The American Psychological Association (APA) Style is the format used in Psychology and many other Social Sciences. This style covers both the structure of the paper and the proper format for citations. Generally, APA format includes a title page, abstract, body, subsections, tables, figures, and references. Parenthetical in-text citations of sources contain the author and the year as follows: (Smith, 2024). APA references should have a dedicated Reference Page at the end of your essay, using the same format of your essay, alphabetized, double spaces, with hanging indents. References generally follow this basic structure:

Author’s Last name, Author’s First and Middle initials, & Last names and initials of other authors, if any. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal italicized, Volume number italicized (Issue number), Page numbers. DOI.

Visit the OWL guide on APA style for more details, or the APA Essay Template for visual learning.

Literature review

A literature review is a critical summary of what the scientific literature says about your specific topic or question. Often student research in APA fields falls into this category. Your professor might ask you to write this kind of paper to demonstrate your familiarity with work in the field pertinent to the research you hope to conduct.

A literature review typically contains the following sections:

• Title page
• Introduction section
• List of references