Format a References Page in APA Style
The references page in an APA-style paper must follow a certain format. I'm not talking about the references themselves, whose style is the topic of many of the external links on the main APA Style resource page, but the actual page of references itself. Things like the header, the spacing, and the organization all have a proper style. This helpful video shows you exactly how--and how not--to style the APA references page.
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The transcript for this video appears below.
In this video you’ll learn what P values are and how to style them in both APA and AMA style.
A P value is a probability that a result was not due to the intervention whose effects you are testing. And because p values are probabilities they cant be 1.0. In other words you can never say with a 100% certainty that some outcome happened due to chance, or your null hypothesis. And because a p value can’t be 1.0 you’re not going to place a “0” to the left of the decimal point. That’s actually called a placeholder zero and you only use that zero to the left of the decimal point when you’re reporting stats that could be 1.0 or greater, like an F statistic. In addition, p values are not listed as “0.” Although you can get awfully close to saying that your outcome was a 100% due to your intervention, the lowest p value you’re going to see is p is less than .001.
Styling the p value is actually easy. For APA style you’ll use a lower case italic “p” and then point whatever your p value is. For AMA style you’ll use a capital italic “p”. Both styles use a space before and after the math symbol, and in both styles the p is italicized.
To reiterate: APA style uses a lower case p, there is space around the math symbol, and you should report exact p values whenever possible. For AMA style, the P is capitalized, and you also space around math symbols.
Some other things to keep in mind: when you’re actually writing the phrase “p value” in text, you don’t use a hyphen. And typically when you have a P of less than .001, you don’t report the exact number. Just < .001 will do.
Finally, something you may not know that’s related to P values is that letters, when they’re used as statistical symbols, are always going to be italicized. So, that would include p, M for mean, N for number and so on. Both APA and AMA manuals cover this usage as well as complete descriptions of their usage of P values.
In this video you’ll learn what P values are and how to style them in both APA and AMA style.
A P value is a probability that a result was not due to the intervention whose effects you are testing. And because p values are probabilities they cant be 1.0. In other words you can never say with a 100% certainty that some outcome happened due to chance, or your null hypothesis. And because a p value can’t be 1.0 you’re not going to place a “0” to the left of the decimal point. That’s actually called a placeholder zero and you only use that zero to the left of the decimal point when you’re reporting stats that could be 1.0 or greater, like an F statistic. In addition, p values are not listed as “0.” Although you can get awfully close to saying that your outcome was a 100% due to your intervention, the lowest p value you’re going to see is p is less than .001.
Styling the p value is actually easy. For APA style you’ll use a lower case italic “p” and then point whatever your p value is. For AMA style you’ll use a capital italic “p”. Both styles use a space before and after the math symbol, and in both styles the p is italicized.
To reiterate: APA style uses a lower case p, there is space around the math symbol, and you should report exact p values whenever possible. For AMA style, the P is capitalized, and you also space around math symbols.
Some other things to keep in mind: when you’re actually writing the phrase “p value” in text, you don’t use a hyphen. And typically when you have a P of less than .001, you don’t report the exact number. Just < .001 will do.
Finally, something you may not know that’s related to P values is that letters, when they’re used as statistical symbols, are always going to be italicized. So, that would include p, M for mean, N for number and so on. Both APA and AMA manuals cover this usage as well as complete descriptions of their usage of P values.