Comprehensive Study Notes on APA Standards Seventh Edition

Introduction to APA Standards Seventh Edition

Academic and scientific texts follow specific conventions to facilitate production and communication within discourse communities. The American Psychological Association (APA) standards are internationally recognized and extensively used in Social Sciences, Humanities, Administrative Sciences, and occasionally Health Sciences. This guide, produced by the Centro de Escritura Javeriano in July 2020, synthesizes the APA Style Manual Seventh Edition (published in 2019). It focuses on four core areas: general document format, tables and figures, citation mechanisms, and references. While the full APA manual covers scientific text structuring, research ethics, and formal language use, this synthesis prioritizes academic work preparation. For comprehensive information, users are encouraged to visit the official site at www.apastyle.org.

General Document Format and Structure

The standard paper size for works following APA style is Letter size (carta), measuring exactly $21.59\,cm \times 27.94\,cm$. The margins must be set to $2.54\,cm$ on all four sides (top, bottom, left, and right). Page numbering should be placed in the upper right corner using Arabic numerals. The text must be aligned to the left without justification, and the line spacing throughout the document should be double ($2.0$), with no additional space between paragraphs. Indentation is required for the first line of every paragraph at precisely $1.27\,cm$, while a hanging indent of $1.27\,cm$ is applied to the references section.

APA 7th edition allows for various font options, categorized into Serif and Sans Serif styles. Serif options include Times New Roman at $12\,points$, Georgia at $11\,points$, and Computer Modern at $10\,points$. Sans Serif options include Calibri at $11\,points$, Arial at $11\,points$, and Lucida Sans Unicode at $10\,points$. Standard abbreviations used in these documents include: cap. (Cap’‡tulo), ed. (Edici’“n), ed. rev. (Edici’“n revisada), ed. (Editor/Editores), trad. (Traductor/es), s.f. (Sin fecha), p. or pp. (P’gina/P’ginas), Vol. (Volumen), n’’m. (N’’mero), Pt. (Parte), and Supl. (Suplemento).

Document Elements and Page Organization

The suggested order for the elements of a work includes the Title Page (P’gina de presentaci’“n), Abstract (Resumen), Body/Contents (Contenidos o cuerpo del texto), References (Referencias), Footnotes (Notas al pie), Tables (Tablas), Figures (Figuras), and Annexes (Anexos). Tables and figures may be inserted within the text or placed in specific sections at the end. For student works, the title page must include the work title, the author’s name, the institutional affiliation (e.g., Departamento de Educaci’“n, Universidad Panamericana), the course name (e.g., Enfoques educativos II), the professor's name (e.g., Dra. Sonia Aguirre), the date, and the page number.

The Abstract provides a brief, complete description of the content, typically limited to $250\,words$. The title "Resumen" is centered and bolded; the following line begins left-aligned without indentation. Abstracts can be paragraph-style or structured with labels like Objective, Method, Results, and Conclusions. Underneath the abstract, Keywords (Palabras clave) describe the most important aspects of the work. These are written in lowercase (except proper nouns), separated by commas, and the label itself is italicized. Footnotes should provide brief, additional information, containing only one idea to avoid distraction. They are numbered with Arabic numerals in superscript ($^{2}$) and can appear at the bottom of the page or in a separate section after the references. Annexes aid in understanding or replicating the study (e.g., tests, instructions) and are labeled with letters (e.g., Anexo A, Anexo B) in their order of appearance.

Hierarchy of Headings

To facilitate the understanding of relationships between categories and subthemes, APA suggests a maximum of five heading levels. Level 1 is Centered, Bold, Title Case Heading, with the text starting as a new paragraph. Level 2 is Flush Left, Bold, Title Case Heading, with the text starting as a new paragraph. Level 3 is Flush Left, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading, with text starting as a new paragraph. Level 4 is Indented, Bold, Title Case Heading, Ending with a Period, where the text starts on the same line. Level 5 is Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading, Ending with a Period, where the text also starts on the same line.

Format for Tables and Figures

Tables and figures enable the efficient presentation of large amounts of data. Both must be explicitly mentioned in the text and must attribute authorship if the information is taken or adapted from other sources. A table consists of rows and columns containing numbers or text. Components include the label and number in bold (e.g., Tabla 1), a descriptive title in italics, the content (using horizontal lines only, with line spacing of $1.0$, $1.5$, or $2.0$), and a note below. Notes should follow the general font settings and are ordered as general, specific, and probability.

Figures include any non-table graphic: charts, photographs, drawings, or clinical images. Visual quality and color organization are paramount. Text within figures should use a sans serif font (Calibri, Arial, or Lucida Sans Unicode) between $8$ and $14\,points$. Like tables, figures include a bold label and number (e.g., Figura 1), an italicized descriptive title, the image/content, and a note below with author attribution. Checklist criteria ensure all items are high resolution, consecutively numbered ($1, 2, 3$), and clearly labeled with units or symbols explained.

Citation Systems and Rules

Citations attribute credit to original authors and follow an Author-Date system. Primacy should be given to primary sources over secondary ones. There are two main formats: Narrative Citations (Author is part of the sentence, date in parentheses; e.g., Quintero (2020) plantea que…) and Parenthetical Citations (Author and date in parentheses at the end; e.g., (Quintero, 2020)). Citations are further divided into Textual (Direct) and Paraphrased. Textual citations include the page number ($p.$ for single, $pp.$ for ranges). Paraphrasing involves reelaborating ideas in one's own words and requires the author and year.

Citations of less than $40\,words$ (Short Citations) are integrated into the paragraph within double quotation marks. For example: According to Kaplan and Szapu (2019), “Parece ser que cuando no se encuentran medios para tramitar el dolor social, las lesiones en la piel se convierten en una via de escape” (p. 111). Citations of $40\,words$ or more (Long Citations) are written in a separate block, indented $1.27\,cm$, without quotation marks, and the final period comes before the parenthetical data. For instance, in a block quote, the format ends with “…dolor (social) por otro (fisico), aunque sea por breves momentos. (p. 111)”.

Specific Citation Scenarios

Rules vary based on the number of authors. For one author, use: L’“pez Gonz’lez (2019). For two authors, separate surnames with “y”: Rodr’ˆguez y S’nchez (2013). For three or more authors, use the first author followed by “et al.” from the first citation: Barton et al. (2016). If two works by different authors with the same year would produce identical ‘et al.’ citations, list as many names as needed to distinguish them (e.g., Kapoor, Bloom, Montez et al. (2017) vs. Kapoor, Bloom, Zucker et al. (2017)). For corporate authors with abbreviations, the first citation defines it: Organizaci’“n Mundial de la Salud (OMS, 2015), and subsequent citations use only the abbreviation: OMS (2015).

When citing multiple works in the same parentheses, order them alphabetically by the first author and separate with semicolons: (Cardozo, 2020; Chocarro y Garaigordobil, 2019). If an author has multiple works in the same year, append lowercase letters to the year: Douglas (2019a). To distinguish between authors with the same surname, include their first initials: S. Freud (1921) and A. Freud (1960). For re-edited or translated works, include both years separated by a slash: Piaget (1966/2000). If no author is present, use the title in quotes: (“Informe Anual”, 2013). For missing dates, use s.f. (sin fecha). For material without page numbers, use paragraph numbers (p’rr. 4) or section headings. Audiovisual material citations can include a timestamp (Walley-Beckett, 2017, 25:36).

The Reference List

References provide complete data for cited sources, whereas a bibliography may include works that were read but not explicitly cited. APA requires that all cited works be referenced. The list is ordered alphabetically by the first author’s surname, uses double spacing, and applies a hanging indent. The four basic elements of a reference are: Author (Who is responsible?), Date (When was it published?), Title (What is it called?), and Source (Where can it be found?). For works with up to $20$ authors, all must be listed. For works with more than $20$ authors, list the first $19$, then an ellipsis (…), and then the final author.

Reference Examples by Type

For Books, the format is: Surname, A. A. (Year). Title in Italics. Publisher. For chapters in edited books, the author of the chapter is followed by the editors and page range: Barton, D. y Hamilton, M. (2004). Title of chapter. En V. Zavala (Ed.), Book Title (pp. 109-139). Scientific Articles (Journals) require: Surname, A. A. (Date). Title of article. Journal Name in Italics, Vol(No), pp-pp. DOI/URL. Note that the volume and journal name are italicized, but the issue number is not. For Newspapers, include the exact date: D’ˆez, A. y Baquero, C. S. (2020, 2 de enero). El Pais, 4. Reports use the organization name as the author: Ministerio de Salud (2016). Tesis/Theses should include the degree type and institution in brackets: [Tesis de pregrado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid].

Electronic and Audiovisual References

For all online material, the phrases “Recuperado de” and “DOI” are no longer needed (just the URL/link). Websites follow: Author. (Date). Title. Site Name. URL. Movies: Director, A. (Director). (Year). Name [Pel’ˆcula]. Studio. URL. TV Series use the producer as the author and indicate the year range: Walley-Beckett, M. (Producer). (2017-2020). Anne with an E [serie de televisi’“n]. CBC. Podcasts include both authors and the audio/video tag: [Podcast]. Social media posts include the handle in brackets: Autor, A.A. [@usuario]. (Date). Content description (max 20 words) [Tweet/Publicaci’“n]. Site name. URL.

Legal References and Spanish Adaptations

Legal citations follow a Title-Date format in-text and Title-Source-Date in references. For example, laws in Colombia are cited as: Ley 1090 de 2006. (2006, 6 de septiembre). Congreso de la Republica. Diario oficial No 46.383. Sentencias: T’ˆtulo o nombre de la sentencia. (Fecha). Corte (Magistrado). URL. Treaties: Nombre del tratado, fecha, URL.

Adaptations for Spanish users include substituting “&” with “y” in all citations and Spanish-language reference entries. While English titles capitalize all major words, Spanish titles should only capitalize the first word and proper nouns. Dates in Spanish should follow the format: Year, Day of Month (e.g., 2020, 23 de noviembre), and months are written in lowercase. Ordinal numbers are adapted from 3rd ed. to 3.’ ed. This synthesis is based on the official APA Publication Manual 7th ed. (2019) and Style Guidelines.