<p>If you're going to be submitting articles to APA journals you should have access to the <a href="http://www.apastyle.org/manual/index.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">APA Publication Manual 6th edition</a>. And it is useful to use a template (see here for discussion of <a href="https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/2628/how-to-apa-6th-in-latex">6th edition LaTeX packages</a>) and a citation system that supports the rules.</p>

<p>There are changes that permit new things (e.g., longer abstracts, bullet lists, and keywords are permitted, single-spaced tables) and there are new suggestions (e.g., stronger encouragement to report confidence intervals; you can say "subjects" if you want; "I" and "we" are recommended over "the researchers").
However, if you already know the 5th edition, then  changes of particular interest are those  where compliance with the 5th edition would actually lead to violation of 6th edition rules.</p>

<h3>Changes that stood out to me:</h3>

<ul>
<li>Provide two spaces at the end of sentences (but this doesn't make much sense if you use LaTeX)</li>
<li>Formatting of headings have changed and are simplified so that five-heading papers have the same first four headings as four-heading papers</li>
<li>Figure captions are now placed on the same page as the figure below the figure.</li>
<li>Tables and figures now appear before appendices</li>
<li>Footnotes are now placed on the same page that they are referenced.</li>
<li>Report p-values to two or three decimal places exactly and those less than .001 as <code>p&lt;.001</code>.</li>
</ul>

<h3>References changes that stood out to me:</h3>

<ul>
<li>Include city and state for book publishers even if city is well known</li>
<li>Provide <a href="http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/what-is-doi.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DOI</a> with any references that have a DOI</li>
</ul>

<h3>General summaries of changes from 5th to 6th edition</h3>

<p>Of course there are lots of little changes, check out some of these references for some other reviews of changes and resources:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://ocls.cmich.edu/APA%206th%20Edition%20CHANGES.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">John Dugan has a good summary of the changes in the 6th edition</a>: mentions changes to end of sentence spacing, running head, headings, bias, repeated citation of same source in same paragraph, recording publisher location, references with 6+ authors, and DOIs.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.editavenue.com/writingtip.asp?cid=93831" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ace-editor provides an overview of changes</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/brief-guide.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The APA has a tutorial on the 6th edition</a>. My preference was to mute the voice over and just read the text.</li>
<li>Sample papers in 6th edition: <a href="http://www.apastyle.org/manual/related/sample-experiment-paper-1.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">one experiment paper from APA</a> and a <a href="http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/page/3/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">two experiment paper from APA</a>, <a href="http://www.csun.edu/plunk/apa.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">another example with commentary</a></li>
<li>The <a href="http://blog.apastyle.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">official APA style blog</a> has a few posts on 6th edition changes.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=major%20differences%20between%205th%20and%206th%20editions%20of%20apa%20manual&amp;source=web&amp;cd=5&amp;ved=0CEUQFjAE&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fcon.ufl.edu%2Fresearch%2Fdocuments%2FSynopsisofChangesin6thEditionAPAManual_005.doc&amp;ei=u2UzT-qlC8GSiAeKjMmWAg&amp;usg=AFQjCNFlyX0P_-boSxzWq-xqHrcvfne1ng&amp;sig2=B3kH4f3yRSrtXsI4gyk9GA" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Fairly extensive set of notes listing changes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jldavis/resources/apa/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Jody Davis lists changes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.msstate.edu/org/msera/download/RITS_17_1_APAImpact.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Hughes (2010) et al</a> provide an academic review of the changes.</li>
<li><a href="http://www2.indwes.edu/ocls/apa/APA6eGuide.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">General set of guidelines on APA 6th edition from Indiana Wesleyan University</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>References</h3>

<ul>
<li>Hughes, G., Onwuegbuzie, A., Daniel, L., and Slate, J. (2010).
Editorial: Apa publication manual changes: Impacts on research reporting
in the social sciences. Research in the Schools, 17(1). <a href="http://www.msstate.edu/org/msera/download/RITS_17_1_APAImpact.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">PDF</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-10T14:55:26.963Z
Just as a point of note, the [7th edition has just recently been released](https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition).
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-09T07:48:05.687Z
2012-02-09T07:48:05.687Z
2017-04-13T12:36:12.327Z
Jeromy Anglim
<p>A lot of journals use APA style for journal article submissions. In 2009 APA released the 6th edition with several changes to the 5th edition. </p>

<ul>
<li>What's a good summary of the important changes in the 6th edition?</li>
<li>Or, alternatively, what is a good online resource listing these changes?</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-08T23:16:24.090Z
Okay, I've removed the tag. I agree we don't want a whole pile of  simple questions related to APA style (e.g., "where do I put the comma" type questions)
Jeromy Anglim
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-08T23:24:45.010Z
I am still skeptical about this question, does anyone (except students learning for the first time) actually check their papers for APA style? I just have LaTeX (or Word) auto-format it for me according to the journal's style-sheet.
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-08T23:29:00.107Z
@ArtemKaznatcheev The 6th edition is fairly new. Some journals are still using the 5th. Some templates are still stuck in the 5th. People may know the 5th, but there will always be a first time for the 6th. For something as important as a journal submission, you may want to get it right. Of course reading the actual 6th edition is a good idea, but a reasonable online overview of the changes would presumably be helpful.
Jeromy Anglim
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-08T05:49:05.077Z
As this is the first question about publication process rather than substantive content, I've asked the question on meta about whether people see such questions as in scope for the site: http://meta.cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/152/
Jeromy Anglim
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-08T06:47:47.497Z
I would not introduce the apa-style tag... do we want cogsci to become an apa-style reference site? It is okay to ask about research practice (and to have a tag for that) but creating subtags for very specific parts of research-practice (like apa-style) seems dangerous.
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-08T14:21:19.700Z
I agree with @ArtemKaznatcheev, while this question is on topic I'd hate to start getting "Is this okay under APA style" questions.
Zelda
<publication-process><apa-style>
What are the major changes in the APA Publication Manual from 5th to 6th editions?
Jeromy Anglim
# What are the major changes in the APA Publication Manual from 5th to 6th editions?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-02-08)

A lot of journals use APA style for journal article submissions. In 2009 APA released the 6th edition with several changes to the 5th edition.

* What's a good summary of the important changes in the 6th edition?
* Or, alternatively, what is a good online resource listing these changes?

**Tags:** publication-process, apa-style

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: As this is the first question about publication process rather than substantive content, I've asked the question on meta about whether people see such questions as in scope for the site: http://meta.cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/152/  
> **username_1**: I would not introduce the apa-style tag... do we want cogsci to become an apa-style reference site? It is okay to ask about research practice (and to have a tag for that) but creating subtags for very specific parts of research-practice (like apa-style) seems dangerous.  
> **username_2**: I agree with @ArtemKaznatcheev, while this question is on topic I'd hate to start getting "Is this okay under APA style" questions.  
> **username_0**: Okay, I've removed the tag. I agree we don't want a whole pile of  simple questions related to APA style (e.g., "where do I put the comma" type questions)  
> **username_1**: I am still skeptical about this question, does anyone (except students learning for the first time) actually check their papers for APA style? I just have LaTeX (or Word) auto-format it for me according to the journal's style-sheet.  
> **username_0**: @ArtemKaznatcheev The 6th edition is fairly new. Some journals are still using the 5th. Some templates are still stuck in the 5th. People may know the 5th, but there will always be a first time for the 6th. For something as important as a journal submission, you may want to get it right. Of course reading the actual 6th edition is a good idea, but a reasonable online overview of the changes would presumably be helpful.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2012-02-09. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

If you're going to be submitting articles to APA journals you should have access to the [APA Publication Manual 6th edition](http://www.apastyle.org/manual/index.aspx). And it is useful to use a template (see here for discussion of [6th edition LaTeX packages](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/2628/how-to-apa-6th-in-latex)) and a citation system that supports the rules.

There are changes that permit new things (e.g., longer abstracts, bullet lists, and keywords are permitted, single-spaced tables) and there are new suggestions (e.g., stronger encouragement to report confidence intervals; you can say "subjects" if you want; "I" and "we" are recommended over "the researchers").
However, if you already know the 5th edition, then changes of particular interest are those where compliance with the 5th edition would actually lead to violation of 6th edition rules.

### Changes that stood out to me:

* Provide two spaces at the end of sentences (but this doesn't make much sense if you use LaTeX)
* Formatting of headings have changed and are simplified so that five-heading papers have the same first four headings as four-heading papers
* Figure captions are now placed on the same page as the figure below the figure.
* Tables and figures now appear before appendices
* Footnotes are now placed on the same page that they are referenced.
* Report p-values to two or three decimal places exactly and those less than .001 as `p<.001`.

### References changes that stood out to me:

* Include city and state for book publishers even if city is well known
* Provide [DOI](http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/what-is-doi.aspx) with any references that have a DOI

### General summaries of changes from 5th to 6th edition

Of course there are lots of little changes, check out some of these references for some other reviews of changes and resources:

* [John Dugan has a good summary of the changes in the 6th edition](http://ocls.cmich.edu/APA%206th%20Edition%20CHANGES.pdf): mentions changes to end of sentence spacing, running head, headings, bias, repeated citation of same source in same paragraph, recording publisher location, references with 6+ authors, and DOIs.
* [Ace-editor provides an overview of changes](http://www.editavenue.com/writingtip.asp?cid=93831)
* [The APA has a tutorial on the 6th edition](http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/brief-guide.aspx). My preference was to mute the voice over and just read the text.
* Sample papers in 6th edition: [one experiment paper from APA](http://www.apastyle.org/manual/related/sample-experiment-paper-1.pdf) and a [two experiment paper from APA](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/page/3/), [another example with commentary](http://www.csun.edu/plunk/apa.pdf)
* The [official APA style blog](http://blog.apastyle.org/) has a few posts on 6th edition changes.
* [Fairly extensive set of notes listing changes](http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=major%20differences%20between%205th%20and%206th%20editions%20of%20apa%20manual&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEUQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcon.ufl.edu%2Fresearch%2Fdocuments%2FSynopsisofChangesin6thEditionAPAManual_005.doc&ei=u2UzT-qlC8GSiAeKjMmWAg&usg=AFQjCNFlyX0P_-boSxzWq-xqHrcvfne1ng&sig2=B3kH4f3yRSrtXsI4gyk9GA)
* [Jody Davis lists changes](http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jldavis/resources/apa/)
* [Hughes (2010) et al](http://www.msstate.edu/org/msera/download/RITS_17_1_APAImpact.pdf) provide an academic review of the changes.
* [General set of guidelines on APA 6th edition from Indiana Wesleyan University](http://www2.indwes.edu/ocls/apa/APA6eGuide.pdf)

### References

* Hughes, G., Onwuegbuzie, A., Daniel, L., and Slate, J. (2010).
  Editorial: Apa publication manual changes: Impacts on research reporting
  in the social sciences. Research in the Schools, 17(1). [PDF](http://www.msstate.edu/org/msera/download/RITS_17_1_APAImpact.pdf)

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Just as a point of note, the [7th edition has just recently been released](https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition).  

---

