Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Paperback)

by American Psychological Association (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C. Authorship and style manual for researchers, students, and practitioners of psychology and other behavioral and social sciences. Includes new features on contemporary language issues and publishing standards.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Amer Psychological Assn; 4th edition (August 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557982430
• ISBN-13: 978-1557982438
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (316 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #938,254 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

218 of 256 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unhelpful Guide about an Unenlightening Style, May 6, 2004

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Paperback)

Like some of the other reviewers, I am in a program of advanced study in which APA is the "accepted" style of citation for scholarly research. As we can see, APA is an absolutely dreadful citation style, especially with its prohibition of footnotes, leading to incomprehensible paragraphs in which your prose is murdered by names and dates in parentheses. The lack of required page numbers in your citations also allows you, if you're so inclined, to transform your references into all sorts of unsupported speculation and conjecture, and no reader will be able to prove or disprove what you're saying. I realize that arguing about the merits of APA style is not the same as reviewing the merits of this book. But the weaknesses in the core citation style are so prevalent that it would be impossible to create a book of this nature with any sort of usefulness.

Now let's get to the trouble with this particular book. First, it is unnecessarily humungous, trying to beef up the very thin body of APA citation requirements (which by the way can be found for free all over the internet) with hugely unenlightening chapters on basic writing style and methods. Infinitely better guides on how to actually write and conduct research can be easily found elsewhere. Even when you do want to find instructions on the core requirements of APA citation style, this is an annoyingly difficult task in this atrociously organized and indexed book. A thin and under-compiled index sends you to hard-to-find section numbers rather than page numbers. And finally there is the practice of this book's publishers to promote a "new edition" which is merely the same as before with a couple of new entries, sold with a new cover and of course a new full price. In case you're wondering, about the only new information in this edition concerns how to reference websites and online publications. Once again, this info can be found for free on the internet, while you could also spend a pittance on a used copy of the supposedly "outdated" previous edition.

This book gets two stars because it is nominally useful (at least in theory) if you're stuck with it. But if you find yourself required to use the talent-crushing APA style in your attempts to write something of importance, first try to convince your mentors that APA is inherently anti-intellectual. Then find a way to get out of any requirements to buy this unhelpful book, and find the information on the internet instead. [~doomsdayer520~]

81 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The APA Style and Format Scavenger Hunt, March 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

Problem: You are a student or professional of the Social Sciences; you must write research papers. You are required to follow APA style and format for your writings. Action: You acquire the APA "bible," its Publication Manual, 4h edition. Problem: You now search for answers to your APA style and format questions. You scavenge for hours. Action: You know that the information you need is all there, but where? You experience the Psychological Rite of Passage known as the "Twilight Zone of Altered States of Reference Logic." Problem: The Manual is not intuitive. Solution: Develop your own cognitive cues and frames to make sense of the book's layout. Even though I was familiar with its third edition, I still used lots of post-it stick-em things temporarliy attached to sections. And then get on with it.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 5th Edition APA Publication Manual, October 17, 2002

By	smartnurse123 (Slidell, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Paperback)

Even though there are only a few changes to the 5th edition, I would recommend getting it. It is too confusing to use an older edition especially if you are pressed for time or have never used this type of manual before.

Also I recommend marking your book with tabs such as in the "Reference Citations in Text" section or the "Reference List" chapter. Marking the book with tabs helped me find my way to the information that I needed over and over again. I've tended to use the same type of references throughout my graduate courses.