Scientific advancement depends on clear communication.
As research grows more complex, the need to report findings in a way that can be easily
understood by many has become paramount.
Since 1929, the American Psychological Association has published guidelines to improve the quality
of scientific writing.
However, the field of psychology has grown significantly in recent years, and with it
has come a need for research reporting standards that can be applied to a wide range of studies.
The APA has now created two comprehensive resources — collectively called APA Style
Journal Article Reporting Standards, or APA Style JARS — to help authors report their
research with clarity, thoroughness, and transparency.
The revised and updated standards expand the scope and depth of the original JARS published
in American Psychologist in 2008.
These standards are a tool for editors and reviewers to recommend to authors whose work
requires additional explanation as well as a tool for authors determining what is essential
to report in scholarly research.
APA Style JARS serve as a resource for editors to communicate ways reviewers and authors
can improve the quality of research in their journals and facilitate the peer review process.
[link papers].
An important update to APA Style JARS is the establishment of reporting standards for qualitative
research, qualitative meta-analysis, and mixed methods research.
Despite the recent surge in published research rooted in qualitative methods, rigorous standards
for reporting such studies have been lacking in psychology until now.
To address this, the APA Publications and Communications Board commissioned a task force
to examine the numerous inquiry traditions, methods, and goals of the field.
The result is a framework describing the material that should be included in qualitative research
reports, with guidance for its application.
This guidance can assist authors, reviewers, or editors who are less familiar with the
distinctive practices used reporting qualitative research studies.
The APA has also revised and expanded their quantitative reporting standards.
One goal of the updates is to help authors present their work in a way that allows readers
to understand the studies being reported at a sufficient level of detail to accurately
interpret the results and – where desired – to plan and conduct a replication of the
study.
To improve the tracking of a priori and post hoc findings, it is now recommended that hypotheses,
analyses, and conclusions be divided into primary, secondary, and exploratory groupings.
New modules for reporting specific types of studies, such as clinical trials and observational
studies, have also been established.
Papers that adhere to these standards will provide the information needed for a researcher
to replicate the reported study.
A major aim of both the quantitative and qualitative versions of APA Style JARS is to broaden the
reach of published research -- from the level of the student to that of the peer reviewer.
The standards provide guidance for the editor or reviewer to provide an appropriate evaluation,
and for any reader — such as a student, policymaker, or member of the public — to
better understand the story.
By cultivating common terminology and facilitating comparisons, evaluations, and applications
of research, the updated APA Style JARS aim to build a shared language that promotes easier
comprehension of research, improves the quality of published work, and advances the field
of psychology to benefit society and improve people’s lives.