American Psychological Association (APA) Style Highlights*
For NYMC Students (2008)

Librarians in the Health Sciences Library (HSL) are available to assist New York Medical College (NYMC) students needing guidance applying the APA style in their writing. Both general and specific questions may be directed to (914) 594-4210 or hsl_nymc@nymc.edu.

*Always refer to the most current edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (on Reserve in the library: WZ 345 .A35 2001) as well as http://apastyle.apa.org/elecref.html for updated information about electronic formats (including web documents, journal articles accessed electronically, and media).

Students are also encouraged to review examples of theses of previous students, shelved alphabetically in the library’s thesis collection.

Text:

    Margins should be 1” all around;
    12 point font size (Courier or Times Roman);
    Double space all text (including References);
    Indent 5-7 spaces on first line of each paragraph;
    Quotes <40 words are in the text. (e.g. Smith, 1999). Always give page numbers for quotations: (Smith, 1999, p.27)
    Quotes in text =>40 should be indented, double-spaced and blocked
    For electronic sources that do not have page numbers, use paragraph numbers. If  not available, cite heading and number of the paragraph:  (Myers, 2000, para.5).

References:

    Works are listed alphabetically by author (or title if no author) at the end under the heading References;
    Author names are inverted (last name first);
    The first line of each entry begins at left margin, then indented 5-7 spaces and double-spaced;
    Journal titles should be italicized;
    Regardless of format, authors citing Internet sources must: direct readers as closely as possible to the information being cited and provide addresses that work.

Examples of some basic formats:

1. Article from a print journal:

Hoyert, D.L., & Lima, A.R. (2005, May-June). Querying of death certificates in the United States. Public Health Reports, 120(3), 288-293.

2. Article from online journal (with no doi assigned ):

Eysenbach, G., & Kohler, C. (2001). How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the world wide web? [Electronic version]. British Medical Journal, 324, 573-577.

3. Article from online journal (with doi assigned):

Bravata, D. M., Smith-Spangler, C., Sundaram, V., Gienger, A. L., Lin, N., Lewis, R., et al. (2007). Using pedometers to increase physical activity and improve health: A systematic review. JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, 298(19), 2296-2304. doi:10.1001/jama.298.19.2296

4. Online web document with a fixed publication date:

American Psychological Association. (1995, September 15). APA public policy alert. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.apastyle.org/electext.html

5. Online web document with no fixed publication date:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2006). Anthrax Q & A: anthrax and animal hides. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/anthrax/faq/pelt.asp

6. Book:

Viola, D. (2004). Effectively writing your thesis. Valhalla, NY: Barefoot Press.

7. Chapter in a book:

Choolfaian, A., & Viola, D. (2001). Writing for publication in health policy. In J.A. O'Brien (Ed.), Award winning student papers (2nd ed., pp. 12-28). Valhalla, NY: New York Medical College Press.

Updated 3/12/08, D. Cunningham