Research paper

General Paper Format (This section is identical to the Paper I Checklist)

Yes

No

1. Is everything in your paper (including headers, the main body of your study one literature review, and references) in 12 point Times New Roman font?

2. Is everything in your paper double spaced, including references (here I mean the spacing above and below each line, not the spaces following a period)?

3. Do you have one inch margins on all sides of the paper (one inch from the top of the page, one inch from the bottom, and one inch from each side)

4. Are the first lines of all paragraphs indented roughly ½ inch?

5. Are your paragraphs aligned left? (That is, text should be flush left, with lines lining up on the left of the page, but text should NOT line up on the right side of the page – it should look ragged)

6. Do you need help figuring out how to configure a word document in APA format (inserting headers, page numbers, indents, etc.) using the professional (not student) formatting guidelines? If YES or NO, I recommend watching this video which walks you through setting up an APA formatted paper! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZTCN6yOgSg

Title page (This section is nearly identical to the Paper I Checklist)

Yes

No

Header

1. Is your header title in ALL CAPS, and is it a shorter version of your real title?

2. Is your Running head in 12 point Times New Roman font?

3. Do you have a page number that is flush right (also in 12 point Times New Roman font)?

4. Is your header title 50 characters or less (including spaces and punctuation)?

Title / Name / Institution

1. Is your title focused and short, avoiding unnecessary words and abbreviations that serve no purpose (as recommended by the APA)?

2. Does your title describe your general paper theme (while avoiding something blank like “Paper Two: Methods Results, and Discussion”)? Note that your header should be a shorter version or your title (For example, the first few words are fine)

3. Do all title words with three letters or more start with a capital letter?

4. Is your title in bold?

5. If your title is longer than one line, is it double-spaced (like everything else in your paper)?

6. Are your name and institution correct?

7. Are your title, name, and institution elements centered and in 12 point Times New Roman font?

Methods Section (New Information in this section)

Yes

No

Header

1. Is your header title present and identical to your header title on the title page?

2. Is your header title in ALL CAPS and 12 point Times New Roman font?

3. Does your header on this second page omit the phrase “Running head”

4. Do you have a page number starting on page 2

Yes

No

Title for the methods section

1. Is the word “Methods” centered and in bold at the top of your methods page?

Participants

1. Do you have the word “Participants” flush left and in bold, and below the word “Methods”?

2. Did you list out your demographic characteristics, including gender, age, and ethnicity / race?

3. Did you provide the descriptive statistics for (means and standard deviations) for age and italicize the letters M and SD?

4. Did you provide frequencies for gender and ethnicity/race and italicize the N?

5. Did you refer readers (callout) to Table 1 for a full list of demographic info?

6. Did you provide Table 1 (with demographic information) after the callout?

Materials and Procedure

1. Is the phrase “Materials and Procedure” flush left and in bold?

2. Did you mention informed consent? (Most likely oral consent for study one)

3. Did you discuss any instructions the participant may have read?

4. Did you thoroughly describe any stimulus material that might have occurred before your actual independent variables (and photos, descriptions, profiles, questions, puzzles, etc.) that are a part of your study?

5. Did you thoroughly describe your independent variable (IV) in enough depth and detail that another researcher could recreate your materials?

6. Did you give your IV a name that matches up with the name you refer to in the results section?

7. Did you describe all of your most relevant dependent variables, noting the scales you used (e.g. “Yes / No”, “A scale ranging from 1 (not at all likely) to 9 (very likely))” for EACH of your DVs?

8. Did you fully describe what participants went through in the study, noting the order in which they received study materials (e.g. first informed consent, then IVs, DVs, and debriefing)?

9. Did you fully describe your attention check (manipulation check) with enough detail that a reader unfamiliar with your study could recreate it, and did you include the scale for that attention check question?

10. Did you use the past tense when describing your methods (seeing how you already collected the data, and therefore do not discuss what participants will do)?

Results Section (New Information in this section)

Yes

No

1. Do you have the word “Results” centered and in bold, immediately following the methods section?

2. Was the first dependent variable you looked at your manipulation check question, and did you make sure you analyzed the correct DV?

3. Did you analyze at least two different dependent variables for your other two analyses?

a. Note: Often your instructors prefer that you run two different ANOVAs. Ask them if they want a t-Test as one of the analysis.

4. Did you mention both the IV and the DV by name when talking about your analysis?

5. Did you include means and standard deviations within parentheses for each level of your independent variable?

6. Did you italicize the letters F, t, p, M, SD, and X2 (where appropriate)?

7. Did you round ALL numbers to two decimal places (with the exception of the p value, which can go as low as p < .001 or p = .001).

8. Did you provide all Tables after doing a “callout” for each?

Discussion Section (New Information in this section)

Yes

No

1. Do you have the word “Discussion” centered and in bold, immediately following the results section?

2. Did you remind your reader of your hypothesis?

3. Did you mention whether you supported or did not support your hypothesis?

Tables Section – Study One (New Information in this section)

Yes

No

1. Do you have the word “Table” centered on each Table page (followed by the next sequential number), followed by a description of the table content, immediately following the results section?

2. In Table 1 (Demographics), do you have SPSS tables for gender, ethnicity, and age? (Note: Age might be in a general “statistics” table, but you should have specific frequency tables for both gender and ethnicity)

3. In Table 2 (Chi Square), do you have the crosstabs table (with percentages) plus the chi square test (with Pearson)?

4. In Table 3 (ANOVA), do you have the descriptives table, the ANOVA table, and the post hoc table for your first dependent variable?

5. In Table 4 (ANOVA or t-Test), do you have the descriptives table, ANOVA (or t-Test) table, and post hoc table (for the ANOVA) for your second dependent variable?

6. Do the analyses in Tables 3 and 4 focus on DIFFERENT dependent variables? (Make sure you answer YES on this one!)

7. Did each table come immediately after the in-text callout?

Writing Quality

Yes

No

1. Did you proofread your paper, go to the writing center, go to the research methods help center, or use the Pearson writer to make sure your paper flows well?

2. Did you use the past tense (which is recommended, since your papers in this class will reflect work you already did rather than work you will do)?

3. Did you use a scientific / objective terms like “people”, “participants”. “users”, “readers”, etc. (as opposed to subjective words like “you”, “we”, “me”, “I”, or “us”, etc.)? Note that you can use the word “I” when referring to your own work.