GUIDELINES FOR WRITING EMPIRICAL RESEARCH REPORTS



GUIDELINES FOR WRITING EMPIRICAL RESEARCH REPORTS

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

The principal means of scientific communication is the research paper. Over the years, psychologists have standardized the format of such reports to meet most effectively the requirements of scientific communication. We have developed conventions concerning the organization of the report and the style of presentation. Your instructors in psychology expect you to follow these conventions in writing up the results of all your research.

The best empirical research reports describe everything relevant to the problem under investigation in a concise, cogent style. First, a research report indicates the theoretical and empirical base for your research in such a way that the reader can understand how the research question or specific prediction follows from theory and/or from previous research. Then the report outlines clearly the manner in which the research was carried out, in sufficient detail to permit someone else to duplicate the investigation without any additional information. The report then presents the obtained results. Finally, it interprets these results in the context of the theory and the empirical work that motivated your research.

Psychologists conventionally divide their research reports into the following sections.

I. Title

The purpose of the title is to provide a miniature description of your research. To convey the most information, titles typically name the independent and the dependent variables of the experiment. An example of a title in which the dependent variable is listed as a function of the independent variables is: SHORT-TERM RECALL AS A FUNCTION OF EXTRAVERSION AND DISTRACTIBILITY.

II. Abstract

The purpose of an abstract is to provide a summary of the paper. It contains the major points from each section of the paper: a statement of the problem, a very brief description of the method, the most important results, and the conclusions. The abstract is typically 100-150 words in length.

III. Introduction

The introduction summarizes the background of your research and outlines the specific approach taken by your investigation. It usually begins with a broad description of the theoretical and/or applied issues motivating the research (what motivated you, and what will motivate the reader to continue reading?). It ends with an introduction to your particular project. The "bridge" from the broad issues to your project usually consists of descriptions of previous research relevent to the approach you've selected, with the investigation(s) most closely related to yours described in the greatest detail.

Much of the background-setting in the Introduction consists of citations of published theoretical papers and research reports. Be accurate in your reporting of previous work, and be sure that each study you cite is relevant to the experiment you have conducted. References to an article in the introduction (or in any other section of the paper) consist of the last name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication of the article. For example:

Smith and Martin (1983) reported that the performance of their participants improved under these conditions; however, a decrement in performance has been observed by other investigators (Burns, 1987; Stevens, Lenny & Wright, 1979).

Note that in the case of multiple citations, the references are ordered alphabetically (by first authors' names). The first time a particular reference is cited in your paper, include the names of all the authors (unless there are more than five, in which case et al. should be used for the first citation). Subsequent citations take the form of: (Stevens et al., 1979) when there are more than two authors. Complete references are given at the end of the paper.

Note also that when the citation occurs as part of the text, the next-to-last and last authors’ names are separated by the word “and”. When the citation occurs in a list (within parentheses), these names are separated by “&”.

Direct quotations should be used sparingly in research reports. Using your own words demonstrates your understanding of the materials you are reviewing and reporting. It also ensures that your description is phrased to focus the reader’s attention on the ideas you believe are crucial. Nonetheless, direct quotation may occasionally lend authority to a controverial opinion or clarify a confusing theory. Quoted materials must be properly referenced. Brief quotations are placed in quotation marks and the page number of the source is indicated. For example:

Thomas (1982, p. 56) agrees that "it is unlikely that anyone will be able to eliminate these problems of experimental design."

Quoted material longer than 3 lines is single spaced and indented without quotation marks. The source can be indicated in the lead-in sentence or at the end of the quote. For example:

Thomas (1982, p. 56) stated:

It is unlikely that anyone will be able to eliminate these problems of experimental design. However, there are a number of possible improvements, such as testing all participants at the same time of day, that would clarify whether Jensen and Howarth’s theory is correct.

OR

Some authors have, however, provided specific recommendations. For example:

It is unlikely that anyone will be able to eliminate these problems of experimental design. However, there are a number of possible improvements, such as testing all participants at the same time of day, that would clarify whether Jensen and Howarth's theory is correct (Thomas, 1982, p. 56).

It is often dangerous to cite a reference you have not read yourself, because you must rely on another person's interpretation of the primary work. When you do report information obtained from a secondary source, cite the secondary source in the text. For example:

Jones (1978, as reported by McGoech, 1980), found that ...

Only the secondary source (in the example, McGoech, 1980) is referenced at the end of the paper.

The background information should lead logically into the final section of the introduction, i.e., the description of your particular project. This description indicates the ways in which your study replicates previous research and the ways in which your study deviates from (improves upon) previous research. Reiterate the specific problem you are considering, and the exact hypothesis(es) to be tested or question(s) to be answered. The research design is presented in operational terms, indicating which variables are to be manipulated (independent) and which are to be observed (dependent). For example:

In this experiment, the number of words recalled was investigated as a function of the rate of presentation of the words in the original list.

The introduction does not include a detailed description of the method; however, if the introduction is well written, the primary details of the method will seem inevitable — that is, by the time the reader reaches the method section, your introduction should have made clear why your experiment, with its specific design and procedure, must be the logical next step. Finally, the introduction should also indicate the expected outcome if your hypothesis is correct or predict how the outcome will answer the experimental question. However, do not summarize the actual results of your project in the introduction.

The Introduction is also a good place to define any psychological terms that you will be using throughout your report.

IV. Method

The method section, as a whole, describes the research procedures. It has three sub-headings: Participants/Subjects, Materials, and Procedure. It is often difficult to determine how much detail is necessary in each of these sections. One good criterion for evaluating the completeness of the method section is: could another investigator take your description and repeat your research? Thus, you must judge whether various aspects of your procedures are likely to have been important for the outcome of the research. For example, does it matter that all participants were run after 6 p.m.?

A. Participants/Subjects. (As humans have given their consent to participate, they are referred to as "participants." Animals are generally referred to as "subjects.") This section describes the characteristics of the participants or subjects used in your research. Tell who they were, how many there were, how they were recruited, and any relevant descriptive details (e.g., mean age, sex, species, ethnicity, housing conditions, food deprivation schedule, previous experimental and/or relevant medical histories, exclusion criteria). When groups are used, describe how the participants or subjects were assigned to the various groups or conditions. Indicate if participants were paid for their participation. If the participants were given any information about the study, prior to the procedure, or if they had any relevant knowledge or expectations, this too should be specified, if you think it plausible that this information, knowledge, or expectation could have any bearing on the results. Two examples:

The subjects in this experiment were 20 male Long Evans rats, approximately 120 days old. They were housed in pairs in an animal colony in which a 12/12 light-dark cycle was scheduled. The animals were maintained at approximately 80% of their free-feeding weight and were experimentally naive at the beginning of this experiment. They were randomly assigned to the two training conditions used in this experiment.

Twenty unpaid student volunteers, 17-25 years old (mean = 21), were recruited through an ad in the student newspaper. All reported normal or corrected to normal vision and no use of chronic medication. Five male and five female participants were quasi-randomly assigned to each of the two experimental groups. One male Informational Feedback participant failed to meet the response criteria (see Procedures). Consequently, this participant and a randomly selected male participant from the Random Feedback group were eliminated from the study.

B. Materials. The materials and apparatus used in the research should be described in sufficient detail for someone else to be able to replicate them. Include information about the materials/equipment used to define, to time and/or to record responses. For some procedures, the exact details of the equipment matter (e.g., if your procedure required microsecond timing, then details are important because different pieces of equipment vary in how accurate their timing is; if your procedure required timing only to the nearest second, then the exact identity of the equipment may be less important). Describe the features of the equipment/tests that were important to your research. If you used a test or special stimuli designed for the purpose of the research, describe sample items in this section, and include the entire test as an Appendix. When appropriate, provide information on the validity and reliability of tests.

C. Procedure. The procedure section outlines the sequence of events that took place during the research session(s). It tells what was done by the experimenter(s) and the participants/subject(s), in what order, for how long, etc. It is important to detail the procedure exactly as it was conducted--not as it should have been conducted. Standardized procedures may be appropriately referenced, for example:

The pigeons were trained to discriminate between two stimuli using the errorless procedure of Terrace et al., (1963).

Procedure sections tend to get complicated in investigations that involve several phases or conditions. It is helpful to adopt informative descriptive labels for the phases or conditions. For example, in a study in which each participant is to undergo two types of training, one with feedback for correct responses and the other with feedback for incorrect responses, the training conditions could be labeled Correct Feedback and Incorrect Feedback. It is then important to use these labels consistently throughout the research report. Abstract labels, such as Group A and Group B, are not helpful.

V. Results

The results section presents the data obtained in your experiment and the analyses performed on them. The section often begins with a description of the measurements which were taken during the research session(s) and the form in which these measurements are expressed. The actual figures you report will generally be some type of summary of the raw measurements, for example: the mean error rates across participants in each group.

Avoid the use of the words "data" and "results." Refer instead to the actual measurement taken. For example, rather than saying "The data of this experiment show. . . .," say "The error rates of these participants show. . ." [Please note that, technically, the word "data" is plural -- the singular is "datum."]

Data are frequently summarized in either Tables or Figures (graphs are called Figures), which are referred to in the text by number. It is best to introduce a Table or a Figure in the text in a sentence describing what it contains. Thus, you might say:

The mean error rates for each participant are shown in Table 1.

The text must refer to all Tables and Figures, or the Tables and Figures are not important enough to be included. If you have several dependent variables, the results for each variable may require a separate table or figure -- but be careful not to duplicate information unnecessarily. It is rarely necessary, for example, to present the same data in a Table and in a Figure.

Tables and Figures should be inserted into the text as soon as posssible after they are first mentioned. Because Tables and Figures should never be divided across two pages (nor should a Table or a Figure and its caption appear on two different pages), it will sometimes be necessary to place them on the page immediately following the text in which they are described.

Figures:

1. Figures should contain the basic information necessary for comprehension without detailed reference to the text. This requires careful labelling of coordinates and a complete caption (title).

2. When more than one curve is shown on the same set of coordinates, you must use a legend or label the curve directly.

3. The figure caption appears below the figure and is a very brief summary of what is plotted in the figure. Avoid captions like: "Graph of the Results" or a "graph of____________." Number the figures successively with arabic numerals. An example figure caption:

Figure 1. Mean numbers of correct responses as a function of item presentation rates for Correct Feedback and Incorrect Feedback participants.

Tables:

1. As with figures, tables should contain sufficient information to be understood largely independent of the text.

2. The title is centered above the table and states concisely what is contained in the table. Make the title as specific as possible. Avoid titles like: "Data Table," "Table of Results," or "Table showing. . .". An example table title:

Table 1. Mean error rates and times to task completion for participants in each session of the experiment.

3. Avoid uncommon abbreviations. If they are necessary, explain them in a footnote to the table.

After you refer to a Table or Figure in the text, describe the important features of the data shown there. Point out the important findings, the general trends, and any inversions or peculiarities that seem to you to be important, i.e., that seem to be more than chance occurrences. Support your analysis of the information by giving specific values to illustrate your point. Do not, however, attempt to reproduce all the data in the text--that is the function of the Tables and Figures.

A text to accompany sample Tables and Figures might read:

As is shown in Figure 1, the mean numbers of errors for the Correct and Incorrect Feedback conditions began at the same level. The mean number of errors on the first trial was approximately 4.5 in both groups. After the first trial, the errors for the Incorrect Feedback condition began to drop at a fairly steady rate, while the errors for the Correct Feedback condition remained relatively constant. For example, on the second trial, .50 fewer errors were made in the Incorrect than in the Correct Feedback condition, but by the sixth trial this difference had increased so that 3.39 fewer errors were made in the Incorrect Feedback condition. Overall, it can be seen that the mean number of errors decreased as a function of trials in the Incorrect Feedback condition, but not in the Correct Feedback condition.

The results of statistical analyses resulting in significant findings are presented by including the symbol for the statistic (e.g., "t" for t-tests, "F" for ANOVAs, "r" for a Pearson correlation coefficient, "X2" for Chi Square), followed by the degrees of freedom in parentheses, the value of the statistic, and the probability level. When a statistical test demonstrates a nonsignificant effect, this fact is reported (nonsignificant effects are not meaningless effects), but the value of the statistic is not always reported. (Standards for reporting the value of the statistic when the effect is not significant are inconsistent – often, however, more information is better.)

Correct Feedback participants performed better in the learning task on every measure utilized. They completed more sequences, t(16) = 2.76, p < .05. When their error rates were examined by session in a Group x Session (2 x 5) ANOVA, the main effect of group was significant, F(1,16) = 4.90, p < .05, but neither the main effect of session nor the group x session interaction were significant (F’s < 1.0).

VI. Discussion

The purpose of the discussion section is to interpret your results and to explain the conclusions suggested by them. It is in this section that you should describe clearly the contributions of your research to the broad issues raised at the beginning of your report.

The section generally begins with a systematic review of the specific hypothesis(es) or question(s) that motivated your research, accompanied by a concise summary of the important results that relate to each and the conclusion(s) that you draw from them. Point out how your results agree or disagree with the work you cited in your Introduction, how they extend the body of knowledge, support or disagree with a theory, etc. This is not the place to repeat the exact numerical values that you obtained in your results — that information is already in the Results section. Instead, this is the place to pull back from the details, and mention the essential facts, or the key patterns, so that the reader can see how the pattern of the results fits with (or does not fit with) your hypotheses.

If your findings agree with those of others, it is sufficient to characterize the agreement. In the case of disagreement, you should offer some possible reasons for the discrepancy. Typically, the first explanation that will occur to you is that there was something wrong with your procedures or with the way you conceptualized the problem. This may or may not provide a strong explanation. If it does, point out exactly what the weakness was and explain why it is a weakness. However, discrepancies across investigations often provide an opportunity for a fuller understanding of, for example, the conditions under which a given theory holds or insights into the complexity of an accepted research strategy. Thinking creatively about unexpected findings may lead you to consider theories or research literatures that did not seem relevant when you began your research. Thus, it is not uncommon for new citations to occur in the discussion section.

You should outline any weaknesses or flaws in your study that limit the usefulness or generality of the conclusions that can be drawn from it. When you report a weakness, explain why it is a weakness, and indicate how it can be corrected in future research. You should also highlight the strengths of your investigation.

Be careful, however, in describing flaws. Often, novice research reporters point out aspects of their procedure that seem potentially troubling or things that might have gone wrong, e.g., “The noisy environment in which the participants were run probably was distracting.” However, it is important to think these points through carefully: Can you look at your own data, in order to find out if the noise truly had an effect? Does a comparison of your data with the results obtained by others allow you to determine whether these potential problems were real problems? It is often useful in the discussion section to mention these potential problems (since the same concerns may arise in the reader’s mind), but then to discuss how the problems might be evaluated, in this way helping the reader understand the nature and extent of the problems. (Often, potential problems turn out NOT to be real problems!) End your discussion by suggesting what the next studies on the same topic might be.

VII. References

Only references cited in the body of the paper should be given in the reference list. All references cited in the text must appear in the list. The listing is in alphabetical order and initials, not given names, of the authors are used. The names of journals are written out in full.

Examples of the style to be used for the most frequent types of references are given below. The first is for a chapter in an edited book, the second is a reference to an entire book, and the third shows the format for referencing a journal article. Note: (1) only the first words of article and book chapter titles are capitalized, (2) the titles of journals are written out in full and are followed by the volume number, (3) book and journal titles are underlined (or written in italics), as is the volume number.

Öhman, A. (1983). The orienting response during Pavlovian conditioning. D. Siddle (Ed.), Orienting and habituation: Perspectives in human research (pp. 315-369). New York: Wiley.

Schwartz, B. (1989). The psychology of learning and behavior (3rd ed.). New York: Norton.

Siddle, D. A. T., Bond, N. W., & Friswell, R. (1987). Effects of stimulus content on second-order electrodermal conditioning in humans. Psychophysiology, 24, 439-448.

Hints on Style:

1. Abbreviations that are not standard must be defined the first time they are used. For example: The inter-trial interval (ITI) varied from 10-20 sec.

2. Be careful to maintain consistency in verb tenses. In general, use past tense. (The experiment is over and done by the time you write your paper; hence, past tense is appropriate in describing the procedure.)

3. Use active, rather than passive verb tenses whenever possible.

4. Avoid statements about your personal wishes, feelings, etc.

5. Be concise!

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