Just one caveat: As always, if you are writing a paper, thesis, or dissertation, your institution may have its own guidelines for the use of first person. The acceptability of first person is sometimes a hot topic, and guidelines vary from one institution to another.
Dissertation committees sometimes advise students to follow APA Style with a list of school-specific exceptions, and the acceptability of first person may be one of these. Likewise, if you are submitting a manuscript for publication, you should always check the publisher’s guidelines.
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Editorial "we", singular "they".
APA recommends avoiding the use of the third person when referring to your self as the primary investigator or author. Use the personal pronoun I or we when referring to steps in an experiment. (see page 120, 4.16 in the APA 7th Edition Manual)
Correct: We assessed the vality of the experiment design with a literature review.
Incorrect: The authors assessed the vality of the experiment with a literature review.
Avoid the use of the editorial or universal we. The use of we can be confusing because it is not clear to the reader who you are referring to in your research. Substitute the word we with a noun, such as researchers, nurses, or students. Limit the use of the word we to refer to yourself and your coauthors. (See page 120 4.17 in the APA 7th edition manual)
Correct: Humans experience the world as a spectrum of sights, sounds, and smells.
Incorrect: We experience the world as a spectrum of sights, sounds, and smells .
The Singular "They" refers to a generic third-person singular pronoun. APA is promoting the use of the singular "they" as a way of being more inclusive and to avoid assumptions about gender. Many advocacy groups and publishers are now supporting it.
Observe the following guidelines when addressing issues surrounding third-person pronouns:
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Note: The APA Publication Manual, 7 th Edition specifies different formatting conventions for student and professional papers (i.e., papers written for credit in a course and papers intended for scholarly publication). These differences mostly extend to the title page and running head. Crucially, citation practices do not differ between the two styles of paper.
However, for your convenience, we have provided two versions of our APA 7 sample paper below: one in student style and one in professional style.
Note: For accessibility purposes, we have used "Track Changes" to make comments along the margins of these samples. Those authored by [AF] denote explanations of formatting and [AWC] denote directions for writing and citing in APA 7.
Apa 7 professional paper:.
WRITING STYLE
APA format suggests writing in the first person. If you are a sole author, use the pronoun "I". If you are co-authoring a paper, use the pronoun "we". Do NOT refer to yourself or your co-authors in the third person as "the author(s)" or "the researcher(s)."
Be concise and clear
Style matters
AVOIDING BIAS
Be sensitive to labels
Gender pronouns
Research papers written in APA style include four major sections. These sections include:
APA style title pages are centered horizontally and vertically. It consists of the title of your paper, your name and institution. If instructed, it may also include a course/section number, instructor name, and due date. The title page should be numbered the first page. A running head should appear in the upper left-hand corner of your paper. The running head should be typed in UPPERCASE letters and be no more than 50 characters long.
HOW TO USE APA
The abstract appears as the second page of your paper. An abstract is a brief (150 to 250 words) but thorough description of your problem, findings and summaries. If you performed an experiment, your methodology and findings should be described.
The components of the main body of your paper will depend on the assignment. The main body of your paper could describe the problem you are researching, an investigation of previous findings, methodology, results, discussion of results and/or conclusion. Running head and page numbers are still present in the main body.
References
The running head and page numbers also continue onto your reference page. Center the word "References" and continue to use double spacing throughout this page. References must have a hanging indent and follow the APA formatting described throughout this guide.
APA style, 7th edition requires specific heading formatting.
|
|
1 |
Text begins as a new paragraph. |
2 |
Text begins as a new paragraph. |
3 |
Text begins as a new paragraph |
4 | Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph. |
5 | Text begins on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph. |
APA can be difficult. The Owl at Purdue provides a great APA sample page to help you visually understand APA style.
To go more in depth, the APA provides sample papers with details notes about many aspects of APA formatting and style.The annotated student papers are available in PDF format; non-annotated ones are also available in Word format.
APA also offers tutorials and webinars on many things APA. Those tutorials can be found here: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/tutorials-webinars
Research writers frequently wonder whether the first person can be used in academic and scientific writing. In truth, for generations, we’ve been discouraged from using “I” and “we” in academic writing simply due to old habits. That’s right—there’s no reason why you can’t use these words! In fact, the academic community used first-person pronouns until the 1920s, when the third person and passive-voice constructions (that is, “boring” writing) were adopted–prominently expressed, for example, in Strunk and White’s classic writing manual “Elements of Style” first published in 1918, that advised writers to place themselves “in the background” and not draw attention to themselves.
In recent decades, however, changing attitudes about the first person in academic writing has led to a paradigm shift, and we have, however, we’ve shifted back to producing active and engaging prose that incorporates the first person.
However, “I” and “we” still have some generally accepted pronoun rules writers should follow. For example, the first person is more likely used in the abstract , Introduction section , Discussion section , and Conclusion section of an academic paper while the third person and passive constructions are found in the Methods section and Results section .
In this article, we discuss when you should avoid personal pronouns and when they may enhance your writing.
The following examples compare the impact of using and avoiding first-person pronouns.
To understand the effects of global warming on coastal regions, changes in sea levels, storm surge occurrences and precipitation amounts were examined .
[Note: When a long phrase acts as the subject of a passive-voice construction, the sentence becomes difficult to digest. Additionally, since the author(s) conducted the research, it would be clearer to specifically mention them when discussing the focus of a project.]
We examined changes in sea levels, storm surge occurrences, and precipitation amounts to understand how global warming impacts coastal regions.
[Note: When describing the focus of a research project, authors often replace “we” with phrases such as “this study” or “this paper.” “We,” however, is acceptable in this context, including for scientific disciplines. In fact, papers published the vast majority of scientific journals these days use “we” to establish an active voice. Be careful when using “this study” or “this paper” with verbs that clearly couldn’t have performed the action. For example, “we attempt to demonstrate” works, but “the study attempts to demonstrate” does not; the study is not a person.]
From the various data points we have received , we observed that higher frequencies of runoffs from heavy rainfall have occurred in coastal regions where temperatures have increased by at least 0.9°C.
[Note: Introducing personal pronouns when discussing results raises questions regarding the reproducibility of a study. However, mathematics fields generally tolerate phrases such as “in X example, we see…”]
Coastal regions with temperature increases averaging more than 0.9°C experienced higher frequencies of runoffs from heavy rainfall.
[Note: We removed the passive voice and maintained objectivity and assertiveness by specifically identifying the cause-and-effect elements as the actor and recipient of the main action verb. Additionally, in this version, the results appear independent of any person’s perspective.]
In contrast to the study by Jones et al. (2001), which suggests that milk consumption is safe for adults, the Miller study (2005) revealed the potential hazards of ingesting milk. The authors confirm this latter finding.
[Note: “Authors” in the last sentence above is unclear. Does the term refer to Jones et al., Miller, or the authors of the current paper?]
In contrast to the study by Jones et al. (2001), which suggests that milk consumption is safe for adults, the Miller study (2005) revealed the potential hazards of ingesting milk. We confirm this latter finding.
[Note: By using “we,” this sentence clarifies the actor and emphasizes the significance of the recent findings reported in this paper. Indeed, “I” and “we” are acceptable in most scientific fields to compare an author’s works with other researchers’ publications. The APA encourages using personal pronouns for this context. The social sciences broaden this scope to allow discussion of personal perspectives, irrespective of comparisons to other literature.]
For more general advice on how to use active and passive voice in research papers, on how to paraphrase , or for a list of useful phrases for academic writing , head over to the Wordvice Academic Resources pages . And for more professional proofreading services , visit our Academic Editing and P aper Editing Services pages.
Use of the first-person singular pronoun "I"
Both Walden and APA allow for and encourage the appropriate use of the first-person pronoun "I" in scholarly writing. However, doctoral capstone abstracts should remain in third person.
Use of the first-person plural pronouns "we," "our," or "us"
The general use of "we," "our," or "us," however, is not acceptable in APA style. By using these pronouns, you may be making assumptions about the reader and allowing a conversational tone that is not scholarly in nature.
Note: The second-person pronoun "you" is also not acceptable in APA style. Similar to general uses of "we," "our," or "us," the second-person "you" assumes information about the reader and could create a combative tone in writing.
Additional Resources:
Further Questions?
Other questions about your doctoral capstone or the form and style review? Email the Form and Style editors at [email protected] .
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Research is focused on child and teen mental health, exploring why they are struggling and what can be done to help them
Vol. 54 No. 1 Print version: page 63
[ This article is part of the 2023 Trends Report ]
The Covid -19 pandemic era ushered in a new set of challenges for youth in the United States, leading to a mental health crisis as declared by the United States surgeon general just over a year ago. But U.S. children and teens have been suffering for far longer.
In the 10 years leading up to the pandemic, feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness—as well as suicidal thoughts and behaviors—increased by about 40% among young people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System .
“We’re seeing really high rates of suicide and depression, and this has been going on for a while,” said psychologist Kimberly Hoagwood, PhD, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. “It certainly got worse during the pandemic.”
In addition to the social isolation and academic disruption nearly all children and teens faced, many also lost caregivers to Covid -19, had a parent lose their job, or were victims of physical or emotional abuse at home.
All these difficulties, on top of growing concerns about social media, mass violence, natural disasters, climate change, and political polarization—not to mention the normal ups and downs of childhood and adolescence—can feel insurmountable for those who work with kids.
“The idea of a ‘mental health crisis’ is really broad. For providers and parents, the term can be anxiety-provoking,” said Melissa Brymer, PhD, who directs terrorism and disaster programs at the UCLA–Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. “Part of our role is to highlight specific areas that are critical in this discussion.”
Across the field, psychologists are doing just that. In addition to studying the biological, social, and structural contributors to the current situation, they are developing and disseminating solutions to families, in schools, and at the state level. They’re exploring ways to improve clinical training and capacity and working to restructure policies to support the most vulnerable children and teens.
Psychologists were also behind new mental health recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of volunteer health professionals who evaluate evidence on various preventive health services. The task force now recommends regular anxiety screenings for youth ages 8 to 18 and regular depression screenings for adolescents ages 12 to 18.
“I see these trends in children’s mental health problems as being critical, but there are solutions,” Hoagwood said. “If we refocus our efforts toward those solutions, we could see some of these tides turn.”
Across the United States, more than 200,000 children lost a parent or primary caregiver to Covid -19 (“ Covid -19 Orphanhood,” Imperial College London, 2022). In the face of those losses, families had to curtail mourning rituals and goodbye traditions because of social distancing requirements and other public health measures, Brymer said. Many children are still grieving, sometimes while facing added challenges such as moving to a different home or transferring to a new school with unfamiliar peers.
The CDC also reports that during the pandemic, 29% of U.S. high school students had a parent or caregiver who lost their job, 55% were emotionally abused by a parent or caregiver, and 11% were physically abused ( Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey—United States, January–June 2021 , CDC ).
“Schools are crucial for keeping kids safe and connecting them with services, but the pandemic completely disrupted those kinds of supports,” Brymer said.
Those extreme disruptions didn’t affect all young people equally. Echoing pre- Covid -19 trends, the CDC also found that girls, LGBTQ+ youth, and those who have experienced racism were more likely to have poor mental health during the pandemic, said social psychologist Kathleen Ethier, PhD, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health.
Contributing factors likely include stigma, discrimination, and online bullying, Ethier said. Female students also report much higher levels of sexual violence than their male peers, which can further harm mental health.
As much hardship as Covid -19 wrought, it’s far from the only factor contributing to the current crisis. Biology also appears to play a role. The age of puberty has been dropping for decades, especially in girls, likely leading to difficulty processing complex feelings and knowing what to do about them ( Eckert-Lind, C., et al., JAMA Pediatrics , Vol. 174, No. 4, 2020 ). In early puberty, regions of the brain linked to emotions and social behavior are developing more quickly than regions responsible for the cognitive control of behavior, such as the prefrontal cortex, Ethier said.
Those developmental changes drive young people to seek attention and approval from their peers . For some, using social media fulfills that need in a healthy way, providing opportunities for connection and validation to youth who may be isolated from peers, geographically or otherwise.
For others, negative messages—including online bullying and unrealistic standards around physical appearance—appear to have a detrimental effect, but more research is needed to understand who is most at risk.
“There is clearly some aspect of young people’s online life that’s contributing [to the mental health crisis], we just don’t know exactly what that is,” said Ethier.
Finally, structural factors that affect millions of U.S. children, including poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, and lack of access to health care and educational opportunities, can lead to stress-response patterns that are known to underlie mental health challenges.
“Even in very young children, prolonged stress can trigger a cycle of emotion-regulation problems, which can in turn lead to anxiety, depression, and behavioral difficulties,” Hoagwood said. “These things are well established, but we’re not doing enough as a field to address them.”
The biggest challenge facing mental health care providers right now, experts say, is a shortage of providers trained to meet the mounting needs of children and adolescents.
“There’s a growing recognition that mental health is just as important as physical health in young people’s development, but that’s happening just as mental health services are under extreme strain,” said clinical psychologist Robin Gurwitch, PhD, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center.
Schools, for example, are a key way to reach and help children—but a 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that only about half of U.S. public schools offer mental health assessments and even fewer offer treatment services. Psychologists are now ramping up efforts to better equip schools to support student well-being onsite.
Much of that work involves changing policies at the school or district level to provide more support for all students. For example, school connectedness—the degree to which young people feel that adults and peers at school care about them and are invested in their success—is a key contributor to mental health. Youth who felt connected during middle and high school have fewer problems with substance use, mental health, suicidality, and risky sexual behavior as adults ( Steiner, R. J., et al., Pediatrics , Vol. 144, No. 1, 2019 ).
Through its What Works in Schools program , the CDC funds school districts to make changes that research shows foster school connectedness. Those include improving classroom management, implementing service-learning programs for students in their communities, bringing mentors from the community into schools, and making schools safer and more supportive for LGBTQ+ students.
Psychologists are also building training programs to help teachers and other school staff create supportive classrooms and aid students who are in distress. Classroom Wise (Well-Being Information and Strategies for Educators), developed by the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network and the University of Maryland’s National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH), is a free, flexible online course and resource library that draws on psychological research on social-emotional learning, behavioral regulation, mental health literacy, trauma, and more ( Evidence-Based Components of Classroom Wise (PDF, 205KB), NCSMH, 2021 ).
“We’re using evidence-based practices from child and adolescent mental health but making these strategies readily available for teachers to apply in the classroom,” said clinical psychologist Nancy Lever, PhD, codirector of NCSMH, who helped develop Classroom Wise .
The course incorporates the voices of students and educators and teaches actionable strategies such as how to create rules and routines that make classrooms feel safe and how to model emotional self-regulation. The strategies can be used by anyone who interacts with students, from teachers and administrators to school nurses, coaches, and bus drivers.
“What we need is to build capacity through all of the systems that are part of children’s lives—in families, in schools, in the education of everybody who interacts with children,” said psychologist Ann Masten, PhD, a professor of child development at the University of Minnesota.
Other training efforts focus on the students themselves. Given that preteens and teenagers tend to seek support from their peers before turning to adults, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) created conversation cards to equip kids with basic skills for talking about suicide. The advice, available in English and Spanish, includes how to ask about suicidal thoughts, how to listen without judgment, and when to seek guidance from an adult ( Talking About Suicide With Friends and Peers, NCTSN, 2021 ).
While training people across the school population to spot and address mental health concerns can help reduce the strain on mental health professionals, there will always be a subset of students who need more specialized support.
Telehealth, nearly ubiquitous these days, is one of the best ways to do that. In South Carolina, psychologist Regan Stewart, PhD, and her colleagues colaunched the Telehealth Outreach Program at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2015. Today, nearly every school in the state has telehealth equipment (Wi-Fi and tablets or laptops that kids can use at school or take home) and access to providers (psychology and social work graduate students and clinicians trained in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy). Students who need services, which are free thanks to grant funding or covered by Medicaid, meet one-on-one with their clinician during the school day or after hours ( American Psychologist , Vol. 75, No. 8, 2020 ).
“We learned a lot about the use of technology during the pandemic,” Ethier said. “At this point, it’s very much a matter of having sufficient resources so more school districts can access those sources of care.”
Limited resources are leaving families low on options, with some young people making multiple trips to the emergency room for mental health-related concerns or spending more than six months on a waiting list for mental health support. That points to a need for more trained emergency responders and psychiatric beds, psychologists say, but also for better upstream screening and prevention to reduce the need for intensive care.
“Just as we need more capacity for psychiatric emergencies in kids, we also need an infusion of knowledge and ordinary strategies to support mental health on the positive side,” Masten said.
In New York, Hoagwood helped launch the state-funded Evidence Based Treatment Dissemination Center in 2006, which offers free training on evidence-based practices for trauma, behavioral and attention problems, anxiety, depression, and more to all mental health professionals who work with children in state-licensed programs, which include foster care, juvenile justice, and school settings, among others. The center provides training on a core set of tools known as PracticeWise ( Chorpita, B. F., & Daleiden E. L., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , Vol. 77, No. 3, 2009 ). It also offers tailored training based on requests from community agency leaders and clinicians who provide services to children and their families.
Hoagwood, in collaboration with a consortium of family advocates, state officials, and researchers, also helped build and test a state-approved training model and credentialing program for family and youth peer advocates. The peer advocate programs help expand the mental health workforce while giving families access to peers who have similar lived experience ( Psychiatric Services , Vol. 71, No. 5, 2020).
Youth peer advocates are young adults who have personal experience with systems such as foster care, juvenile justice, or state psychiatric care. They work within care teams to provide basic education and emotional support to other youth, such as giving advice on what questions to ask a new mental health practitioner and explaining the differences between psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers. Youth peer advocates in New York can now receive college credit for their training in peer specialist work.
“Making community health work into a viable career can also increase diversity among mental health workers and help us address structural racism,” Hoagwood said.
Pediatricians are another group that can provide a first line of defense, drawing on their relationships with parents to destigmatize mental health care.
“Pediatricians are in many ways uniquely positioned to help address the mental health crisis in youth,” said Janine A. Rethy, MD, MPH, division chief of community pediatrics at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and an associate professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine. “We have the privilege of building long-term relationships with children and their families over many years,” with at least 12 well-child checkups in just the first three years of a child’s life, followed by annual visits.
During these visits, they can watch for warning signs of social and behavioral problems and screen for maternal depression and other issues in parents, which is now recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (PDF, 660KB) . Several new resources provide guidance for integrating mental health care into pediatric practices, including the Behavioral Health Integration Compendium (PDF, 4.1MB) and the Healthy Steps program . But most pediatricians need more education on mental health issues in order to effectively respond, Rethy said—yet another area where psychologists may be able to help. Psychologists can provide direct consultations and training to pediatricians through the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access program.
“The more we can weave mental health knowledge, capacity, and checkpoints into places where parents feel comfortable—like the doctor’s office and at school—the better,” Masten said. “All professionals who work with young people really need the knowledge that’s being generated by psychologists.”
Scientists reach a wider audience
Psychologists take aim at misinformation
Psychological research becomes more inclusive
EDI roles expand
Worker well-being is in demand
Efforts to improve childrens’ mental health increase
Partnerships accelerate progress
Suicide prevention gets a new lifeline
Some faculty exit academia
Venture capitalists shift focus
Psychologists rebrand the field
Science shows how to protect kids’ mental health, but it’s being ignored Prinstein, M., & Ethier, K. A., Scientific American , 2022
How pediatricians can help mitigate the mental health crisis Rethy, J. A., & Chawla, E. M., Contemporary Pediatrics , 2022
Review: Structural racism, children’s mental health service systems, and recommendations for policy and practice change Alvarez, K., et al., Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry , 2022
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We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.
In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.
If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.
Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.
When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.
When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).
The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.
The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:
Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):
Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.
Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.
Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.
The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.
Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.
Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).
You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.
We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?
On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.
For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.
Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .
We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
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First-Person Pronouns. Use first-person pronouns in APA Style to describe your work as well as your personal reactions. If you are writing a paper by yourself, use the pronoun "I" to refer to yourself. If you are writing a paper with coauthors, use the pronoun "we" to refer yourself and your coauthors together.
Similarly, when writing your paper, use first-person pronouns when describing work you did by yourself or work you and your fellow authors did together when conducting your research. For example, use "we interviewed participants" rather than "the authors interviewed participants." When writing an APA Style paper by yourself, use the ...
When writing in APA Style, you can use the first person point of view when discussing your research steps ("I studied ...") and when referring to yourself and your co-authors ("We examined the literature ..."). Use first person to discuss research steps rather than anthropomorphising the work. For example, a study cannot "control" or "interpret ...
In addition to the pointers below, APA 7, Section 4.16 provides information on the appropriate use of first person in scholarly writing. Do: Use the first person singular pronoun appropriately, for example, to describe research steps or to state what you will do in a chapter or section. Do not use first person "I" to state your opinions or ...
Yes, APA language guidelines encourage you to use the first-person pronouns "I" or "we" when referring to yourself or a group including yourself in your writing. In APA Style, you should not refer to yourself in the third person. For example, do not refer to yourself as "the researcher" or "the author" but simply as "I" or ...
Attempts to avoid first person can also lead to anthropomorphism. As the Manual notes (p. 69), an experiment cannot "attempt to demonstrate," but I or we can.; Finally, the use of the editorial we can sometimes be confusing. For example, "we categorize anxiety disorders …" may leave the reader wondering whether we refers to the authors of the current paper, to the research community ...
General Use of I or We. It is totally acceptable to write in the first person in an APA Style paper. If you did something, say, "I did it"—there's no reason to hide your own agency by saying "the author [meaning you] did X" or to convolute things by using the passive "X was done [meaning done by you].". If you're writing a ...
Since 2007, Walden academic leadership has endorsed the APA manual guidance on appropriate use of the first-person singular pronoun "I," allowing the use of this pronoun in all Walden academic writing except doctoral capstone abstracts, which should not contain a first-person pronoun. In addition to the pointers below, the APA manual provides ...
Yes, APA language guidelines encourage you to use the first-person pronouns "I" or "we" when referring to yourself or a group including yourself in your writing. In APA Style, you should not refer to yourself in the third person. For example, do not refer to yourself as "the researcher" or "the author" but simply as "I" or ...
Instead, APA recommends using first person, in this case "I", when you're talking about your own research, actions you've taken, or experiences you've had. Writers should use this first person instead of the third person, which helps avoid ambiguity. Visual: Slide changes to one with the following: Pronouns
First-person object pronouns ("me" and "us") Used as the object of a verb or preposition, the first-person object pronoun takes the form me (singular) or us (plural). Objects can be direct or indirect, but the object pronoun should be used in both cases. A direct object is the person or thing that is acted upon (e.g., "she threatened ...
The answer is more fluid than you might have thought. Depending on your content, institution's requirements, and personal style, you may have the option to use either the first-person or third-person perspective. Just remember to keep it consistent when writing your paper in APA. Here's some additional advice from the APA Style Blog's ...
An APA paper uses scholarly, academic level writing. Point of View and Voice It is recommended to use the first person point of view when discussing research you have conducted. Otherwise, the third person should be used. "We" should only be used to refer to coauthors. It should not be used to refer to people in general (Ex: We as a
First vs Third Person Pronouns. APA recommends avoiding the use of the third person when referring to your self as the primary investigator or author. Use the personal pronoun I or we when referring to steps in an experiment. (see page 120, 4.16 in the APA 7th Edition Manual) Correct: We assessed the vality of the experiment design with a ...
APA Style, you can use the first person point of view when discussing your research steps … Use first person to discuss research steps rather than anthropomorphising the work" (Purdue, 2013). Further reinforcing the direct instruction for first person usage and supporting examples in the Manual, the following statement was on the APA
Basic guidelines for formatting the reference list at the end of a standard APA research paper Author/Authors Rules for handling works by a single author or multiple authors that apply to all APA-style references in your reference list, regardless of the type of work (book, article, electronic resource, etc.)
Crucially, citation practices do not differ between the two styles of paper. However, for your convenience, we have provided two versions of our APA 7 sample paper below: one in student style and one in professional style. Note: For accessibility purposes, we have used "Track Changes" to make comments along the margins of these samples.
APA format suggests writing in the first person. If you are a sole author, use the pronoun "I". If you are co-authoring a paper, use the pronoun "we". Do NOT refer to yourself or your co-authors in the third person as "the author(s)" or "the researcher(s)." ... Research papers written in APA style include four major sections. These sections ...
However, "I" and "we" still have some generally accepted pronoun rules writers should follow. For example, the first person is more likely used in the abstract, Introduction section, Discussion section, and Conclusion section of an academic paper while the third person and passive constructions are found in the Methods section and ...
Topics. Use of the first-person singular pronoun "I". Both Walden and APA allow for and encourage the appropriate use of the first-person pronoun "I" in scholarly writing. However, doctoral capstone abstracts should remain in third person. Use of the first-person plural pronouns "we," "our," or "us". The general use of "we," "our," or "us ...
Many writers have been told by teachers not to use the first-person perspective (indicated by words such as I, we, my, and our) when writing academic papers. However, in certain rhetorical situations, self-references can strengthen our argument and clarify our perspective. Depending on the genre and discipline of the academic paper, there may ...
It is perfectly acceptable to use the first person, both in the I form and the we form in an academic paper. Those who say you cannot use the first person even in academic writing are simply wrong. Thousands of papers right now do it and the APA guide specifically says those people are wrong (as do other guides).
No. Even a philosophy paper written in first person would become an opinion paper. A research paper is meant to present academic findings, no matter what field you are in. For instance, a research paper on wildlife theory would never be written in first person. It is even the standard for a rhetorical analysis on Socrates to avoid first person.
The authority on APA Style and the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual. Find tutorials, the APA Style Blog, how to format papers in APA Style, and other resources to help you improve your writing, master APA Style, and learn the conventions of scholarly publishing.
When a DOI or URL is long or complex, you may use shortDOIs or shortened URLs if desired. Use the shortDOI service provided by the International DOI Foundation to create shortDOIs. A work can have only one DOI and only one shortDOI; the shortDOI service will either produce a new shortDOI for a work that has never had one or retrieve an existing shortDOI.
The Covid-19 pandemic era ushered in a new set of challenges for youth in the United States, leading to a mental health crisis as declared by the United States surgeon general just over a year ago.But U.S. children and teens have been suffering for far longer. In the 10 years leading up to the pandemic, feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness—as well as suicidal thoughts and ...
Center the due date on the next double-spaced line after the instructor name. Use the date format commonly used in your country. October 18, 2020 18 October 2020. Page number. Use the page number 1 on the title page. Use the automatic page-numbering function of your word processing program to insert page numbers in the top right corner of the ...
We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test, and we know our roles in a Turing test.And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we've spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT.