format of appendices in research paper

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Footnotes & Appendices

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

APA style offers writers footnotes and appendices as spaces where additional, relevant information might be shared within a document; this resource offers a quick overview of format and content concerns for these segments of a document. Should additional clarification be necessary, it is always recommended that writers reach out to the individual overseeing their work (i.e., instructor, editor, etc.). For your convenience, a student sample paper is included below; please note the document is filled with Lorem Ipsum placeholder text and references to footnotes and appendices are highighlighted. Additional marginal notes also further explain specific portions of the example.

Footnotes

Footnotes are supplementary details printed at the bottom of the page pertaining to a paper’s content or copyright information. This supporting text can be utilized in any type of APA paper to support the body paragraphs.

Content-Based Footnotes

Utilizing footnotes to provide supplementary detail can enrich the body text and reinforce the main argument of the paper. Footnotes may also direct readers to an alternate source for more detail on a topic. Though content footnotes can be useful in providing additional context, it is detrimental to include tangential or convoluted information. Footnotes should detail a focused subject; lengthier sections of text are better suited for the body paragraphs.

Acknowledging Copyright

When citing long quotations, images, tables, data, or commercially published questionnaires in-text, it is important to credit the copyright information in a footnote. Functioning much like an in-text citation, a footnote copyright attribution provides credit to the original source and must also be included in a reference list. A copyright citation is needed for both direct reprinting as well as adaptations of content, and these may require express permission from the copyright owner.

Formatting Footnotes

Each footnote and its corresponding in-text callout should be formatted in numerical order of appearance utilizing superscript. As demonstrated in the example below, the superscripted numerals should follow all punctuation with the exception of dashes and parentheses.

For example:

Footnote callouts should not be placed in headings and do not require a space between the callout and superscripted number. When reintroducing a footnote that has previously been called out, refrain from replicating the callout or footnote itself; rather, format such reference as “see Footnote 4”, for example. Footnotes should be placed at the bottom of the page on which the corresponding callout is referenced. Alternatively, a footnotes page could be created to follow the reference page. When formatting footnotes in the latter manner, center and bold the label “Footnotes” then record each footnote as a double-spaced and indented paragraph. Place the corresponding superscripted number in front of each footnote and separate the numeral from the following text with a single space.

Formatting Copyright Information

To provide credit for images, tables, or figures pulled from an outside source, include the accreditation statement at the end of the note for the visual. Copyright acknowledgements for long quotations or questionnaires should simply be placed in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

When formatting a copyright accreditation, utilize the following format:

Establish if the content was reprinted or adapted by using language such as “from” for directly copied material or “adapted from” for material that has been modified
Include the content’s title, author, year of publication, and source
Cite the copyright holder and year of copyright or indicate that the source is public domain or licensed under Creative Commons
If express permission was required to reprint the material, include a statement indicating that permission was acquired

Appendices

When introducing supplementary content that may not fit within the body of a paper, an appendix can be included to help readers better understand the material without distracting from the text itself. Primarily used to introduce research materials, specific details of a study, or participant demographics, appendices are generally concise and only incorporate relevant content. Much like with footnotes, appendices may require an acknowledgement of copyright and, if data is cited, an adherence to the privacy policies that protect participant identities.

Formatting Appendices

An appendix should be created on its own individual page labelled “Appendix” and followed by a title on the next line that describes the subject of the appendix. These headings should be centered and bolded at the top of the page and written in title case. If there are multiple appendices, each should be labelled with a capital letter and referenced in-text by its specific title (for example, “see Appendix B”). All appendices should follow references, footnotes, and any tables or figures included at the end of the document.

Text Appendices

Appendices should be formatted in traditional paragraph style and may incorporate text, figures, tables, equations, or footnotes. In an appendix, all figures, tables, and other visuals should be labelled with the letter of the corresponding appendix followed by a number indicating the order in which each appears. For example, a table labelled “Table B1” would be the first table in Appendix B. If there is only one appendix in the document, the visuals should still be labelled with the letter A and a number to differentiate them from those contained in the paper itself (for example, “Figure A3” is the third figure in the singular appendix, which is not labelled with a letter in the heading).

Table or Figure Appendices

When an appendix solely contains a table or figure, the title of the figure or table should be substituted with the title of the appendix. For example, if Appendix B only includes a figure, the figure should be labelled “Appendix B” rather than “Figure B1”, as it would be named if there were multiple figures included.

If an appendix does not contain text but includes numerous figures or table, the appendix should be formatted like a text appendix. The appendix would receive a name and label, and each figure or table would be given a corresponding letter and number. For example, if Appendix C contains two tables and one figure, these visuals would be labelled “Table C1”, “Table C2”, and “Figure C1” respectively.

Sample Paper

Media File: APA 7 - Student Sample Paper (Footnotes & Appendices)

Franklin University |
Help & Support |
Locations & Maps |

| Research Guides

To access Safari eBooks,

Select not listed in the Select Your Institution drop down menu.
Enter your Franklin email address and click Go
click "Already a user? Click here" link
Enter your Franklin email and the password you used to create your Safari account.

Continue Close

APA Citation Style 7th Edition

APA Style Overview
Sample Documents & Guides
Multiple Sources With the Same Author and Year
Websites & Web Documents
Course Materials (Slides, Lecture Notes, Specialty Software)
Citing Business Databases
Film, Videos, & Podcasts
Art, Photos, Tables & Figures
Legal Materials & Tax Codes
Dissertations
Pamphlet or Brochure
Interviews, E-mail, Intranet, Religious Works, & Secondary Sources (7th edition)
Footnotes This link opens in a new window

What goes into an Appendix?

Where is an appendix placed, labeling the appendix, formatting the appendix.

Evaluating Sources This link opens in a new window
Understanding Plagiarism
RefWorks This link opens in a new window

"Material that supplements the content of the paper, but would be distracting or inappropriate to include in the body of the paper is to be placed in an appendix." This includes "materials that are relatively brief and that are easily presented in print format" ( Publication Manual of the APA: 6th edition , section 2.13; Publication Manual of the APA: 7th edition , section 2.14). Examples include "mathematical proofs, lists of words, a questionnaire used in the research, a detailed description of an apparatus used in the research, etc" ( Purdue OWL .)

An appendix (or appendices) follow the reference list. Use the following order for your paper:

Abstract ( if required, start on a new page, numbered page 2)
Text (start on a new page, numbered 3)
References (start on a new page)
Tables (start each on a new page)
Figures (start each on a new page; include caption on page with figure)
Appendices (start each on a new page)
If only one appendix, label it Appendix
If more than one appendix: label each one with a capital letter (Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.) in the order in which it is mentioned in the text
Each appendix must have a title
In the text, refer to appendices by their labels:

"produced the same results for both studies (see Appendices A and B for complete proofs)."

Begin each appendix on a separate page
At the top of the page, center the word Appendix and the identifying capital letters (A, B, etc.) in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.
Center the title of the appendix using uppercase and lowercase letter on the next line
Begin the text of the appendix flush left, followed by indented paragraphs.

A sample appendix is below: