School Research Paper Styles

APA - American Psychological Association

• The American Psychological Association style was developed to codify research papers in the social and behavioral sciences. Psychology, sociology and other behavioral sciences rely more on quantitative analysis, creating data which is more easily digested in an essay format than with equations and formulas. APA style is a parenthetical style where the source material is cited in the text, rather than at the bottom of the page. A citation must include the author, the work's name and, if quoting directly, the page number. A reference page needs to be provided for all source material.
  
  

CMS - The Chicago Manual of Style

• The de facto style for research papers is The Chicago Manual of Style. First published in 1907, the book has had 16 editions--the most recent printed in 2010. CMS covers a wide range of topics, from typesets to formatting for electronic publication. Two types of citations--author-date and notes and bibliography--can be used. Author-date is a parenthetical style where the citation comes in the text. Notes and bibliography, used primarily in history, literature and arts, allows reference material to be noted at the bottom of a page, and source biographical information to be listed at the end of the paper.
  
  

MLA - Modern Language Association

• Known as MLA, the Modern Language Association style was designed for works in the humanities and arts. MLA is considered a brief style, allowing readers to concentrate more on the work than the citations, which is why it is popular in universities. Citations are parenthetical, requiring what medium the work is in, author, title of the source material and page number.
  
  

Other Styles

• Other styles used for writing research papers are Columbia Guide to Online Style, Council of Biology Editors and Harvard Style. The Columbia Guide was designed specifically for citing electronic sources. The Council of Biology Editors, a non-profit organization, publishes a style guide for scientific papers. The guide calls for footnote citations. The Harvard Style, devised by the university and outlined in The Blue Book, uses parenthetical citations in the text for research papers.