Importance of APA Standards

In the field of science and scientific research, there is an extensive protocol that indicates how to carry out the work but also how to publish it and with what rules. These ideas have been concretized and grouped in the set of standards known as APA Standards. It is considered elementary and basic to write a scientific text following these rules since they allow order the reading as well as, and especially, the type of references that are built to search material.

The emergence of the rules for writing scientific papers

The APA standards are a creation of the American Association of Psychology or American Psychological Association in English, hence the acronym APA) that beginning of the 20th century, he decided to establish different writing rules and norms that would allow a better reference to the different works and writings in the area. Today these ideas and guidelines to follow are used in many different areas and are used to make the texts of scientific specialties (including those of the social Sciences) diverse can be understood by all equally.

The importance of conceiving and establishing this type of writing has had to do with helping to keep a clearer account of the type of materials that were used in each case. For example, if to perform a investigation previously written texts and works were used, the APA standards established how to cite them in case of needing to copy part of the text but also how to cite them at the time of assembling the bibliography that could be consulted later by the readers of said work.

Standards that are not limited to matters of reference only

Over time, the set of rules established by the aforementioned association diversified and added rules on issues that also have to do with the style of writing, with guidelines to follow regarding, for example, the margins, the spacing, the size and type of fonts, the way of presenting the conclusion or even topics such as subtitles and index.

All these elements are considered today as a basic need for the work to be considered serious and respectable in the fields scientists, while being able to differentiate it from texts of mass dissemination, essays and other examples of writings that can use their own rules. The APA standards have made it possible to order and categorize the different points of presentation of a research paper, helping both those who produce them and those who must read them.

Fotolia image: branchecarica