Library Resources: APA 6th Edition

"APA Style® originated in 1929, when a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers convened and sought to establish a simple set of procedures, or style rules, that would codify the many components of scientific writing to increase the ease of reading comprehension.

As with other editorial styles, APA Style consists of rules or guidelines that a publisher observes to ensure clear and consistent presentation of written material. It concerns uniform use of such elements as

• selection of headings, tone, and length;
• punctuation and abbreviations;
• presentation of numbers and statistics;
• construction of tables and figures,
• citation of references; and
• many other elements that are a part of a manuscript."

             (Source: Official APA website)

In order to simplify when to use a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in your citations, APA has posted a flow chart online: