APA Style

APA is an author + year reference style consisting of two parts: (a) the in-text citation which includes the author's last name and the year of publication, and (b) an alphabetical list of references at the end of the document. APA style also includes conventions and rules on how to write and format an academic paper.

Please note that this library guide is not comprehensive and aims to cover only the most common document types. It is an adaption and interpretation of American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA Style (7th ed.). Copyright 2020 by American Psychological Association.

• To show the reader what material your claims and arguments are based on 
• To put your reader in the position to verify your work and be able to trust your sources
• To provide the reader a broader understanding of the topic 
• To put your work in a context
• To give authors recognition for their ideas 
• Avoid plagiarism

There are a number of reference management software to choose from, e.g., EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero. In addition to getting help with the in-text-citation and getting automatically generated reference lists, these can be used to import, save and organize your sources. Read more and get started with a reference management software here.