The American Psychological Association mainly developed the APA Style CENTRAL for academic institutions. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used citation style used within the social sciences. This APA Citation Guide, revised according to the sixth edition of the APA manual, presents the standard format for in-text citations and the reference page. The APA style is most popular and used by many writers across the globe because it is simple and concise in comparison to the other style guides.
APA style has a number of key rules for using author names as part of the author-date system. Here are some common examples:
In-text citation
A Work by Two Authors: When citing a work by two authors, the APA style suggests naming both authors in the signal phrase or in the parentheses each time at all appearances in the text. The word “and” should be used between the authors’ names within the text and ampersand”&” must be used when the author names appear within the parentheses.
For instance: Study conducted by Rosemary and Paul (1997) supports…
(Rosemary & Paul, 1997)
References styling
The last names and initials must be used and the ampersand instead of “and.”
Paul, D. T., & Soll, R. E. (1996).Title of the study. Journal of XXXXX, 66, 1034-1048.
In-text citation
A Work by Three to Five Authors: The APA style requires that the authors be listed in the signal phrase or in parentheses on the first time the source is cited in the text. When cited in the text, the word “and” should be used between the authors’ names and ampersand should be used when cited within the parentheses.
For instance: (Paul, Cornell, Soll, Springer, & Harlow, 2016)
In subsequent citations, only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” should be mentioned in the signal phrase or in parentheses. the et al should never be followed by a period.
For instance: (Paul et al, 2016)
References styling
List by last names and initials. Commas must be used to separate author names and the last author name is preceded again by ampersand.
Paul, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Soll, C. R., Mohanty, A., Harlow, T., & Bill, J. S. (1996). Title of the study. Journal of XXXX, 62, 1170-1304.
In-text citation
A work by Six or More Authors: Mention the first author’s name followed by et al. in the signal phrase or in parentheses.
For instance: Paul et al. (2001) argued…
(Paul et al., 2001)
References styling
List by last names and initials and commas must be used to separate author names. After the name of the sixth author, ellipses must be inserted in place of the author names. Then provide the name of the final author is written.
Kohli, F. H., Choi, M. J., Kaur, L. L., Desai, A. A., Sterling, J. A., Thomas, S. T., . . . Paul, L. H. (2009). Title of the study. Journal name, 57, 323-335.