Research Methods Exam 1
It is customary in some disciplines to reference works that were not cited in a manuscript. What is the practice in psychology?
No, you must cite all works that were in the manuscript, and no more.
Who receives publication credit (i.e., authorship)? How do you acknowledge lesser contributions?
Authorship is reserved for persons who make a substantial contribution to and who accept responsibility for a published work and lesser contributions will be acknowledged in a note. Lesser contributions, which do not constitute authorship, may be acknowledged in a note.
When it comes to reporting the results of inferential statistical analyses, what are the minimum expectations for all APA journals?
Complete reporting of all tested hypotheses and estimates of appropriate affect sizes and confidence intervals.
A student helps a professor collect data for a study by handing out, collecting, and scoring questionnaires. Should the student receive authorship? Explain.
No, conducting routine observations or diagnoses for use in studies does not constitute authorship, but they may receive recognition in a note.
On what page of the Publication Manual can you find the Ethical Compliance Checklist?
On Page 20 of the Publication manual one can find the Ethical Compliance Checklist.
Who has the ultimate decision-making power when it comes to publishing? Give two examples of the sorts of decisions this person can make.
The editor. He or she can decide if 1) a manuscript of a reanalysis of published data should be published 2)they can also reject a manuscript in violation of duplicate publication policies.
What five categories of information should be a part of the interpretation of the results?
The five categories of information that should be a part of the interpretation of the results are the sources of potential bias and other threats to internal validity, the imprecision of measures, the otherall number of tests or overlap among tests, the effect sizes observed, and other limitations or weaknesses of the study.
What five pieces of information typically appear in the Author Note?
The five pieces of information that typically appear in the Author Note is 1)a complete departmental affiliation, 2) changes of affiliation (if any), 3)acknowledgements, 4)special circumstances 5)person to contact.
Consider the following sentence: "Twenty participants (5 percent of the sample) had 1 hour and 10 minutes to read 2 essays and rate their quality on a 10-point scale." Rewrite the sentence so that it is consistent with the rules governing how numbers are expressed. (Hint: There are four errors in the sentence.)
"Twenty participants (5% of the sample) had 1 hr 10 min to read two essays and rate their quality on a 10-point scale."
On what 4 pages of the APA manual can you find tables of statistical abbreviations and symbols?
119-123
e.g.
E.g. means for example
Et al.
Et al. means means and others.
Etc.
Etc. means and so forth
I.e.
I.e. means that is
What is the difference in meaning between N = 135 and n = 135?
N means total number of cases why n means number of cases (usually in a subsample). So, N=135 means there is 135 total number of cases, while n=135 means there were 135 numbers of cases.
Before using an abbreviation, what must you do immediately before the first use of that abbreviation? Illustrate with an example. When is it acceptable to ignore this recommendation? Illustrate with an example.
On first appearance, it must be written out completely and followed immediately by its abbreviation in parentheses. (ex: The results of studies of a simple reaction time (RT) to a visual target have shown a strong negative relation between RT and lumiance). Can ignore for standard abbreviations for units of measurement. (ex: 4 cm)
What is the APA's policy on metrication? What is the plural form of cm?
The APA's policy on metrication is tha all references to physical measurements, where feasible, should be expressed in metric units.The plural form of cm is meters.
Who owns the copyright to unpublished manuscripts? At which moment does this ownership begin?
The author owns the copyright to their unpublished manuscripts and the ownership begins the moment it is fixed in tangible form.
Viz.
Viz. means namely
Specify the guideline that governs how much information to include when reporting inferential statistics. Write a sentence to illustrate this guideline.
When reporting inferential statistics include sufficient information to allow the reader to fully understand the analyses conducted. An example of this is, For immediate recognition, the omnibus test of the main effect of sentence format was statistically significant, F(2,177)=6.30, p=.002, est w^2=.07.
What is the main problem with wordiness? Provide an example of a wordy sentence and then rewrite it so that the wordiness is removed.
Wordiness can also impede the ready grasp of ideas. An example of a wordy sentence is
A professor received a manuscript to review and decides to make copies of the manuscript - removing any information about the authors - for students in a class. Did the professor do anything unethical? Explain.
Yes, the professor did do something unethical by removing any information about the authors on the manuscript because on the ethical compliance checklist one of the checks is have you properly cited other published work presented in portions of your manuscript and he violated that.
Describe a case study.
A case study is a report of case materials obtained while working with an individual, a group, a community, or an organization.The three objectives of a case study are to illustrate a problem,indicate a means for solving a problem; and/or shed light on needed research, clinical applications, or theoretical matters.
What's wrong with this portion of a manuscript's title page: People's Cold Tolerance Increases Following A Wintertime Tropical Vacation Snowline University Jay J. Smith
The author should go above the university.
What is the byline? Provide an example of the preferred form.
The byline tells the reader what the author's name is.The preferred form of an author's name is first name, middle initial(s, and last name
Select "was" or "were" to complete the following sentence: "The data was/were stored in a locked cabinet." Explain your selection.
The data was stored in a locked cabinet. The data in this case is singular because we are talking about data as a whole so was would be used for this example.
When should you use a zero before a decimal and when should you not use a zero before a decimal?
Use a zero before the decimal point with numbers that are less than 1 when the statistics can exceed 1.Do not use a zero before a decimal fraction when the statistic cannot be greater than 1 (ex. Correlations,proportions, and levels of statistical significance.)
Vs.
Vs. means versus,against
Describe a theoretical article
A theoretical article is where authors draw on existing research literature to advance theory.
Give an example of a problematic third person attribution and then correct the problem.
An example of a problematic third person attribution is "we reviewed the literature," the correction for this is "The authors reviewed the literature."
What type of article are students most likely to write when their professor asks for a "term paper on a topic of your choosing"? Explain. Is it likely that such papers have the sections introduction, method, results, and discussion? Why or why not?
An empirical study because you can choose and conduct your own research on a topic that interests you. They will likely have all of those sections because that is the most basic way to go about writing a paper and helps to set guidelines to keep a consistent structure.
At which point in the research and publication process should the order of authorship be determined? Under what circumstances may authors need to reassess authorship credit?
As early as possible in a research project, the collaboration should decide on which tasks are necessary for the project's completion, how the work will be divided, which tasks or combination of tasks merit authorship credit, and on what level credit should be given such as first author and second author.Also, if changes in relative contribution are made in the course of the project and its publication collaborators may need to reassess authorship credit and order.
Rewrite the sentence that follows to remove two violations of the rules governing seriation of elements within a paragraph: "The participants were categorized into four types: (1) light sleepers, who slept up to 3 hours per night, (2) average sleepers, who slept up to 8 hours per night, and (3) heavy sleepers, who slept up to 12 hours per night."
"The participants were categorized into four types: (a) light sleepers, who slept up to 3 hours per night, (b) average sleepers, who slept up to 8 hours per night, and (c) heavy sleepers, who slept up to 12 hours per night."
. An abstract for a theoretical paper should describe two things. What are they?
1) how the theory or model works, and/or the principles on which it is based. 2)what phenomena the theory or model accounts for and linkages to empirical results.
In addition to participant characteristics, sampling procedures, and statistical information related to sample size, power, and precision, what three categories of information should also be described in the Method section?
1) measures and covariates, 2)research design, 3)experimental manipulations or interventions.
An abstract for a methodological paper should describe four things. What are they?
1) the general class of methods being discussed. 2)the essential features of the proposed method. 3)the range of application of the proposed method. 4)in the case of statistical procedures, some of its essential features such a robustness or power efficiency.
Write a sentence that illustrates the recommendation that you use double quotation marks "to introduce a word or phrase used as ironic comment, as slang, or as an inverted or coined expression. Use quotation marks the first time the word or phrase is used; thereafter, do not use quotation marks."
Miele (1993) found that"the 'placebo effect,' which had been verified in previous studies, disappeared when [only the first group's] behaviors were studied in this manner" (p.276).
What is the recommended length for the title of an article? What are the three major sections of a title page?
No more than 12 words. 5 sections: title, running head, author's name (byline), institutional affiliation and author note.
A professor advises a student that, in the Discussion section, she should tell readers what she did, tell them again (what she did), and then tell them that she told them (what she did). Is this good advice? Explain with reference to what is written in the Publication Manual.
No this is not good advice, the discussion section should examine, interpret, and qualify the results and draw inferences and conclusions from them, not just state over and over again what it is you did.
On what pages of the Publication Manual can you find samples of three types of manuscripts?
Sample one- experiment can be found on pages 41-54, Sample Two-experiment which is an abridged manuscript can be found on 54-56 and sample 3 which is a meta-analysis can be found on 57-59.
When reporting the results of inferential statistical tests, what four types of information constitute a "sufficient set of statistics"? What four additional pieces of information should be provided so that the nature of the effect can be understood? For a reader to appreciate the magnitude or importance of a study's results, what is it almost always necessary to do?
The per-cell sample size, the observed cell means, the cell standard deviations or pooled within-cell variance. -Include obtained magnitude or value of the test statistic, the degrees of freedom, the probability of obtaining a value as extreme as or more extreme than the one obtained, and the size and direction of the effect. -Always necessary to include some measure of effect size in the Results section.
1. What is a scientific journal?
The scientific journal is the repository of the accumulated knowledge of a field.
With regard to reporting results, what two things must never be done?
The two things that must never be done when reporting results is never fabricate or falsify data
The APA's Guidelines to Hyphenating Terms states that you should hyphenate a compound with a participle when it precedes the term it modifies. Write a sentence that illustrates this rule.
They used a Role-playing technique.
Distinguish with examples the correct usage of "while" versus "although." Distinguish with examples the correct usage of "since" versus "because."
Use while to link events occurring simultaneously; otherwise, use although, or but in place of while.The correct usage of Although is "Although these findings are unusual, they are not unique." The correct use of While is "The argument is purely philosophical, but the conclusion can also yield an empirical hypothesis, amenable to empirical investigation. Since is more precise when it is used to refer only to time; otherwise, replace it with because. The correct use of "since" versus "because" is Data for two participants were incomplete because these participants did not report for follow-up testing.
The basic ethical and legal principles that underlie all scholarly research and writing are designed to achieve three goals. List these goals and then list the address of the website where you can find the latest ethical principles relevant to publishing in psychological journals.
The three goals that are achieved from the basic ethical and legal principles that underlie all scholarly research and writing are to ensure the accuracy of scientific knowledge, to protect the rights of welfare of research participants, and to protect intellectual property rights. The website where one can find the latest ethical principles relevant to publishing in psychological journals is http://www.apa.org/ethics).
What verb tenses are appropriate for the discussion of past events in the introduction (literature review) and procedure? What tenses should you use in the Results and Discussion?
The verb tenses that are appropriate for the discussion of past events in the introduction and procedure is the past tense. The tenses you should use in the Results and Discussion is the past tense as well.
What is the main reason why authors must keep their raw data for a period of at least five years following publication of a manuscript that describes the research?
Their data must be available to permit other qualified professionals to confirm the analyses and results.
Discuss with reference to separate examples how to reduce gender bias and sexual orientation bias in language.
There are alternatives to the generic he, including rephrasing for example, changing "When an individual conducts this kind of self appraisal, he is a much stronger person" to "When an individual conducts this kind of self-appraisal, that person is much stronger.The adjective transgender refers to persons whose gender identity or gender expression differs from their sex at birth;transgender should not be used as a noun. Refer to a transgender person using words (proper noun, pronouns) appropriate to the person's gender identity or gender expression, regardless of birth sex. For example, use the pronouns he,him, or his in reference to a female-to-male transgender person.
The APA's Guidelines to Hyphenating Terms states that you should hyphenate a compound with a number as the first element when the compound precedes the term it modifies. Write a sentence that illustrates this rule.
They were 12th-grade students.
The APA's Guidelines to Hyphenating Terms states that you should hyphenate an adjective-and-noun compound when it precedes the term it modifies. Write a sentence that illustrates this rule.
They were a high-anxiety group.
Give three examples of redundant phrases and state why they are redundant.
They were both alike, four different groups saw, absolutely essential The word Both in this sentence is should be omitted because they already explains more than one so both is unnecessary. Four different groups saw, different should be omitted from this sentence because four already describes seperate groups so different is unnecessary. Absolutely essential, absolutely should be omitted from this sentence because essential already describes its importance so absolutely is unnecessary.
Write a sentence to illustrate the use of semicolons to separate three or more elements that have internal commas.
We tested three groups: (a) low scorers, who scored fewer than 20 points; (b) moderate scorers, who scored between 20 and 50 points; and (c) high scorers, who scored more than 50 points.
Which underlined portion of the following sentence is wordy and which portion is redundant: "In an effort to relax patients, the doctor asked them to sit in the waiting room for a total of 20 min before entering the examination room."
In an effort is wordy and for a total is redundant.
What is jargon? Provide an example and then rewrite the example so that it avoids the use of jargon.
Jargon is the continuous use of technical vocabulary, even in places where that vocabulary is not relevant. It is also the substitution of a euphemistic phrase for a familiar term. An example of a jargon is, monetarily felt scarcity for poverty. The example rewritten to avoid the use of jargon would just be "Poverty" which is a lack of money.
An abstract for a case study should describe three things. What are they?
the subject and relevant characteristics of the individual, group, community, or organization presented
How can you easily reduce confusion that might arise from the use of pronouns? Illustrate with an example.
Pronouns can confuse readers unless the referent for each pronoun is obvious. Pronouns such as this, that, these, and those can cause confusion when they are referring to something or someone in a previous sentence. To eliminate confusion use this test, that trial, these participants, and those reports instead.
How many spaces do you leave after commas, colons, semicolons, punctuation marks at the end of sentences, periods that separate parts of a reference, and periods that separate initials in personal names?
Put one space after commas,colons,semicolons,periods that separate initials in personal names and periods that seperate parts of a reference. There should be two spaces between punctuation marks at the end of sentences.
What should an author do if s/he revises a journal article for publication as a book chapter?
Reveal to the reader that portions of the new work were previously published and to cite the reference of the source.
When it comes to sharing data, what three points should be part of the written agreement between a researcher and those sharing his or her data?
Specify limits on how shared data can be used, include a formal statement about limits on the distribution of the shared data, specify limits on the spreading widely of the results of analyses performed on the data.
Guideline 3 of the APA's guidelines to reduce bias in language is "Acknowledge Participation." Briefly describe what this guideline means. Illustrate with an example.
The "Acknowledge Participation" guideline means that you need to write about the people in your study in a way that acknowledges their participation but is also consistent with the traditions of the field in which you are working.
Guideline 2 of the APA's guidelines to reduce bias in language is "Be Sensitive to Labels." Briefly describe what this guideline means. Illustrate with an example.
The "Be Sensitive to Labels" guideline means that you need to respect people's preferences: call people what they prefer to be called.
What is the institutional affiliation? Provide an example of the preferred form.
The affiliation identifies the location where the author or authors were when the research was conducted, which is usually an institution. An example of the preferred form is: John Q. Foster II and Roy R. Davis Jr. Educational Testing Service, Princeton,New Jersey
In addition to participant characteristics, sampling procedures, and statistical information related to sample size, power, and precision, what three categories of information should also be described in the Method section?
The three categories of information that should also be described in the method section are measures and covariates, research design, and experimental manipulations or interventions.
Under what three conditions should you use colons? When should you not use a colon? Provide an example.
The three conditions you should use colons are between grammatically complete introductory clause and a final phrase or clause that illustrates,extends, or amplifies the preceding thought. If the clause following the colon is a complete sentence, it begins with a capital letter. The second condition is in ratios and proportions. The third condition is in references between place of publication and publisher. Do not use a colon after an introduction that is not an independent clause or complete sentence.An example of an inaccurate way to use a colon is," The instructions for the task were: Your group's task is to rank the 15 items in terms of their importance for the crews survival." An accurate way to use a colon is " The proportion (saltwater) was 1:8.
.What are the two major subsections of the Method?
Description of participants or or subjects Description of procedures used in the study
Which underlined portion of the following sentence is wordy and which portion is redundant: "In an effort to relax patients, the doctor asked them to sit in the waiting room for a total of 20 min before entering the examination room."
"For a total of" is redundant and "in an effort" is redundant.
Write a sentence that illustrates APA's rule for the use of numerals and words to express numbers less than 10 and greater than 10.
He was 25 years old.
Why does "metacognition" not require a hyphen but "meta-analysis" does?
Meta precedes analysis and modifies it, but not with cognition.
List and provide examples of nine situations for the use of italics. (Hint: See the bulleted list on pp. 104 - 105).
The nine situations that italics are used are "titles of books, periodicals,films,videos,TV shows, and microfilm publication". The second situation is "genera,species and varieties". The third situation is "introduction of a new,technical, or key term or label".The fourth situation is "a letter, word, or phrase cited as linguistic example". The fifth situation "words that could be misread." The sixth situation is "letters used as statistical symbols or algebraic variables. The seventh situation is "some test scores and scales." The eighth situation is "periodical volume numbers in a reference lists. The ninth situation is "anchors of a scale".
What is incorrect in the following two sentences: "The running speeds of rats deprived of food for 12 hrs (N = 25) were compared to the speeds of those deprived for 24 hours (n = 30). Those deprived for 24 hrs took longer to complete the maze (Mean = 12.90) than those deprived for 12 hr (M = 10.10)." (Hint: There are at least three errors.)
The running speeds of rats deprived of food for 12 hr (n = 25) were compared to the speeds of those deprived for 24 hr (n = 30). Those deprived for 24 hr took longer to complete the maze (M = 12.90) than those deprived for 12 hr (M = 10.10)."
Write a sentence that illustrates the correct way to combine numerals and words to express back-to-back modifiers.
There were ten 7-point scales.
Statistical and mathematical copy can be presented in text, tables, and figures. What is the general rule of thumb that guides how you should present your data? (Hint: This rule has three components.)
if you need to present three or fewer numbers, first try using a sentence; -if you need to present four to 20 numbers, first consider using a well-prepared table; -and if you have more than 20 numbers, a graph is often more useful than a table.
What is described in the Method section?
The method section describes in detail how the study was conducted, including conceptual and operational definitions of the variables used in the study.
Who is entitled to examine and potentially use data published in an APA journal?
The only people that are entitled to examine and potentially use data published in an APA journal is the person requesting the data and individuals the requestor directly supervises, or there are no limits on the further distribution of the data.
Write a sentence to illustrate enumeration of elements in a series by lowercase letters in parentheses.
The participant's three choices were (a) working with another participant, (b) working with a team, and (c) working alone.
Under what conditions is the passive voice acceptable in expository writing?
The passive voice is acceptable in expository writing and when you want to focus on the object or recipient of the action rather than on the actor.
List three reasons why it is important for investigators to become familiar with the scientific literature relevant to their work?
The reasons why it is important for investigators to become familiar with scientific literature relevant to their work is it allows an individual investigator to avoid needlessly repeating work that has been done before, to build on existing work, and in turn to contribute something new.
A researcher plans to store raw data for five years, but is about to discard the instructions given to participants. What, if anything, is wrong with the researcher's plan? Explain with reference to the code for sharing data described in the Publication Manual.
The researchers plan to discard the instructions given to participants violates APA Ethics Code Standard 6.01, Documentation of Professional and Scientific Work and Maintenance of Records. APA Ethics Code Standard 6.01 supports that other information related to the research such as instructions, treatment manuals,software,details of procedures, code for mathematical models reported in journal articles all should be kept for the same period. This information is necessary if others are to attempt replication and should be provided to qualified researchers on request.
What is the running head? What is its maximum length? What is the difference between characters and letters?
The running head is an abbreviated title that is printed at the top of the pages of the manuscript or published article to identify the article for readers. The running head should be a maximum of 50 characters. Characters are counting letters,punctuation, and space between words while letters are those in the alphabet.
List at least three things that should be described in "Sampling procedures."
The sampling method, if systematic sampling was used The percentage of the sample approached that participated The number of participants who selected themselves into the sample
Explain what is wrong with the sentence "It is not only surprising that pencil-and-paper scores predicted this result but that all other predictors were less accurate." Provide an appropriate correction.
The sentence is not clear on what is surprising so but also should be used rather than just but. The appropriate correction is, "It is surprising not only that pencil-and-paper scores predicted this result but also that all other predictors were less accurate."
Explain what is wrong with the sentence "The respondents either gave the worst answer or the best answer." Provide an appropriate correction.
The sentence needs to be more specific in explaining what the respondents are doing. The appropriate correction is, "The respondents either gave the worst answer or gave the best answer."
Rewrite the following sentence to remove the biased language: "The statements made by teenage schizophrenics were compared to those made by elderly alcoholics."
The statements made by young men and women with schizophrenia were compared to those made by older adults with alcoholism.
In a literature review article, what four things does an author do?
1) define and clarify the problem 2) summarize previous investigations to inform the reader of the state of research, 3) identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature, 4) and suggest the next step or steps in solving the problem.
An abstract of a report of an empirical study should describe five things. What are they?
1) the problem under investigation, in one sentence if possible. 2)the participants, specifying pertinent characteristics such as age, sec, and ethnic and/or racial group; in animal research, specifying genus and species. 3) the essential features of study method- you have a limited number of words so restrict your description to essential and interesting features of the study methodology-particularly those likely to be used in electronic searches. 4) the basic findings, including effect sizes and confidence intervals and/or statistical significance levels. 5)the conclusion and the implications or applications.
What five categories of information should be a part of the interpretation of the results?
1) the sources of potential bias and other threats to internal validity 2)the imprecision of measures, 3) the otherall number of tests or overlap among tests 4) the effect sizes observed 5) and other limitations or weaknesses of the study.
Describe three ways to be concise with an abstract
1) to begin the abstract with the most important points. 2)do not waste space by repeating the title. 3) include in the abstract only the four or five most important concepts, finding, or implications.
As its name suggests, an Introduction introduces a problem. Before writing the Introduction, what five things should you consider?
1) why is this problem important? 2) How does the study relate to previous work in the area? If other aspects of this study have been reported previously, how does this report differ from, and build on, the earlier report? 3)what are the primary and secondary hypotheses and objectives of the study, and what, if any, are the links to theory? 4)how do the hypotheses and research design relate to one another? 5) what are the theoretical and practical implication of the study?
What four types of information appear in the Appendix?
1)A list of stimulus materials 2) a detailed description of a complex piece of equipment 3)a detailed demographic description of subpopulations in the study 4) and other detailed and/or complex reporting items.
What is a literature review article? What is a meta-analysis?
A literature review article are critical evaluations of material that has already been published. A meta-analysis is where authors use quantitative procedures to statistically combine the results of studies.
Describe a methodological article.
A methodological article presents new methodological approaches, modifications of existing methods, or discussion of quantitative and data analytic approaches to the community of researchers.
An abstract for a literature review or a meta-analysis should describe six things. What are they?
An abstract for a literature review or meta-analysis should describe first, the problem or relation(s) under investigation. Second, study eligibility criteria.Third, type(s) of participants included in primary studies. Fourth, main results and any important moderators of these effect sizes. Fifth, conclusion. Lastly, implication for theory, policy and/or practice.
What is an abstract? Explain what the Publication Manual means when it states that the abstract should be accurate, non evaluative, coherent and readable, and concise.
An abstract is a brief,comprehensive summary of the contents of the article. For abstract to be accurate it has to correctly reflect the purpose and content of the manuscript. Non evaluative is to report rather than evaluate; do not add to or comment on what is in the body of the manuscript. To be coherent and readable it needs to written in clear and concise language and verbs should be used rather than their noun equivalents and the active rather than the passive voice. For it to be concise it needs to be brief, and make each sentence maximally informative, especially the lead sentence.
What is an empirical study? Describe its four major parts in the order they appear in a report of an empirical study.
An empirical study is a report of original research. The four major parts are introduction, method, results and discussion. The Introduction is the development of the problem under investigation, including its historical antecedents, and statement of the purpose of the investigation.The Method is a description of the procedures used to conduct the investigation. The results is a report of the findings and analyses. The discussion is the summary, interpretation and implications of the results.
Illustrate two inappropriate uses of the "editorial we" and then write better alternative phrases.
An inappropriate use of "editorial we" is " We usually classify birdsong on the basis of frequency and temporal structure of the elements. The appropriate use is "Researchers usually classify birdsong on the basis of frequency and temporal structure of the elements." Another inappropriate use of "editorial we" is " We tend to dispute," the appropriate use is "As behaviorists, we tend to dispute."
The Publication Manual lists at least a dozen participant demographic characteristics that could or should be described in the participants' section. List six of these characteristics.
Demographics, level of education, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and language preference.
Summarize what is meant by "describe relevant scholarship" and by "state hypotheses and their correspondence to research design" in the Introduction.
Describing relevant scholarship consists of discussing the relevant related literature. To "state hypotheses and their correspondence to research design" one should explain their approach to solving the problem after they have introduced the problem and developed the background material. This should include a summary of the most recent directly related work and recognizes the priority work of others.Also, citation of and specific credit to relevant earlier works are signs of scientific and scholarly responsibility and are essential for the growth of a cumulative science. It should also inform readers whether other aspects of this study have been reported on previously and how the current use of the evidence differs from earlier uses. Only cite and reference works pertinent to the specific issue and not those that are of only tangential or general significance. If its an empirical study one should state the hypotheses or specific question and describe how these were derived from theory or are logically connected to previous data and argumentation. Also, one should explain how the research design permits the inferences needed to examine the hypothesis or provide estimates in answer to the question.
During the review process, what must editors and reviewers never do without an author's explicit permission?
During the review process editors and reviewers must not quote from a manuscripts under review or circulate copies of it for any purpose other than editorial review without an author's explicit permission.
List the five major types of articles that are normally published in journals.
Empirical Studies, Literature Reviews, Theoretical Articles, Methodological Articles and case studies,
Although different types of studies rely on different methodologies, the Method section serves two major purposes. What are they?
Enables the readers to evaluate the appropriateness of your methods and the reliability and validity of your results.
Consider the following elements (listed in alphabetical order) of a manuscript: Abstract, Appendix, Author Note, Discussion, Footnote, Method, Results, Title. List the elements in the order they should appear in a report of an empirical study. Which elements should start on a new page? Which elements need not start on a new page?
First page: Title, Author Note New page: Abstract New page: Method, Results, Discussion New page: Footnotes New page: Appendix
How many Methods and Results sections do you need if you have a four-experiment paper? How many Discussion sections? Explain.
Four method and result sections. Four short discussion sections if necessary, but one comprehensive general discussion of the last study
Explain what is wrong with the sentence "The names were difficult both to pronounce as well as to spell." Provide an appropriate correction.
In the sentence don't use both and as well as because that results in a redundant sentence. The appropriate correction is, "The names were difficult both to pronounce and to spell."
The APA's Guidelines to Hyphenating Terms states that you should hyphenate a phrase used as an adjective when it precedes the term it modifies. Write a sentence that illustrates this rule.
It was an All-or-none questionnaire.
What eight types of information can be included as supplemental materials?
Lengthy computer code, details of mathematical or computational models, audio or video clips, oversized tables, detailed intervention protocols, primary or supplementary data sets, expanded methodology sections, and color figures.
Describe each of the five levels of headings in APA journals.
Level 1: Centered,Boldface,Uppercase and Lowercase Heading. Level 2: Flush Left, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading Level 3: Indented,boldface,lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period. Level 4: Indented, boldface, italicized,lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period. Level 5: Indented, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.
The Introduction is the place where authors explore the importance of a problem. Briefly describe what this consists of.
The introduction presents the specific problem under study an describes the research strategy. The introduction consists of exploring importance of the problem, describe relevant scholarship and state hypotheses and their correspondence to research design.
. On what page of the Publication Manual can you find a flowchart that summarizes the flow of participants through each stage of an experiment or quasi-experiment?
On page 253 one can find a flowchart that summarizes the flow of participants through each stage of an experiment or quasi-experiment.
. Under what two conditions should you use semicolons? Illustrate with examples.
One of the conditions you should use semicolon is to separate two independent clauses that are not joined by a conjunction. An example of this is " The participants in the first study were paid; those in the second were unpaid.The other condition you should use a semicolon is to separate elements in a series that already contain commas.An example is " The color order was red,yellow,blue;blue,yellow,red;or yellow,red,blue. (Davis & Hueter ,1994; Pettigrew, 1993) Age M=34.5 years, 95% CI [29.4, 39.6]; years of education, M=10.4[8.7,12.1]; and weekly income, M=612 [522,702];
Briefly describe two ways that confidentiality is handled in case studies.
One way confidentiality is handled in case studies is by preparing the descriptive case material, present it to the subject of the case report, and obtain written consent for its publication from the subject. The other way is to disguise some aspects of the case material so that neither the subject nor third parties are identifiable.
What is the difference between the running head on page 1 of a manuscript and the running head on subsequent pages of a manuscript?
Page one will read "Running head", while the rest just say the title.
What is plagiarism? Can plagiarism extend beyond words? Explain.
Plagiarism is when a researcher does not claim the words and ideas of another as their own and doesn't give credit where credit is due. Plagiarism can extend beyond words because using one's ideas is also considered plagiarism.
Does the introduction to a manuscript carry the heading, "Introduction"? Should you label headings with numbers or letters?
The introduction to a manuscript does not carry a heading that labels it as the introduction. Also, do not label heading with numbers or letters.
What is the main reason why piecemeal or fragmented publication of research findings can be misleading? Who ultimately makes the judgment about whether two or more reports constitute duplicate publication?
The main reason piecemeal or fragmented publication of research findings can be misleading is if multiple reports appear to represent independent instances of data collection or analysis; distortion of the scientific literature, especially in reviews or meta-analyses.
What is the danger of colloquial expressions? Provide an example of a colloquial expression and then provide a better, non-colloquial alternative.
The danger of colloquial expressions is they diffuse meaning. Approximations of quantity are interpreted differently by different readers or in different contexts. Approximations weaken statements, especially those describing empirical observations. An example of a colloquial expression is quite a large part, practically all, or very few. A non-colloquial alternative would be half a pound of butter.
What is the Discussion section? How should you open the Discussion section?
The discussion section is when one is position to evaluate and interpret their implications, especially with respect to your original hypotheses. You will examine, interpret, and qualify the results and draw inferences and conclusions from them.Also, in the discussion section one should emphasize any theoretical or practical consequences of the results. One should open the discussion with a clear statement of the support or nonsupport for your original hypotheses, distinguished by primary and secondary hypotheses.But if the hypotheses are not supported, offer post hoc explanations.
Who is normally the first author of a manuscript? What should not determine the order of authorship?
The first author of a manuscript is normally the principal contributor. Relative status should not determine the order of authorship.
"A verb must agree in number (i.e., singular or plural) with its subject, regardless of intervening phrases ...." Illustrate an incorrect use of this rule and then the correct use.
The incorrect use of this rule is "The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the responses increase with practice."The correct use of this rule is "The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the responses increases with practice."
