Reference list

The APA style guide prescribes that the References section, bibliographies and other lists of names should be ordered by surname first, and mandates inclusion of surname prefixes. For example, "Martin de Rijke" should be sorted as "De Rijke, M." and "Saif Al Falasi" should be sorted as "Al-Falasi, Saif." (The preference for Arabic names now is to hyphenate the prefix so that it remains with the surname.)

Multiple publications, same author

If an author has multiple publications that you wish to cite, you use a comma to separate the years of publication in chronological order (oldest to most recent). If the publications occur in the same year, the Publication Manual recommends using suffixes a, b, c, etc. (note that corresponding letters should be used in the reference list, and these references should be ordered alphabetically by title).

Six authors or more

Starting with the first author mentioned in text, the correct format is (Author et al., Year) In the reference section, all six authors' names should be included.

Three to five authors

With three to five authors, the first reference to an article includes all authors. Subsequent citations in the same document may refer to the article by the principal author only plus "et al." However, all authors must be present in the references section.

Single author: Format should be Author's last name (no initials) followed directly by a comma, then the year of publication. When one makes the reference to the author(s) directly as a part of the narrative, then only the year (and page number if needed) would remain enclosed within brackets. The same holds for multiple authors.

Headings

Following APA style, headings are used to organize articles and give them a hierarchical structure. APA style prescribes a specific format for headings (from one to five levels) within an article. They are referred to on page 113 of the 5th edition of the Publication Manual using the following level numbers:

Purpose

Uniform style across journals helps readers to navigate and access material more efficiently. Scholars who experience uncertainty when writing may find the Manual a useful guide. For example, the "Nondiscriminatory Language" sections of the manual discourage authors from writing that is derogatory to women and minorities. Scholarly journals that require APA style sometimes allow their authors to deviate from it if doing so increases clarity.