Research consists of a great degree of discussion, exchange of experiences among various researchers, and their observations. The main goal of researchers is to spread their work among the target audiences. This is possible by publishing their manuscript in a reputed journal. Publication of manuscripts in a reputable journal is considered a measure of academic success by all those involved directly or indirectly with the study, such as researchers, their colleagues, and those who fund their studies. Therefore, understanding the journal and manual guidelines of the target journal and writing the manuscript accordingly is very important for publishing the manuscript. One such style guides used for psychology papers is the American Psychological Association (APA) manual of style. Several rules are included in this manual but here are a few that may prove to come in handy when you are writing a psychology paper. TITLE Do not include words that serve no real purpose (e.g., results, methods, A Study on). Should be in uppercase and lowercase letters. Spell out all terms. Capitalize the first word after a colon or dash. Capitalize both words of a hyphenated compound. ABSTRACT The word “abstract” is centered and in standard typeface (not boldface or italicized). List of keywords: “Keywords” is italicized. Each term starts with a lowercase letter. Terms do not have to be in alphabetical order. All numbers are in numeral form. ITALICIZATION Titles of books, periodicals, films, videos, TV shows, microfilm publications, and court decisions/cases (e.g., Roe v. Wade). Exception: Words within a title that are normally italicized should be reverse italicized (set in Roman type). Genera, species, and varieties name. Introduction of a new, technical, or key term or label for the first time. A letter, word, or phrase cited as a linguistic example. Words that could be misread. ABBREVIATION Abbreviations that appear as word entries in Webster’s do not need to be explained in the text. Latin abbreviations should only be used in parentheses. Abbreviation of U.S.: United States is only abbreviated as U.S. when used as an adjective; when it is used as a noun it is written as “United States.” Do not italicize or add apostrophes to plurals of abbreviations. Never start a sentence with a lowercase abbreviation or a stand-alone symbol. You can start a sentence with a capitalized abbreviation or acronym, or a symbol connected to a word via a hyphen, but only when necessary. NUMBERS Use numerals for numbers 10 and above. Use words for any number that starts a sentence, title, or heading (starting a sentence with a number is not preferred) and common fractions. Add s alone to numbers without an apostrophe for plural forms. Do not use a zero before the decimal point when the statistic cannot exceed 1. CITATIONS (Running text and Parenthetical) For both running and parenthetical in-text citations, in the first citation, write out all authors for one work if the number of authors does not exceed six. Cite only the first author followed by et al. when a work has six or more authors. Furthermore, et al. is used in subsequent citations for works by more than three authors. "And" is used for works by two authors in running text and "&" for the same in parenthetical in-text reference. “et al.” is always followed by a period and never used in possessive form. Citations of two or more works within the same parentheses are written alphabetically. These are some points that you must keep in mind while writing a psychology paper according to the APA manual of style. If you find this task daunting, you may seek help from companies offering research paper editing and formatting services who also offer to style your paper as per the style guide to be applied.
