Common Mistakes on Article Reviews!!!

So now that you have turned in 4 article reviews and received grades back, we wanted to note some common mistakes that were made that you should be careful for in the next 3 article reviews.

1. Unless they are general acronyms that anyone would know that looks at it, you need to write out acronyms. Only list acronyms when you need to use them again in your article review (AR). Also, make sure you type out the entire term when the acronym first appears in your AR, just like shown here.

2. Make sure you inclue doi or a website that anyone (without passwords) can access. The doi can also be found on the article page after you click on the title from EBSCO. For any articles that do not have a doi (which should be RARE), do a public search on google or google scholar. See APA manual for further details on finding doi.

3. While on the subject of doi's...Look up the proper way to reference the doi! There should be no space between the colon and the first number or letter of the identifier. Also, "doi" should not be capitalized. This is clear in the 6th edition references.

4. In general, pay attention to how to reference proper APA style. You are in a psychology graduate program, so you will need to know how to use APA properly for most (if not all) the papers you write here! It will and should become second nature but until then, triple check that all aspects are correct!
a.) Make sure to FULLY reference every piece...That means the correct initials for the names (if it gives a middle name or initial, it should be referenced with that middle initial)...that means the full title...that means the full and proper journal name...etcetera
b.) Make sure to space the initials properly, there is one space between initials!
c.) The order of the names in the article (believe it or not) IS IMPORTANT. Make sure to keep the correct order of the author names
d.) Make sure to watch the rules for article title and source title capitalization and italicizing. For a journal article, the first word of the article title is the only thing capitalized unless there is a colon, in which the first word after the colon is capitalized as well. The only other exception to this is you would also capitalize a word if it were a proper noun...think of this also like if you would capitalize a word mid-sentence, then you would also capitalize that word in the article title.
For the journal name, all words are capitalized and in italics
e.) the journal volume number is also in italics
f.) you include the issue number (the number in parentheses, which is NOT italicized) ONLY IF the journal paginates by issue. This means that you should do a search for the journal name, if you see that each issue it goes back to page 1, you WOULD include the issue number. An easy way to see this is if you see your page numbers go up above 200-250, it most likely does not paginate by issue and you would NOT include the issue number. However, if your article's pages are lower (1-200) either way you should check to see if the journal paginates by issue!
g.) already mentioned, but worth mentioning again! doi is NOT capitalized in the reference...also, there is NO SPACE between the colon and the identifier.

5. It's worth saying it short and sweet again: REFERENCE CAREFULLY AND FULLY!

6. Express numbers in numerical form when numbers are greater than 10 (e.g., 100, or 11). Express number in words when numbers less than 10 (e.g., nine, or two). Always express numbers in words when it is the first word in the sentence (e.g., One-hundred percent of the class is amazing).

7. APA recommends using 12-point Times New Roman font

8. APA clearly states that all words in a heading 4 or more words should be capitalized (e.g., Population From Which Participants Were Drawn)

9. For population we clearly stated earlier (and it is clear in the example) that you need to include the following information: age, number in study, gender, and ethnicity. This is for both quantitative AND qualitative studies. If some or all the information is not clear or not given, state so IN THE POPULATION SECTION.

10. These are meant to be one full page single spaced. Try to keep it as close to one page as possible, if you go 1/4 page over or under, we may have to take points off.

11. This is an APA style assignment (as is this class...again...until it becomes second nature you need to make sure to do it carefully), therefore, throughout the entire paper you must keep with APA guidelines. This is a lesson in summarizing so you don't have to re-read an entire article, so really quotation should be left out. However, if you DO quote (which, again is better not to) it is important (IMPORTANT) that if you use quotations that you cite properly. Look this up again...but for a random example (Labriola, et al., 2009, p. 234).

12. The relevance section is really for how this article is relevant for YOUR research interests. This section is where you would explain why and how it relates to your interests, not how it is relevant for the population. Also...I hope you realize that it is a waste of your time to read something and then do this AR if you aren't going to use it in the future!

For now, this is all. I know that it is a lot...but most of it has to do with APA style. This is not the only class that it is necessary to have APA style (especially referencing and in-text citing) correct! It will benefit you to learn it and practice it for all of your papers!

Questions? Further Comments?

--Your TAs