APA (6th Edition) for Nursing and Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences: General Information and Formatting

• APA requires both in-text citations and a reference list at the end of a paper
• The author-date system is used for in-text citations. (see In-text Citations tab for more information)
• The reference list provides a list of all sources used in the paper; sources are listed alphabetically.(see Reference List tab for more information)
• The APA Style Blog is an excellent resource to use in addition the the APA Manual. It can be found using the link below and can be searched with a search box which appears in the upper right of the page.

All page numbers refer to the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Abstract --pages 25 - 27

Introduction -- pages 27 & 28

Adding tables or figures to a paper -- 125-128

References -- page 37

Appendices-- page 38 & 39

All page numbers refer to the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

• View the Sample paper on page 41 to see how to set up a running head, title page, abstract, and keywords.
• A running head should be no more than 50 characters including spaces and should be a shortened but descriptive version of the title.
• The introduction to a paper begins on the third page and has no heading. Instead the third page will have the title of the paper at the top (centered, not bolded). See page 42 for an example.
• Levels of headings to use within a paper are show in Table 3.1 on page 62. Headings are shown within the sample paper on pages 44-47.
• Example of a reference list appears on page 49.

In general you use words to express numbers below 10 (There were four participants in the study) and numerals for 10 and above (The mean age of participants was 38.)

However, there are exceptions to this rule, for example, you use numerals for numbers which precede a measurement (The patient was administered a 5-mg dose.)

See pages 111-124 of the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for all exceptions to the general numbers rule.