Writing an APA-Style Research Report

This document was prepared for my students in PSYC 2210, Experimental

Psychology, as an introduction to the topic of writing a research report in the style
promulgated y the !merican Psychological !ssociation" This document itself is not
written in !P!#style"
!fter you ha$e completed your research, assuming that your results ha$e the
potential of eing of interest to other people, you need to prepare a report in which you
summari%e the research" &ften times you will already ha$e completed much of the
report efore you e$en start collecting data" That is, you will ha$e written a research
proposal which outlines the rational for conducting the research and the methods
employed for gathering the data" That same information will e included in the final
research report"
What You Should Read In Addition To This Document
You should read Chapter 13 in our tet!oo", 'a$id (artin)s Doing Psychology
Experiments, which pro$ides a good, ut short, explanation of what is in$ol$ed in
preparing a research report"
You should also use the *nternet resources which * ha$e listed here+
Sample Papers for PSYC 2210 , -se these as models of how to prepare an
!P!#style research manuscript
'r" .uensch)s !P!#Style Page ## a collection of lin/s to documents which gi$e
you much of the same information that is found in the Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association" 0etting this information on the *nternet will
sa$e you the expense of uying the pulication manual yourself or the other of
orrowing it from someone else" .hen writing research reports for this class, e
sure you refer to the resources lin/ed here to minimi%e the numer of errors of
style you ma/e in your reports"
Common Thesis Errors ## although designed for graduate students who are
writing a thesis in !P!#style, this page can also e useful to the undergraduate
student in an experimental psychology class" *t lists the sort of errors commonly
made in such theses, and many of these are the same type of errors of style,
spelling, and grammar that are commonly made y undergraduate students in an
experimental psychology class"
(icrosoft .ord Tips ## also designed for graduate students writing a thesis or
dissertation, this document gi$e tips for using (icrosoft .ord to prepare a
research report" .hen preparing research reports for my experimental
psychology class you will need to use .ord to do many of the same things that
graduate students do when .ord#processing their theses and dissertations"
1
Copyright 2011, 2arl 3" .uensch # !ll rights reser$ed"
4esearch#.rite-p"doc
#uarding the #ates to Scienti$ic Pu!lication
The .&T manuscript presented to you is a first re$ision of the manuscript"
.hen * mailed the original manuscript to the editor of the Journal of Social Psychology, *
was confident that it was nearly perfectly written" !s is the usual case, it was returned
to me with a re5uest that * ma/e a numer of re$isions" The Journal of Social
Psychology is a refereed 6ournal" .hat that means is that the editor of the 6ournal
sends the manuscript to two or three referees, persons 6udged to e experts in the area"
The 6o of the referees is to decide whether or not the manuscript should e pulished"
&nly rarely will a referee decide that a manuscript should e pulished without any
re$isions" &nly once in my life has a referee made such a decision with respect to one
of my manuscripts" The manuscript was sumitted to Behavioral and Neural Biology"
&ne of the two referees returned it to the editor with the comment 7pulish it as it
stands"8 *n fact, that was this referee)s entire re$iew of the manuscript" The other
referee wrote three pages of criticism and recommend that the manuscript not e
pulished" This second referee)s re$iew can e tersely summari%ed in this way+ 7The
results of this manuscript go against all theory and thus are not to e elie$ed and
should not e included in the scientific literature"8 -sually in a case li/e this the editor
will send the manuscript to a third re$iewer, ut in this case the editor simply decided to
re6ect the manuscript" (y response was simply to send the manuscript off to a different
6ournal, the Journal of Mammalogy, which accepted it for pulication with only minor
changes"
%argins& 'ine Spacing& and Page (eaders
&2, you are aout to start writing your !P!#style research report with (icrosoft
.ord" The first thing you should do is set the margins, line spacing, and page headers"
!s an example of the title page, loo/ at the title page of my .&T manuscript" *f you
ha$e access to the !P! Pulication (anual, see 9igure :"1 for an example"
%argins) &pen up .ord and start a new document" The margins should !e
uni$orm ;the same on all sides< and at least one inch ;some 6ournals may as/ for
wider margins<"
'ine Spacing) The manuscript should e dou!le spaced throughout" The
easiest way to set the paragraph format to doule space in .ord is to select the target
text ;Ctrl-A, holding down the Ctrl /ey while you hit the ! /ey will select the entire
document< and then Ctrl#2" Sometimes this causes prolems with page rea/s and
2
page numering, so * recommend an alternati$e method" Select the entire document ;if
you ha$e entered any text< and then pull up the paragraph dialog ox" Set the 'ine
spacing to At least *+ pt"
,ont) The font should e 1* point" !P! recommends Times 4oman or Courier"
* prefer !rial or =erdana for my handouts, ut stic/ to Times -e. Roman for my
manuscripts"
>
Page (eader) The page
header should contain a
left 6ustified running head ,
this is an are$iated title
and should e no longer than :0 characters" The header should also contain the page
numers, right#6ustified"
To create your page header, doule#clic/ in the header area ;near the top of the
page, which will open the 'esign ta under ?eader @ 9ooter Tools" Type the running
head in all caps" Aow place a right ta at the right margin"
.ord may ha$e already put a center ta in the header" *f so, gra it ;point at it
and hold the left mouse utton down< and drag it off of the ruler" Aow put the cursor 6ust
to the right of the running head and hit the ta /ey" Then *nsert, Page Aumer, Current
Position, Simple, Plain Aumer"
The Title Page
Aow you are ready to type the title page, the first page in the manuscript"
Title) Type the title of the research report centered ;left to right< positioned in the
upper half of the title page" *t should e typed in upper and lower case letters" To
change the alignment of the title to centered, 6ust highlight it and clic/ the !lign Center
icon+
B
The !P! recommends that the title e 10 to 12 words" * commonly find myself
exceeding this limit" 9or the .&T manuscript, the title is 1C words" *f your title does not
fit on one line, 6ust lea$e line spacing at doule and do not insert an lan/ line etween
the first and second lines of the title"
Authors and Institutional A$$iliations) The !P! says to type the name of the
first author on the first doule#spaced line elow the title" * prefer to put one lan/
doule#spaced line etween the title and the name of the first author, as shown in the
.&T manuscript" Ao editor has e$er gi$en me grief aout this ;although they ha$e
gi$en me grief aout 5uite a $ariety of other tri$ial things<" &n the next line, type the
institutional affiliation of the first author" *f there are two or more authors, and the first n
authors ha$e the same institutional affiliation, type all of their names on one line
followed y the institutional affiliation on the next line" *f the institutional affiliation of one
author differs from that of the preceding author, put the latter author)s name on a
separate line followed y e)s affiliation on the next line" -se upper and lower case for
authors) names and affiliations and center the text left to right"
So, what determines the order of names on a research manuscript in
PsychologyD The order is supposed to e determined y the relati$e contriutions of
the $arious authors, with the primary contriutor eing listed first" This is not the case in
all disciplines, y the way"
Author -ote
The author note appears on the title page" The author note identifies the
departmental affiliation of each author and also gi$es contact information for the author
to whom interested parties should write" *f the research was funded, the source of such
funding is ac/nowledged here" *f any persons other than the authors assisted in the
research, their contriutions may e ac/nowledged here too"
A!stract
!fter finishing your title page, with the cursor at the end of the title page, hold
down the Ctrl /ey and hit the Enter /ey" This will put in a hard page rea/" Aow you
would seem to e ready to type the astract, which is the second page in a manuscript"
The astract is a short summary of the entire article" Eecause it summari%es the entire
article, it is usually the $ery last part of the manuscript which is written" The word
7!stract8 should appear on the first line, centered" The astract itself starts on the $ery
next doule#spaced line, which should not e indented" Aormally an astract should
consist of only one paragraph and should not exceed 120 words" To count the numer
of words in the astract, highlight the text of the astract and then loo/ down at the
lower left corner of the window" .ord shows how many words there are in the selection
and how many there are in the entire document The astract of my .&T manuscript is
:
1B2 words" *t was 1CF words in the original $ersion and * was scolded for that" *t is
really hard to summari%e an entire research report in only 120 words"
Writing Style
,irst Person) There is a tradition of psychologists writing in an archaic, o$erly#
formal style, a$oiding the first person and using aw/ward passi$e $oice, as in 7the
su6ects were gi$en instructions y the experimenter,8 instead of the less formal 7* ;or
we< instructed the participants """8 This traditional writing style was aandoned many
years ago in the iological sciences" Aow, finally, the !P! has aandoned it too"
Those of us who spent many years writing in the old style may ha$e some difficulty
rea/ing that hait, ut we should rea/ it"
Italic ,ont Replaces /nderlining) Pre$iously underlining was used in a
manuscript to indicate when text should e set in italic font" This is ecause it was
difficult if not impossile to create italic font with a typewriter" Aow that we ha$e word
processors, that is no longer an issue, so we use italics instead of underlining, as the
!P! Pulication (anual now recommends" To set text in italic font, 6ust highlight the
text and Ctrl#*"
Introduction
The astract should end with a hard page rea/, with the introductory section of
your manuscript starting on the $ery next page" 'o not type the word 7*ntroduction8 at
the top of this page ## instead, 6ust type the title of the manuscript, in upper and lower
case, centered left to right" &n the first doule#spaced line after the title, start the text of
the introduction, left#aligned" *ndent the first line of e$ery paragraph"
This section of your manuscript should introduce the reader to the research
5uestion;s< that you are posing" .hy did you conduct this researchD ?ow is your
research different from that which has already een done addressing the same or
similar 5uestionsD
-sually the introduction starts out road and then narrows in scope" You should
re$iew the rele$ant literature, ut not exhausti$ely" ! re$iew article may include an
exhausti$e and critical re$iew of the literature, ut you are not writing a re$iew article,
you are writing a research article"
You should end the introduction with a statement of the purpose and rationale of
the research you conducted" *f your research is not strictly exploratory, you should
indicate what results you expected and why you expected such results ;ased on
theoretical considerations andGor the /nown results of other research you ha$e cited
earlier in the introduction" *f your research is exploratory, and you had, prior to
conducting the research, no idea how the results would come out, say that"
H
.hen you do indicate what your predicted results were, stic/ to what you
predicted efore you gathered and analy%ed the data" *n other words, a prediction
should e a pre#diction, not a post#diction" !uthors sometimes go ac/ and rewrite the
introduction after seeing what actually happens, claiming to ha$e predicted what did
happen" This is, *(?&, dishonest, although * can understand why some authors do
this" &nce * otained a $ery interesting set of results that were totally unpredicted" (y
colleagues and * were loo/ing for ways to predict which students would ha$e troule
with introductory courses in Physics for science ma6ors" .e did a pretty good 6o using
a attery of tests of $arious aptitudes and a measure of math anxiety, ut, much to our
surprise, we found that these predictor $ariales wor/ed mar$elously for predicting the
performance of the female students ut were essentially worthless for predicting the
performance of the male students" &ur first manuscript was re6ected y the 6ournal to
which we sent it" Their o6ection was that we presented results that were not
anticipated" They explained that we should only present results that were rele$ant to
the predictions that we had made, and we had made no predictions of any genderGsex
differences" This is, *(?&, ES ;ad stuff<" * suppose that the re$iewers of this
manuscript, were they to come home and find a uc/et of gold coins on their doorstep,
6ust ignore those coins, since they were unexpected" .e sent the manuscript off to
another 6ournal, where it was accepted" .e did, a posteriori, explain our unanticipated
results ;in the discussion section of the manuscript<, relating them to some prior
research and theoretical considerations" .ere we dishonest, we would ha$e indicated
in the introduction that we expected those genderGsex differences, and the manuscript
might then ha$e een accepted for pulication y the first 6ournal to which we sent it"
Aotice that in my .&T manuscript * did not formally state hypotheses, ut * did
state what results * expected, at least where * was comfortale with ma/ing a prediction"
4arely ha$e * een scolded y re$iewers for my style on this matter, and ne$er y
6ournals that pulish in the domains of psychology andGor %oology, only y re$iewers for
6ournals in the social sciences other than psychology" &ne should almost ne$er state
hypotheses in formal, statistical format ## that is, null and alternati$e hypotheses" This
is, *(?&, archaic, and * will discount your grade if you state hypotheses that way in
research reports you write for this class"
Aotice that the introduction in my .&T manuscript is three pages in length"
Sometimes one will need more than three pages, ut rarely does one need more than
fi$e pages, *(?&"
Citations
.hene$er you refer to the wor/ of another or when you present information that
you otained from another source, you must cite that personGsource" You must indicate
the source in the text ;ody of the manuscript< with a rief notation and in the
4eferences section of the manuscript in more detail" There must e a one#to#one
correspondence etween the citations in the text and the entries in the 4eferences
section ## that is, e$ery source that is cited in the text must also e listed in the
4eferences section and $ice $ersa"
Citations in the Tet) *f you do not ha$e access to the !P! Pulication (anual,
* recommend that you consult the .riter)s ?andoo/, which has een prepared y and
C
made a$ailale on the *nternet y the .riting Center at the -ni$ersity of .isconsin at
(adison ## 6ust clic/ on the 7Parenthetical citations8 lin/ from the main page"
The Re$erence 'ist) !t or near the end of your research manuscript is the
4eferences list" !gain, if you do not ha$e access to the !P! Pulication (anual, *
recommend the .riter)s ?andoo/ ## clic/ on the 74eference list8 lin/" *t is also helpful
to ha$e an example manuscript to consult to see how references are gi$en in it" You
ha$e access to my .&T manuscript as a model of how references should e formatted"
(eadings
! research manuscript can ha$e one to fi$e different le$els of headings, ut for
the typical single#experiment manuscript, two le$els should suffice" *f you do not ha$e
access to the !P! Pulication (anual, * recommend the .riter)s ?andoo/, which has
een prepared y and made a$ailale on the *nternet y the .riting Center at the
-ni$ersity of .isconsin at (adison ## 6ust clic/ on the 7?eadings8 lin/ from the main
page" !lso see my page on !P! ?eadings"
-sually you will not need any suheadings in your introductory section, usually
you will in your (ethods section, and sometimes you will in your 'iscussion section"
%ethod
!fter you finish the introductory section, hit the Enter /ey and type the word
7(ethod8 on the next line" *n a typical one#experiment manuscript ;with one, two, or
three le$els of headings<, the headings that descrie the ma6or sections of the ody of
the manuscript ;(ethods, 4esults, 'iscussion< will e 3e$el 1 headings, which are
Centered, Eoldface, -ppercase and 3owercase" 'o not put in a hard page rea/
etween the introduction and the next section ;unless the 6ournal for which you are
preparing the manuscript wants page rea/s etween sections ## a few do, ut most do
not<"
*n the (ethods section you descrie in detail how you gathered the data" The
(ethods section is usually di$ided into susections"
Participants or Su!0ects or Research /nits) ?ere you need to identify the
units you studied and how you sampled them" .hen the research units are humans,
they are most often referred to as 7participants"8 9or many years the !P! prohiited
calling humans 7su6ects,8 ut now that is &2 again" You should report demographic
characteristics of your participants, such as sex, age, ethnic identity, and any other
a$ailale demographics that might help readers determine to what populations your
results may generali%e well"
!lthough not typically done in the past, it is a good idea to include in your (ethod
section information on the a priori power analysis that you employed to decide how
many su6ects should e in your study" 9or example, you might report that an a priori
power analysis indicated that you needed to ha$e HB su6ects in each of your two
groups to ha$e F0I power for detecting a medium si%ed effect when employing the
traditional "0: criterion of statistical significance"
F
Design) Sometimes it is helpful to ha$e a separate section in which you identify
the research design that you employed" *f your design can e descried with a common
phrase ;such as 72 x 2 factorial design,8 7Solomon four#group design8<, you may use
such a phrase in descriing your design" You should identify the $ariales which you
manipulated or measured" *n noneperimental research, you should identify which
$ariale;s< is;are< the criterion $ariale;s< ;that which is predicted< and which $ariale;s<
is;are< the predictor $ariale;s<" *n eperimental research you identify which $ariales
were treated as independent $ariales and which as dependent" You should not use
the terms 7independent $ariale8 and 7dependent $ariale8 when descriing
nonexperimental research" You may identify which $ariales, if any, are treated as
co$ariates" You may indicate which independent $ariales are etween#su6ects
$ariales ;independent samples< and which are within#su6ects $ariales ;repeated
measures<" *f you matched su6ects, indicate what the matching $ariale;s< is;are<" *f
your statistical analysis in$ol$es the testing of hypotheses, it is good form to identify
here the decision rule used ;most often a "0: criterion of statistical significance<"
Research %aterials or Apparatus) ?ere you descrie the instruments used for
manipulating and measuring $ariales" *f you are employing standardi%ed tests, riefly
descrie their psychometric characteristics ;such as reliaility< as /now from past
research ;later, in the 4esults section, you should report the results of psychometric
analysis conducted on the data used in your current study<"
Procedure) ?ere you pro$ide enough detail on the process of data collection to
allow another person to repeat your research" ?ow were groups formed, what
instructions were gi$en to su6ects, how did you manipulate independent $ariales and
measure other $ariales, and so on"
You do not always need all of the susections mentioned here" You may
comine two or three of them" You may need other susections"
Results
This is my fa$orite part of the manuscript, the part where the statistical analyses
are presented" The 74esults8 heading should e typed on the first doule#spaced line
following the last line of the (ethod section ;no hard page rea/<" *f the design and
analysis are complex, it may e helpful to rea/ the 4esults section into susections, as
* did in the .&T manuscript"
Ta!les and ,igures) Tales and figures may e needed est to present the
results, especially with complex designs" *n a manuscript that is going to e sent to a
6ournal ;a so#called 7copy manuscript8<, tales and figures are referred to in the
4esults section ut they are placed at the end of the manuscript ;ecause they re5uire
special handling when the manuscript is eing set into type at the 6ournal)s production
facility<" !fter the manuscript has een accepted for pulication, the wor/ers at the
6ournal will insert the tales and figures at appropriate places within the article, usually
in the 4esults section" ! 7$inal manuscript8 is one that will reach its final audience in
its present form" Theses, dissertations, and the research reports that you will write for
this class are final manuscripts" *n final manuscripts, tales and figures are placed in
the ody of the manuscript, 6ust eyond the point to which they are referred ;on the
J
same or the next page<" *t can e difficult managing pages on which oth a tale or
figure and text appears, so you may want to put each tale and figure on its own page,
the first page after the page on which the tale or figure is first referred to"
Descripti1e Statistics) 4eport whate$er descripti$e statistics ;means, standard
de$iations, correlation coefficients, regression parameters, percentages, and the li/e<
are necessary to support statistical conclusions which are made" 'o employ !P!#
appro$ed statistical are$iations ;see my list of common statistical are$iations<, and
do set statistical symols in italic font ;with the exception of 0ree/ letters<" .hile your
interest may e mostly with measures of central tendency or location ;means and
medians<, e sure also to present measures of $ariailityGdispersion ;standard
de$iations, range statistics, estimates of error $ariance<"
Tests o$ Statistical Signi$icance) -sually a 4esults section includes
presentation of the statistics that are used to test statistical hypotheses" 9or parametric
analysis, these include , t, !, and
2
" The degrees of freedom should e gi$en for
statistics which ha$e degrees of freedom" 9or most statistics which ha$e degrees of
freedom, there is a simple relationship etween sample si%e ;N< and degrees of
freedom, so if you ha$e gi$en degrees of freedom, then you do not need to report the N
on which that test was ased" This is not true, howe$er, of the
2
statistic in its most
common applications, so one generally reports oth degrees of freedom and N with
2
"
?ere are some examples of how to report the results of tests of statistical
significance" Aote that in each case * ha$e indicated whether or not the test is
statistically significant and * ha$e reported who the su6ects are ;unless that is o$ious
without explicitly stating it<, what the $ariales are, the asic descripti$e statistics, the
identity of the test statistic employed, the degrees of freedom andGor N, and the exact
;to two or three decimal points< p $alue" 9or significant results * ha$e also made explicit
the direction of the otained effect" Aote that * ha$e included strength of effect
estimates and confidence inter$als on those estimates"
9or the defendant, the attracti$e photograph was rated significantly more
attracti$e ;M K C"FH, SD K 1"2J< than the unattracti$e photograph ;M K 2"J0, SD K
1"CB<, t;>22< K 2J"1:, p K "000, d K >"2B, J:I C* L2"J1, >":CM"
! three way factorial !A&=! was employed to e$aluate the effects of gender of
6uror, race of plaintiff, and race of defendant upon certainty of guilt" The
significant effects were gender of 6uror, !;1, 1:>< K :"BJ, p K "020, p
2
K "0>:,
J0I C* L"00>, "0JBMN 0ender of Ouror x 4ace of 'efendant, !;1, 1:>< K B"FC, p K "
02J, p
2
K "0>1, J0I C* L"002 "0FFMN and 0ender of Ouror x 4ace of Plaintiff, !;1,
1:>< K H"01, p K "01:, p
2
K "0>F, J0I C* L"00B, "0JFM, with a MSE of 2"J0 for
each of these effects" 9emale 6urors were significantly more certain of the
defendant)s guilt ;M K H">0< than were male 6urors ;M K :"C0<, d K ">:, "#$%& K "
0>:, "H:F" The significant interactions were in$estigated further y e$aluating the
simple main effects of race separately for female and male 6urors"
.hite male 6urors were significantly more certain of the guilt of lac/ defendants
;M K H"0C< than of white defendants ;M K :"2J<, !;1, C:< K B":0, MSE K >"02J,
p K "0>C, d K "B>, p
2
K "0:C, J:I C* for p
2
L"002, "1:CM, and more certain when
10
the plaintiff was white ;M K H"20< than when she was lac/ ;M K :"1F<, !;1, C:< K
C"BF, MSE K >"02J, p K "00F, d K ":C, p
2
K "0J1, J:I C* for p
2
L"01B, "202M"
9emale 6urors returned guilty $erdicts significantly more fre5uently ;FHI< than did
male 6urors ;C0I<,
2
;1, N K 1:2< K :"::0, p K "01F, odds ratio K 2"H>"
!mong nonidealists ;n K J1<, support for animal rights was significantly related to
misanthropy, animal rights K 1"H> P "> misanthropy, r K ">H, p Q "001, "#$%& K "1C, "
:>" .hen corrected for attenuation due to lac/ of perfect reliaility in the
$ariales, the r K "B2" !mong idealists ;n K H><, the regression line was flat,
animal rights K 2"B0 P 0"02 misanthropy, r K "02, p K "FC, J:I C* L#"2>, "2CM"
2stimates o$ 2$$ect Si3e) The !P! now strongly recommends the inclusion of
estimates of the strength of effects reported in research manuscript" !mong the more
commonly employed strength of effect estimators are Cohen)s d, r
'
,
2
,
2
, and odds
ratios" *n the examples ao$e * ha$e included such estimates of effect si%e" Please see
my document 4eporting the Strength of Effect Estimates for Simple Statistical !nalyses"
Con$idence Inter1als) Se$eral prominent statisticians ha$e decried the misuse
of A?ST ;null hypothesis significance testing, that is, statistical hypothesis inference
testing< and recommended the reporting of confidence inter$als rather than ;or at least
in addition to< reporting tests of statistical significance" The !merican Psychological
!ssociation also strongly recommends the use of confidence inter$als" Ae$ertheless,
you will rarely, if e$er, see confidence inter$als in research pulications in psychology"
4esearchers are reluctant to change the way they analy%e and report their research
data, and editors and referees continue to expect research reports to ha$e A?ST" &n
e$ery occasion when * ha$e used confidence inter$al estimation rather than A?ST the
editor of the 6ournal to whom * sumitted the manuscript has scolded me and demanded
that * report tests of statistical significance, e$en when * had no hypotheses to testR
?ere is a short excerpt from a manuscript in which results were presented with
confidence inter$als+ 7Eootstrapped confidence inter$als ;J:I< were computed using
'a$id ?owellSs resampling software ;?owell, 2002<" !s shown in Tale 1, anti#
miseha$ior signage, comined with increased monitoring y la attendants, reduced
computer miseha$ior in the la"8 The tale contained confidence inter$als for the
medians of three $ariales at three points in time" *nterpretation of the results included
noting whether confidence inter$als o$erlapped or not"
Con$idence Inter1als $or 2$$ect Si3e 2stimates" Oust recently software has
een made a$ailale which allows one to put confidence inter$als on effect si%e
estimates" This software was not a$ailale when * wrote .&T manuscript, so such
confidence inter$als were not included in that manuscript" The results presented ao$e
illustrate a couple of aw/ward things that can happen when one puts a confidence
inter$al on an effect si%e estimate+
!n
2
which differs significantly from %ero at the "0: le$el can ha$e a J:I
confidence inter$al that includes %ero" To ma/e the confidence inter$al
e5ui$alent to the test of significance one should use a J0I confidence
inter$al" =ery few people understand this"
11
!n effect which is significant at the "0: le$el in a factorial analysis can
produce a J0I confidence inter$al for the effect si%e estimate that
includes %ero" *n the factorial analysis the $ariance due to other effects in
the model is excluded from the error $ariance, resulting in a larger
asolute $alue of the test statistic and a smaller p $alue" .hen
constructing a confidence inter$al aout the effect si%e estimate, the
$ariance due to other effects is typically put ac/ into the error $ariance,
which can result in the confidence inter$al including %ero" &ne way to
a$oid this is to compute partial effect si%e estimates, which estimates the
si%e of the effect after eliminating $ariance due to all other effects in the
model" Partial
2
is such a statistic, ut * find it uncomforting that when
one sums partial
2
across effects e can get a sum of more than 100I"
Discussion
The 7'iscussion8 heading should e typed on the first doule#spaced line
following the last line of the 4esults section ;no hard page rea/<" *n this section you
relate your results to your hypotheses ;if you had hypotheses< and you discuss the
theoretical and practical implications of your results" You may point out similarities and
differences etween your results and those which ha$e een otained y others who
conducted similar research" *f there are limitations to your research which you thin/
should e mentioned, this is the place to do so" &ften the results of research raise
5uestions that call for additional research" *f you wish to suggest additional research
that would logically follow from your results, you can do so in the discussion section ##
ut if you plan on doing that additional research yourself, you had etter get started on it
soon, or else someody else will read your discussion and ta/e your suggestion and do
that follow#up research efore you do it"
The discussion section is the section that * least li/e to write" !ll too often it 6ust
seems li/e a 7ullshit8 section to me" * fre5uently am forced y re$iewers to add
material to my original, terse, discussion section" Some 6ournals will allow you to
comine the 4esults with 'iscussionGConclusions into a single section titled 4esults and
Conclusions or 4esults and 'iscussion"
Re$erences
!fter finishing your discussion section, with the cursor at the end of the last page
of discussion, hold down the Ctrl /ey and hit the Enter /ey" This will put in a hard page
rea/" This should e the first hard page rea/ you ha$e used since you put one
etween the astract and the introduction" Type the word 74eferences8 centered on the
first line of the new page and then gi$e iliographic information for e$ery resource
which you cited in the ody of the manuscript" Aotice that hanging indentation is used
in the reference list ## that is, in each paragraph ;one reference< each line except the
first is indented" See Hanging Paragraphs in the Reference List in my (icrosoft .ord
Tips document for instructions on how to produce hanging indentation in .ord"
Please note that there must e a one#to#one correspondence etween the
reference list and the citations in the ody of the manuscript" Each source cited in the
12
ody of the manuscript must e included in the reference list and each item in the
reference list must e cited in the ody of the manuscript at least once"
Aotice that the titles of 6ournals and oo/s and the $olume numers of 6ournals
are set in italic font" To produce italic font in .ord you 6ust highlight the text to e set
in italic font and then hold down the Ctrl /ey while you hit the * /ey"
Appendies
!n appendix is used to present details that would e distracting were they
presented in the ody of the article" 9or example, if your research included a
5uestionnaire that you de$eloped, you might include a copy of that 5uestionnaire in an
appendix"
*f there is an appendix, it starts on a new page following the last page of the
references" The first line of the first page says 7!ppendix8 ;centered<" &n the next line
type the title of the appendix, in upper and lower case, centered" *f there is more than
one appendix, identify them as 7!ppendix !,8 7!ppendix E,8 et cetera, ordering them in
the same order to which they were referred in the ody of the manuscript"
,ootnotes
9ootnotes are strongly discouraged y the !P!" *f used, for example to
ac/nowledge ha$ing recei$ed permission to 5uote, they are presented on a new page
that immediately follows the author note page"
Ta!les
Each tale is put on a separate page, with the first tale following the footnotes
;or, more commonly, the author note, when there are no footnotes<" The first line of
each tale page is 7Tale n,8 where 7n8 is the numer of the tale" The next line is the
title of the tale, in upper and lower case, italic font" *f you are going to use a tale, you
should find an example of a tale ;in a pulished article or one of my handouts< whose
architecture would e appropriate for the material you wish to include in your tale and
then you should model your tale after that tale"
Aumer your tales in the same order to which they are referred to in the ody of
the manuscript" 'o e sure to refer to each tale in the ody of the manuscript"
(icrosoft .ord pro$ides powerful tools for ma/ing tales, ut learning to use
them ta/es some time"
,igure Captions and ,igures
! figure caption is the title for a figure" *t also helps to explain the figure" *n the
manuscript that is sent to the pulisher, each figure caption appears on a separate
page, with the first figure caption eing on the page that follows the last tale" The first
line says 79igure Caption8 ;centered<" The next line says 7!igure ("8 and then the title"
*f there is a second figure, a page with the second figure caption immediately follows
that for the first figure caption" !fter the last figure caption page the figures themsel$es
1>
follow, each on a separate page" The manuscript page header and the figure numer
are written on the ac/ of each figure"
The !P! suggests that the graphical software that is included with office
software does not produce graphs of sufficient 5uality for pulication" Professional
grade graphics software is $ery expensi$e to purchase and difficult to learn to use" *
own no such software, ut sometimes orrow some from a colleague if * must use it to
prepare a figure" * ha$e een successful at using (icrosoft 0raph to produce graphs
that were accepted y the 6ournals to which * sumitted them"
4rder o$ the 5arious Parts o$ a %anuscript
*n summary, here are how the $arious parts of a manuscript should e ordered"
Title Page ;page 1<
!stract ;page 2<
*ntroduction ;page >, title of the manuscript typed at the top of the page,
centered<
(ethod
4esults
'iscussion
4eferences ;new page<
!ppendices ;if any, start each on a new page<
9ootnotes ;if any, new page<
Tales ;if any, start each on a new page<
9igure Captions ;if any, start each on a new page<
9igures ;each on a separate page<
Copy %anuscript 1ersus ,inal %anuscript
! copy manuscript is one that is sent to a pulisher to e con$erted into a
pulished article" That is the type of manuscript that * ha$e descried ao$e" The
pulished article will not appear the same as the copy manuscript ## for example, the
tales and figures will e incorporated into the ody of the article rather than put at the
end of the manuscript"
! $inal manuscript is one that is already in the form in which it will e read y its
final audience" .hen students write a thesis, a dissertation, or a paper for a class in
experimental psychology, they should prepare it as a final manuscript, not as a copy
manuscript"
* would li/e you to follow !P! style in preparing your research report for my
experimental psychology class, with the following modifications+
Title Page) *nstead of a title page, simply put your name, the class name, the
date, and the title of the paper you are sumitting at the top of the first page of each
paper that you sumit to me" 9or example,
*ma Student
1B
PSYC 2210
11" Ouly 2011
Ethical *deology 4elated to Political *deology in College Students
Txxx xx xxx xxxx """"""""""""
Appendi) .hen you sumit your (ethod section, you may need an appendix ##
for example, if you propose using a 5uestionnaire of your own construction" .hen you
sumit your 4esults and Conclusions section, you should include an appendix that
contains the statistical output"
Author -ote) You should not need an author note"
Ta!les and ,igures) 4ather than putting them at the end of the manuscript, put
them in the ody of the manuscript" You may elect to put each one on a separate page
or not, ut a$oid ha$ing a tale or figure split across pages" 'o not put figure captions
on a separate page ## rather, put each figure caption right elow its associated figure, as
* ha$e done in .&T"
Copyright 2011, 2arl 3" .uensch # !ll rights reser$ed
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