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Writing a good psychological article normally requires at least two things: writing effectively and writing in APA style. Below are advice and links on writing a psychological article. When completed, your manuscript can be submitted to one of these Personality Journals or possibly to the on-line repository of Personality Papers.
 

How to Avoid Annoying an Editor (or Instructor)

The advice below is based on the responses of editors to a questionnaire concerning peer review of empirical studies submitted to journals (quoted largely from Byrne, 1998, pp. 62-63). For students, this advice from editors applies equally well to instructors. A more detailed rubric for evaluating papers may be helpful to both students and instructors.

Presentation

• Be clear, brief, and precise.
• Organize the paper logically [use rigid parallelism].
• Ensure that the study is logical, with no obvious leaps.
• Include an accurate summary of the results, correct inferences, and appropriate discussion of both random and systematic error.
• Check spelling and grammar.
• Eliminate redundancy.
• Proofread the manuscript before submission.

Method

• Demonstrate a flawless study design.
• Clearly identify the problem, and develop it logically.
• Include appropriate statistical analyses.
• Show that you understand your statistical analyses.

Results

• Limit the number of tables and figures.
• Describe the tables and figures adequately.
• Verify that the tables and figures agree with the text.

Discussion

• Include a well-written narrative and careful conclusions based on a good study design.
• Be sure that the conclusions are completely supported by the Method and Results.
• Demonstrate an ability to understand the point.
• Explain the importance of the findings in a balanced way [perhaps including a section on limitations].
• Explain the clinical relevance of the data [or the relevance to other areas of everyday life].
• Do not repeat information from the Introduction in the Discussion.

Adherence to the Journal's Instructions

• Prepare the manuscript according to the journal's instructions for authors.
• Follow the journal's format for the References.
• Follow the correct style for the target journal [for psychology journals, usually APA style].

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Writing: Classic References

Fowler, H. W. (1908). The King's English (2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Clarendon.

Strunk, W., Jr. (1918). The elements of style (1st ed.). Geneva, NY: Press of W. P. Humphrey.

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Writing and Publication: Modern References

Bem, D. J. (in press). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. L. Roediger III (Eds.) The compleat academic (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Bem, D. J. (1995). Writing a review article for Psychological Bulletin. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 172-177.

Byrne, D. W. (1998). Publishing your medical research paper: What they don't teach in medical school. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.

Cicchetti, D. V. (1991). The reliability of peer-review for manuscript and grant submissions: A cross-disciplinary investigation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 14, 119-186.

Derricourt, R. (1996). An author's guide to scholarly publishing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Feldman, K. A. (1971). Using the work of others: Some observations on reviewing and integrating. Sociology of Education, 44, 86-102.

Fine, M. A., & Kurdek, L. A. (1993). Reflections on determining authorship credit and authorship order on faculty-student collaborations. American Psychologist, 48, 1141-1147.

Funder, D. C. (1992). Psychology from the other side of the line: Editorial processes and publication trends at JPSP. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 493-497.

Garfunkel, J. M., Ulshen, M. H., Hamrick, H. J., & Lawson, E. E. (1994). Effect of institutional prestige on reviewers' recommendations and editorial decisions. JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, 272, 137-138.

Germano, W. (2001). Getting it published: A guide for scholars and anyone else serious about serious books. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hamermesh, D. S. (1992). The young economist's guide to professional etiquette. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6, 169-179.

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2002, May 16). Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals [WWW document]. URL http://www.icmje.org/

Lynch, J. (2001, March 11). Guide to grammar and style [WWW document]. URL http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/

Madigan, R., Johnson, S., & Linton, P. (1995). The language of psychology: APA style as epistemology. American Psychologist, 50, 428-436.

Peters, D. P., & Ceci, S. J. (1982). Peer-review practices of psychological journals: The fate of published articles, submitted again. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 5, 187-255.

Petty, R. E., & Fleming, M. A. (1999). The review process at PSPB: Correlates of interreviewer agreement and manuscript acceptance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 188-203.

Rothman, K. J. (1998). Writing for epidemiology. Epidemiology, 9, 333-337.

Smith, L. D., Best, L. A., Stubbs, A., Archibald, A. B., & Robertson-Nay, R. (2002). Constructing knowledge: The role of graphs and tables in hard and soft psychology. American Psychologist, 57, 749-761.

Sternberg, R. J. (1993). How to win acceptance from psychology journals: Twenty-one tips for better writing. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The psychologist's companion (3rd ed., pp. 174-180). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Sternberg, R. J., & Gordeeva, T. (1996). The anatomy of impact: What makes an article influential? Psychological Science, 7, 69-75.

Sternberg, R. J., Hojjat, M., Brigockas, M. G., & Grigorenko, E. L. (1997). Getting in: Criteria for acceptance of manuscripts in Psychological Bulletin, 1993-1996. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 321-323.

Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. A course for nonnative speakers of English. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Thompson, B. (1995). Publishing your research results: Some suggestions and counsel. Journal of Counseling and Development, 73, 342-345.

Winston, R. B., Jr. (1985). A suggested procedure for determining order of authorship in research publications. Journal of Counseling and Development, 63, 515-518.

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Design and Statistics

Floyd, F. J., & Widaman, K. F. (1995). Factor analysis in the development and refinement of clinical assessment instruments. Psychological Assessment, 7, 286-299.

Greenhalgh, T. (1997a). Assessing the methodological quality of published papers. British Medical Journal, 315, 305-308.

Greenhalgh, T. (1997b). Papers that report diagnostic or screening tests. British Medical Journal, 315, 540-543.

Greenhalgh, T. (1997c). Statistics for the non-statistician. British Medical Journal, 315, 364-366.

Greenhalgh, T. (1997d). Statistics for the non-statistician. II: "Significant" relations and their pitfalls. British Medical Journal, 315, 422-425.

Raykov, T., Tomer, A, & Nesselroade, J. R. (1991). Reporting structural equation modeling results in Psychology and Aging: Some proposed guidelines. Psychology and Aging, 6, 499-503.

Rosenthal, R. (1995). Writing meta-analytic reviews. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 183-192.

Wilkinson, L., & Task Force on Statistical Inference. (1999). Statistical methods in psychology journals: Guidelines and explanations. American Psychologist, 54, 594-604.

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APA Style

American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

American Psychological Association (2001, August 8). APAStyle.org [WWW document]. URL http://www.apastyle.org/

Coppola, L. (2003, August 29). APA citation format [WWW document]. URL http://wally.rit.edu/pubs/guides/apa2.html

Darling, C. (1998, November 20). A guide for writing research papers based on styles recommended by the American Psychological Association [WWW document]. URL http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/apa_index.htm

Degelman, D., & Harris, M. L. (2002, December 28). APA style essentials [WWW document]. URL http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.cfm?doc_id=796

Dewey, R. (2003, April 9). APA research style crib sheet [WWW document]. URL http://www.wooster.edu/psychology/apa-crib.html

Pemberton, M. (1998, November 20). Bibliography style handbook (APA) [WWW document]. URL http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/bibliography_style_handbookapa.htm

Plonsky, M. (1998, November 20). Psychology with style: A hypertext writing guide [WWW document]. URL http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/apa4b.htm

Schroeder, D. H., Hull, D. L., & Acton, G. S. (2003, March 8). APA style tips and grammatical hints [WWW document]. URL http://www.personalityresearch.org/writing/apa.html

Szuchman, L. T. (2001). Writing with style: APA style made easy (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

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Last modified May 2005
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