While you’re at it, poke around and check out our APA reference generator. If you’re in that boat, head to to check out more styles. Believe it or not, there are thousands of other styles, so perhaps your teacher or professor requested a completely different one. This is why you should always double-check with your teacher on whether they want you to use the 6th edition or the 7th edition for your projects.Ĭlick here for more basics on this style.Īnother widely used style is MLA format. With the 7th edition just coming onto the scene in 2020, the American Psychological Association does not expect to see widespread usage of the 7th edition until later in 2020. So, whether you’re creating a psychology-related research project or not, there’s a good chance you were asked to create your citations in APA style.Ĭurrently in its 7th edition, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is one of the most frequently used style guides for academic writing today! In fact, other disciplines outside of the science world use APA style today, too. There was enough information displayed in the citations for readers to go out and find the exact sources on their own.ĪPA citations were such a hit, they were so good, that other science disciplines soon adopted the citation format as well.Readers were able to easily understand the information shown in citations.Psychology researchers were all able to display the sources they used in a systematic way.Back in 1952, they created a way for ALL psychology researchers to structure their citations. Why were APA citations created and why did my teacher ask me to use this style?Īre you scratching your head, wondering what is APA style is and how this all relates to your research project? To make a long story short, the American Psychological Association did something really cool. With close to 120,000 members, this is THE leading world organization related to psychology.They are not officially associated with this guide, but the information here talks about their citing format and rules in depth. This is a massive organization, responsible for creating and sharing psychology-related publications, research, and databases.īasically, they keep psychologists and other similar roles in the loop with what’s happening in the world of psychology. APA is an abbreviation which stands for American Psychological Association.

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