The American Psychological Association (APA) citation style is a widely used author-date system for citing sources in the social sciences and other fields, such as education, business, and nursing. The 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual provides guidelines for how to format and cite sources in a reference list and within the text of a paper.
In APA citation style, a reference list is a list of all the sources cited in the text of a paper. It is usually located at the end of the paper and should be arranged alphabetically by the author's last name. Each source in the reference list should be formatted according to the guidelines provided in the APA Publication Manual.
Here is an example of a reference list entry for a book in APA 6th edition citation style:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher.
For example:
Smith, J. (2010). The art of learning. New York: Penguin Books.
In the text of a paper, APA citation style uses the author-date system to cite sources. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication are included in the text of the paper, and the full reference is listed in the reference list at the end of the paper. Here is an example of how to cite a book in the text of a paper using APA 6th edition citation style:
According to Smith (2010), "the art of learning is a lifelong pursuit" (p. 15).
In this example, "Smith" is the author's last name and "2010" is the year of publication. The page number is included in the citation because the quote is taken from a specific page in the book.
There are many other rules and guidelines for citing sources in APA citation style, including how to format references for different types of sources (e.g., journal articles, websites, interviews), how to use in-text citations for paraphrased material, and how to use endnotes and footnotes. It is important to follow these guidelines carefully to ensure that your paper is correctly formatted and all of your sources are properly cited.