must not exceed what the sample would allow.

Measures and covariates. Include in this section information that gives definitions
of all primary and secondary results measures and covariates, plus measures
gathered but were not incorporated in the manuscript. Present the data gathering
method used, such as observations, interviews, questionnaires, etc., and
techniques utilized to improve the measurement quality, such as the use of
multiple observations or the reliability and experience of evaluators. Finally, discuss
the instruments utilized, such as evidence of cultural validity, biometric properties,
etc.

Research design. Indicate the research design in this section. Specify whether
subjects were observed in a natural setting or were placed in manipulated
conditions. In case various conditions were designed, detail how participants were
assigned to the different conditions, i.e., via random assignment or other selection
technique. Likewise, indicate if the research design is within-subject or between-
subject.

Various research designs have diverse reporting needs related to them, so ensure
that you select the appropriate ones and provide sufficient justification for the
selection. Information should be clearly presented for all research works that
feature experimental interventions or manipulations.

For studies that do not involve an intervention or experimental manipulation, such

as natural history or observational studies, give enough description of the research
processes to enable readers to completely understand the intricacy of the study
and to facilitate their own study replication.
For studies that use experimental manipulations or interventions, ensure that you
provide their specific details. Include sufficient information about the
manipulations or interventions designed for every condition. Discuss if control
groups were used and when and how experimental manipulations were actually
conducted.

G. Results
Provide a clear summary of the gathered data and the corresponding analysis of
such data in relation to the subsequent discussion. Present the data with adequate
information to legitimize your conclusions. Discuss all relevant outcomes, both
those that agree or contradict the original expectations. Include statistically non-
significant findings when theory predicts statistically significant results.

Never omit any uncomfortable results to make the study appear acceptable.
Likewise, refrain from including raw data or individual scores, unless for illustrative
examples or single-case research designs.

APA and other professional groups promote the spirit of data sharing to achieve
research transparency and ethical scholarly practices. As such, raw data can be
made through supplemental online archives (discussed in more detail below).

Recruitment. Indicate dates describing the recruitment periods of study subjects,

including follow-ups and the primary sources of the possible subjects, if suitable. If
these periods vary by category, indicate the schedules for every group.

Statistics and data analysis. Data reporting and outcomes reporting are essential
aspects of any study. Precise, unbiased, thorough, and meaningful reporting of the
data analysis (whether qualitative or quantitative) should be a key element of all
research articles.

Ancillary analyses. Discuss any other analyses conducted—e.g., adjusted analysis

or subgroup analysis—specifying those that were exploratory or preplanned.

Participant flow. For experimental and quasi-experimental designs, provide a

clear description of the flow of participants (humans, animals, or units like hospital
wards or classrooms). Indicate the total number of groups that participated in the
research, the number of subjects assigned to every cluster, and the number of
subjects utilized in the primary investigations. Be sure to present the number of
subjects who transferred to other conditions or did not complete the experience
and explain why. To clearly present participant flow, APA follows the Consolidated
Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT, Moher et al., 2001).

Intervention or manipulation fidelity. For studies that employ experimental

manipulations or interventions, present the corresponding evidence if those
mediations were administered as planned. For basic experimental studies, this may
be the effect of how manipulations were controlled. For applied research, this may
be in the form of, for instance, observations or records of subject attendance
documentation or intervention delivery sessions.
Baseline data. Provide the baseline clinical and/or demographic characteristics of
each group in your study.

Statistics and data analysis. In research works that discuss the outcomes of
interventions or experimental manipulations, explain whether an intent-to-treat
analysis was used. This is to clarify if all subjects assigned to the experimental
conditions were included in the analysis no matter if they received the intervention
or not. Provide adequate reasoning for the decision.

Adverse events. For studies that examined interventions, discuss all important
unexpected or adverse events, i.e., those with critical consequences, including
significant side effects in every intervention category.

A notable case that establishes the importance of reporting adverse events is that
of sildenafil or molecule UK-92-480 (McCullough, 2002). From 1991 to 1992, its
initial human trials ascertained that it does not have good potential as an
antianginal drug. Nonetheless, an “adverse event" in the trials was reported, as the
male subjects consistently experienced an erectogenic effect from sildenafil or
Viagra (Goldstein et al., 2019).

H. Discussion
Once you have presented the results, it is time to assess and expound on their
implications, particularly with regard to your initial hypothesis. In the Discussion
section, you will analyze, explain, and qualify the outcomes and deduce
assumptions and conclusions from them. Underscore any practical or theoretical
ramifications for the results.

Start this section with a clear manifestation of the agreement or disagreement for
your original hypotheses, differentiated by main and supplemental hypotheses. In
case your hypotheses were not upheld, provide post hoc elucidation.

Use any similarities and disparities between your results and others’ work to
properly situate, affirm, and explain your conclusions. Do not merely redesign and
repeat previously raised points. Every new statement must support your
interpretation and how the readers appreciate the problem.

Your interpretation of the study outcomes must consider:

 the total number of experiments or overlaps among them

 the inaccuracy of measures
 the effect sizes monitored
 origins of possible bias and other threats to internal validity
 other drawbacks or limitations of the research.

Recognize the limitations of your study and discuss the other interpretations of the
study findings. Likewise, indicate the external validity or generalizability of the
results.

Close this section using a logical and acceptable commentary on the value of your
findings. This concluding part may either be extensive or concise, as long as it is not
overstated, self-contained, and is well-reasoned. Of course, it is also crucial to pick
the right writing style for your purpose. It is good to note that depending on your
discipline, the discussion section may take more of an APA style essay format. This
is typically found in abstract and expository works. This is quite popular in areas
such as philosophy of science and the philosophy of mathematics where reflections
on methodological aspects and interpretations of theories are the bulk of the study.

I. Multiple Experiments
If your article is presenting multiple research, provide a clear background, logic, and
methodological aspects of each research to the reader. If necessary, include for
every study a brief discussion of the findings, or integrate the discussion with the
description of findings, such as a Results and Discussion section.

Make sure to provide an extensive general discussion of all the research after the
previous study. Only present conceptually related works in one paper.

J. Meta-Analyses
Similar factors that initiated proposals for manuscript reporting standards that
present new data collections have caused the same efforts to create the reporting
standards for the methods and results of meta-analyses.
Do not place studies used in a meta-analysis in an appendix or supplemental
section. Rather, include these research works in the References section, arranged
alphabetically. Differentiate those studies from the regular reference entries by
putting an asterisk before each entry.

K. References
References formally recognize the prior works of scholars and offer an efficient
approach to find it. They are used to validate statements done regarding the
literature, similar to how data in the text uphold an author’s interpretations and
conclusions.

Cited references should not be all-inclusive but must be enough to help validate the
value of your study and to make sure that readers can properly situate it in the
context of past theorizing and studies.

Mastering how to cite a research paper can be difficult, especially for novice
scholars. The standard citation protocols ensure that references are complete,
precise, and helpful to scholars and readers. Begin your list of references on a new
page. Center the label References and format in uppercase and lowercase letters.
All entries in the reference list must be in hanging indent (the first line is flushed left
and the rest of the text is indented) and double-spaced.

L. Footnotes
Authors use footnotes to offer additional information or to cite the status of
copyright permission.

Content footnotes. This type of footnotes adds or strengthens important

information in the manuscript. These footnotes should not include nonessential,
irrelevant, or complex information. Since they tend to distract readers, content
footnotes should only be used if they truly add to the discussion.

Copyright permission. This type of footnotes recognizes the source of tables and
figures, scale and test items, and long quotations that have been adapted or
reproduced. Authors must obtain permission to reproduce or adapt material from
copyrighted sources.

Number all footnotes in succession in the order in which they appear in the article
using Arabic numerals in superscript. Footnote numbers must be placed after any
punctuation mark except a dash, such as this.1 A footnote number that occurs with
a dash—such as this2—always go before the dash. (A footnote number is placed
before a closing parenthesis if it relates only to text inside the parentheses, such as
this.3) Do not put any footnote numbers in the headings.

Courses
Oxford University
Cambridge University
Life Sciences
10th
2nd
Science
13th
7th
Social Sciences
10th
16th
Medicine
14th
4th
English
50-75th
19th

M. Appendices & Supplemental Materials

There are situations when a material that supplements an article content tends to
be inappropriate or distracting when included in the article’s body. These types of
materials are commonly included in a supplemental materials section or an
appendix.

Appendices. Generally, an appendix is suitable for materials that are comparatively

brief and readily presented in printed form. Examples of material appropriate for
an appendix include:

 an extensive demographic description of a study’s subpopulations

 a detailed description of a sophisticated technology
 an inventory of stimulus materials
 other detailed or complex reporting items (i.e., those mentioned in the
reporting standards section above).

Label your appendix section as Appendix if it only has one item. If your manuscript
has appendices (i.e., multiple items), label them as Appendix A, Appendix B, and so
on, in the order as cited in the article. Every appendix must have a clear, descriptive
title.

In the body of the article, cite appendices by their labels. For example:

Supplemental materials. Web-based, online supplemental archives tend to be

more appropriate for a material that is more useful when available as a direct
download as well as materials that are not easily presented in standard print
format. Some examples of materials suitable for inclusion in online supplemental
archives are:

 color figures
 expanded methodology sections
 primary or supplementary data sets
 detailed intervention protocols
  oversized tables
 audio or video clips
 details of mathematical or computational models
 lengthy computer code

These files (similar to an appendix) become part of the primary journal record and
thus, cannot be deleted, modified, or augmented.

For APA journals, articles with links to online supplemental archives provide access
to a landing page that includes a context statement and link for every supplemental
material file, a link to the published text, and a bibliographic citation. Supplemental
materials must have sufficient information to make their contents easy to interpret
when accompanied by the article.

III. Useful Tips for Using APA Style

Aside from the above-detailed instructions on writing a paper in APA format, here
are some general guidelines when using APA style:

1. Double-space all your text throughout the manuscript.

2. Always use serif type font and left-align your text.
3. Never use hyphens at the ends of lines and use only a single space after the
periods to end a sentence.
4. Closely observe the in-text citations and reference list guidelines. Aside from
ensuring the accuracy of the details, pay special attention to spaces and
punctuation.
5. Direct quotations are cited in-text with the page number of the reference
(e.g., Smith, 2020, 100-101).
6. Don’t use the comma before “et al" (e.g., Johnson et al., 2020). Put a comma
in the second to the last entry in a series before the word “and."
7. Refer to all tables and figures in the article’s body.
8. Strictly observe the APA levels of headings.
9. Use figures (Arabic numerals) for numbers that express time, dates, ages,
sample and population sizes, participants in an experiment, scores and
points on a scale, and exact sums of money.
10.When using acronyms or abbreviations, spell out the full term during the first
instance it is mentioned in the manuscript. Enclose the acronym or
abbreviation in parentheses. Use the acronym or abbreviation in the
succeeding instances.
11.Leave out the hyphen with most prefixes (e.g., pretest and posttest,
preoperative and postoperative, etc.).
12.Use an online bibliography maker to become more familiar with how an APA-
style citation is supposed to look.
13.Purchase or buy access to the latest edition of the APA stylebook, Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, to keep abreast
of the most recent updates in scientific writing rules.
IV. Sample Papers
Scholarly publications across the world that adhere to the APA style vary in terms of
field or discipline, encompassing social and behavioral sciences, nursing, medicine,
law, etc. Here are APA format example works:

 APA style paper Coronavirus Pandemic

 APA style paper Educational Psychology
 APA style paper Research Methods and Reporting
 APA style paper State of the Art Review
 APA style paper Practice Pointer
 APA style paper Case Study
 APA style paper Statistics
 APA style paper Longitudinal/Cohort Study
 APA style paper Survey Research
 APA style paper Editorial
 APA style paper Policy Making

Conclusion
Why a rigorous standard for scientific communication? For novice scholars without
prior APA style experience, this is normal to ask. Uniform style allows us to quickly
select and explore the main points and findings. Rules of style in scientific writing
promote the complete disclosure of key information and enable us to do away with
minor distractions.

Like other scientific formats, APA style helps us to easily communicate the essential
aspects of quantitative or qualitative results, choose the most suitable presentation
for our analyses, share the intricate details of our research procedures, and
describe individuals with precision and respect. It eliminates the time lost in
determining the correct punctuation for a reference or the correct form for
footnotes or appendices in text. Those elements are systematized in the rules we
follow—such as the APA style—for clear communication, allowing us to focus our
efforts on the essence of our study.

Ultimately, the aim of the APA style is to establish effective research communication
to help scholars and readers to make ethical decisions about research findings and
discoveries. By providing a shared way to communicate, the scientific community
and the general public are well-informed in a timely, efficient manner.

References:

1. APA (2014). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th

Edition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
2. APA (2018). Summary Report of Journal Operations, 2017. American
Psychologist, 73 (5), 683-84. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000347
3. APA Publications and Communications Board Working Group on Journal
Article Reporting Standards (2008). Reporting standards for research in
psychology: Why do we need them? What might they be? American
Psychologist, 63, 842845. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.9.839
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