Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Paperback)

by American Psychological Association (Corporate Author) "Research is complete only when the results are shared with the scientific community..." (more)
Key Phrases: prose recall, publication rights, analytical cognitive style, American Psychological Association, New York, Publication Manual (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Style manual for writers, editors, students, educators, and professionals across all fields. Provides clear guidance on grammar, the mechanics of writing, and APA style. Includes examples, new guidelines and advice, and more. Previous edition: c1994. Softcover, wire-spiral edition is also available. Hardcover edition due later.

Product Details

• Paperback: 439 pages
• Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA); 5th edition (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557987912
• ISBN-13: 978-1557987914
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (315 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #114 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

218 of 255 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)

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~]

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Here we go again!, February 18, 2002

By	debvh (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

Here we go again... more minor changes to APA style! The hanging indent is back, we don't have to type long lists of author names anymore, and we can now use parentheses (woo-hoo!).

If you need to prepare manuscripts in APA style and don't have a previous edition of the manual, then you need this book. Though it remains relatively user-unfriendly, it is nonetheless the bible of manuscript preparation.

If you already have the fourth edition... determine how many of the changes in the fifth edition apply to your work. If you mostly write "plain vanilla" research reports and your reference lists mostly consist of ordinary journal articles, you may be able to get by with some handwritten notes in the margins of your old book.

72 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Software Help Available, November 9, 1998

By A Customer

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

Hillysun.com offers software compatible with MS Word V6 that automates the formatting of APA papers. The Manual is still handy to have, but the software, FormatEase, saves a lot of time!