5/23/2011

APA STYLE

Dr. Yan Liu

Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering
Wright State University

Introduction

What is APA Style?
 Set of specific formatting conventions sanctioned by the American
Psychological Association (APA)
 Widely used by researchers in psychology, human factors engineering, and
behavioral and social sciences
 A sample article and an article of APA Style Essentials are posted on the
course website
 http://apastyle.apa.org/

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Organization of a Research Article in APA Style

Title Page

Abstract

Main Body
 Introduction (not labeled)
 Method
 Results
 Discussions

References

Appendix

Footnotes

Tables

Figure Captions

Figures
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Title Page

Short Title
 The first two or three words of the full title
 Next to the page number in the header for the purpose of identifying which
paper the pages belong to in case they accidentally become separated

Running Head
 First line of the title page
 Entirely capitalized and should be flushed left
 An abbreviated title (no more than 50 characters, including spaces)
 Should the article be published in a journal, the running head would appear at
the top center of every other page of the article in the journal

Title
 Brief and descriptive of your research

No more than 15 words

Clearly states what the research is about

Avoid jargon or vernacular

Author Byline
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Institutional Affiliation

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Abstract

A Brief Summary of the Article (100 – 150 words)
 Include the most important aspects of the study within the provided word-limit

Purposes
 Helps readers decide whether to read the article
 Provides readers with a framework for understanding the article if they decide
to read it

Content
 Statement of the problem and primary hypotheses
 Information on the characteristics of the participants and a brief summary of
the procedure
 Patterns of findings for major variables

Direction of differences without relying on numerical values of the variables
 Implications of the study

Introduction

Statement of Problem under Study
 Broader context of the problem
 Significance of the study

Literature Review
 Shows how your research builds on prior knowledge by presenting and
evaluating the previous related research
 Describe only the research and theoretical issues that are clearly related to your
study
 State explicitly how the previous work is logically related to your research
problem

Hypotheses of the Study
 What variables you are studying and what results you expect
 The links between the research hypotheses, prior research, and the current
research design are shown by explaining why the hypotheses are expected

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Method

Purpose
 Provides detailed information about how your study was conducted
 The description is sufficient if enough detail is presented for the readers to
replicate the essential elements of the study

Overview (for complex experimental design and procedures)
 An overview of the method to prepare the readers for the information that
follows

Participants
 Number of participants
 Nature of the participants (gender, age, ethnicity and other relevant
characteristics)
 Special characters (e.g. freshman engineering students, IT professionals)
 How participants were recruited and what the incentives for participation were
(e.g. cash, course credits, coupons)
 Describe with sufficient detail so that it is clear what population the participants
represent; this is needed for replicabilility of the study and understanding its
generalizability
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Method (Cont’d)

Independent Variables (for experimental methods)
 Levels and how they manipulated/controlled

Dependent Variables (for experiment methods)
 Describe the tests or instruments (e.g. a five-point Likert satisfaction
questionnaire) used to collect data

Apparatus (for special equipment)
 The brand name and model number of the equipment

Procedure
 Describes in great detail the data-collection (experiment) procedures

What instructions were given to the participants

How they were assigned to different groups (for experimental methods)

What tasks they performed

How extraneous variables were controlled

Other experiment design issues (e.g. counterbalancing, randomization, etc.)

The method of debriefing
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Method (Cont’d)

Other Subsections
 If they are needed for clear presentation of the method

Results

Purpose
 Describe data analyses and their results

Complications of the Analysis
 Description of any complications (e.g. missing data, outliers, etc.) and how you
handled them

Statistical Techniques
 Understand the techniques applied and the statistics you are reporting
 Use appropriate technique that meets the underlying assumptions

Provide the summary details about the findings

Use carefully planned tables and graphs

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Discussions

Discuss and interpret research findings from various aspects

Whether the results support the hypotheses
 If they do, give all possible explanations for the results and discuss why one
explanation is superior to another
 If they do not, suggest possible reasons (e.g. wrong methodology, wrong
hypotheses, or both)

Compare the findings with those of previous studies

Suggest possible practical applications of the research

Recognize the limitations of the study

Suggest future research on the topic

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Other Sections

References
 Start on a new page
 There should be a one-to-one match between the references cited in the report
and the list of references

Appendix
 Start on a new page
 Seldom used in manuscripts submitted for publication
 Necessary materials that would be distracting in the main body of the article

A complex mathematical proof

A questionnaire or survey instrument

Tables and Figures
 Each should be on a separate page
 Tables and their captions are shown together
 Figures are placed after the tables and a separate page containing the figure
captions is provided before the figures
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Citation

Citing References in Text
 Cite the work of others whose ideas, theories, or findings have directly
influenced your work, even if you are paraphrasing or describing someone else’s
idea
 Presenting someone else’s ideas, work, or words as if they were your own is
considered Plagiarism

Copying from a source without citing it

Using the same words without using quotation marks (even with a citation)

APA’s Author-Date Citation Style
 Allow readers to find the sources cited in the text in the reference list through
author and date
 If multiple authors are cited, order them based on the last names of the first
authors alphabetically first and then on the date

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1. Kessler (2003) found that among epidemiological samples …

2. Early onset results in a more persistent and severe course (Kessler, 2003)
3. Several studies (Miller, 1999; Shafranske & Mahoney, 1998) have ….
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References

Reference List
 As accurate and complete as possible to help readers find the sources
 Put references in order by the first author’s last name
 Use the hanging indent paragraph style

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References (Cont’d)

Most Commonly Included References
 Journal articles
 Entire issue of a journal
 Chapter in an edited book
 Entire book
 Conference proceedings

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Journal Article
Anderson, A. K., Christoff, K., Panitz, D., De Rosa, E., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2003).
Neural correlates of the automatic processing of threat facial signals. Journal of
Neuroscience, 23, 5627-5633.

Entire Issue of a Journal

Greenfield, P., & Yan, Z. (Eds.) . (2006). Children, adolescents, and the internet
[Special Section]. Developmental Psychology, 42, 391-394.

Book
Shotton, M.A. (1989). Computer addition? A study of computer dependency. London,
England: Taylor & Francis

Corporate Author
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington D.C.

Proceedings that are Published Regularly

Herculano-Houzel, S., Collins, C.R., Wong, P., Kass, J.H., & Lent, R. (2008). The
basic nonuniformity of the cerebral cortex. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 105, 12593-12598.
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Proceedings that are Published in Book Form

Katz, I., Gabayan, K., & Aghajan, H. (2007). A multi-touch surface using multiple cameras.
In J. Blanc-Talon, W. Philips, D. Popescu, & P. Schedunders (Eds.) Lecture Notes in
Computer Science: Advanced Concepts for Intelligent Vision Systems. Vol. 4678. (pp.
97-108). Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.

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