I thought the rule was that if the letter/abbreviation could be confused with some other meaning then the use of italics indicated that the term was being used for its mathematical meaning.
So I could have a study that used two groups: "Special Delivery" (SD) and "Ordinary Delivery" (OD). In that case, SD would not be italicized and when I saw an italicized SD then I would know I was looking at a math measure of variability.
ANOVA is not likely to be confused as anything other than the stat procedure.
I am with Karl on this point, CI, the confidence interval, should be italicized to distinguish it from CI, the "Contingent Instruction" group.
Ken Serafin, John wrote:
Heh, trying to figure out why some things are italicized and other things are not has always baffled me. The closest I've ever come to understanding it is to try to distinguish between symbols vs. abbreviations. So, for example, ANOVA is an abbreviation (and therefore not italicized); M is a symbol (and so is italicized). What is CI? Perhaps APA has decided it's an abbreviation, just as they've also apparently decided that HSD is an abbreviation rather than a symbol. <shrug> What I tell my students: Please don't ever ask me to explain or justify these details of APA formatting. All I do is enforce them. John -- John Serafin Psychology Department Saint Vincent College Latrobe, PA 15650 [email protected] From: "Wuensch, Karl L" <[email protected]> Reply-To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:27:28 -0400 To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Conversation: APA 6: CI, no italics Subject: [tips] APA 6: CI, no italics I also noted that "CI" (NOT set in italic font) is now the approved symbol for "confidence interval," as in "p = .006, CI [.13, .27]." Why not italic font? I have always though of a confidence interval as a statistic. Cheers, Karl W. -----Original Message-----
--------------------------------------------------------------- Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [email protected] Professor and Assistant Chairperson Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608 USA --------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
