Manuscript Structure, Style, and Content Guidelines

Manuscripts must be submitted in the style of the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, 6th edition, with the exception that figures and tables should
be embedded within the main text near to where they are discussed rather than at the
end of the manuscript. The APA Guide for New Authors is a helpful resource for
information on manuscript preparation. Other considerations regarding elements of
Psychological Science submissions can be found below. Authors for whom English is
not their first language or who have limited experience with APA style are advised to
seek input from a skilled and knowledgeable English reader familiar with APA style.

The structure described here applies to all articles other than Commentaries. Note that
although Short Reports are published without an abstract, an abstract must be entered
during the submission process to facilitate review.

Manuscript Main Text

Cover Page

The cover page should include the title, running head, all authors’ names and affiliations
(including departments), and full contact information for the corresponding author.

Abstract

The abstract should be on a separate page and be no longer than 150 words. Five to
seven relevant keywords should be listed directly under the abstract on the same page.

Introduction

The introduction should explain the rationale behind the current study, placing the
research topic and study within the context of the current research landscape. Authors
should summarize and cite previous research relevant to the current study and highlight
the gap in knowledge being filled by the present research. The introduction should
clearly pose the research question, describe the experimental design, and outline the
authors’ hypothesis.
Method

This section (or sections: e.g., Participants, Materials, Procedure) should contain a clear
and concise description and, when needed, justification of the conditions and
procedures of the study, as well as the analytical tools or methodology used. All
excluded observations, independent variables/manipulations, and dependent
variables/measures must be reported, and authors should be sure to explain how the
sample size was determined.

Results

This section should present the collected data and analysis. Results for all measures
should be reported in a concise, straightforward manner, using tables or figures when
appropriate. Duplication of information that is presented in tables or figures should be
minimal in the text, and all results should be reported in the text, rather than figure
captions. We encourage authors to include effect sizes accompanied by 95%
confidence intervals rather than standard deviations or standard errors. Authors should
be particularly attentive to APA style when typing statistical details (e.g., Ns for chi-
square tests, formatting of dfs) and mindful to exclude interpretation and discussion of
the findings or any details related to methodology from this section.

Discussion

This section should discuss the findings in the context of the research question initially
posed and the authors’ hypothesis. The Discussion should also explore the broader
implications and significance of the findings, as well as specific recommendations for
the direction of future research on the topic.

A Note on Manuscripts Presenting Multiple Studies: For some Research Reports or

Research Articles that include multiple studies, an alternate structure might be
appropriate, e.g., general introduction – Study 1 introduction – Method – Results –
Discussion – Study 2 introduction – Method – Results – Discussion – etc. – General
Discussion. Authors who choose to structure their manuscript in this manner should
note that Results and Discussion sections for each study should not be combined; a
combined Results and Discussion section will be treated simply as a Discussion section
and will be counted toward the word limit.

Author Contributions

After the body of the main text and before any acknowledgments, each submitted
manuscript must include a paragraph (not included in the word count) that states each
author’s contribution.

Example: “D. P. Smith developed the study concept. All authors contributed to the study
design. Testing and data collection were performed by D. P. Smith. D. P. Smith and A.
C. Brown performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of H. L.
Jones. D. P. Smith drafted the manuscript, and A. C. Brown and H .L. Jones provided
critical revisions. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for
submission.”

References

Every citation in the text should be listed in the reference list, and vice versa.  Note that
online sources should be cited in the same manner as print sources (i.e., author and
date in parentheses).  Be sure to cite sources for specialized/obscure equipment and
software (e.g., eye trackers, software for analyzing fMRI data) either by adding the
manufacturer with location (or URL) in the text or by adding a reference
entry. References should be formatted in accordance with APA style. Relevant
examples:

Journal article:

Russano, M. B., Meissner, C. A., Narchet, F. M., & Kassin, S. M. (2005). Investigating
true and false confessions within a novel experimental paradigm. Psychological
Science, 16, 481–486. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01560.x

Authored book:

Krumhansl, C. L. (1990). Cognitive foundations of musical pitch. New York, NY: Oxford

University Press.
Chapter in edited book:

Mazziotta, J. C., Toga, A. W., & Friston, K. J. (2000). Experimental design and statistical
issues. In J. C. Mazziotta & A. W. Toga (Eds.), Brain mapping: The disorders (pp. 33–
58). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Source with more than seven authors:

Balota, D. A., Yap, M. J., Cortese, M. J., Hutchison, K. A., Kessler, B., Loftis, B., . . .
Treiman, R. (2007). The English Lexicon Project. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 445–
459.

Online source:

Nelson, D. L., McEvoy, C. L., & Schreiber, T. A. (1998). The University of South Florida
word association, rhyme, and word fragment norms. Retrieved
from http://w3.usf.edu/FreeAssociation/

Tables

Tables should be editable and created using the tables function in Word rather than
using tabs to separate columns. There should be no empty rows or columns. Column
heads cannot change partway down a table; in such cases, the new heads and the data
under them must be placed in a separate table, with its own title. Tables should be
embedded near to where they are discussed in the text. Example:

Table 1.

Title of Table 1

Stub column Column Column Straddle head 1 Straddle head 2 Column

head head 2 head 3a head 8
Column Column Column Column
head 4 head 5 head 6 head 7
Row head 1
                 Row 1 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0
label
                Row 2 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0
label
                Row 3 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0
label
Row head 2
                Row 4 .1* .0 .0 .3** .0 .0 .0
label
                Row 5 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0
label
                Row 6 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0
label
                Row 7 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0
label
Note: [Explanatory notes that apply to the entire table or large sections of the table go
here. Explanations of all abbreviations and symbols used (except symbols indicating
statistical significance) also go in this note.]
a
[Specific notes that apply to a particular column, row, or cell entry are called out by
letters a, b, etc.]

*p < .05. **p < .01. [If asterisks (or daggers) are used to indicate results of tests of
significance, the symbols are explained here.]

Other considerations:

 Tables must be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text.

 All tables must be referred to in the text, and the text needs to give a full
indication of the information that is included in every table. For example, if a table
presents results of multiple statistical tests, the text must refer to them all,
 whether in a general way or individually. The full scope of a table can be
indicated all at once or cumulatively by multiple references to the table.

Figures

For original submissions, figures should be embedded near to where they are discussed
in the text. For revisions, authors should also submit separate production-quality figures.
For a graph or other line art, we ask that authors submit a computer file in the native file
format, which is the format of the program in which the figure was originally created. For
example, if you created a graph in Excel, supply the original Excel file rather than an
Excel file embedded in a Word document. Photographic images such as brain scans or
photos of the experimental setup should be submitted in standard image formats, like
JPEG. To avoid images appearing blurry or pixelated in print, use a minimum resolution
of 300 pixels per inch (PPI; more information about pixel density can be found here). Do
not submit images in TIFF format.

Please adhere to the following format when naming figure files:

AuthorLastNameFigX.fileformat (e.g., SmithFig1.xls, SmithFig2.jpg, etc.). More details
can be found in the APS Figure Format and Style Guidelines.

Figure Captions

Figure captions should be provided in the main text document; they should not be
included in the figure files.  Each caption should begin with “Fig.” and then the
appropriate number, following by a period (e.g., “Fig. 1.”). The text of the caption begins
on a separate line.

A caption should be concise and describe only what is shown in the figure itself. Results
should not be summarized. Each caption should begin with a sentence fragment that
serves as a title and covers the entire content of the figure (not just selected panels), at
least in a general way. All the text following this fragment should be in complete
sentences.

Other considerations:
  A caption should be clear by itself. That is, a reader should be able to
understand the figure without referring elsewhere. However, if providing a
complete explanation would be too cumbersome, the caption can instead refer
readers to the text or another figure or table.

 References to panel letters in a caption should be in parentheses and, if

possible, precede the relevant text: for example, “Reaction times in (a)
Experiment 1 and (b) Experiment 2 as a function of experimental condition.” Do
not begin a caption or a sentence in a caption with a panel letter. 

 If a figure includes error bars, the caption must explain what they represent (e.g.,
95% confidence intervals).

 Treat each caption as a separate entity: Spell out all abbreviations on first use
and cite all references as initial citations (in regard to using “et al.”). An
abbreviation used in a figure must be explained in the caption.

  The caption should not repeat information that is included in a key within the
figure (e.g., that dashed lines are used for a particular experimental condition).

  There is no requirement for a figure that contains multiple panels to have panel
letters. If panel letters are used, they are always lowercase letters, and they must
be referred to in the caption.

  Figures must be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text.

 All figures must be referred to in the text, and the text needs to give a full
indication of the information that is included in every figure. For example, if a
figure has two panels, the text cannot refer to only one of them (but the text does
not have to call out each panel separately—e.g., if Fig. 1. has panels (a) and (b),
the text can refer to Fig. 1 as a whole). The full scope of a figure can be indicated
all at once or cumulatively by multiple references to the figure.

 If a figure has asterisks to indicate significance, the caption should explain them
(i.e., what was tested and what p value is indicated by a single asterisk, two
 asterisks, etc.). Unlike in a table, this explanation should be incorporated into a
complete sentence.

Checklist for Submission Components

In Manuscript/Main Text File

__Title page that includes all authors’ names and affiliations, and full contact information
for the corresponding author

__Abstract (150 words or less)

__Text organized according to above guidelines

__Tables formatted according to guidelines (using the tables function in Word)

__Tables and figures embedded near to where they are discussed in main text

__Captions in main document rather than in figure files

__Author Contributions paragraph

__References formatted in APA style

Other Submission Files

__Separate figure files (revisions)

__Supplemental Material, including reviewed supplemental online material (SOM-R)

and unreviewed supplemental online material (SOM-U)

SAGEtrack Submission

__E-mail and affiliation information for all coauthors

__Answers to 3 questions

__Author Contributions section

__Disclosure Statements (starting January 1, 2014)