LibGuides: APA Citation Style Tutorial: Materials for Quiz 1A

To be covered in this section

Capitalization
Writing numbers
Using personal pronouns
Using acronyms
Posing questions in scholarly papers
Recognizing peer-reviewed sources

Content for 1A

6.14 Proper Nouns and Trade Names

Capitalize the following:

Proper nouns and proper adjectives (i.e. England, Victoria, Shakespearean)
Names of racial and ethnic groups (i.e. Black, Indian)
Names of specific university departments, academic institutions, and academic courses (i.e. San Francisco State University, Psych 101)
Trade and brand names (i.e. Wi-Fi, Android)

Do NOT capitalize:

A personal name that starts with a lowercase letter, even when it begins a sentence (i.e. van Hoten)
Proper nouns that start with a lowercase letter or statistical term, again, even when it begins a sentence (i.e. iPod)

Instead, reword the sentence

Source: American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: the official guide to APA style (7th ed): American Psychological Association.

6.32 Numbers Expressed in Numerals

Use numerals (1, 2, 3....) to express the numbers...

10 and above	10
	167
	1,824
that immediately precede a unit of measurement	a 5-mg dose
	with 10.5 cm of
that represent statistical or mathematical functions, fractional or decimal quantities, percentages, ratios, and percentiles and quartiles	3 times as many
	0.33 of the sample
	a ratio of 16:1
that represent time, dates, ages, scores and points on a scale, exact sums of money, and numerals as numerals	5 days
	1:30 am
	received 5 on a 7 point scale
that denote a specific place in a numbered series and parts of books and tables. An exception is when the number precedes the noun, then the usual guidelines for numeral use apply	Number after a noun: Year 1, Grade 10
	Number before a noun: the 1st year, the 10th grade

6.33 Numbers Expressed in Words

Use words to express the following:

numbers zero through nine	0. 1 ... 8, 9
any number that begins a sentence, title or heading. Try to reword the sentence to avoid this	Fifty percent of students
	fourteen people participated
common fractions	one-fifth of the class
common fractions	two-thirds majority
universally accepted usage	Twelve Apostles
universally accepted usage	Five Pillars of Islam

Source: American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: the official guide to APA style (7th ed): American Psychological Association.

4.16 First- Versus Third-Person Pronouns

Use first-person when describing the work you did as part of your research and when expressing your own views. If you are writing with coauthors, use the pronoun "we". Do NOT refer to yourself or your coauthors in the third person as "the author(s)" or "the researcher(s)."
Use third-person when referring to the specific contribution of a particular coauthor within a paper with multiple authors

4.17 Editorial "We"

Do not use "we" to refer to people in general, this is called the editorial "we". It is especially important to avoid it in multiauthored papers because it can confuse the readers on what or whom we refers to. Instead, substitute a more specific noun or clarify your usage
- We Psychological researchers typically study decision making in a laboratory setting
- We As nurses, we tend to rely on...

4.17 Singular "They"

Use:
- when referring to a person who uses "they" as their pronoun
- as a generic third-person singular pronoun to refer to a person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant to the context of usage
Do NOT use "he" or "she"
- as a generic third-person pronoun. Also, use "he or she" and "she or he" sparingly.
- if you do not know the pronouns of the people being described. Either use "they" or rewrite the sentence
- even if it is written as "(s)he" or "s/he". Do not alternate between the two either

How to rewrite a sentence

Strategy	Gender Biased	Gender Neutral
Rephrasing	When an individual attends psychotherapy, she can improve emotional regulation.	When an individual attends psychotherapy, that person can improve emotional regulation.
Rephrasing		Therapy can help an individual improve emotional regulation.
Using plural nouns or plural pronouns	A therapist who is too much like his client can lose his objectivity.	Therapists who are too much like their clients can lose their objectivity.
Replacing the pronoun with an article	A researcher must apply for his grant by September 1.	A researcher must apply for the grant by September 1.
Dropping the pronoun	The researcher must avoid letting her own biases and expectations influence the interpretation of results	The researcher must avoid letting biases and expectations influence the interpretation of the results.

Source: American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: the official guide to APA style (7th ed): American Psychological Association.

6.25 Definition of Abbreviations*

Definition in the Text

When you first use a term that you want to abbreviate in the text, present both the full version of the term and the abbreviation. When the full version of a term is.....

...used for the first time in a heading, do not define the abbreviation in the heading; instead, define the abbreviation when the full version next appears. You can use abbreviations in headings ONLY if the abbreviations have been previously used
...used first in a sentence in the text, place the abbreviation in parentheses after it	attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
...used first in parenthetical text, place the abbreviation in square brackets after it	(attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD])
... accompanied by a citation, include the citation after the abbreviation, separated with a semicolon. If in parenthesis, again use the square brackets	Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996) (Beck Depression Inventory-II [BDI-II]; Beck et al., 1996)

*Note: In this case, acronyms fall under abbreviations, which is why the term abbreviation vs acronym is being used

Source: American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: the official guide to APA style (7th ed): American Psychological Association.

undefined When posing questions in scholarly papers, you are expected to answer them. Rhetorical questions are not encouraged as transitions in papers, as by definition rhetorical questions do not require answers

Image by Arek Socha

A "Peer Reviewed" or "Refereed" journal refers to the policy that when a manuscript is submitted for publication, it must be sent out to others in the same field to get an expert opinion on the scholarship of the research or contribution to the field.

The quickest way to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed/refereed is to look at Ulrich's Periodical Directory. If a journal in question is not on Ulrich's list, then look at the physical journal, or the journal's website, for its editorial policy, instructions to authors, and/or submission or publication requirements to help determine if the journal is peer-reviewed/refereed.

To access Ulrich's Periodical Dictionary, go to the One Search bar on the library home page (https://www.usd.edu/library) and select Ulrich's Periodical Dictionary from the drop-down menu. For direct access, follow this link: https://usd.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/

Using Ulrich's

Once in Ulrich's, type the name, or acronym, of the serial (journal) and look for an icon that resembles a referee's jersey. Ulrich uses the terms peer-reviewed and refereed interchangeably, so the icon represents both terms. If the referee jersey icon is not present next to a journal, then it does not go through the peer-review process.

Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

Some databases (i.e., CINAHL and Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition) give you the option of filtering your search for articles in peer-reviewed journals only. Other databases (i.e., PubMed) do not have a filter to search only peer-reviewed journals; in these cases, you will want to check the journal name in Ulrich's or search the journal's website, for its editorial policy, instructions to authors, and/or submission or publication requirements to help determine is the journal is refereed and/or peer-reviewed.

libncsu. (2014, May 1). Peer Review in 3 Minutes. [Video] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOCQZ7QnoN0