APA 6th Edition Formatting for Amity MCA Project Report – Step by Step

Amity Online's MCA project guidelines specify APA Style, 6th edition for all figures, graphs, tables, appendices, and references. Many students default to APA 7th because it is newer—or skip formatting entirely and paste screenshots without captions. Using the wrong edition or missing citations is a formatting error evaluators notice immediately. This step-by-step guide walks you through every APA 6 requirement Amity enforces for MCA project reports.

Document setup: page layout

• Font: Times New Roman, 12 point throughout the document
• Line spacing: double-spaced for all body text
• Margins: 1 inch (2.5 cm) on all sides—top, bottom, left, and right
• Running head: page header at the top of every page
• American spellings: program (not programme), center (not centre), recognize (not recognise), organize (not organise), summarize (not summarise)

Step 1: Create the running head

APA 6th edition requires a running head—a shortened version of your title—at the top of every page. In Microsoft Word, open the header on page 1, type 'Running head: YOUR SHORT TITLE' in uppercase for the first page, then on subsequent pages type only the short title in uppercase. The running head should not exceed 50 characters including spaces.

1. 1Double-click the top margin to open the header
2. 2On page 1: Running head: ML-BASED FRAUD DETECTION SYSTEM
3. 3On pages 2 onward: ML-BASED FRAUD DETECTION SYSTEM
4. 4Align left; use the same 12 pt Times New Roman font

Step 2: Format the title page

Center your full project title (maximum 12 words per Amity rules), your name, Amity Online affiliation, MCA course details, guide name, and submission date. APA 6 title pages do not include author notes or ORCID IDs required in APA 7.

Step 3: Structure headings for MCA chapters

APA 6 uses five heading levels. For MCA project reports, you typically need Levels 1–3 for chapters such as System Design, Implementation, and Testing:

• Level 1: Centered, Boldface, Title Case—used for chapter titles
• Level 2: Flush Left, Boldface, Title Case—used for major sections
• Level 3: Indented, boldface, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.

Step 4: In-text citations (APA 6)

APA 6 uses the author-date system. Cite academic sources for literature review claims, algorithm references, methodology citations, and adapted diagrams. For one or two authors, cite both names every time: (Smith & Jones, 2019). For three to five authors, cite all names the first time, then et al. on subsequent citations.

• Direct quotes: include page number—(Goodfellow, Bengio, & Courville, 2016, p. 42)
• Paraphrases: author and year only—(Fowler, 2018)
• Software documentation: cite official docs or manuals where concepts are referenced
• Screenshots of your own system: note 'Source: Author's own work, 2026' in figure captions
• Open-source libraries: cite documentation or original papers where algorithms are used

Step 5: Reference list

Start the reference list on a new page titled 'References' (centered, not bold). Entries are alphabetized by first author's surname. Use a hanging indent of 0.5 inches. APA 6 reference formats differ from APA 7—up to seven authors are listed before using et al., and DOI format uses 'doi:' prefix without a URL.

• Journal article: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), pages. doi:xxxxx
• Book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Publisher.
• Conference paper: Author, A. A. (Year, Month). Title of paper. In Proceedings of Conference Name (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.
• Website / documentation: Organization. (Year). Title of page. Retrieved from http://...

Step 6: Tables

Number tables sequentially (Table 1, Table 2). Use tables for test case summaries, database schemas, performance benchmarks, survey results, confusion matrices, and comparison of algorithms. Place the table number and title above the table. APA 6 tables use horizontal lines only—no vertical borders.

Step 7: Figures, screenshots, and diagrams

Number figures sequentially (Figure 1, Figure 2). MCA reports typically include ER diagrams, DFDs, UML class and sequence diagrams, architecture diagrams, UI screenshots, and model performance charts. Place the figure number and caption below the figure. Amity explicitly requires you to mention sources of any images, tables, or figures cited or presented.

Step 8: Appendices

Label appendices as Appendix A, Appendix B, and so on. Common MCA appendices include selective source code snippets (not full codebase dumps), API documentation, test case sheets, user manuals, dataset descriptions, and guide/student certificates. Format appendix content in the same APA 6 style as the main body.

APA 6 vs APA 7: key differences to avoid

• APA 6: 'Running head:' on first page only; APA 7: student papers omit running head
• APA 6: up to seven authors listed; APA 7: list up to 20
• APA 6: 'Retrieved from' for URLs; APA 7: plain URL without 'Retrieved from'
• APA 6: 'doi:' prefix; APA 7: https://doi.org/ format

Pre-submission APA 6 checklist

1. 1Times New Roman 12 pt, double-spaced, 1-inch margins throughout
2. 2Running head on every page
3. 3American spellings checked
4. 4All in-text citations match reference list entries
5. 5Screenshots and diagrams numbered, captioned, and sourced
6. 6Reference list in APA 6 format with hanging indents
7. 7Appendices labeled and formatted consistently
8. 8File under 2 MB in PDF or Word format

Professional APA formatting help

Formatting a 20,000-word MCA report to APA 6th edition—with correct running heads, reference lists, figure captions, and compressed screenshots—is tedious and error-prone. ReportLift's MCA project report service applies Amity's exact guidelines and returns a submission-ready Word file and PDF.