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Research Report. Chapter 15. Research Report – APA Format. Title Page Running head – BRIEF TITLE, positioned in upper left corner of no more than 50 characters in length including letters, spaces, and punctuation.
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Research Report Chapter 15
Research Report – APA Format • Title Page • Running head – BRIEF TITLE, positioned in upper left corner of no more than 50 characters in length including letters, spaces, and punctuation. • Full title of article, centered on the 1st page and typed in both lower and upper case letter. • Authors typed in lower and upper case letters, centered below full title.
Research Report - Abstract • Page number and very short title appears in upper right-hand corner of every page except for pages containing figures. • Abstract – about 120 words, summarizes objective, methods, procedures, results, and conclusion/implications.
Research Report - Introduction • Starts out for general and becomes increasingly specific to your question. • Intro leads into statement of the variables to be studied in this study. • Cite relevant and not tangential literature. • Cover topics specifically related to your methods. • State purpose of your study & hypothesis.
Research Report - Introduction • What is the question? • What has been done? • What will you do? • What do you expect (hypothesis)?
Research Report - Methods • Detailed description of your methods and procedures. • Research design • Participants – selection procedure & inclusion/exclusion criteria • Measures • Procedures • Statistical analytical plan • Enable reader to evaluate the validity of your study.
Research Report - Methods • Participants: • Sample size you aimed for • Inclusion criteria • Exclusion criteria • Recruitment procedure (including how consent obtained) • Anything you did to help ensure retention of participants.
Research Report – Measures or Apparatus • Apparatus – model and where bought it from • Measure – references, brief reliability & validity data • Custom-made equipment should be fully described and a drawing or picture of the apparatus included.
Research Report - Procedure • Details from moment of first contact with participant to last contact. • Experimental instructions • When and how measures conducted • Control techniques • E.g., randomization procedure
Research Report - Results • Participant characteristics, participation rate, and attrition rate unless these were reported in the methods. • Descriptive statistics • Results related to hypotheses • Inferential statistics • Include statistical values of test and p values. • Decide on tables, figures to be included
Research Report - Results • Figures & tables • Explain main findings of the figures and tables in text format • Tables that include means should also include variance index and cell sample size. • Evidence in support of internal/external validity of the study. • Can also be presented as tables or figures
Tables & Figures • Why show a figure? • Tell us more about our data – distributions • Tell us more about our results • Helps communication
CIDS: Quality of Life Outcomes -Certainty of Surviving VT/VF ANVOVA - treatment effect p < 0.0001 Linear time by group, p < .05
Research Report - Discussion • Hypotheses confirmed or not • Interpret and evaluate research findings. • Integrate findings with other relevant published research • Report of interpretation of important data that speak to the internal/external validity. • Evaluate significant short comings of study • Next steps for follow-up research
Research Report - References • List all citations used in the paper in the reference section. • Follow APA format for publications in APA journals.
Research Report – Author Notes • Printed on separate page • Authors and their affiliations • Funding information when relevant • Special circumstances (e.g., dissertation) • Acknowledgements • Address of corresponding author
Research Report - Footnotes • Typed on separate page • Typed in order they appeared in the report • Each footnote is preceded by the appropriate superscript arabic numeral.
Writing Style • Be precise • Avoid jargon, wordiness, and redundancy • Generally do not refer to yourself as “I” • Avoid plagiarism • However, present other’s findings in your own words (don’t quote).
Language • Avoid demeaning attitudes and biased labels • Use precise language (e.g., gender is better than sex). • Avoid pejorative or stereotypical labels, including subjects • Use active voice rather than passive voice
Writing Style • Use abbreviations sparingly and define them before using them, and try to use only abbreviations that are familiar to the reader (e.g., IQ). • Do not start a sentence with a number and use the word rather than the number for numbers less than ten. • Measurements are expressed in metric
Manuscript – Order of Sections • Title page • Abstract • Text • References • Author notes • Footnotes • Tables • Figure captions & then Figures
Common Failings in Published Research Papers • Data collection procedure not carefully controlled • Design weaknesses • Lack of description of study limitations • Research design did not address the research question • Inappropriate method of sample selection
Common Failings in Published Research Papers • Results not clearly presented • Inappropriate statistical analyses • Poorly written • Assumptions upon which the study was based was unclear • Method used to conduct the study was not clearly described or described at all.
