A First Look at the Changes: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Ed

Now that the newest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association has been released, it is time to take a closer look at the changes and improvements made in APA style from the fifth to the sixth edition.

Many colleges and universities subscribe to using APA style and most have implemented timetables to move to the new edition. If you are student or professor, you should understand the differences and begin to make changes in your writing.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, commonly called the "APA Manual," serves as a style guide for sound academic writing technique and function. A uniform writing approach allows for a fast and efficient information search and provides a template or protocol for research. APA style removes flamboyance and bias from scholarly writing and models ethical language.

The sixth edition was built and reviewed by users and provides clearer guidelines, especially in formatting electronic references. There is a new section on self-plagiarism, or the use of one's own work, as well as a discussion regarding the rights of research participants. The APA Manual addresses language bias, provides guidance, and makes changes to writing mechanics, displaying results, and crediting sources.

Here are some of the changes to the mechanics of APA style:

• An Ethical Compliance Checklist appears on page 20.

• Paragraph level heading formats have changed (pages 62-62). First level headings are bolded and centered with upper and lowercase words, second level are bolded and moved to the left margin, third level are bolded and indented with the first letter of the first word capitalized and a period after the last word, and fourth level headings are bolded, indented, and italicized with the first letter of the first word capitalized and a period after the last word.

• A running head appears on every page in the header, instead of only on the title page (page 41).

• The pilcrow or paragraph symbol (¶) is replaced by the abbreviation "para." in in-text citations (page 171-172).

• The preferred spelling is no longer "Web site," but rather "website."

• Internet/electronic retrieval dates of journal articles from databases such as EBSCOhost or ProQuest are replaced by the use of the DOI or Digital Object Identifier. Retrieval dates are used for sources with limited circulation or those that change over time. The correct placement of the DOI is at the end of the reference, and only lower case letters and a colon are used, like this: "doi:" (pages 187-192, 198-199).

• Abstracts are no longer restricted to 120 words; they are now permitted to be between 120 and 250 words (pages 25-27).

• Previously, if a city was well known, the state abbreviation was unnecessary in the Reference. In the sixth edition, the state as well as the city is always used (pages 186-187).

• If a reference has more than seven authors, use ellipses between the sixth and seventh authors (page 51, 198-199).

• The first word after a colon that also begins a complete sentence is capitalized. There is an example on page 101: "The author made one main point: No explanation that has been suggested so far answers all questions."

• "Self-plagiarism" is defined as "the practice presenting one's own previously published work as though it were new" (page 170). This topic was not addressed in the fifth edition.

• Guidelines for statistical p-values now include reporting the exact value to two or three variables. The example provided is that instead of using p < .05 when the value is actually p = .023, the proper format is p = .023 (page 139).

• An expanded discussion of peer review and the publication process is included in chapter 8, which begins on page 225.

The American Psychological Association is clearly updating APA style as research methodology, technology, and publication techniques. The APA Manual sixth edition modernizes writing style yet stays true to good scholarship: building on the best of the "old" while creating the "new."

© Cindy Wolfe, All rights reserved.

For more information:
The American Psychological Association: The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition

Free APA Sixth Edition Websites and Guides:
The American Psychological Association: The Basics of APA Style
The OWL at Purdue
NOVA Southeastern University
Muhlenberg College
Wake Forest University
Sacramento State University