PSYC 277, 2022

Rubric for Research Reports

Overall quality, style, clarity

Introduction
⎯ background on topic including description of phenomenon or set of phenomena under
investigation, and its importance/relevance with references as appropriate
⎯ clearly worded research question and hypotheses or predictions

Method
⎯ clear description of participant sample, including demographic characteristics, (university
students? community sample?); if available, age and sex composition
⎯ clear description of subject recruitment procedure(s) and relevant inclusion/exclusion
criteria
⎯ statement about whether informed consent was obtained (if not applicable, indicate so)
and/or ethical approval
⎯ clear description of stimuli/materials/survey
⎯ clear description of the procedure, i.e. subject’s task and researcher’s role as relevant [must
be enough detail for you to replicate]
⎯ clear description of the independent (i.e. what was manipulated) or quasi-independent
variables (e.g., female vs. male, STEM vs. non-STEM students) and dependent variable(s)
(i.e. what was measured) including operational definitions

Results
⎯ good resolution figure(s) plotting the average results or observed frequencies relevant to the
statistical analysis or analyses; figures must have axis labels (units indicated as appropriate),
tick marks, legend, etc.
⎯ A table is necessary if figure does include all details of the result
⎯ figure caption that clearly describes the contents of the figure, including clearly defined
error bars if necessary.
⎯ statement(s) of the results, and as appropriate, includes means and standard deviations of
conditions, as well as the direction of any significant difference
⎯ includes a remark about significance with test statistic, degrees of freedom, and
corresponding p-value (significance reported at α = 0.05 level)
⎯ Correct statistical test used explain why that statistical test
⎯ Results reported in APA style with exact p-values reported to three decimal places, unless
less than .001, in which case report: p < .001

Discussion
⎯ answer research question, were hypotheses/predictions supported?
⎯ discussion of results relative to existing literature (include references), alternative
explanations that seem more plausible, support for the findings, etc.
⎯ description of problems encountered and how they could be fixed [must be things that
could actually affect the difference or lack of between conditions]
⎯ suggestions for future studies that extend or follow logically from the results and are not
just fixing problems
 PSYC 277, 2022

References and APA formatting

⎯ proper and relevant references cited and listed in APA style
⎯ claims requiring references have references

Deductions
Formatting, References, and APA formatting
⎯ 5-page limit exceeded (not including title page and references, but including results table
and diagrams)
⎯ APA formatting missing for overall submission
⎯ any reference that is cited but not included in the References or is incomplete/doesn’t
follow APA formatting (authors, year, title, journal, volume, page numbers)
⎯ if text font<10pt is used in the figure. Figures can be scaled down, but text on the figure
must remain legible

Originality
⎯ if verbatim wording pasted from the group’s research proposal; each student is required to
produce an original individual report