The decision on the use of the APA style has touched a nerve.
To us living in other countries the situation is worse, for example:
* In South Africa the South African Journal of Psychology
requires that we should use an adapted version of the
APA style. Although the differences are relatively small,
they are still there and students/colleagues are regularly
criticised by referees who only know either the adapted or "real"
APA Style.
* I might be wrong, but I think that psychologists in other
countries tend ot publish more in foreign journals
than Americans do. And each time it is a major effort to
study and apply the required style of each country and journal.
* The situation becomes worse when you want to publish an
article in a related but non-psychology journal such as a
law journal. Over here the law journals require footnotes where all sorts of Latin terms are used. I usually try to solve the problem by paying a graduate law student or research assistant to do it for me.
I don't know whether we are unique over here (I doubt it), but some if not many of my colleagues tend to be totally obsessive when it comes to the correct reference styles. It seems that it is the highligh of their day when they can catch out a colleague or student for (eg) using a comma instead of a period/full stop. The situation is aggravated by the fact that different departments teach their students different styles. And once they get to psychology (postgraduate) they have to learn a new style and often end up by using a combination of the different styles --- which really makes the day of some people!
I personally also have problems with certain aspects of the APA Style. One of several examples: When you have a personal interview with an expert, you are only suppose to mention "personal communication", the person's name and the date in the text --- without putting it in the reference list. I strongly believe that every reference should be verifiable, but in this case it is impossible. How do I get hold of the person mentioned in the text to see whether he was quoted correctly, to get more information from him/her, or just to see what postion he holds? I believe that the full particulars (especially position and address) of such a person should be available in the reference list.
How are we going to solve this irritating and frustrating problem? I don't know (!) but here are few suggestions:
1. The specific style that an author is using should be respected
and deviations from the prescribed style should be viewed with
understanding. It speaks for itself that there should be (broad)
guidelines which the author should follow, but (minor) deviations should rather be corrected by the language editor/supervisor than condemming the author/student as "incapable of scientific writing".
2. The overriding prerequisite should be that the style should be
consistent and that the references should be traceable and
verifiable. The rest is trimmings.
3. Is there any possibility that the different related disciplines can
get together and come up with similar basic guidelines? However, you don't need Psych 101 to realise human nature will not allow this.
Dap
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DAP LOUW, PH.D.(Psych.), PH.D.(Crim.)
HEAD: CENTRE FOR BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
PROFESSOR: DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE
P.O. BOX 339
BLOEMFONTEIN
9300 SOUTH AFRICA TEL: INTL + 51 + 401-2444 (Work)
436-3423 (Home)
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