2
A. Pagination: The abstract begins on a new page (page 2).
B. Heading: “Abstract” (centered on the first line below the running head)
C. Format: The abstract (in block format) begins on the line following the Abstract heading. The
abstract word limit is set by individual journals. Typically, the word limit is between 150 and 250
words. All numbers in the abstract (except those beginning a sentence) should be typed as
digits rather than words.
D. Example of APA-style
Abstract: http://www.vanguard.edu/uploaded/research/apa_style_guide/abstract.pdf
IV. Body
A. Pagination: The body of the paper begins on a new page (page 3). Subsections of the body of
the paper do not begin on new pages.
B. Title: The title of the paper (in uppercase and lowercase letters) is centered on the first line
below the running head on the first page of the introduction (page 3).
C. Introduction: The introduction (which is not labeled) begins on the line following the paper title.
D. Headings: Five levels of headings are available to be used to organize the paper and reflect
the relative importance of sections. For example, many empirical research articles utilize two
levels of headings: Main headings (such as Method, Results, Discussion,
References) would use Level 1 (centered, boldface, uppercase and lowercase letters), and
subheadings (such as Participants, Apparatus, and Procedure as subsections of the Method
section) would use Level 2 (flush left, boldface, uppercase and lowercase letters).
E. Example of APA-style Headings:
http://www.vanguard.edu/uploaded/research/apa_style_guide/headings.pdf
V. Text citations: Source material must be documented in the body of the paper by citing the author(s)
and date(s) of the sources. The underlying principle is that ideas and words of others must be formally
acknowledged. The reader can obtain the full source citation from the list of references that follows the
body of the paper.
A. When the names of the authors of a source are part of the formal structure of the sentence, the
year of publication appears in parentheses following the identification of the authors. Consider
the following example:
Wirth and Mitchell (1994) found that although there was a reduction in insulin dosage over a
period of two weeks in the treatment condition compared to the control condition, the
difference was not statistically significant. [Note: and is used when multiple authors are
identified as part of the formal structure of the sentence. Compare this to the example in the
following section.]
B. When the authors of a source are not part of the formal structure of the sentence, both the
authors and year of publication appear in parentheses. Consider the following example:
Reviews of research on religion and health have concluded that at least some types of
religious behaviors are related to higher levels of physical and mental health (Gartner, Larson,
& Allen, 1991; Koenig, 1990; Levin & Vanderpool, 1991; Maton & Pargament, 1987; Paloma &
Pendleton, 1991; Payne, Bergin, Bielema, & Jenkins, 1991). [Note: & is used when multiple
authors are identified in parenthetical material. Note also that when several sources are cited
parenthetically, they are ordered alphabetically by first authors' surnames and separated by
semicolons.]
C. When a source that has two authors is cited, both authors are included every time the source is
cited.
D. When a source that has three, four, or five authors is cited, all authors are included the first
time the source is cited. When that source is cited again, the first author's surname and "et al."
are used. Consider the following example:
Reviews of research on religion and health have concluded that at least some types of
religious behaviors are related to higher levels of physical and mental health (Payne, Bergin,
Bielema, & Jenkins, 1991).
Payne et al. (1991) showed that ...