Using the American Psychological Association (APA) Style Guidelines to Report Experimental Results

Abstracts provide a summary of the paper. They should include the research hypotheses, population studied and quick review of results. They should also briefly indicate the experimental methodology.s provide a summary of the paper. They should include the research hypotheses, population studied and quick review of results. They should also briefly indicate the experimental methodology. An abstract has two purposes: 1) it allows the reader to decide if the article is of interest; and 2) it allows researchers to locate and retrieve articles. Therefore, abstracts need to be accurate in reflecting the purpose and content of the study. Abstracts also need to be selfcontained. The reader should not need to refer to other materials to understand the abstract. Abstracts need to be concise and specific. Because they are so short, each sentence should add information. Finally, abstracts need to nonevaluative. They should report without comment on the results. An abstract may be the only part of paper that is read, therefore it is important to adequately and accurately address the issues studied. The APA Guidelines limit the abstract to 960 characters.