ABNT Formatting for Academic Papers

The Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT) governs the formatting standards for the vast majority of academic papers, complementing the techniques from redacao-academica-guia.

Following these norms guarantees uniformity and credibility to scientific work.

📏 General Formatting Rules (NBR 14724)

Paper: A4 (21 cm x 29.7 cm), printed only on the front for short papers, or double-sided for theses and dissertations.
Font: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Size 12 for standard text.
- Size 10 for long citations (more than 3 lines), footnotes, pagination, and illustration captions.
Margins:
- Left and Top: 3 cm.
- Right and Bottom: 2 cm.
Spacing:
- 1.5 for all text.
- Single (1.0) for long citations, footnotes, references, and captions.
Pagination:
- Counted starting from the title page, but numbered only starting from the introduction.
- The number must be in the top right corner, 2 cm from the top and right edges.

✍️ Citations (NBR 10520)

Citations are fundamental to provide a theoretical foundation without falling into plagiarism.

Short Direct Citation

Up to 3 lines. It stays within the text itself, enclosed in double quotes.

According to Silva (2020, p. 15), “technology has transformed the educational paradigm”.

Long Direct Citation

More than 3 lines. Indented 4 cm from the left margin, size 10 font, single spacing, and no quotes.

Indirect Citation

Paraphrasing the author’s idea. No quotes are needed, nor is the page required (although recommended).

For Souza (2019), active methodologies engage students more in the learning process.

📚 Bibliographic References (NBR 6023)

The alignment of references must be left-justified, with single spacing, separated from each other by a blank line.

Book: LAST NAME, Author’s first name. Book Title in italics or bold: subtitle without highlighting. Edition. Publication City: Publisher, Year.

ALVES, Rubem. Filosofia da ciência: introdução ao jogo e suas regras. 15. ed. São Paulo: Loyola, 2011.

Journal Article: LAST NAME, Initial. Article Title. Journal Name (italics), Location, volume, number, start-end pages, month and year.