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Guidelines for Submitting a Research Paper

by Ernestine Ersatz, AIR staff

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

Recently, a psychology professor asked me for advice about submitting papers for publication in professional research journals.

How closely, she wanted to know, should she adhere to the journals’ official publication guidelines?

Here is my answer. First, I’ll tell you the basis of my advice, and then I’ll give you the advice.

Where I Researched My Advice

I of course turned to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, fourth edition (1994), published by the American Psychological Association (APA). In the forward to that 368-page handbook, the editor explains that the APA has 24 primary journals, in which it annually publishes approximately 1,400 new papers.

The Publication Manual specifically advises, on page 3, that:

You, as an author, should familiarize yourself with the criteria and standards that editors and reviewers use to evaluate manuscripts.

The Manual then lists the most common problems that would cause an editor to reject your submission. Of these, the most important are the first and last. Here is the first:

piecemeal publication, that is, the separation of a single substantial report into a series of overlapping papers

Here is the last:

the endless production of papers that report trivial changes in previous research

My Advice

Based on my understanding of those APA guidelines, then, here is my advice about whether to adhere to the official guidelines.

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