ACADEMIC WRITING · APA 7TH EDITION
First person and scholarly voice
APA permits first person when describing your own work: use “I” for yourself and “we” for yourself and coauthors. Calling yourself “the researcher” can obscure who performed an action.
Illustrative revision: change “The researcher reviewed the records” to “I reviewed the records” when you actually performed that review. Avoid a vague “we” that assumes all readers share an experience.