This week’s blog was contributed by Erika Thompson, PAR’s managing production editor. It is the second in a series on writing. Catch up on the first part here. 

As a mental health practitioner, you are required to write throughout your career. One way you can streamline your writing is by using a style guide. At PAR, the house style we use for all our publications is based on American Psychological Association (APA) Style. Via the PAR Blog, we’re providing some useful information about facets of APA Style that will help you tackle research, write better reports, and communicate more effectively with colleagues. 

This week, we’re covering how to cite sources properly. According to APA (2020): “Scientific knowledge represents the accomplishments of many researchers over time. A critical part of writing in APA Style is helping readers place your contribution in context by citing the researchers who influenced you” (p. 253). In other words, citing helps readers better understand what led to your conclusions. It also prevents you from accidentally plagiarizing someone else’s work. It’s important to cite both ideas, which may be paraphrased from someone else’s work, and direct quotes. 

Two elements are needed to cite properly: a short mention of the author and date of publication, or in-text citation, which appears within the text at the appropriate and relevant place; and a reference list entry, which expands on the citation by including the title, the source, and sometimes a link to locate the work. 

In-text citations can be narrative or parenthetical. In a narrative citation, the author and date are mentioned as part of the running text: “In 2010, Costa and McCrae published new normative data on the NEO.” In a parenthetical citation, the author and date are mentioned in parentheses: “New normative data on the NEO are also available (Costa & McCrae, 2010).” 

Reference list entries vary in format based on the type of publication, but generally the author is mentioned first, with the date of publication, title, and source following. Use a 0.5-in. hanging indent to format each entry—that is, indent the second and any subsequent lines. 

In some instances, it may be hard to figure out which reference entry format to use. The most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association provided much-needed guidance on how to cite a test and how to cite a variety of different websites: 

Test

Feifer, S. G., & Clark, H. K. (2016). Feifer Assessment of Mathematics (FAM): Professional manual. PAR. 

(Note that the “supporting literature” [i.e., the manual; APA, 2020, p. 340] is cited versus the test itself, the title of the test is capitalized and italicized, and the publisher location is not mentioned.) 

Online magazine or newspaper article 

Bourke, J., & Titus, A. (2019, March 29). Why inclusive leaders are good for organizations, and how to become one. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/03/why-inclusive-leadersare-good-for-organizations-and-how-to-become-one 

Website article 

Gupta, G. (2016, September 4). Empowering leadership. People Matters. https://www.peoplematters.in/blog/leadership/empowering-leadership-14014 

(Note that established newspaper and magazine titles are italicized, whereas for websites that don’t have a publication associated with it, the title of the article is italicized.) 

A recent APA blog post explained how to cite ChatGPT. Because the results of the chat cannot be retrieved by others, communications are considered to be the output of the ChatGPT algorithm, and OpenAI is considered to be the “author” of the algorithm. Thus, each communication should be explained very clearly in text and cited as such: 

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat The in-text citation is (OpenAI, 2023). 

 

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association covers many, many more types of sources, including journal articles, books, audiovisual media, and social posts. 

Curious about how we keep track of references to our products? Check out our white paper on Zotero, which includes links to product-specific, continually updated, easy-to-access bibliographies. 

Interested in partnering with PAR for research or publishing? Visit our Partner with PAR page to learn more. 

 

References 

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000 

McAdoo, T. (2023, April 7). How to cite ChatGPT. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

• Approximately 106,500 psychologists hold current licenses in the U.S.


• 17,890 psychologists are located in California, the state with the most licensed psychologists.


• 170 psychologists are located in Wyoming, the state with the fewest licensed psychologists.


• The District of Columbia has the greatest representation of psychologists per 100,000 population—173.3!


• There are approximately 33.9 psychologists per 100,000 individuals in the U.S. population. To see the distribution of psychologists in your state, visit APA.


• More than 6,000 doctorates in psychology were awarded in the U.S. in 2012.


• Approximately 74 percent of those doctorates were categorized as research/scholarship; 24 percent were awarded as professional practice. To view the breakdown of degrees by subfield, visit APA’s Center for Workforce Studies.

Source: APA’s Center for Workforce Studies

With smart phones becoming ubiquitous, many researchers are finding that mobile apps are becoming an important part of research. But citing a mobile app can be tricky – after all, it does not fit into the guidelines for traditional software and it is not the same as a printed product. Here are a few things you should know when citing a mobile app:

• Instead of an author, and app has a rights holder. The rights holder may be an individual, but it may also be a group or a company.


• Use the publication date of the version you used, even if previous or updated versions are available.


• If you are only using an entry, article, reference, or portion of the app, that can be noted just as you would in a print reference. That information simply goes at the beginning of the reference.


• List how you accessed the app – whether you downloaded it from the Apple Store, Google Play, or another Web site.


• Don’t put a period at the end of the Web address.

Here are some examples:

Rightsholder, A. B. (year). Title of App (Version 1) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from http://webaddress.com

Article Title. (year). In Title of App (Version 1) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from http://webaddress.com

Want your voice to be heard when the American Psychiatric Association (APA) publishes the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)? The organization is now taking comments on its most recent draft and welcomes opinions until June 15, 2012. Simply register to participate in the public commentary period. This will be the third time the draft has been made available for comment and will be the final opportunity for feedback on the text. A final version of the text will be presented to the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association later this year in order to meet a May 2013 publication date.

Interested in reading what is new in the DSM-5? APA provides an ongoing list of the proposed updates.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will be releasing the eleventh edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2015. If you are interested in participating in the revision, making comments, or reviewing proposals, visit the WHO site to register. Want more information about how the ICD-11 update will affect you? Visit the ICD-11 fact sheet for more information.

What’s in a name? For young veterans and others coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, a name could mean the difference between seeking treatment and suffering alone. Psychiatrists and military officers are now considering the implications of a name change for PTSD in an effort to reduce the stigma associated with this diagnosis. The new name under consideration? Post-traumatic stress injury, or PTSI.

“No 19-year-old kid wants to be told he’s got a disorder,” said General Peter Chiarelli, in a May 5 interview with the Washington Post. Until his retirement in February of this year, Chiarelli was the nation’s second-highest ranking Army officer, and he led the effort to reduce the suicide rate among military personnel. He and other supporters of the name change believe that using the word “injury” instead of “disorder” will reduce the stigma that stops soldiers and others from seeking treatment. According to Chiarelli, “disorder” suggests a pre-existing condition that “makes the person seem weak.” “Injury,” on the other hand, is appropriate because the condition is caused by the experience of specific trauma, according to supporters of the change. Injuries, they point out, can often be healed with treatment.

This issue is coming to a head because the American Psychiatric Association is working on a new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), expected in May 2013. Not everyone is in favor of the name change; one of the major concerns, according to psychologist Sherrie Bourg Carter, is that “altering a diagnostic label may have far-reaching financial implications for health insurers and disability claims. Specifically, some insurers and government agencies may not be willing to reimburse mental health providers for a condition that isn’t considered a disease or disorder” (Psychology Today blog, May 6).

American Psychiatric Association President Dr. John Oldham has suggested that he would be open to considering the name change. “If it turns out that that [the word ‘injury’] could be a less uncomfortable term and would facilitate people who need help getting it, and it didn’t have unintended consequences that we would have to be sure to try to think about, we would certainly be open to thinking about it,” Oldham told PBS NewsHour in a December interview.

What do you think? Would a name change help reduce the stigma associated with post-traumatic stress and encourage people to seek the help they need? PAR wants to hear from you, so leave a comment and join the conversation!

 

Are you attending APA 2011? Many PAR authors will be presenting during the convention. The following are just a sample of the engaging workshops, sessions, and symposia presented by PAR authors:

Lisa A. Firestone, PhD, will be presenting two CE workshops during APA 2011, “Assessing and Treating Violent Individuals” on Friday, August 5 at 8 a.m. and “Overcoming the Fear of Intimacy” on Saturday, August 6 at 8 a.m. Dr. Firestone is coauthor of the Firestone Assessment of Violent Thoughts™ (FAVT™),  the Firestone Assessment of Violent Thoughts^™-Adolescent (FAVT-A^™), and the Firestone Assessment of Self-Destructive Thoughts^™ and Firestone Assessment of Suicide Intent^™ (FAST^™-FASI^™).

Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD, will be giving an invited address during the Contemporary and Future Directions in School Psychology session on Friday, August 5 at 4 p.m. He will also be participating in a symposium on Saturday, August 6, at 2 p.m., titled “Using Psychology to Improve the Climate for Teaching in K-12 Schools.” Dr. Reynolds is the coauthor of the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales™ (RIAS™), the Reynolds Intellectual Screening Test™ (RIST™), the School Motivation and Learning Strategies Inventory (SMALSI), the Test of Irregular Word Reading Efficiency™ (TIWRE™), and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scales: 2nd Ed. (RCMAS-2).

John Briere, PhD, will be participating in two symposia: “Traumatic Dissociation--- Neurobiological, Assessment, and Clinical Implications—I” on Thursday, August 4, at 3 p.m. and “Traumatic Dissociation--- Neurobiological, Assessment, and Treatment Implications—II” on Friday, August 5, at 5 p.m. Dr. Briere is author of the Trauma Symptom Inventory™-2 (TSI™-2) , the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children™ (TSCYC™) , the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children™ (TSCC™) , the Inventory of Altered Self-Capacities™ (IASC™) , the Detailed Assessment of Posttraumatic Stress™ (DAPS™) , and the Cognitive Distortion Scales™ (CDS™) .

Richard R. Abidin, PhD, will be participating in a symposium titled “Updates of Evidence-Based Assessment--Family Measures,” which will be held Friday, August 5, at 10 a.m. Dr. Abidin is the author of the Early Childhood Parenting Skills (ECPS), the Index of Teaching Stress™ (ITS™), the Parenting Alliance Measure™ (PAM™), the Parenting Stress Index, 3rd Edition (PSI), and the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents™ (SIPA™).

Charles D. Spielberger, PhD, author of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2™ (STAXI-2™), will be chairing a symposium on Friday, August 5, titled “The APF Spielberger EMPathy Symposium.”

Richard Rogers, PhD, ABPP, will be presenting an invited address, “Know Your Miranda Rights? Myths, Mistakes, and Meta-Ignorance,” during the 2011 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy session, on Friday, August 5, at 1 p.m. Dr. Rogers is the author of Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms, 2nd Edition (SIRS-2), the Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scales (R-CRAS), and the Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial™ -Revised (ECST™-R).

See these PAR authors and many more during APA 2011. Make sure to stop by the PAR booth to see our new products, meet PAR staff, and place your orders. Don’t forget – you’ll receive 15% off all orders placed during the conference plus free shipping and handling! See you in Washington, DC!