How do I use APA Citation Style

Tables, figures and appendices are used to provide additional information and evidence throughout your written work.  Below you will find guidelines and examples for formatting and incorporating these three important types of information into your paper.  The information below is NOT COMPREHENSIVE.  Please refer to the APA Style Manual, or APA Style Blog for more complete information.  Click on the tabs to the left to navigate to specific examples below.  General guidelines include:

Figures and Tables:

• Figures and tables provide information that is essential at the time of reading the written paper.
• Figures and tables are numbered (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2).
• Figures and tables are usually embedded in the text of your paper, after the end of a paragraph where a table or figure is first mentioned.  
  • Figures usually show images, photographs, illustrations, etc. which are non-textual.
  • Tables usually show numbers or text organized into rows and columns.
• A figure or table should not be split between two pages.
• Note: Some instructors might prefer for tables and figures to go at the end of the paper.  When in doubt, talk with your instructor!

Appendices:

• Appendices provide supplementary support for your paper, but the information is not typically critical while reading the document.
• Appendices are lettered (e.g. Appendix A, Appendix B), and each appendix should start on a new page.
• Appendices go after the list of references. 

Formatting notes:

• Figure should be left-justified
• Figure label: Bold at top of figure, numbered in order of appearance: Figure 1
• Title: Italicized, in title-case, descriptive of information in the table: Buergeria Species from Taiwan
• Note: The word 'Note' is italicized and followed by a period.  The note should contain descriptive information about the figure, as well as an 'attribution statement' if you are using an image, photograph, etc. from another source.  The attributed source should also have an entry in the reference list.

Here is the corresponding reference list example for the attribution example above:

Lam, C. (2015, March 25). Orange back [Photograph]. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/rvXSiu

Formatting notes:

• Table should be left-justified
• Table label: Bold at top of figure, numbered in order of appearance: Table 1
• Title: Italicized, in title-case, descriptive of information in the table: Harry Potter Characters and Their House Affiliation, Blood Status and Wand Types
• Note: The word 'Note' is italicized and followed by a period.  The note should contain descriptive information about the table, data or analysis technique. If you are using data from another source, include an 'attribution statement'.  The attributed source should also have an entry in the reference list.

Here is the corresponding reference list entry for the above table example.  When citing data sets in your reference list, cite the entire dataset (compared with one file from a dataset). This dataset is updated frequently, therefore it is important to include the date of retrieval:

Demiryurek, G. (2021). Harry Potter dataset [Data set]. Kaggle. Retrieved June 23, 2021, from

https://www.kaggle.com/gulsahdemiryurek/harry-potter-dataset?select=Characters.csv 

When reproducing or adapting information from a table, chart or figure from another source, add in a note below your table, chart or figure to include the details of the source. Written permission for print and electronic reuse must be obtained from the copyright holder, if you are publishing your work.

General guidelines for attributing sources:

• If you are using an images or tables taken wholly or adapted from another source, you must include an attribution statement in the Note for the figure or table.  You must also include a reference for the source in the reference list.
• For tables where you are including data from several sources, you can include normal in-text citations in the table or note, which will point to the reference list.  If you are using in-text citations, you will usually still have a descriptive note, but you do not need an attribution statement.

• Read more here: https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2016/01/navigating-copyright-part-4.html

Refer to the following table for creating an attribution statement:

Appendices include supplemental materials that may not be essential during the reading of a paper, but provide additional information for the reader.  Appendices go at the end of the document after the reference list.

Formatting notes:

• If there is one Appendix, label it as "Appendix."  If there are two or more, label them each with a capital letter (e.g. Appendix A, Appendix B).
• Each appendix should have a title that describes its contents.
• The appendix label and title should be in bold, centered and in title case at the top of the page where the appendix begins.  The label and title should be on separate lines.
• Each appendix should start on a new page.
• Appendices can include text, figures, tables, etc., or a combination of related information in different formats.  
• If there is only one figure or table in an appendix, then the appendix label and title take the place of the normal figure or table formatting. 
• For appendices with more than one figure or table, the figures and tables are formatted as described above.  The numbering, however, would include a letter.  For instance, Figure B3, is the third figure in Appendix B.
• As with tables and figures, each appendix should be referred to in the text at the appropriate time (e.g. "see Appendix A").