This new, fourth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, the first revision
since the 1983 edition, offers updated information in four key areas: reporting statistics; writing without bias;
preparing manuscripts with a word processor for electronic production; and publishing research in accordance with
ethical principles of scientific publishing.
Two goals shape the changes throughout the fourth edition: (a) to encourage authors to write about their research
with specificity and (b) to write about their participants with sensitivity and accuracy.
Regular users of the Publication Manual will find the chapters on editorial style and manuscript preparation to
be comfortably familiar and a bit easier to use than in previous editions. Manuscript format requirements are more
flexible and enable authors to take advantage of default settings available on most word processors.
The Publication Manual gives you all the information you need about the process of publication---from organizing,
writing, keying, and submitting your manuscript, to seeing the accepted manuscript through production and publication.
Plus, this fourth edition raises awareness of ethics issues in publishing and of choosing accurate, sensitive words
in describing people.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Parts of a Manuscript Title Page
Revised policy on displaying affiliations
Method
More guidance on describing research participants
Results
Detailed guidelines for reporting statistics
Chapter 2
Expression of Ideas and Reducing Bias in Language
Expanded section provides general guidelines for writing about people with sensitivity
and accuracy and features a table showing problematic versus preferred usages
Chapter 3
Scientific Abbreviations
New section on APA style for abbreviations and a list of common units of measure
Headings
Information on organizing headings
Statistical Symbols
A list of common statistics
Tables
More examples of presenting results of analyses of variance, regression analyses, and
LISREL models
Figures
More detailed examples of well-executed figures and better guidelines for
creating them
References
Examples of references for electronic sources and legal materials
Chapter 4
Manuscript Preparation and Sample Paper
Completely rewritten with the word processor in mind
Functions That Can Help and Hinder Typesetting
Special characters
Italics versus underlining
Using spell checkers
More Flexible Formatting Guidelines for Manuscripts
Simplified spacing requirements after punctuation
Simplified indention requirements
Simplified style for underlining in reference entries
Chapter 5
Manuscript Acceptance and Electronic Production
New section explains how to prepare electronic files for streamlined production
Reviewing the Copyedited Manuscript
Instructions for reviewing copyediting done on-line or on paper
Chapter 6
Ethics of Scientific Publication, APA Journals Program
New section explaining the ethical issues involved in reporting results, plagiarism,
authorship responsibilities, duplicate publication of data, data verification, the peer
review process, and treatment of research participants
Appendixes
A new section of tips for converting a dissertation or thesis into an article
The new checklist for manuscript submission
A new checklist for transmitting accepted manuscripts for electronic production
