FORMATTING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH REPORT, AS PER
THE APA (AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION) STYLE
(last updated 2003; due to APA format changes since that time,
these pages will be revised fall, 2009)

Spacing
Double space continuously throughout the paper.  DO NOT add extra
spaces between sections or subsections.



Rosnow & Rosenthal's Appendix A extensively discusses formatting of
research papers as per APA style, including discussions of formatting
references and citations.

Format for citations and references

CITATIONS appear in your main text.

They are a part of a sentence.  They do not hang separately from your sentences.

Also, do not use the researchers' first names.

Single citation:

CORRECT 1
The idea that many social injustices and inequalities reflect self-fulfilling prophecies was first suggested in the 1940's (Merton, 1948).  There was also lively interest in accuracy ...

CORRECT 2
Merton (1948) first suggested that many social injustices and inequalities reflect self-fulfilling prophecies.  There was also lively interest in accuracy ...

INCORRECT 1
The idea that many social injustices and inequalities reflect self-fulfilling prophecies was first suggested in the 1940's.  (Merton, 1948).  There was also lively interest in accuracy ...

INCORRECT 2
The idea that many social injustices and inequalities reflect self-fulfilling prophecies was first suggested in the 1940's.  (Merton, 1948)  There was also lively interest in accuracy ...

INCORRECT 3
Robert K. Merton suggested in 1948 that many social injustices and inequalities reflect self-fulfilling prophecies. There was also lively interest in accuracy ...

INCORRECT 4
Merton first suggested that many social injustices and inequalities reflect self-fulfilling prophecies.  There was also lively interest in accuracy ...

INCORRECT 5
Merton (373) first suggested that many social injustices and inequalities reflect self-fulfilling prophecies.  There was also lively interest in accuracy ...
 
 

Multiple citations:

(both of these examples are correct):

Error and bias research dates back to at least the 1930's emphasis on the inaccuracy, irrationality, and rigidity of social stereotypes (e.g., Katz & Braly, 1933; LaPiere, 1936).

There was also lively interest in accuracy up through the 1950's (e.g., Vernon, 1933; Taft, 1955), which same to an abrupt and premature end after Cronbach identified many seemingly difficult statistical and methodological problems involved in assessing certain types of accuracy (Cronbach, 1955; Gage & Cronbach, 1955).


Format for reporting inferential statistics
(note: This does not apply to descriptive statistics,
such as means or frequencies)

Examples:

Results showed that more people drove Hondas than drove Fords (x2[1]=88.88, p<.001).

The hypothesis that African-Americans would be under-represented in magazine ads
was not confirmed (x2[1]=1.02, p>.2).

People rated Coke as better than Pepsi (t[1]=1.11, p>.2).

----
Report the statistic in parentheses.  You must present and underline the
statistic itself (x2, t, r, etc).  You must indicate the degrees of freedom inside
an additional set of parentheses; followed by the equal sign (=); followed by
the observed value of the statistic, followed by an underlined lower case
p (p); followed by less than sign (<) for a significant result or a greater than
sign (>) for a nonsignificant result; followed by the p-value that your observed statistic
is greater than or less than.



Section and Subsection Headers

Use up to three levels of headers:

MAJOR SECTION:

Centered, Underlined, First letter of word in Caps:

Method

There are four major sections to a research paper:

Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion
 

MAJOR SUBSECTION

Left-justified, Underlined, First letter of each word in Caps.  Continue writing
the next line as a new paragraph.

Data Collection Procedures

    Data was obtained on 100 billion aliens through the use of a space probe.  This space

probe ....

-----

Within a major section, you cannot have only one major subsection.  If you have only
one, DO NOT use a major subsection title.  Just write continuously.

You can have two or three or four or five, etc. major subsections.
 
 

MINOR SUBSECTION

Minor subsections only occur under major subsection headings.  You cannot
use a minor subsection heading, unless that minor subsection heading appears
under a major subsection heading.

Minor subsection headings are written as if they begin a new paragraph.
They are indented and underlined.

The Jussim (1989) and Jussim & Eccles (1992) Studies
     The data.  All studies described in this chapter were based on the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions (MSALT), which assessed a variety of social, psychological, demographic, and achievement ...

The formatting of The data. is the format for minor subsection headers.

Within a major subsection, you cannot have only one minor subsection.  If you have only
one, DO NOT use a minor subsection title.  Just write continuously.

------

DO NOT have a section heading, a major subsection heading, or a minor subsection
heading ending a page.  If you do, move it to the next page.


TABLES

Tables must be clearly labeled and explained.  DO NOT count on me
"knowing what you mean."  If you do not make it clear, I DO NOT know
that you know it.

BAD TABLE 1:
 

                                Table 3

Question 8

                    Males          Females

Agree               10               10

Disagree           10                10

-----
What the heck is this table about?  Impossible to tell.
 

BAD TABLE 2:

                                Table 3

Operation Rescue

                    Males          Females

Agree               10               10

Disagree           10                10

-----
This table is a little better, but still offers no clear explanation
or description of what it presents.
 

------

GOOD TABLE:

                                Table 3

Operation Rescue

                    Males          Females

Agree               10               10

Disagree           10                10

This table presents responses to the question, "Members of Operation
Rescue who support the assassination of doctors who perform abortions
should be allowed to organize to increase their influence on Congress."
------

This table clearly conveys and describes the result.