Academic Writing in Psychology

Question 1

Name the typical sections of empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 1

1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Introduction
4. Method
5. Results
6. Discussion
7. References
8. Other important aspects

Question 2

Explain the best characteristics for titles of empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 2

It has to be clear and informative enough, with no more than 15 words. The reader has to be able to identify the main variables.

Question 3

Explain the uses and characteristics of abstracts in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 3

Provide the reader with a summary of the report, including the aims, methods, main results, and theoretical implications and conclusions from the study. You do not have to provide too much detail; it is not recommended to include references, too much detail about the procedures, or all the statistical tests and results in the abstract. You should aim to give enough information so that the reader can decide whether to read the whole paper or not. With that in mind, the abstract, along with your title, will provide the reader with the first impressions about your work.

Question 4

How long should the abstracts be?

Answer 4

APA recommends a 120-word limit, but scientific journals vary in this aspect, ranging from as little as 100 to as much as 350 words.

Question 5

Explain the uses and characteristics of introductions in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 5

This part of the report informs the reader about why you are conducting this particular study. It has to show background information about previous research and why a new study (i.e. the present study) is worth doing. Does the study have the potential to fill a gap in the literature? Is it a replication of a previous study? Will it clarify a specific issue? In your literature review, prioritise recent studies (last five years) and classical studies in the area. Outline your study and make predictions about the expected outcomes based on the literature.

Question 6

Explain the uses and characteristics of methods in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 6

This section explains what was done in the study; therefore, it must be written in the past tense. You have to provide enough information to allow other researchers to replicate the study. It is divided into sub-sections.

Question 7

Name and describe sub-sections of methods in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 7

1. Design
2. Participants
3. Materials
4. Procedure
5. Sometimes researchers include a sub-section detailing their data analysis.

Question 8

What is the ‘design’ subsection of methods in empirical research reports and journal articles?

Answer 8

It’s the formal design of the study (e.g. experimental, correlational, etc.), identifying independent and dependent variables.

Question 9

What is the ‘participants’ subsection of methods in empirical research reports and journal articles?

Answer 9

This sub-section describes who took part in the study and how were they recruited? This section should also provide details such as sex/gender, age and any other characteristic that is relevant for the study. Explain whether they took part voluntarily or if they received any compensation. In experimental designs, explain how participants were allocated into different conditions and how many were in each condition

Question 10

What is the ‘materials’ subsection of methods in empirical research reports and journal articles?

Answer 10

This sub-section provides details of any materials used for the study (questionnaires/scales, computers, software, stopwatch, etc.)

Question 11

What is the ‘procedure’ subsection of methods in empirical research reports and journal articles?

Answer 11

This sub-section provides details of how the study was conducted, what participants had to do, the order of the presentation of stimuli, how long it took for participants to provide data, etc.

Question 12

Explain the uses and characteristics of results in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 12

The content of this section depends on the type of study:
1. Quantitative studies: this section usually starts with a reminder of the study aims and the presentation of descriptive statistics (e.g. means, SDs, normality, linearity, etc.), followed by inferential statistics, the results of assumption testing using parametric tests and the hypotheses of the study. State which inferential statistics were used and the values obtained. Specific p values are better than p < .05; it is also recommended to report confidence intervals where appropriate. You will learn more about these concepts as part of the Investigations and Analysis module. Do not include calculations of the tests or any raw data. Consider using tables and figures to summarise your results in a clear and concise format. Replication of information within a section should be avoided. Give clear labels to tables and graphs and present these according to APA formatting guidelines. Explain what the results show but without interpreting them, as this will be presented in the ‘Discussion’ section of the report. For instance, if a t test result was significant, explain which group had a higher mean but do not interpret why this difference may have occurred.

2. Qualitative studies: start with a brief reminder of the aims or research question of the study. Clearly outline the main themes and the associated subthemes (where relevant). Use the main themes as subheadings to present each theme/subtheme in detail, using illustrative quotations from participants/transcripts to support each theme/subtheme. Use a table of the themes if thematic analysis or interpretative phenomenological analysis was used. Make sure your analysis is linked to the research aims and the theoretical approach. Indeed, the type of analysis selected will shape whether the findings (in qualitative research, you may use the subheading ‘Findings’ instead of ‘Results’) are descriptive or interpretative.

Question 13

Explain the uses and characteristics of discussion in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 13

This section addresses how your main results relate to the literature and what the findings contribute to the existing literature. Start by restating your main objective and main results, mentioning whether they support your hypotheses. In the sequence, relate your findings to previous literature and give a theoretical interpretation for them. This means that you have to say why your results were the way they were – this explanation can be either theoretical or methodological but should not be speculation or an assumption. In other words, the explanations need to be justified within the existing literature (i.e. references must be used). Assess the contributions of your study to the area, mentioning the theoretical implications. Address the limitations or lessons learned from your observations and experiences in your study and how they could be remedied in the future. Suggest future studies that could extend the findings of the current study. End by summarising the main conclusions.

Question 14

Explain the uses and characteristics of references in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 14

There are two ways of referencing: inside the text and at the end, in the format of a list.

Question 15

Explain the other important aspects in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 15

• Abbreviations
• Numbers
• Appendices / supplementary materials

Question 16

Explain the use of abbreviations in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 16

Use only common abbreviations or if using them saves a lot of space, but be selective about using abbreviations. Abbreviations in figures and tables must be explained in captions or notes. Check the APA publication manual for abbreviations that are commonly used (e.g. ms, lb, kg, IQ and cm).

Question 17

Explain the use of numbers in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 17

For numbers below 10, use words (e.g. ‘five’ instead of 5), unless they are part of a comparison (e.g. 5 out of 10) or precede a unit of measurement (e.g. 5 cm), and use words for common fractions (e.g. three-quarters); for numbers of 10 and above, use figures. In addition, use figures for percentages, time, dates, sample size and age. Do not start a sentence with a number, even if it refers to your sample. Numbers in the abstract of the report must be in figures.

Question 18

Explain the use of appendices/supplementary materials in empirical research reports and journal articles.

Answer 18

This section is not always presented and is optional. It is intended to provide additional materials that the reader might be interested in seeing but that are not central to the understanding of your report (e.g. additional statistical analysis and questionnaires). For research reports during your programme, you will be asked to provide your outputs as an appendix so that your marker may check the accuracy of your work.

Question 19

What is publication bias?

Answer 19

Publication bias refers to the prevalence of positive outcomes in publications. Given what is known about statistical power and what is observed in publications, it is highly unlikely that published research reflects reality.

Question 20

What is the drawer effect?

Answer 20

The drawer effect (Rosenthal, 1979) refers to the non-significant studies that are never submitted (or accepted) for publication.

Question 21

What is null hypothesis significance testing?

Answer 21

It is a method of statistical inference that defines a hypothesis of no effect (the null hypothesis), testing the chances of finding at least one observation of this effect that may be observed . This is reflected in a significance value. Typically, if p < .05, it is said that the evidence does not support the null hypothesis; therefore, the experimental hypothesis is corroborated, supporting the existence of the effect being tested. A significant result increases the chances of having the study published.

Question 22

Explain the replication crisis in psychology.

Answer 22

If we take into consideration the publication bias observed in psychology, it means that a significant proportion of studies report an overestimated effect size, which leads to overestimated power (Francis, 2012). As a consequence, replication studies are set to fail almost by default. This issue has been evidenced in psychology, leading many researchers to advocate for a review in methods and publication standards.

Question 23

What is the Journal Impact Factor (JIF)?

Answer 23

The JIF is a three-decimal-place index developed to aid the selection of source journals and to rank them according to the number of citations. The calculation involves the number of citations in the current year to items published in the previous two years, which is the nominator; and the number of substantive articles and reviews published in the same two years, which is the denominator. Therefore, it takes into account journals that have high and small numbers of publications. It can be considered a current measure because it considers only recent periods. This index is not adequate to compare journals from different fields because in some areas it takes longer to conduct research, so the two-year period will not show a great number of citations.