Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: 7th Edition

Book Preface

The precursor to the Publication Manual oi the American Psychological Association was published in 1929 as a seven-page article in Psychological Bulletin describing a “standard of procedure, to which exceptions would doubtless be necessary, but to which reference might be made in cases of doubt” (Bentley et al., 1929, p. 57). Since then, the scope and length of the Publication Manual have grown in response to the needs of researchers, students, and educators across the social and behavioral sciences, health care, natural sciences, humanities, and more; however, the spirit of the original authors’ intentions remains. To address changes in scholarly writing and publishing since the release of the sixth edition, we consulted many professional groups and experts (each recognized individually in the Editorial Staff and Contributors list). We thank members of the Publication Manual Revision Task Force for their vision for the manual and for ensuring that our guidance reflects current best practices. We also thank the APA Working Group on Quantitative Research Reporting Standards for updating the originaljournal article reporting standards (JARS) for quantitative research and the APA Working Group on Reporting Standards for Qualitative Research for their groundbreaking work in establishing the first set of qualitative and mixed methods JARS in APA Style. We are indebted to members of the APA Public Interest Directorate committees and other advocacy groups who revised the bias-free language guidelines on age, disability, rae e and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender diversity, and socio economic status. We are also grateful to the reviewers who provided valuable perspectives while representing psychology, nursing, education, business, social work, ethics, and writing instruction. The important work of the Publication Manual Revision Task Force, JARS working groups, APA bias-free language committees, and other experts builds on efforts from previous groups. Thus, we also acknowledge the significant contributions of prior task forces, working groups, and APA staff members who revised previous editions of the Publication Manual. For their guidance on writing about older adults with respect and dignity, we thank Nancy Lundebjerg and Dan Trucil from the American Geriatrics Society. For her contribution to the sections on race and ethnicity, we thank Karen Suyemoto from the University of Massachusetts Boston. For their insights on sexual orientation, gender, and disability, we thank reviewers from the Human Rights Campaign: Jay Brown, Katalina Hadfield, Ellen Kahn, and Sula Malina. We also thank lore m. dickey, Mira Krishnan, and Anneliese A. Singh, members of APA Division 44: Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, for their expertise in revising the sections on sexual orientation and gender diversity. For his suggestions regarding substance use language, we thank William W. Stoops from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. They all shared their wisdom and passion for their communities to help people write with respect and inclusivity. This edition of the Publication Manual is more accessible thanks in large part to the enthusiastic, detailed, and thoughtful contributions from David Berman Communications- in particular, David Berman, Michael E. Cooper, Hannah Langford Berman, and Krisandra Ivings. They helped refine our recommendations for fonts, headings, reference style, color contrast, and more to benefit all people who will use the manual. For their guidance on presenting findings in tables and figures, we thank Adelheid A. M. Nicol and Penny M. Pexman. We also thank Gilad Chen, Anne M. Galletta, Roger Giner-Sorolla, Kevin Grimm, Lisa 1. Harlow, Wendy Rogers, and Nadine Michele Weidman for their insights into publishing. We thank Steve W. J. Kozlowski, Open Science and Methodology Chair, for his expertise on replication and publication ethics. For their valuable expertise on legal references, we thank David DeMatteo and Kirk Heilbrun from Drexel University. We also thank the many APA staff and consultants who contributed their feedback and expertise. These staffwork across APA Publishing, the Education Directorate, the Executive Office, Information Technology Services, the Office of General Counsel, the Public Interest Directorate, and the Science Directorate: Joe Albrecht, Emma All, Ida Audeh, David Becker, Cara Bevington, Martha Boenau, Marla Bonner, Liz Brace, Dan Brachtesende, Dan Brown, Ann Butler, Kerry Cahill, Brenda Carter, Lindsay Childress-Beatty, Alison Cody, Lyndsey Curtis, Chris Detzi, Katie Einhorn, A¿dy Elkington, Kristine Enderle, Elise Frasier, Rob Fredley, Dana Gittings, Hannah Greenbaum, Rachel Hamilton, Sue Harris, Beth Hatch, Annie Hill, Sue Houston, Shelby Jenkins, Robert Johnson, Lois Jones, Shontay Kincaid, Kristen Knight, Kristin Walker Kniss, Marla Koenigsknecht, David Kofalt, George Kowal, J.J. Larrea, Stefanie Lazer, Katy Lenz, Glynne Leonard, Kathryn Hyde Loomis, TimMeagher, Jennifer Meidinger, Claire Merenda, Neceo McKinley, Debra Naylor, David Nygren, Sangeeta Panicker, Amy Pearson, Steph Pollock, Lee Rennie, Natalie Robinson, Kathleen Sheedy, Jasper Simons, Rose Sokol-Chang, Ann Springer, Elizabeth Stern, Amber Story, Daniya Tamendarova, Nina Tandon, Ron Teeter, Karen Thomas, Jenna Vaccaro, Purvi Vashee, Chi Wang, Jason Wells, Sarah Wiederkehr, Angel Williams, Kimberly Williams, Aaron Wood, and Sherry Wynn. Last, we thank our many users who contributed their feedback via emails, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and social media. Your insights into what worked for you and what more you needed from APA Style have been invaluable in revising and creating content for this edition of the manual.

INTRODUCTION

Excellence in writing is critical for success in many academic and professional pursuits. APA Style is a set of guidelines for clear and precise scholarly communication that helps authors, both new and experienced, achieve excellence in writing. It is used by millions of people around the world in psychology and also in fields ranging from nursing to social work, communications to education, business to engineering, and other disciplines for the preparation of manuscripts for publication as well as for writing student papers, dissertations, and theses. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the authoritative resource for APA Style, and we are proud to deliver its seventh edition.

Why Use APA Style?
APA Style provides a foundation for effective scholarly communication because it helps authors present their ideas in a clear, concise, and organized manner. Uniformity and consistency enable readers to (a) focus on the ideas being presented rather than formatting and (b) sean works quickly for key points, findings, and sources. Style guidelines encourage authors to fully disclose essential information and allow readers to dispense with minor distractions, such as inconsistencies or omissions in punctuation, capitalization, reference citations, and presentation of statistics. When style works best, ideas flow logically, sources are credited appropriately, and papers are organized predictably and consistently. People are described using language that affirms their worth and dignity. Authors plan for ethical compliance and report critical details of their research protocol to allow readers to evaluate findings and other researchers to potentially replicate the studies. Tables and figures present data in an engaging, consistent manner. Whether you use APA Style for a single class or throughout your career, we encourage you to recognize the benefits of a conscientious approach to writing. Although the guidelines span many areas and take time and practice to learn, we hope that they provide a balance of directiveness and flexibility and will eventually become second nature.

APA Style for Students
The Publication Manual has long been an authoritative source for scholarly writing, and this edition provides more targeted guidance and support for students. AH students, no matter what career they pursue, can benefit from mastering scholarly writing as a way to develop their critical thinking skills and hone the precision and elarity of their communication. Most guidelines in the Publication Manual can be applied to both student papers and professional manuscripts. The manual also has elements specifically designed for students, ineluding a student title page; guidance on citing elassroom or intranet sources; and descriptions of common types of student papers such as annotated bibliographies, response papers, and dissertations and theses. Journal artiele reporting standards (JARS) are intended primarily for authors seeking publication but may be helpful for students completing advanced research projects.

Utility and Accessibility
We have created the seventh edition of the Publication Manual with the practical needs of users in mind. Within chapters, content is organized using numbered sections to help users quickly locate answers to their questions. This ease of navigability and depth of content mean that the manual can be used as both a reference work and a textbook on scholarly writing. This edition promotes accessibility for everyone, ineluding users with disabilities. In consultation with accessibility experts, we ensured that the guidelines support users who read and write works in APA Style through a variety of modalities, ineluding screen readers and other assistive technologies. For exampIe, we present a streamlined format for in-text citations intended to reduce the burden of both writing and reading them. We provide guidance on how to use adequate contrast in figures to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Web Accessibility Initiative, 2018). We also support the use of a variety of fonts and default settings in common word-processing programs, meaning that users need to make fewer adjustments to their systems to be ready to write in APA Style. Above all, our aim is to support the many ways in which people communicate. We encourage authors to be conscientious and respectful toward both the people about whom they are writing and the readers who will benefit from their work.