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EFFECTS OF APA CHANGES

Effects of Recent Changes in the Publication Manual on Chapter 3 of Writing for Psychology

Mark L. Mitchell and Janina M. Jolley

ClarionUniversity

Author Note

Mark L. Mitchell, Department of Psychology,ClarionUniversity; Janina M. Jolley, Department of Psychology, ClarionUniversity.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mark L. Mitchell, Department of Psychology, ClarionUniversity, Clarion, PA16214. E-mail:

Below is a list of the changes you can make to Chapter 3 to make it consistent with the 6th ed. of the APA Manual. Note that all of those changes are due to the following seven changes to APA style:

  1. The top of every page—the page header—now contains the running head and the page number (to see an example, under the “View” menu, select “Print Layout” and look at the top of this page). The page header for the first page starts with “Running head:”
  2. The author note is not the last page. Instead, it is part of the title page (see previous page for an example).
  3. Headings in the Method, Results, and Discussion sections are now boldfaced.
  4. Figure captions no longer have their own page. Instead, the figure caption is under the figure.
  5. “Keywords:” followed by a list of keywords are supposed to appear on an indented line right after the Abstract.
  6. APA now favors the “ p =” to the “p<” format (unless p is less than .001).
  7. In the References, you can no longer just provide the name of the major city in which the book was published. Instead, you now must also provide the state abbreviation (for a U.S. city) or the country name (for a non-U.S. city).

Page 64: The author note is not the last page. Instead, it is part of the title page.Figure captions no longer have their own page. Instead, the figure caption is under the figure.

Figure 3.1: The author note is not the last page. Instead, it is part of the title page.Figure captions no longer have their own page. Instead, the figure caption is under the figure.

Pages67 and 68: The top of every page—the page header—now contains the running head and the page number (to see an example, under the “View” menu, select “Print Layout” and look at the top of this page).

The author note is not the last page. Instead, it is part of the title page.

Page 71:“Keywords:” followed by a list of keywords are supposed to appear on an indented line right after the Abstract (for an example, follow the “Sample Title Page and Abstract” link from the “Chapter 3 Resources” page).

Page 76: Boldface “Participants” because headings in the Method section are now boldfaced.

Page 77: Boldface “Materials” because headings in the Method section are now boldfaced.

Page 78: Boldface “Procedure” because headings in the Method section are now boldfaced.

Page 79: Replace p <.01 with p = .002 because APA now favors the “ p =” to the “p<” format (unless p is less than .001).

Page 80: Replace p <.01 with p = .002 because APA now favors the “ p =” to the “p<” format (unless p is less than .001).

Page 81: Replace p <.01 with p < .001 because APA now favors the “ p =” to the “p<” format (unless p is less than .001).

Page 82:

Replace first p <.01 with p = .01 because APA now favors the “ p =” to the “p<” format (unless p is less than .001).

Replace second p <.01 with p = .004 because APA now favors the “ p =” to the “p<” format (unless p is less than .001).

Page 83, footnote 5: Delete it because APA has relaxed its rules about double-spacing tables.

Page 90: Delete the first two sentences of the section titled “Figure Captions” because Figure captions no longer have their own page.Instead, put captions under figures.

Page 97: Boldface the heading “Results”because headings are now boldfaced.

Page 98: The author note is not the last page. Instead, it is part of the title page.

Pages 100-110:The top of every page—the page header—should contain the running head and the page number (to see an example, print out this page). Note, however, that only on the title page does the header begin with “Running head:”

Page 100: The author note, which is on page 111, should be part of the title page.

Page 101: Add “Keywords:” followed by a list of keywords are supposed to appear on an indented line right after the Abstract (for a model, see the sample Abstract)

Page 105: Boldface the headings “Method,” Participants,” and “Materials” becausethose headings are now boldfaced.

Page 107: Boldface the heading “Results”because headings in the Method, Results, and Discussion section are now boldfaced.

Page 107: Boldface the heading “Discussion”because headings in the Method, Results, and Discussion sections are now boldfaced.

Page 110: In the References, you can no longer just provide the name of the major city in which the book was published. Instead, you must now provide the state abbreviation (for a U.S. city) or the country name (for a non-U.S. city). Therefore, make three changes:

  1. Change “New York:” to “New York, NY:”
  2. Change “Baltimore:” to “Baltimore, MD:”
  3. Change “London:” to “London, England:”

Page 111: The author note should not be the last page. Instead, it should be part of the title page.

Page 116: Results Checklist

1. Change “plain” in item 1 to “boldfaced” because headings are now boldfaced.

2. Change p < .05 to p = .028 becauseAPA now favors the “ p =” to the “p<” format (unless p is less than .001).

Page 117: Discussion Checklist

Change “plain” in item 1 to “boldfaced” because headings are now boldfaced.

Page 118:

1. Modify point 1 because (a) the author note is not the last page(Instead, it is part of the title page) and (b) figure captions no longer have their own page.

2. Delete point 12 because the author note is not the last page. Instead, it is part of the title page.

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