FR style is based on style guidelines of the American Psychological Association; all page references are to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed., 2001.

Manuscript Preparation

• Use 12-pt type and double space everything: title page, text, headings, references.
• Use left justification in the text (i.e., the right edge is ragged).
• Number pages, beginning with the title page, in the upper-right-hand corner.
• Titles should be 10 - 12 words, abstracts 120 words or less. . On the title page, include a running head of < 50 characters and spaces.
• Include any acknowledgement notes on the title page. Include complete contact information (i.e., address, phone, fax, e-mail) for all authors; for the publisher, not for publication.
• Following the abstract, identify up to six key words by which the article may be indexed. Please list your key words in alphabetical order.
• Headings are consistent with APA guidelines put forth in section 5.10 (pp. 289-290)
• Except for author acknowledgements, FR publishes neither footnotes nor endnotes. Please incorporate any essential material into the text.

Numbers and Statistics

• Use figures, not words, for dates; ages; sample, subsample, or population size; exact sums of money; numbers that represent time; and scores and points on a scale. (See pp. 122 - 125.)
• In text and tables, treat numbers as you would treat words. Spaces before and after make them much easier to read (e.g., not 1-2 but 1 - 2). Type all operators (e.g., <, =) with a space before and after. Use numerals for all numbers 10 and above and when comparing to numbers 10 or above (e.g., 12, 11, and 6 months.
• One fifth (noun) versus one-fifth (adjective).
• Italicize scoring systems (tables, too) as follows, 1 = yes, 5 = strongly agree, 1 = no effect..
• Use boldface only in certain statistical symbols. (See pp. 140 - 141.)
• Expand all statistical or technical terms on first use (e.g., goodness of fit, GFI thereafter). See common statistical abbreviations and symbols in Table 3.9 (pp. 141 - 144).
• Italicize statistical symbols in text and tables (e.g., F, Fs, SD, M, p, r, R2). Use symbols (e.g.,29%) except when part of the narrative.
• Capitalize Model 1, Table 2, Wave 1, Figure 1, and so on.
• Use N for the total sample and n for any and all subsamples.
• Round decimal values to two numbers.

General and APA-specific Grammar and Usage Rules

General:

• Strive for economy of expression.
• Use while and since only in reference to time (alternatives: although, whereas, but, because).
• Include a comma before and in a series (e.g., red, blue, and yellow). Use commas not semicolons in a series unless an element within the series contains commas: Flags were blue, red, and yellow; lavender, white, and apricot; or orange, green, and black.
• "and/or" should be and or (two words). In general, do not make use of a slash if phrases can be understood without a slash or with insertion of "or"
• "Policymakers" not policy makers
• Child care (two words) as noun; childcare (one word) as adjective
• "Children" instead of "kids"; "child" instead of "kid"
• Generally, close quotation marks after periods and commas, "like this." Other punctuation marks are within quotations only when they are part of the quoted material. (See p. 293.)
• Use which for information that is parenthetical in nature and set off this material with commas; for information essential to the meaning of the sentence, use that (e.g., the table, which appears in Appendix A; a variable that is measured). (See p. 55.)
• The word data is plural. See p. 89 for plurals of common words of Latin or Greek origin.
• Use e.g., i.e., etc., and vs. in parentheses only. Otherwise, for example, that is, etcetera, and versus. Follow e.g. and i.e. with commas (e.g., i.e.,).
• Ellipses require spaces before and after each period, like this: . . ., not ...

APA-specific:

• Expand all acronyms on first use, no matter how commonly used (e.g., Dyadic Adjustment Scale, DAS). Abbreviate only terms commonly used in FR. (See pp. 103 - 104.)
• The following prefixes should not require a hyphen: after, anti, bi, co, counter, equi, extra, infra, inter, intra, macro, mega, meta (but meta-analysis), micro, mid, mini, multi, non, over, post, pre, pro, pseudo, re, semi, socio, sub, super, supra, ultra, un, and under. Retain hyphens before a numeral, an all-caps abbreviation (pre-TANF), and a capitalized letter (e.g., non-Hispanic). Retain hyphens if word could be misunderstood or misread (e.g., re-pair, antiintellectual). Hyphenate all self words.
• Hyphenate compound adjectives when they modify nouns; for example, middle-class families but families in the middle class. Terms for race and ethnicity do not include hyphens (e.g., African American families). Well-being is always hyphenated.
• Emphasis and irony are best conveyed with words. Use quotation marks for in-text quotations of fewer than 40 words and to indicate ironic comments or invented expressions (e.g., the division of labor is "fair"); not for emphasis. Quotation marks around ironic expressions are dropped after the first occurrence.
• Use italics infrequently and per APA guidelines (pp. 100 - 103). For emphasis, italicize new, technical, or key terms or labels but only at first occurrence. Italicize anchors of response scales in measurement section of manuscript (e.g., strongly disagree to strongly agree).
• Avoid one-sentence paragraphs. Avoid contractions.
• Review the literature in the past tense.
• Use letters, not numbers, in parentheses for a series: (a) first, (b) second, and (c) third; not (1), (2), (3); nor 1), 2), 3); nor a), b), c).
• Capitalize the first word after a colon if it begins a complete sentence. Capitalize both words when a capitalized word is a hyphenated compound.
• Capitalize racial groups: Black, White, Mexican American, European American.
• Use female or male only as adjectives, girls or women, boys or men as nouns. Rewrite the sentence to avoid language such as he/she and him or her (see p. 71). Use gender, not sex.
• Avoid slash construction in (a) simple and/or constructions (use a phrase instead); (b) for simple comparisons (use a hyphen instead); and (c) more than once to express compound units (use centered dots and parentheses to avoid ambiguity). (See pp. 87 - 88.)
• Two commonly misused phrases are due to and based on. APA Style prefers the use of due in the financial sense. APA Style prefers based to be preceded by a linking verb (e.g., is). An alternative solution is to say "on the basis of . . . ." (See pp. 38 - 39.)

Figures and Tables

• Please consult the website for specific information on figure preparation: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/authors/digill.asp.
• Craft brief but clear and explanatory figure and table titles. Use title case (capitalize major words, all words of four or more letters, and both words of a hyphenated compound) and italicize.
• Align headings and column entries. Align decimal points within columns (see our website).
• Do not italicize column headings or variable names. Typically, boldface is reserved for unique statistical symbols.
• Explain the meaning of scales, numbers, and variables with table notes or figure legends. If using acronyms or special punctuation, define them (e.g., pre = preschool; all bolded terms are weighted to U.S. norms). Tables should stand alone, without the need to go to the text for interpretation. Include the N in all tables.
• Table notes:

1. First level: General table notes, together in a single paragraph, are relevant to the table as a whole. Format is: Note: All values are weighted.
2. Second level: Specific notes-run together in a second paragraph-are used for information relevant to a particular row, column, or cell entry. There is no space between the superscript and the cell entry and between the superscript and the note. Format is:1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree. Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale.
3. Third level: Probability notes-run together in a third paragraph-indicate the results of tests of significance. Use asterisks only. Use periods to punctuate probability notes and format as follows: *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. In the rare instance when it is appropriate, use a dagger (†) to indicate a trend as in †p <.10. * indicates the same p value from table to table within a paper. All p-value notes go on the same line. Insert spaces before and after <.

• Consult our table website: http://www.hhs.oregonstate.edu/hdfs/acock/tables/ for sample tables in PDF and in Word; the latter may be downloaded for use as a template.

Reference and Parenthetical Citations in Text (pp. 207 - 214)

• Citations in the text not enclosed in parentheses should list the date of the work in parentheses after the author's name, as in Jones (2002). List parenthetical citations in alphabetical order (Benton & Mays, 1999, Results section, para. 3; Chan, 1998; Farmer, 1999a, 1999b; Jones, 1992, 1999; Jones, Armstrong, & Hayes, 2001; Zindel et al., 2001).
• For a single work, use a comma between the author and the date (Jones, 1990).
• In parentheses, link authors' names with an ampersand (Bruce & Smith, 1996); use and in the text: Bruce and Smith (1996). In the case of three or more authors, both & and and are preceded by a comma (Franz, Cox, Smythe, & Queen, 1989).
• List different publications by the same author in chronological order. Do not repeat the author's name (Bruce, 1990, 1992a). Commas separate the dates of different publications by the same author; semicolons separate that author's work from that of other authors' (Jones, 1990, 1987; Bruce, 2000).
• Works by the same first author but different coauthors are alphabetized by the last name of the second (or, if necessary, later) author.
• Once a work with three or more authors has been cited in full, subsequent citations should list the first author (no comma) followed by et al., (period and comma after al.), as in (Smith et al., 1988); works with six or more authors follow this convention on first occurrence.
• Cite a single page number using p. and multiple page numbers using pp. (e.g., Jones, 1992, pp. 10 - 12). Put a space between p. or pp. and the number.
• Use commas to separate citation dates in parenthetical material (see Jones et al., 2001, for an example).
• In the case where the same citation is repeated within a paragraph, it is not necessary to list the year of the citation. (e.g. Jones, 1992, cited first time, Jones, cited thereafter within the same paragraph.
• "In press" or "in review" dates should be updated prior to press if possible.

Reference List (pp. 174 - 222)

• Begin the reference list on a new page. Double space all end references. Each new entry begins flush left; set subsequent lines with hanging indents.
• Alphabetize entries in the same manner as within-text citations (above).
• The reference list includes all references and only references cited in the text.
• Entries with multiple authors should include the names of all authors in the reference list.
• Use authors' last names and first and second initials (Gutman, A. S., & Smith, R. T.) Initials appear before surnames only for editors (e.g., A. S. Gutman).
• Italicize book titles, journal names, and volume numbers. Page numbers are required for book chapters.
• Include state's postal code or the country to avoid confusion or if the city is not well known for publishing: Cambridge, MA; Cambridge, U.K. These U.S. cities can stand alone: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. These international cities can stand alone: Amsterdam, Jerusalem, London, Milan, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Vienna.
• Give publishers in as brief a form as possible; remove Publishers, Co., or Inc., but retain Books and Press. For example, Basic Books, Macmillan, Sage, Wiley).
• It is not necessary to include the issue number for a journal that is continuously paginated:

Voydanoff, P. (2005). The effects of community demands, resources, and strategies on the nature
of the work-family interface. Family Relations, 54, 583-595.