Developed by a group of experts in psychology, the first APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (APA Style Jars) were published in December 2008. In 2018 the standards were revised to include additional article types and methodologies, with the aim of increasing transparency and facilitating the assessment of rigor in psychological science. The revised standards included qualitative and mixed methods research for the first time. In 2023, the standards were updated once more with the addition of the Journal Article Reporting Standards for Race, Ethnicity, and Culture, or Jars–rec, providing guidance on how to discuss race, ethnicity, and culture within scientific manuscripts in the field of psychology.
APA Style Jars provide researchers in psychology with a structured guide to communicate fundamental components of their research. Guidelines are available for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. Users can access a freely available flowchart (PDF, 97KB)opens in new window online to discern which quantitative tables are most appropriate for their research. The guidelines are also available in Chapter 3 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition.
APA Style Jars are primarily useful for authors developing manuscripts, as well as reviewers and editors during manuscript evaluation. Additionally, the standards can be used by educators and students in the social sciences. Instructors of research methods courses have found APA Style Jars particularly useful: the standards allow students to understand not only the structure of a scholarly article but also the importance of transparency in research.
Many journals recommend the use of APA Style Jars—this information can be found in the instructions to authors on the journal website. In addition, journals may direct authors to other reporting standards appropriate to their disciplines. Examples in use now include those from the equator Network (e.g., consort for randomized controlled trials and pilot and feasibility studies, prisma for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and strobe for observational studies). For more in-depth information about APA Style JARS, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page.