APA Style is a standard of procedures that must be followed when writing research based articles and papers related to the anthropological and behavioral sciences.

In 1929 the American Psychological Association (APA) initiated the use of a specific format to reference works used within the article to substantiate or solidify the points made. The APA Style has been used ever since, with several revisions and expansions made along the way. After the first seven pages set of “Instructions” was published in 1929, and it wasn’t until 1952 that another sixty pages was added to the Publication Manual. Four more edited versions of the manual have been released since then, and great changes have occurred in technology and the world of publishing.

APA Style presents writers with the guidelines that are to be followed when submitting literature for professional review or publication.

The Publication Manual does acknowledge that exceptions to rules must also be included, and that any one requirement will not always be appropriate or apply to every situation. The intention of the Publication manual is to provide authors standard guidelines to follow when preparing a manuscript, to present the literature in a concise predictable format. This makes the job of the editor much easier as well! APA Style requires that all manuscripts submitted must be double-spaced to allow room for editors to make notes in the margin that can be easily read by the author and subsequently the typist. A reference list must also be included in all literature submitted for review, that lists alphabetically all of the works cited within the paper. Citations of past research or other sources greatly substantiate the author’s position and provides readers with a complete entry of where the reference was located, for example, name of journal article, book, website, etc.

The APA Style manual is available online at www.apastyle.org, or from university bookstores and local book retailers.

To make it even easier, authors can also purchase an APA Style formatting disk or CD that includes a user-friendly template that can be loaded onto a personal computer. This saves the writer a lot of time when preparing his or her literature for publication. APA Style can be confusing at first for any user that is unfamiliar with it, especially for those people who have never used it before. With continued practice, the writer will have to refer back to the manual less often, only for the rules relating to specific circumstances or for clarification.