APA style is typically used in behavioral and social sciences such as psychology, sociology, history, and communications.

Basic Anatomy of an APA Citation:

General APA format

Your essay should be typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11"), with 1" margins on all sides.  Include a page header (also known as the “running head”) at the top of every page. For a professional paper, this includes your paper title and the page number. For a student paper, this only includes the page number. To create a page header/running head, insert page numbers flush right. Then type "TITLE OF YOUR PAPER" in the header flush left using all capital letters. The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.

**A note about Fonts:

APA guidelines don't specifically require certain fonts, but they are required to be legible to the reader, and used consistently throughout the paper. Good choices included in the APA handbook are: 

Sans serif:

• 11-point Calibri
• 11-point Arial
• 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode

Serif: 

• 12-point Times New Roman
• 11-point Georgia
• 10-point Computer Modern.

Sections included in an APA formatted paper:

Your essay should include four major sections: the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.

Title page formatting

Note: APA 7 provides slightly different directions for formatting the title pages of professional papers (e.g., those intended for scholarly publication) and student papers (e.g., those turned in for credit in a high school or college course). BE SURE TO CHECK WITH YOUR INSTRUCTOR TO SEE WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO USE.

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name, and the institutional affiliation. A professional paper should also include the author note. A student paper should also include the course number and name, instructor name, and assignment due date.

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. The title should be centered and written in boldface. APA recommends that your title be focused and succinct and that it should not contain abbreviations or words that serve no purpose. Your title may take up one or two lines. All text on the title page, and throughout your paper, should be double-spaced.

Beneath the title, type the author's name: first name, middle initial(s), and last name. Do not use titles (Dr.) or degrees (PhD).

Beneath the author's name, type the institutional affiliation, which should indicate the location where the author(s) conducted the research.

A professional paper should include the author note beneath the institutional affiliation, in the bottom half of the title page. This should be divided up into several paragraphs, with any paragraphs that are not relevant omitted. The first paragraph should include the author’s name, the symbol for the ORCID iD, and the URL for the ORCID iD. Any authors who do not have an ORCID iD should be omitted. The second paragraph should show any change in affiliation or any deaths of the authors. The third paragraph should include any disclosures or acknowledgements, such as study registration, open practices and data sharing, disclosure of related reports and conflicts of interest, and acknowledgement of financial support and other assistance. The fourth paragraph should include contact information for the corresponding author.

**A student paper should not include an author note.

Note again that page headers/page numbers (described above for professional and student papers) also appear at the top of the title page. In other words, a professional paper's title page will include the title of the paper flush left in all capitals and the page number flush right, while a student paper will only contain the page number flush right.