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Eighty years later: The APA publication manual rides again...and again and again and again

and again. Sternberg, Robert J.; Sternberg, Karin; No authorship indicated. PsycCRITIQUES 55. 5 (2010).

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_______________________________________________________________ Abstract Reviews the book, Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.)

by the American Psychological Association (see record 2009-16118-000). The sixth edition of

the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association has been published 80

years after the publication of the original APA publication manual. There are a number of

changes in the new edition and from the reviewers' point of view, the changes are welcome

ones. Some of the welcomed changes include reduced length, modification of paper

headings, increased orientation toward electronic submission, expanded coverage of ethical

issues, and expanded material on the use and reporting of statistical methods. However, the

reviewers also point out several problems with the new edition, and focus on the fact that this

book can be very overwhelming and does not always make writing easier for authors. On the

whole, the reviewers believe that the APA publication manual continues to be an excellent

and indispensable reference work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights

reserved)

_______________________________________________________________ Full Text PsycCRITIQUES1554-0138American Psychological AssociationFebruary3, 2010555

psq_2010_4513_1_410.1037/a00187652010-00585-001reviewBook Review12010American

Psychological AssociationEighty Years LaterThe APA Publication ManualRides Again . . .

and Again and Again and Again and AgainPublication Manual of the American Psychological

Association (6th ed.)the American Psychological AssociationWashington, DC: American

Psychological Association, 2010. 272 pp.ISBN 978-1-4338-0559-2(hardcover); ISBN 978-1-

4338-0562-2(spiral bound); ISBN 978-1-4338-0561-5(paperback). $39.95, hardcover;

$36.95, spiral bound; $28.95, paperbackRobert J.SternbergKarinSternberg

The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

(henceforth referred to in this review as the APA Publication Manual) has been published 80

years after the publication of the original APA Publication Manual. Sometimes, readers

wonder whether a new edition of a book is “worth it” or rather represents an attempt by a

publisher to increase its revenue by forcing users of the book to buy a new edition. In the

case of the APA Publication Manual, the book is definitely “worth it,” for the reasons

described below.

This latest APA Publication Manualgot off to a rough start. The first printing was beset by

errors—generally quite minor ones—but enough of them so that users complained and the

American Psychological Association (APA) decided to release a second printing correcting

the errors. It sent the new printing free so long as the purchaser returned the earlier printing.

In this way, it got the first printing “off the streets.” The association handled the matter in an

ethical, responsible, and professional way and thereby largely put the unfortunate event

behind it.

The APA Publication Manualis used by most psychological journals and by journals in many

other fields as well, including nursing, education, and social work. There are many competing

professional organizations with their own goals and, quite frankly, their own need for revenue

from publications. The APA Publication Manualreached its position of preeminence because

of its usefulness to authors and journal editors, not because other professional organizations

were cheerfully willing to cede preeminence to it.

There are a number of changes in the new edition. From our point of view, the changes are

welcome ones.

First, and probably most welcome, is the APA Publication Manual’s reduced length. The

successive editions were getting longer and longer; the fifth edition had reached 439 pages.

It was just too long. The sixth edition is more compact at 272 pages.

Second, the format for headings in papers has always been confusing. Most confusing has

been that, when an author used less than the full set of headings, he or she was supposed

not to use just the levels in consecutive order but rather to skip levels. In the new edition,

levels of headings are used in order so that, for example, if there are two orders of headings,

one uses the first two levels; if there are three levels, one uses the first three levels, and so

forth. The levels in the new edition are also more intuitively sensible and easier to use with

electronic manuscripts. All authors will welcome the new guidelines for headings.

Third, the APA Publication Manualis much more helpful with regard to the electronic

submission of manuscripts, and, indeed, many of the changes in this edition have been

intended to clarify how electronic submissions should be prepared. When the fifth edition was

published, many journals were in the process of converting from paper to electronic

submission; the future of submitting papers was not clear. The sixth edition is clearly oriented

more toward electronic submission, which well represents the present as well as the almost-

inevitable wave of the future.

Fourth, the sixth edition has provided expanded coverage of ethical issues that authors

confront when doing research and preparing manuscripts, such as what constitutes

plagiarism, how authorship should be determined, and how identities of participants should

be disguised. Because, in the last decade, institutional review boards have become much

more demanding with regard to the ethics of research, the additional insights are most

welcome. Part of what has distinguished the APA Publication Manualis its greater attention to

issues of scientific and ethical conduct than what is found in other such guides, and the latest

edition is the best with regard to the handling of these issues.

Fifth, the new APA Publication Manualcontains expanded material on the use and reporting

of statistical methods and is more comprehensive in its discussion of reporting of effect sizes.

Because so many conclusions in articles are a result of statistical analyses, the additional

coverage is most helpful.

Consider now what we see as some of the weaknesses of the sixth edition. Most of them

stem from one general issue: The goal of the APA Publication Manualshould be, in part, to

make writing easier for authors, but that is not always the case.

First, even at its reduced length, the manual is overwhelming. In reading the manual, one

easily can lose the forest for the trees. It is for this reason, perhaps, that there are a number

of sources, including sources from the APA itself, that attempt to help users grasp the main

points. So, in effect, there are manuals for using this manual, including one by APA itself

(e.g., APA, 2009).

Consider, for example, commas in numbers, something that is perhaps not of prime

importance in writing articles. We learn that we should use commas “between groups of three

digits in most figures of 1,000 or more” (p. 114), except for page numbers, binary digits, serial

numbers, degrees of temperature, acoustic frequency designations, and degrees of freedom

(p. 114). One wonders whether the manual is perhaps overregulating on a matter that is not

of the utmost importance.

Another example of how the APA Publication Manualis overwhelming is that Latin

abbreviations are to be used only in parentheses, not outside them, for example, “e.g.” (we

made sure not to say “e.g., ‘e.g.’”). In our years of reviewing and editing manuscripts, we

have found this rule to be violated at least as often as it is observed. We wonder whether our

time or that of a copy editor is well spent changing “e.g.” to “for example” when the

abbreviation occurs outside rather than inside a set of parentheses.

Second, sometimes it is hard to believe the book was written by, well, psychologists. The

book is not always friendly to the psychology of the reader. For example, there are four

dense pages on hyphenation (pp. 97–100). Table 4.1 contains 11 rules of hyphenation, and

we are also treated to five general principles. Table 4.2 also gives 39 prefixes and suffixes

that do not require hyphens. So there are 11 rules, five principles, and 39 examples of when

not to use hyphens. It is just too much for even an obsessive-compulsive devotee of the

APA Publication Manualto remember. Most authors do not want to consult the APA

Publication Manualevery time they write a paper and encounter a term that may or may not

need hyphenation.

As another example, there are 77 different reference formats given in Chapter 7. Although

one can see the need for different formats for different kinds of items, it might have been nice

to have some general principles so that an author would not have to look for which of the 77

formats to use for each type of item he or she needs to reference.

Third, the APA Publication Manualseems more to present a normative or “ideal” model rather

than a performance or “real-world” model that would address the publication problems

authors often face. One example is piecemeal publication, which everyone agrees is a bad

thing. But in this regard authors sometimes find themselves in a trap: They are told by journal

editors to make their manuscripts as short as possible and by tenure and promotion

committees to make sure they have enough publications to get to the next grade. Often, it is

a judgment call as to just how much material should go into one article so that it is neither too

long nor too short.

As another example, the APA Publication Manualdoes not deal sufficiently with the problems

authors confront with reviewers. Many reviewers are competent, professional, and helpful.

But others are less than competent, amateurish, and even spiteful (Sternberg, 2003). How

does one deal with reviews that editors send but that do not meet professional standards?

How does one respond to points reviewers make when they are demonstrably wrong? How

does one deal with contradictory recommendations, if the editor makes no note of them?

Perhaps the next edition of the APA Publication Manualcould have a section on guidelines

for reviewers and guidelines for authors on how to deal with reviews.

On the whole, we believe that the APA Publication Manualcontinues to be an excellent and

indispensable reference work. It is probably the one reference that no serious author in

psychology can be without. The corrected sixth edition of the APA Publication Manualis an

improvement over the previous editions and will be of tremendous use to all writers in

psychology and allied fields, e.g., educational research. Oops, we meant “for example,

educational research!”

ReferencesAmerican Psychological Association. (2009). Mastering APA style: Student’s

workbook and training guide(6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Sternberg, R. J.(2003). To be civil. The APA Monitor on Psychology, 34(7), 5.

Robert J. Sternberg is a former president of the American Psychological Association (APA)

and four of its divisions and has been editor of two of its journals. He is currently president-

elect of the Federation of Associations of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, of which APA is a

member. Robert J. Sternberg and Karin Sternberg are coauthors of The Psychologist’s

Companion(5th ed., Cambridge University Press, in press), which, among other things,

summarizes the current APA Publication Manualpublication guidelines.

_______________________________________________________________ Indexing (details)

Subject Scientific Communication (major);American Psychological Association

(major);Writers

Classification 3400: Professional Psychological&Health Personnel Issues

Identifier / keyword American Psychological Association, publication manual, authors,

writing, referencing

Title Eighty years later: The APA publication manual rides again...and again

and again and again and again.

Author Sternberg, Robert J.; Sternberg, Karin

Publication title PsycCRITIQUES

Volume 55

Issue 5

Publication date 2010

Publication year 2010

Year 2010

Publisher American Psychological Association

Country of publication United States

ISSN 0010-7549

Source type Scholarly Journals

Summary language English

Format availability Electronic

Language of publication English

Author of reviewed work

Related work [Title: Publication manual of the American Psychological Association

(6th ed.)] Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

272pp. $39.95 HC $36.95 SB $28.95 PB

Document type Review-book, Electronic Collection

DOI 10.1037/a0018765

Accession number 2010-00585-001

ProQuest document ID 614292681

Document URL http://search.proquest.com/docview/614292681?accountid=8289

Last updated 2011-04-11

Database PsycCRITIQUES

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