Comprehensive Guide to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Edition)

Overview and Introduction to APA Style

• Historical Foundation: The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association originated in 1929 as a 7-page article in Psychological Bulletin. It established procedures to increase reading comprehension in scientific writing.

• Scope: Over 80 years, it has evolved into an authoritative source for the behavioral and social sciences, covering ethics, reporting standards, and information dissemination in a digital "content consumption" era.

• Primary Goals of the Style:

  • Accuracy of Scientific Knowledge: Ensuring findings are reproducible and verified.

  • Rights and Welfare of Participants: Protecting confidentiality and human/animal rights.

  • Intellectual Property Rights: Proper attribution of credit and ownership.

Types of Scholarly Articles

• Empirical Studies (1.01): Original research reports including secondary analyses. They follow a specific sequence: Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion.

• Literature Reviews (1.02): Critical evaluations of previously published material. These include research syntheses and meta-analyses. Meta-analyses use quantitative procedures to statistically combine results.

• Theoretical Articles (1.03): Articles that draw on existing literature to advance, refine, or analyze theories. They examine a theory's internal consistency and external validity.

• Methodological Articles (1.04): Presentation of new methodological approaches or modifications to existing methods. They introduce empirical data only as an illustration of the approach.

• Case Studies (1.05): Reports of case materials while working with an individual or group to illustrate a problem or solution. Requires careful balancing of illustrative detail vs. confidentiality.

• Other Types (1.06): Include brief reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and monographs.

Ethical and Legal Standards in Publishing

• Ethical Reporting (1.07): Prohibition of data fabrication, falsification, and selective omission of observations. Authors must notify editors of errors discovered post-publication to facilitate a correction notice.

• Data Retention and Sharing (1.08): Authors must retain raw data for at least 5 years post-publication. Data must be shared with other qualified researchers for verification. Confidential identifiers must be removed before sharing.

• Duplicate and Piecemeal Publication (1.09):

  • Duplicate Publication: Publishing the same data/ideas in two separate sources. This is prohibited as it distorts the knowledge base.

  • Piecemeal (Fragmented) Publication: Unnecessarily splitting findings into multiple articles. Authors must inform editors of similar manuscripts in progress.

• Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism (1.10):

  • Plagiarism: Claiming others' words or ideas as one's own.

  • Self-Plagiarism: Presenting one's own previously published work as new scholarship. Limited duplication (e.g., describing a method) is permissible but requires attribution when extensive.

• Conflict of Interest (1.12): Disclosure is required for economic and commercial interests (salaries, grants, royalties) that might bias the research.

• Publication Credit (1.13): Authorship is limited to those who made a "substantial contribution" (e.g., formulating problems, design, analysis, writing). Supportive roles (data collection) should be acknowledged in notes.

Manuscript structure and Content

• Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS): A set of uniform standards to facilitate generalization and meta-analysis. They are based on research design (experimental vs. quasi-experimental) rather than topic.

• Title (2.01): Should summarize the main idea concisely (recommended length $\le 12$ words). Avoid unnecessary words ("A Study of").

• Author Byline (2.02): Preferred form: First name, middle initial, last name. Omit all titles and degrees.

• Abstract (2.04): A dense, 150–250 word summary. It must be accurate, non-evaluative, coherent, and concise.

• Method Section (2.06): Describes how the study was conducted. Subsections typically include:

  • Participant Characteristics: Eligibility, exclusion criteria, and demographics.

  • Sampling Procedures: Recruitment methods and participant selection.

  • Research Design: Definition of conditions and assignment methods.

• Results Section (2.07): Summarizes data and analyses.

  • Null Hypothesis Statistical Significance Testing (NHST): Considered a starting point; must be accompanied by effect sizes and confidence intervals.

  • Effect Size: Importance for readers to appreciate findings (e.g., Cohen's $d$ or standardized regression weights).

• Discussion Section (2.08): Evaluates and interprets implications. Opens with a statement on the support/nonsupport of original hypotheses.

The Mechanics of Style

• Punctuation (4.01-4.11):

  • Spacing: Insert one space after commas, colons, and semicolons. Insert one space after periods in initials.

  • Comma: Use the serial (Oxford) comma before and or or in a list of 3+ items.

  • Slash: Use to clarify relationships (classification/similarity-judgment) or as "per" in units ($7.4\text{ mg/kg}$).

• Spelling (4.12): Follow Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

• Hyphenation (4.13): Use hyphens for temporary compounds that precede a noun to avoid misreading (e.g., $12\text{th-grade students}$).

• Capitalization (4.14-4.20): Capitalize major words in titles and headings. Do not capitalize names of laws, theories, or models.

• Italics (4.21): Use for titles of books/periodicals, genera/species, and statistical symbols ($N, df, p$).

• Numbers (4.31-4.38):

  • Use numerals for numbers $10$ and above.

  • Use words for numbers below $10$.

  • Exceptions: Use numerals for measurements ($5\text{-mg dose}$), statistical functions ($multiplied by 5$), and time/dates ($2\text{-year-olds}$).

• Decimal Fractions (4.35): Use a zero before the decimal point ($0.23$) if the statistic can exceed $1$. Do not use a zero ($.43$) if it cannot exceed $1$ (correlations, $p$ values).

Statistical and Mathematical Copy

• Presentation Rule (4.41):

  • $\le 3$ numbers: use a sentence.

  • $4$ to $20$ numbers: use a table.

  • > 20 numbers: use a graph.

• Reporting Statistics (4.44): Include the test statistic, degrees of freedom, exact $p$ value, and effect size direction/magnitude. Example: $F(2, 177) = 6.30, p = .002, \omega^2 = .07$.

• Symbols (4.45): Use standard typeface for Greek letters ($\alpha, \beta$). Use italics for Latin symbols ($t, F, M, SD$).

• Equations (4.48): Display complex equations on a new line and number them consecutively:
  $(3) w<em>j \pm z</em>{1-\alpha/2}\hat{\sigma}<em>{w</em>j}$

Displaying Results (Tables and Figures)

• Table Layout (5.08): Use a logical row-column structure. Avoid vertical rules (lines). Use horizontal rules only for heading and total separations.

• Table Notes (5.16): Sequence: (1) General Note, (2) Specific Note, (3) Probability Note (*p < .05).

• Figures (5.22): Standards include simplicity and clarity. Use sans serif fonts (8–14 points). Identify all units of measure and error bars.

• Photographs (5.29): Must be high-resolution; disclosure is required if the image is modified beyond cropping.

The Reference List

• Purpose: To enable retrieval of each source cited in text.

• Standard Format (Journal): Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume(issue), pp–pp. doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx

• Order of References (6.25): Alphabetical by the first author's surname.

  • Single-author works precede multi-author works by the same author.

  • Works by the same author(s) in the same order are arranged by year (earliest first).