For further information, see: American Psychological Association Style

(All references are to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed., 2001.)

Manuscript Preparation

(JFTR uses a modified version of American Psychological Association style; all page references are to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed., 2001.)

• Use 12-pt type and double space everything (text, headings, tables, references, title page).
• Use left justification in the text (the right edge is ragged).
• Number pages, beginning with the title page, in the upper-right-hand corner.
• Abstract should be 120 words or fewer. Titles should be 10 - 12 words.
• Generally it is preferred to include essential material in the text, however JFTR does permit the judicious use of endnotes including author acknowledgements.

Numbers and Statistics

• Figures, not words, are used for numbers that represent time; dates; ages; sample, subsample, or population size; scores and points on a scale; exact sums of money; and numerals as numerals. (See pp. 122 - 125.)
• 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).
• Italicize scoring systems (tables, too) as follows. 1 = yes, 5 = strongly agree, 1 = no effect.
• APA only allows boldface 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 (e.g., p < .05). When part of the narrative, use the term not the symbol (e.g., the means were . . . ).
• Use N for the total sample and n for any and all subsamples.
• Generally, report significant probabilities, correlations, proportions, and inferential statistics to two decimals.

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 the 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.
• 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.
• Ellipses require spaces before and after each period, like this: . . . not ...

• Expand all acronyms on first use, no matter how commonly used (e.g., National Opinion Research Center for NORC). Abbreviate only terms commonly used in JMF (See pp. 103 - 104.)
• 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.)
• 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, anti-intellectual). Hyphenate all self words.

• Use hyphens in 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). Self terms are always hyphenated (e.g., self-concept).
• Emphasis and irony are best conveyed with words. (For more information, see pp. 100 - 103). 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"). Quotation marks around ironic expressions are dropped after the first occurrence.
• For emphasis, italicize new, technical, or key terms or labels only at first occurrence.
• 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 only 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.
• Avoid one-sentence paragraphs and contractions.
• 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).
• APA prefers to avoid slash construction in (a) simple and/or constructions (use a phrase instead); (b) for simple comparisons (use a hyphen instead), and more than once to express compound units (use centered dots and parentheses to avoid ambiguity). (See pp. 87 - 88.)
• Review the literature in the past tense.

Tables and Figures

• Consult the JFTR table website: Format for JFTR Tables for sample tables in PDF and in Word; the latter may be downloaded for use as a template. Delete all vertical and most horizontal lines as per the examples on the web.
• Double space everything.
• See Table 3.10 (p. 189) for size and type specifications for figures.
• Craft brief but clear and explanatory 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 decimal points within columns. Align headings and column entries.
• Except for statistical symbols, do not italicize column headings or variable names; capitalize only the first word of each (e.g., Years married).
• Tables should stand alone, without the need to go to the text for interpretation. 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.
• Table notes:
  
  First Level: General table notes, together in a single paragraph, are relevant to the table as a whole. No space between Note and :.
  
  Second Level: Specific notes - 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.
  
  Third Level: Probability notes - together in a third paragraph - indicate the results of tests of significance. Use asterisks only. Use periods to punctuate probability notes. No space between * and the cell entry and between * and p in the note. Italicize p. 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 a single line. Insert spaces before and after <.
  

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

• Citations appearing in the text and not enclosed in parentheses should list the date of the work in parentheses following author 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; Martin, 2000, para, 5; Zindel et al., 2001).
• For a single work, use a comma between author(s) and the date.
• Use last names only; no first names or initials.
• 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, and Queen (1989) or (Franz, Cox, Smythe, & Queen, 1989)
• Different publications by the same author(s) appear in chronological order (by year). Do not repeat the name of the author(s). 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 (no period) al. (period and comma), 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.

Reference List (pp. 174 - 222)

• Begin the reference list on a new page.
• Double space all end references (and no more than double space) within and between all end references.
• Alphabetize entries in the same manner as within-text citations (above).
• The reference list includes only references cited in the text. Do not construct a bibliography.
• Entries with multiple authors should include the names of all authors in the reference list.
• Use authors' and editors' 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 and the names and volume numbers of journal. Page numbers are required for book chapters.
• Each new entry begins flush left; set subsequent lines with hanging indents.
• Include state's postal code (e.g., DC not D.C.) or the country to avoid confusion or if the city is not well known for publishing: Cambridge, MA: Cambridge, UK. 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 The, Publishers Co., or Inc., but retain Books and Press. For example, Basic Books, Blackwell, Erlbaum, Macmillan, Sage, Wiley.
• Examples of reference citations in appropriate format are available in a PDF document.