What Does Et Al. Mean?

What Does Et Al. Mean

How do you use et al?

The abbreviation ‘et al.’ (meaning ‘and others’) is used to shorten APA in-text citations with three or more authors. Here’s how it works: Only include the first author’s last name, followed by ‘et al.’, a comma and the year of publication, for example (Taylor et al., 2018).

What does et al stand for?

‘Et al.’ is short for the Latin term ‘et alia,’ which means ‘ and others.’ It is used in academic citations when referring to a source with multiple authors.

Is it polite to use et al?

What Does “et al.” Mean? – If you think that the abbreviation “et al.” doesn’t even sound like English, you’re right. It’s not English, but Latin. Latin terms are often used in English writing, especially academic writing. “et al.” is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase “et alia.” “Et alia” literally translated means “and others.” “Et al.” is therefore most frequently used to indicate multiple authors of a cited work.

“Et al.” has some strong similarities to other Latin abbreviations, namely “etc.” “Etc.” is an abbreviation of another Latin phrase “et cetera.” “Et al.” and “etc.” are easily confused because “etc.” also means “and others.” However, English writers distinguish clearly between “et al.” and “etc.” using one simple rule,

“Et al.” is used for people, while “etc.” is used for things or animals. For example, we could say “Jinkyung et al. went to the grocery store to buy ice cream, cookies, etc.” “Et al.” lets us know there are additional people besides Jinkyung, while “etc.” lets us know that they bought other items in addition to ice cream and cookies.

  1. Etc.” is used widely in both formal and informal situations, while “et al.” is generally limited to formal academic writing.
  2. One lesser known use of “et al.” is as an abbreviation of “et alibi.” “Et alibi” translates to “and elsewhere.” It is used in academic writing to indicate locations that do not appear in a list.

For example, we could write “Magpies of the genus Pica are found in temperate regions of Europe, Asia, et alibi.” However, “et al.” is not used in this way very often, and for the rest of this article, we will focus on how to use “et al.” as a short form of “et alia.”

Is it proper to use et al in an email?

Use it in an email greeting by saying, ‘Dear Mr. Smith et al.,’ when there is more than one recipient. For punctuation, always follow the abbreviation with a period since it’s short for ‘et alia’ or ‘and others.’

Is et al only for people?

Should only be used to describe people. However, it is used (albeit infrequently) in reference to other things as well. Et al. is most commonly found in scholarly writing, especially when used to avoid having to list a number of different authors in a bibliography or footnote.

How do you cite 2 authors?

Two Authors – Works by two authors should list the last names and first initials separated by an ampersand (&). These names should be followed by the date of publication enclosed in parentheses. If the work is a journal article, the title of the article should immediately follow the publication date.

Kanfer, F.H., & Busemeyer, J.R. (1982). The use of problem-solving and decision-making in behavior therapy, Clinical Psychology Review, 2 (2), 239-266. Buss, A.H., & Pomin, R. (1975). A temperament theory of personality development, Erlbaum.

In-text citations of works by two authors should include the surnames of both authors separated by the word “and” or by an ampersand if using parenthesis. For example: Studies by Buss and Pomin (1975) support. or (Buss & Pomin, 1975).

Do you use et al for 3 authors?

A Work by Three or More Authors – List only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, even the first, unless doing so would create ambiguity between different sources. (Kernis et al., 1993) Kernis et al. (1993) suggest. In et al.

  1. Et should not be followed by a period.
  2. Only “al” should be followed by a period.
  3. If you’re citing multiple works with similar groups of authors, and the shortened “et al” citation form of each source would be the same, you’ll need to avoid ambiguity by writing out more names.
  4. If you cited works with these authors: Jones, Smith, Liu, Huang, and Kim (2020) Jones, Smith, Ruiz, Wang, and Stanton (2020) They would be cited in-text as follows to avoid ambiguity: (Jones, Smith, Liu, et al., 2020) (Jones, Smith, Ruiz, et al., 2020) Since et al.

is plural, it should always be a substitute for more than one name. In the case that et al. would stand in for just one author, write the author’s name instead.

What does etc vs et al mean?

When to use “etc.” vs. “et al.” – Both Latin phrases are used when writing or talking about lists. “Et al.” is used to reference other people not specifically named in your list. “Etc.” is used when listing groups of nouns and adjectives. Other examples of how to use both phrases are: The bakery had a large variety of donut flavors, like chocolate, jelly, glazed, etc.

  • In this sentence, “etc.” is used to list the abundance of other flavors the bakery offers without listing them all.
  • The authors of the clinical study are Jane Doe, John Doe, Billy Bob, John Johnson, et al.
  • This sentence uses “et al.” to list the other authors of the clinical study that aren’t specifically mentioned.

Members of the football team, John, Bob, Mike, et al., gave the fans different flavored popsicles, like cherry, blue raspberry, lime, etc. This example uses both Latin phrases. “Et al.” is used as a placement for the other members of the football team.

Etc.” is used to describe the rest of the popsicle flavors offered to fans. “Etc.” and “et al.” aren’t the only commonly misused words and phrases in the complex English language. No matter the origin of the phrase, it’s easy to get words that sound alike, have close spellings, or have similar meanings mixed up.

Learn the differences between commonly confused words and phrases so that you can speak and write clearly,

Can you use et al casually?

Latin may technically be a dead language, but that hasn’t stopped us from adopting many of its phrases into our everyday English vocabulary. English phrases are difficult to spell correctly without throwing an extra language in the mix, so it’s no surprise that these untranslated words and phrases are misused frequently.

Can you say et al in a speech?

The standard English pronunciation can be found in a dictionary, see, e.g., et al. at MacMillan dictionary. However, during a presentation, instead of reading that abbreviation, it is probably nicer to say something like: ‘Smith and his/her group/coauthors/colleagues published the paper ‘.

Do we use et al in Harvard?

How do I cite a source with multiple authors in Harvard style? Methodology refers to the overarching strategy and rationale of your research. Developing your involves studying the used in your field and the or principles that underpin them, in order to choose the approach that best matches your objectives.

  1. Methods are the specific tools and procedures you use to collect and analyse data (e.g.
  2. Interviews,,, ).
  3. Deals with numbers and statistics, while deals with words and meanings.
  4. Quantitative methods allow you to by systematically collecting and analysing data, while qualitative methods allow you to explore ideas and experiences in depth.

A sample is a subset of individuals from a larger population. Sampling means selecting the group that you will actually collect data from in your research. For example, if you are researching the opinions of students in your university, you could a sample of 100 students.

  • To familiarise yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
  • To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
  • To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved that your research can address
  • To develop your and
  • To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute. uses an author–date system. Sources are cited by the author’s last name and the publication year in brackets. Each corresponds to an entry in the alphabetised at the end of the paper.

Harvard style Vancouver style
In-text citation Each referencing style has different rules (Pears and Shields, 2019). Each referencing style has different rules (1).
Reference list Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2019). Cite them right: The essential referencing guide,11th edn. London: MacMillan. 1. Pears R, Shields G. Cite them right: The essential referencing guide.11th ed. London: MacMillan; 2019.

A should appear in brackets every time you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source. The citation can appear immediately after the quotation or paraphrase, or at the end of the sentence. If you’re quoting, place the citation outside of the quotation marks but before any other punctuation like a comma or full stop.

  • A bibliography should always contain every source you cited in your text.
  • Sometimes a bibliography also contains other sources that you used in your research, but did not cite in the text.
  • Doesn’t specify a rule about this, so check with your supervisor to find out exactly what should be included in your bibliography.

Footnote numbers should appear in superscript (e.g.11 ). You can use the ‘Insert footnote’ button in Word to do this automatically; it’s in the ‘References’ tab at the top. Footnotes always appear after the quote or paraphrase they relate to. generally recommends placing footnote numbers at the end of the sentence, immediately after any closing punctuation, like this.12 In situations where this might be awkward or misleading, such as a long sentence containing multiple quotations, footnotes can also be placed at the end of a clause mid-sentence, like this; 13 note that they still come after any punctuation.

Number of authors Footnote example Bibliography example
1 author David Smith Smith, David
2 authors David Smith and Hugh Jones Smith, David, and Hugh Jones
3 authors David Smith, Hugh Jones and Emily Wright Smith, David, Hugh Jones and Emily Wright
4+ authors David Smith and others Smith, David, and others

Note that in the bibliography, only the author listed first has their name inverted. The names of additional authors and those of translators or editors are written normally. A citation should appear wherever you use information or ideas from a source, whether by or its content.

  • In, you have some flexibility about where the citation number appears in the sentence – usually directly after mentioning the author’s name is best, but simply placing it at the end of the sentence is an acceptable alternative, as long as it’s clear what it relates to.
  • In, when you refer to a source with multiple authors in your text, you should only name the first author followed by ‘et al.’.

This applies even when there are only two authors. In your reference list, include up to six authors. For sources with seven or more authors, list the first six followed by ‘et al.’. The words ‘’ and ‘thesis’ both refer to a large written research project undertaken to complete a degree, but they are used differently depending on the country:

  • In the UK, you write a dissertation at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and you write a thesis to complete a PhD.
  • In the US, it’s the other way around: you may write a thesis at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and you write a dissertation to complete a PhD.

The main difference is in terms of scale – a dissertation is usually much longer than the other essays you complete during your degree. Another key difference is that you are given much more independence when working on a dissertation. You choose your own, and you have to conduct the research and write the dissertation yourself (with some assistance from your supervisor).

  • An undergraduate dissertation is typically 8,000–15,000 words
  • A master’s dissertation is typically 12,000–50,000 words
  • A PhD thesis is typically book-length: 70,000–100,000 words

However, none of these are strict guidelines – your word count may be lower or higher than the numbers stated here. Always check the guidelines provided by your university to determine how long your own dissertation should be. At the bachelor’s and master’s levels, the dissertation is usually the main focus of your final year.

  • You might work on it (alongside other classes) for the entirety of the final year, or for the last six months.
  • This includes formulating an idea, doing the research, and writing up.
  • A PhD thesis takes a longer time, as the thesis is the main focus of the degree.
  • A PhD thesis might be being formulated and worked on for the whole four years of the degree program.

The writing process alone can take around 18 months. References should be included in your text whenever you use words, ideas, or information from a source. A source can be anything from a book or journal article to a website or YouTube video. If you don’t acknowledge your sources, you can get in trouble for.

Your university should tell you which referencing style to follow. If you’re unsure, check with a supervisor. Commonly used styles include: Your university may have its own referencing style guide. If you are allowed to choose which style to follow, we recommend Harvard referencing, as it is a straightforward and widely used style.

To, always include a reference when you use words, ideas or information from a source. This shows that you are not trying to pass the work of others off as your own. You must also properly or the source. If you’re not sure whether you’ve done this correctly, you can use the to find and correct any mistakes.

In, when you directly from a source that includes page numbers, your must include a page number. For example: (Smith, 2014, p.33). You can also include page numbers to point the reader towards a passage that you, If you refer to the general ideas or findings of the source as a whole, you don’t need to include a page number.

When you want to use a quote but can’t access the original source, you can cite it indirectly. In the, first mention the source you want to refer to, and then the source in which you found it. For example: Smith (1995, cited in Davies, 2005) divides the process into four steps It’s advisable to avoid indirect citations wherever possible, because they suggest you don’t have full knowledge of the sources you’re citing.

  • (Smith, 2019a)
  • (Smith, 2019b)

Add ‘a’ to the first one you cite, ‘b’ to the second, and so on. Do the same in your, To create a hanging indent for your :

  1. Highlight all the entries
  2. Click on the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the ‘Paragraph’ tab in the top menu.
  3. In the pop-up window, under ‘Special’ in the ‘Indentation’ section, use the drop-down menu to select ‘Hanging’.
  4. Then close the window with ‘OK’.

Though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a difference in meaning:

  • A reference list only includes sources cited in the text – every entry corresponds to an,
  • A bibliography also includes other sources which were consulted during the research but not cited.

It’s important to assess the reliability of information found online. Look for sources from established publications and institutions with expertise (e.g. peer-reviewed journals and government agencies). The (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose) can aid you in assessing sources, as can our,

You should generally that can be edited by anyone – instead, look for the original source of the information in the “References” section. You can generally omit page numbers in your in-text citations of which don’t have them. But when you quote or paraphrase a specific passage from a particularly long online source, it’s useful to find an alternate location marker.

For text-based sources, you can use paragraph numbers (e.g. ‘para.4′) or headings (e.g. ‘under “Methodology”‘). With video or audio sources, use a timestamp (e.g. ‘10:15’). In the of your thesis or dissertation, you should first thank those who helped you academically or professionally, such as your supervisor, funders, and other academics.

Then you can include personal thanks to friends, family members, or anyone else who supported you during the process. Yes, it’s important to thank your supervisor(s) in the section of your, Even if you feel your supervisor did not contribute greatly to the final product, you still should acknowledge them, if only for a very brief thank you.

If you do not include your supervisor, it may be seen as a snub. In a thesis or dissertation, the should usually be no longer than one page. There is no minimum length. You may acknowledge God in your thesis or dissertation, but be sure to follow academic convention by also thanking the relevant members of academia, as well as family, colleagues, and friends who helped you.

  1. Apply heading styles throughout the document.
  2. In the references section in the ribbon, locate the Table of Contents group.
  3. Click the arrow next to the Table of Contents icon and select Custom Table of Contents.
  4. Select which levels of headings you would like to include in the table of contents.
  5. Click OK.

Make sure to update your table of contents if you move text or change headings. To update, simply right click and select Update Field. The in a thesis or dissertation always goes between your abstract and your introduction. An abbreviation is a shortened version of an existing word, such as Dr for Doctor.

In contrast, an acronym uses the first letter of each word to create a wholly new word, such as UNESCO (an acronym for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Your dissertation sometimes contains a, As a rule of thumb, write the explanation in full the first time you use an acronym or abbreviation.

You can then proceed with the shortened version. However, if the abbreviation is very common (like UK or PC), then you can just use the abbreviated version straight away. Be sure to add each abbreviation in your ! If you only used a few abbreviations in your thesis or dissertation, you don’t necessarily need to include a,

If your abbreviations are numerous, or if you think they won’t be known to your audience, it’s never a bad idea to add one. They can also improve readability, minimising confusion about abbreviations unfamiliar to your reader. A list of abbreviations is a list of all the you used in your thesis or dissertation.

It should appear at the beginning of your document, immediately after your, It should always be in alphabetical order. have a few different names that are used interchangeably, including herringbone diagram, cause-and-effect diagram, and Ishikawa diagram.

  1. These are all ways to refer to the same thing– a problem-solving approach that uses a fish-shaped diagram to model possible root causes of problems and troubleshoot solutions.
  2. Also called herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, and Ishikawa diagrams) are most popular in fields of quality management.

They are also commonly used in nursing and healthcare, or as a brainstorming technique for students. Some synonyms and near synonyms of include:

  • Amid
  • In the company of
  • In the middle of
  • Surrounded by

Some synonyms and near synonyms of include:

  • In the space separating
  • In the time separating

is a used to mean ‘‘, ‘notwithstanding’, or ‘even though’. It’s always used in a subordinate clause to contrast with the information given in the main clause of a sentence (e.g., ‘Amy continued to watch TV, in spite of the time’). is a used to mean ‘‘, ‘notwithstanding’, or ‘even though’.

  • It’s used in a subordinate clause to contrast with information given in the main clause of a sentence (e.g., ‘Despite the stress, Joe loves his job’).
  • Log in’ is a meaning ‘connect to an electronic device, system, or app’.
  • The ‘to’ is often used directly after the verb; ‘in’ and ‘to’ should be written as two separate words (e.g., ‘ log the app to update privacy settings’).

‘Log into’ is sometimes used instead of ‘log in to’, but this is generally considered incorrect (as is ‘login to’). Some synonyms and near synonyms of include:

  • Confirm
  • Guarantee
  • Make certain
  • Make sure
  • Verify

Some synonyms and near synonyms of include:

  • Convince
  • Persuade
  • Promise

Rest assured is an expression meaning ‘you can be certain’ (e.g., ‘Rest assured, I will find your cat’). ‘Assured’ is the adjectival form of the verb, meaning ‘convince’ or ‘persuade’. Some synonyms and near synonyms for include:

  • Assembly
  • Board
  • Committee
  • Commission
  • Panel

There are numerous synonyms and near synonyms for the two meanings of :

Advise (verb) Advice (noun)
Direct Direction
Guide Guidance
Instruct Instruction

AI writing tools can be used to perform a variety of tasks. writing tools (like ) generate text based on human inputs and can be used for interactive learning, to provide feedback, or to generate research questions or outlines. These tools can also be used to paraphrase or summarise text or to identify grammar and punctuation mistakes.

  • Y ou can also use,, and, which are designed specifically for these purposes.
  • Using AI writing tools (like ) to write your essay is usually considered and may result in penalisation, unless it is allowed by your university.
  • Text generated by AI tools is based on existing texts and therefore cannot provide unique insights.

Furthermore, these outputs sometimes contain factual inaccuracies or grammar mistakes. However, AI writing tools can be used effectively as a source of feedback and inspiration for your writing (e.g., to generate ). Other AI tools, like grammar checkers, can help identify and eliminate grammar and punctuation mistakes to enhance your writing.

  1. The Scribbr Knowledge Base is a collection of free resources to help you succeed in academic research, writing, and citation.
  2. Every week, we publish helpful step-by-step guides, clear examples, simple templates, engaging videos, and more.
  3. The Knowledge Base is for students at all levels.
  4. Whether you’re writing your first essay, working on your bachelor’s or master’s dissertation, or getting to grips with your PhD research, we’ve got you covered.

As well as the Knowledge Base, Scribbr provides many other tools and services to support you in academic writing and citation:

  • Create your citations and manage your reference list with our free Reference Generators in and style.
  • Scan your paper for in-text citation errors and inconsistencies with our innovative,
  • Avoid accidental plagiarism with our reliable,
  • Polish your writing and get feedback on structure and clarity with our,

Yes! We’re happy for educators to use our content, and we’ve even adapted some of our articles into ready-made, You are free to display, distribute, and adapt Scribbr materials in your classes or upload them in private learning environments like Blackboard.

We only ask that you credit Scribbr for any content you use. We’re always striving to improve the Knowledge Base. If you have an idea for a topic we should cover, or you notice a mistake in any of our articles, let us know by emailing, The vary depending on the and the context in which it occurs. For example, submitting a whole paper by someone else will have the most severe consequences, while accidental citation errors are considered less serious.

If you’re a student, then you might fail the course, be suspended or expelled, or be obligated to attend a workshop on plagiarism. It depends on whether it’s your first offence or you’ve done it before. As an academic or professional, plagiarising seriously damages your reputation.

You might also lose your research funding or your job, and you could even face legal consequences for copyright infringement. without crediting the original author is a form of, because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own. However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly,

This means including an referencing and a, formatted according to your required citation style (e.g.,, ). As well as referencing your source, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words. Accidental plagiarism is one of the most common of,

Perhaps you forgot to cite a source, or paraphrased something a bit too closely. Maybe you can’t remember where you got an idea from, and aren’t totally sure if it’s original or not. These all count as plagiarism, even though you didn’t do it on purpose. When in doubt, make sure you’re, Also consider running your work through a prior to submission, which by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence. The accuracy depends on the plagiarism checker you use. Per, Scribbr is the most accurate plagiarism checker. Many free plagiarism checkers fail to detect all plagiarism or falsely flag text as plagiarism.

by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts. Their accuracy is determined by two factors: the algorithm (which recognises the plagiarism) and the size of the database (with which your document is compared). can be detected by your professor or readers if the tone, formatting, or style of your text is different in different parts of your paper, or if they’re familiar with the plagiarised source.

Many universities also use like Turnitin’s, which compares your text to a large database of other sources, flagging any similarities that come up. It can be easier than you think to commit plagiarism by accident. Consider using a prior to submitting your essay to ensure you haven’t missed any citations.

  • Copying and pasting a into the body of an assignment
  • Quoting a source without including a citation
  • Not paraphrasing a source properly (e.g. maintaining wording too close to the original)
  • Forgetting to cite the source of an idea

The most surefire way to is to always, When in doubt, cite! means taking an entire work written by someone else and passing it off as your own. This can include getting someone else to write an essay or assignment for you, or submitting a text you found online as your own work.

  • Global plagiarism is one of the most serious types of plagiarism because it involves deliberately and directly lying about the authorship of a work.
  • It can have severe for students and professionals alike.
  • Means copying text from a source and pasting it directly into your own document without giving proper credit.

If the structure and the majority of the words are the same as in the original source, then you are committing verbatim plagiarism. This is the case even if you delete a few words or replace them with synonyms. If you want to use an author’s exact words, you need to the original source by putting the copied text in quotation marks and including an,

, also called mosaic plagiarism, means copying phrases, passages, or ideas from various existing sources and combining them to create a new text. This includes slightly rephrasing some of the content, while keeping many of the same words and the same structure as the original. While this type of plagiarism is more insidious than simply copying and pasting directly from a source, plagiarism checkers like Turnitin’s can still easily detect it.

To avoid plagiarism in any form, remember to, Yes, reusing your own work without citation is considered, This can range from resubmitting an entire assignment to reusing passages or data from something you’ve handed in previously. Self-plagiarism often has the same as other,

  • If you want to reuse content you wrote in the past, make sure to check your university’s policy or consult your professor.
  • If you are reusing content or data you used in a previous assignment, make sure to cite yourself.
  • You can cite yourself the same way you would cite any other source: simply follow the directions for the you are using.

Keep in mind that reusing prior content can be considered, so make sure you ask your instructor or consult your university’s handbook prior to doing so. Most institutions have an internal database of previously submitted student assignments. Turnitin can check for by comparing your paper against this database.

If you’ve reused parts of an assignment you already submitted, it will flag any similarities as potential plagiarism. Online plagiarism checkers don’t have access to your institution’s database, so they can’t detect self-plagiarism of unpublished work. If you’re worried about accidentally self-plagiarising, you can use to upload your unpublished documents and check them for similarities.

Plagiarism has serious and can be illegal in certain scenarios. While most of the time plagiarism in an undergraduate setting is not illegal, plagiarism or in a professional academic setting can lead to legal action, including copyright infringement and fraud.

  • Many scholarly journals do not allow you to submit the same work to more than one journal, and if you do not credit a coauthor, you could be legally defrauding them.
  • Even if you aren’t breaking the law, plagiarism can seriously impact your academic career.
  • While the exact consequences of plagiarism vary by institution and severity, common consequences include a lower grade, automatically failing a course, academic suspension or probation, and even expulsion.

means recycling work that you’ve previously published or submitted as an assignment. It’s considered to present something as brand new when you’ve already gotten credit and perhaps feedback for it in the past. If you want to refer to ideas or data from previous work, be sure to yourself.

  • Means being honest, ethical, and thorough in your academic work.
  • To maintain academic integrity, you should avoid misleading your readers about any part of your research and refrain from offences like and contract cheating, which are examples of academic misconduct.
  • Refers to deceitful or misleading behavior in an academic setting.

Academic dishonesty can occur intentionally or unintentionally, and it varies in severity. It can encompass paying for a pre-written essay, cheating on an exam, or committing, It can also include helping others cheat, copying a friend’s homework answers, or even pretending to be sick to miss an exam.

  • Academic dishonesty doesn’t just occur in a classroom setting, but also in research and other academic-adjacent fields.
  • Consequences of depend on the severity of the offence and your institution’s policy.
  • They can range from a warning for a first offence to a failing grade in a course to expulsion from your university.

For those in certain fields, such as nursing, engineering, or lab sciences, not learning fundamentals properly can directly impact the health and safety of others. For those working in academia or research, academic dishonesty impacts your professional reputation, leading others to doubt your future work.

  1. Can be intentional or unintentional, ranging from something as simple as claiming to have read something you didn’t to copying your neighbour’s answers on an exam.
  2. You can commit academic dishonesty with the best of intentions, such as helping a friend cheat on a paper.
  3. Severe academic dishonesty can include buying a pre-written essay or the answers to a multiple-choice test, or falsifying a medical emergency to avoid taking a final exam.

means presenting someone else’s work as your own without giving proper credit to the original author. In academic writing, plagiarism involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without including a, Plagiarism can have serious, even when it’s done accidentally.

To avoid plagiarism, it’s important to keep track of your sources and cite them correctly. does not need to be cited. However, you should be extra careful when deciding what counts as common knowledge. Common knowledge encompasses information that the average educated reader would accept as true without needing the extra validation of a source or citation.

Common knowledge should be widely known, undisputed, and easily verified. When in doubt, always Most online plagiarism checkers only have access to public databases, whose software doesn’t allow you to compare two documents for plagiarism. However, in addition to our, Scribbr also offers an, What Does Et Al. Mean What Does Et Al. Mean What Does Et Al. Mean The you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your,

  • If you want to measure something or, use, If you want to explore ideas, thoughts, and meanings, use,
  • If you want to analyse a large amount of readily available data, use secondary data. If you want data specific to your purposes with control over how they are generated, collect primary data.
  • If you want to establish cause-and-effect relationships between, use methods. If you want to understand the characteristics of a research subject, use methods.

Methodology refers to the overarching strategy and rationale of your, It involves studying the used in your field and the or principles behind them, in order to develop an approach that matches your objectives. Methods are the specific tools and procedures you use to collect and analyse data (e.g.

Experiments,, and ). In shorter scientific papers, where the aim is to report the findings of a specific study, you might simply describe what you did in a methods section, In a longer or more complex research project, such as a, you will probably include a, where you explain your approach to answering the and to support your choice of methods.

is the systematic process by which observations or measurements are gathered in research. It is used in many different contexts by academics, governments, businesses, and other organisations. There are various approaches to, but they all share five steps in common:

  1. Prepare and organise your data.
  2. Review and explore your data.
  3. Develop a data coding system.
  4. Assign codes to the data.
  5. Identify recurring themes.

The specifics of each step depend on the focus of the analysis. Some common approaches include,, and, There are five common approaches to :

  • Grounded theory involves collecting data in order to develop new theories.
  • involves immersing yourself in a group or organisation to understand its culture.
  • Narrative research involves interpreting stories to understand how people make sense of their experiences and perceptions.
  • Phenomenological research involves investigating phenomena through people’s lived experiences.
  • Action research links theory and practice in several cycles to drive innovative changes.

Hypothesis testing is a formal procedure for investigating our ideas about the world using statistics. It is used by scientists to test specific predictions, called, by calculating how likely it is that a pattern or relationship between could have arisen by chance.

  • means turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations.
  • For example, the concept of social anxiety isn’t directly observable, but it can be operationally defined in terms of self-rating scores, behavioural avoidance of crowded places, or physical anxiety symptoms in social situations.
  • Before, it’s important to consider how you will operationalise the that you want to measure.

These are four of the most common :

  • Convergent parallel: Quantitative and qualitative data are collected at the same time and analysed separately. After both analyses are complete, compare your results to draw overall conclusions.
  • Embedded: Quantitative and qualitative data are collected at the same time, but within a larger quantitative or qualitative design. One type of data is secondary to the other.
  • sequential: Quantitative data is collected and analysed first, followed by qualitative data. You can use this design if you think your qualitative data will explain and contextualise your quantitative findings.
  • Exploratory sequential: Qualitative data is collected and analysed first, followed by quantitative data. You can use this design if you think the quantitative data will confirm or validate your qualitative findings.

An could be a good fit for your research if your research question is based on things you observe. If you have ethical, logistical, or practical concerns that make an experimental design challenging, consider an observational study. Remember that in an observational study, it is critical that there be no interference or manipulation of the research subjects.

Since it’s not an experiment, there are no control or treatment groups either. The key difference between and experiments is that, done correctly, an observational study will never influence the responses or behaviours of participants. Experimental designs will have a treatment condition applied to at least a portion of participants.

Experimental designs are a set of procedures that you plan in order to examine the relationship between variables that interest you. To design a successful experiment, first identify:

  • A testable hypothesis
  • One or more independent variables that you will manipulate
  • One or more dependent variables that you will measure

When designing the experiment, first decide:

  • How your variable(s) will be manipulated
  • How you will control for any potential confounding or lurking variables
  • How many subjects you will include
  • How you will assign treatments to your subjects

There are four main types of :

  • Data triangulation : Using data from different times, spaces, and people
  • Investigator triangulation : Involving multiple researchers in collecting or analysing data
  • Theory triangulation : Using varying theoretical perspectives in your research
  • Methodological triangulation : Using different methodologies to approach the same topic

can help:

  • Reduce bias that comes from using a single method, theory, or investigator
  • Enhance by approaching the same topic with different tools
  • Establish credibility by giving you a complete picture of the research problem

But triangulation can also pose problems:

  • It’s time-consuming and labour-intensive, often involving an interdisciplinary team.
  • Your results may be inconsistent or even contradictory.

A, also called a confounder or confounding factor, is a third in a study examining a potential cause-and-effect relationship. A confounding variable is related to both the supposed cause and the supposed effect of the study. It can be difficult to separate the true effect of the from the effect of the confounding variable.

  1. In a, every participant experiences only one condition, and researchers assess group differences between participants in various conditions.
  2. In a, each participant experiences all conditions, and researchers test the same participants repeatedly for differences between conditions.
  3. The word ‘between’ means that you’re comparing different conditions between groups, while the word ‘within’ means you’re comparing different conditions within the same group.

A is a type of research design that attempts to establish a cause-and-effect relationship. The main difference between this and a is that the groups are not randomly assigned. In research, is a way of placing participants from your sample into different groups using randomisation.

  • Only requires small samples
  • Statistically powerful
  • Removes the effects of individual differences on the outcomes

Disadvantages:

  • Internal validity threats reduce the likelihood of establishing a direct relationship between variables
  • Time-related effects, such as growth, can influence the outcomes
  • Carryover effects mean that the specific order of different treatments affect the outcomes

In a factorial design, multiple are tested. If you test two variables, each level of one independent variable is combined with each level of the other independent variable to create different conditions. While a has fewer threats to, it also requires more participants for high than a, Advantages:

  • Prevents carryover effects of learning and fatigue.
  • Shorter study duration.

Disadvantages:

  • Needs larger samples for high power.
  • Uses more resources to recruit participants, administer sessions, cover costs, etc.
  • Individual differences may be an alternative explanation for results.

are used to make inferences about populations, Samples are easier to collect data from because they are practical, cost-effective, convenient, and manageable. In, or multistage cluster sampling, you draw a sample from a using smaller and smaller groups at each stage.

  1. This method is often used to from a large, geographically spread group of people in national surveys, for example.
  2. You take advantage of hierarchical groupings (e.g., from county to city to neighbourhood) to create a sample that’s less expensive and time-consuming to collect data from.
  3. Simple random sampling is a type of in which the researcher randomly selects a subset of participants from a,

Each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected. Data are then collected from as large a percentage as possible of this random subset. The is an example of, In order to collect detailed data on the population of the US, the Census Bureau officials randomly select 3.5 million households per year and use a variety of methods to convince them to fill out the survey.

  1. If properly implemented, is usually the best for ensuring both and,
  2. However, it can sometimes be impractical and expensive to implement, depending on the size of the to be studied, If you have a list of every member of the population and the ability to reach whichever members are selected, you can use simple random sampling.

There are three types of : single-stage, double-stage and multi-stage clustering. In all three types, you first divide the population into clusters, then randomly select clusters for use in your sample.

  • In single-stage sampling, you collect data from every unit within the selected clusters.
  • In double-stage sampling, you select a random sample of units from within the clusters.
  • In, you repeat the procedure of randomly sampling elements from within the clusters until you have reached a manageable sample.

is a in which you divide a population into clusters, such as districts or schools, and then randomly select some of these clusters as your sample. The clusters should ideally each be mini-representations of the population as a whole. can simplify data collection when you have large, geographically spread samples, and you can obtain a without a complete sampling frame.

But multistage sampling may not lead to a representative sample, and larger samples are needed for multistage samples to achieve the statistical properties of, In, researchers divide subjects into subgroups called strata based on characteristics that they share (e.g., race, gender, educational attainment).

Once divided, each subgroup is randomly sampled using another. You should use when your sample can be divided into mutually exclusive and exhaustive subgroups that you believe will take on different for the variable that you’re studying. Using stratified sampling will allow you to obtain more precise (with lower ) statistical estimates of whatever you are trying to measure.

For example, say you want to investigate how income differs based on educational attainment, but you know that this relationship can vary based on race. Using stratified sampling, you can ensure you obtain a large enough sample from each racial group, allowing you to draw more precise conclusions. Yes, you can create a using multiple characteristics, but you must ensure that every participant in your study belongs to one and only one subgroup.

In this case, you multiply the numbers of subgroups for each characteristic to get the total number of groups. For example, if you were stratifying by location with three subgroups (urban, rural, or suburban) and marital status with five subgroups (single, divorced, widowed, married, or partnered), you would have 3 × 5 = 15 subgroups.

  1. Define and list your, ensuring that it is not ordered in a cyclical or periodic order.
  2. Decide on your sample size and calculate your interval, k, by dividing your population by your target sample size.
  3. Choose every k th member of the population as your sample.

is a probability where researchers select members of the population at a regular interval – for example, by selecting every 15th person on a list of the population. If the population is in a random order, this can imitate the benefits of, are used when a requires data from every member of the population.

  • This is usually only feasible when the population is small and easily accessible.
  • A statistic refers to measures about the, while a parameter refers to measures about the population,
  • Is the extent to which you can be confident that a cause-and-effect relationship established in a study cannot be explained by other factors.

The of a study is the extent to which you can your findings to different groups of people, situations, and measures. The two are population validity (whether you can to other groups of people) and ecological validity (whether you can generalise to other situations and settings).

can skew your sample so that your final sample differs significantly from your original sample. Your sample is because some groups from your are underrepresented. With a biased final sample, you may not be able to your findings to the original population that you sampled from, so your is compromised. is about how well a test measures the concept it was designed to evaluate.

It’s one of four types of, which includes construct validity,, and criterion validity. There are two subtypes of construct validity.

  • : The extent to which your measure corresponds to measures of related constructs
  • Discriminant validity: The extent to which your measure is unrelated or negatively related to measures of distinct constructs

When designing or evaluating a measure, helps you ensure you’re actually measuring the construct you’re interested in. If you don’t have construct validity, you may inadvertently measure unrelated or distinct constructs and lose precision in your research.

Construct validity is often considered the overarching type of, because it covers all of the other types. You need to have, content validity, and criterion validity to achieve construct validity. are often applied to test validity with data from your measures. You test and discriminant validity with to see if results from your test are positively or negatively related to those of other established tests.

You can also use to assess whether your measure is actually predictive of outcomes that you expect it to predict theoretically. A regression analysis that supports your expectations strengthens your claim of, is about whether a test appears to measure what it’s supposed to measure.

  1. This type of is concerned with whether a measure seems relevant and appropriate for what it’s assessing only on the surface.
  2. Is important because it’s a simple first step to measuring the overall of a test or technique.
  3. It’s a relatively intuitive, quick, and easy way to start checking whether a new measure seems useful at first glance.

Good face validity means that anyone who reviews your measure says that it seems to be measuring what it’s supposed to. With poor face validity, someone reviewing your measure may be left confused about what you’re measuring and why you’re using this method.

It’s often best to ask a variety of people to review your measurements. You can ask experts, such as other researchers, or laypeople, such as potential participants, to judge the of tests. While experts have a deep understanding of, the people you’re studying can provide you with valuable insights you may have missed otherwise.

There are many different types of that people use formally or informally. Here are a few common types:

  • Inductive : You use observations about a to come to a conclusion about the population it came from.
  • Statistical generalisation: You use about samples to make statements about populations.
  • Causal reasoning: You make links between different things.
  • Sign reasoning: You make a conclusion about a correlational relationship between different things.
  • Analogical reasoning: You make a conclusion about something based on its similarities to something else.

is a bottom-up approach, while is top-down. Inductive reasoning takes you from the specific to the general, while in deductive reasoning, you make inferences by going from general premises to specific conclusions. In, you start by making observations or gathering data.

Then, you take a broad scan of your data and search for patterns. Finally, you make general conclusions that you might incorporate into theories. is a method of drawing conclusions by going from the specific to the general. It’s usually with deductive reasoning, where you proceed from general information to specific conclusions.

Inductive reasoning is also called inductive logic or bottom-up reasoning. is a logical approach where you progress from general ideas to specific conclusions. It’s often contrasted with, where you start with specific observations and form general conclusions.

Deductive reasoning is also called deductive logic. is commonly used in scientific research, and it’s especially associated with, In research, you might have come across something called the hypothetico-deductive method, It’s the scientific method of to check whether your predictions are substantiated by real-world data.

A dependent variable is what changes as a result of the independent variable manipulation in, It’s what you’re interested in measuring, and it ‘depends’ on your independent variable. In statistics, dependent variables are also called:

  • (they respond to a change in another variable)
  • Outcome variables (they represent the outcome you want to measure)
  • Left-hand-side variables (they appear on the left-hand side of a regression equation)

An independent variable is the variable you manipulate, control, or vary in an to explore its effects. It’s called ‘independent’ because it’s not influenced by any other variables in the study. Independent variables are also called:

  • (they explain an event or outcome)
  • Predictor variables (they can be used to predict the value of a dependent variable)
  • Right-hand-side variables (they appear on the right-hand side of a equation)

A correlation is usually tested for two variables at a time, but you can test correlations between three or more variables. On graphs, the is conventionally placed on the x -axis, while the response variable is placed on the y -axis.

  • If you have, use a scatterplot or a line graph.
  • If your response variable is categorical, use a scatterplot or a line graph.
  • If your explanatory variable is categorical, use a bar graph.

The term ‘‘ is sometimes preferred over ‘‘ because, in real-world contexts, independent variables are often influenced by other variables. This means they aren’t totally independent. Multiple independent variables may also be correlated with each other, so ‘explanatory variables’ is a more appropriate term. The difference between is simple:

  • An explanatory variable is the expected cause, and it explains the results.
  • A response variable is the expected effect, and it responds to other variables.

There are 4 main types of :

  • : Environmental cues that encourage participants to conform to researchers’ expectations
  • Experimenter effects : Unintentional actions by researchers that influence study outcomes
  • Situational variables : Eenvironmental variables that alter participants’ behaviours
  • Participant variables : Any characteristic or aspect of a participant’s background that could affect study results

An is any variable that you’re not investigating that can potentially affect the of your research study. A is a type of extraneous variable that not only affects the dependent variable, but is also related to the independent variable. A is any variable that’s held constant in a research study.

  1. It’s not a variable of interest in the study, but it’s controlled because it could influence the outcomes.
  2. In statistics, and variables are both considered,
  3. Even though ordinal data can sometimes be numerical, not all mathematical operations can be performed on them.
  4. In scientific research, concepts are the abstract ideas or phenomena that are being studied (e.g., educational achievement).

are properties or characteristics of the concept (e.g., performance at school), while indicators are ways of measuring or quantifying variables (e.g., yearly grade reports). The process of turning abstract concepts into measurable variables and indicators is called,

  1. There are several methods you can use to decrease the impact of on your research: restriction, matching, statistical control, and randomisation.
  2. In restriction, you restrict your by only including certain subjects that have the same values of potential confounding variables.
  3. In matching, you match each of the subjects in your treatment group with a counterpart in the comparison group.

The matched subjects have the same values on any potential confounding variables, and only differ in the, In statistical control, you include potential confounders as variables in your, In randomisation, you randomly assign the treatment (or independent variable) in your study to a sufficiently large number of subjects, which allows you to control for all potential confounding variables.

A is closely related to both the in a study. An independent variable represents the supposed cause, while the dependent variable is the supposed effect, A confounding variable is a third variable that influences both the independent and dependent variables. Failing to account for confounding variables can cause you to wrongly estimate the relationship between your independent and dependent variables.

To ensure the of your research, you must consider the impact of confounding variables. If you fail to account for them, you might over- or underestimate the causal relationship between your, or even find a causal relationship where none exists. Yes, but including more than one of either type requires multiple.

For example, if you are interested in the effect of a diet on health, you can use multiple measures of health: blood sugar, blood pressure, weight, pulse, and many more. Each of these is its own dependent variable with its own research question. You could also choose to look at the effect of exercise levels as well as diet, or even the additional effect of the two combined.

Each of these is a separate, To ensure the of an, you should only change one independent variable at a time. No. The value of a depends on an independent variable, so a variable cannot be both independent and dependent at the same time. It must be either the cause or the effect, not both.

  • The type of cola – diet or regular – is the,
  • The level of blood sugar that you measure is the dependent variable – it changes depending on the type of cola.

Determining cause and effect is one of the most important parts of scientific research. It’s essential to know which is the cause – the – and which is the effect – the dependent variable. Quantitative variables are any variables where the data represent amounts (e.g.

  • Height, weight, or age).
  • Categorical variables are any variables where the data represent groups.
  • This includes rankings (e.g.
  • Finishing places in a race), classifications (e.g.
  • Brands of cereal), and binary outcomes (e.g.
  • Coin flips).
  • You need to know what you are working with to choose the right statistical test for your data and interpret your,

and continuous variables are two types of :

  • Discrete variables represent counts (e.g., the number of objects in a collection).
  • Continuous variables represent measurable amounts (e.g., water volume or weight).

You can think of independent and dependent variables in terms of cause and effect: an is the you think is the cause, while a dependent variable is the effect, In an experiment, you manipulate the independent variable and measure the outcome in the dependent variable. For example, in an experiment about the effect of nutrients on crop growth:

  • The independent variable is the amount of nutrients added to the crop field.
  • The dependent variable is the biomass of the crops at harvest time.

Defining your variables, and deciding how you will manipulate and measure them, is an important part of, Including in your research helps you go beyond studying a simple relationship between two variables for a fuller picture of the real world. They are important to consider when studying complex correlational or causal relationships.

  • It’s caused by the
  • It influences the dependent variable
  • When it’s taken into account, the statistical correlation between the independent and dependent variables is higher than when it isn’t considered

A is a third variable that affects variables of interest and makes them seem related when they are not. In contrast, a is the mechanism of a relationship between two variables: it explains the process by which they are related. A variable explains the process through which two variables are related, while a moderator variable affects the strength and direction of that relationship.

  • You can tailor to your specific research aims (e.g., understanding the needs of your consumers or user testing your website).
  • You can control and standardise the process for high (e.g., choosing appropriate measurements and).

However, there are also some drawbacks: data collection can be time-consuming, labour-intensive, and expensive. In some cases, it’s more efficient to use secondary data that has already been collected by someone else, but the data might be less reliable.

  • You already have a very clear understanding of your topic. Perhaps significant research has already been conducted, or you have done some prior research yourself, but you already possess a baseline for designing strong structured questions.
  • You are constrained in terms of time or resources and need to analyse your data quickly and efficiently
  • Your depends on strong parity between participants, with environmental conditions held constant

More flexible interview options include,, and, The interviewer effect is a type of bias that emerges when a characteristic of an interviewer (race, age, gender identity, etc.) influences the responses given by the interviewee. There is a risk of an interviewer effect in all, but it can be mitigated by writing really high-quality interview questions.

  • You have prior interview experience. Spontaneous questions are deceptively challenging, and it’s easy to accidentally ask a leading question or make a participant uncomfortable.
  • Your is in nature. Participant answers can guide future research questions and help you develop a more robust knowledge base for future research.

An is the most flexible type of interview, but it is not always the best fit for your research topic. Unstructured interviews are best used when:

  • You are an experienced interviewer and have a very strong background in your research topic, since it is challenging to ask spontaneous, colloquial questions
  • Your research question is in nature. While you may have developed hypotheses, you are open to discovering new or shifting viewpoints through the interview process.
  • You are seeking descriptive data, and are ready to ask questions that will deepen and contextualise your initial thoughts and hypotheses
  • Your research depends on forming connections with your participants and making them feel comfortable revealing deeper emotions, lived experiences, or thoughts

A focus group is a that brings together a small group of people to answer questions in a moderated setting. The group is chosen due to predefined demographic traits, and the questions are designed to shed light on a topic of interest. It is one of four,

  • Is the tendency for interview participants to give responses that will be viewed favourably by the interviewer or other participants.
  • It occurs in all and, but is most common in,, and,
  • Social desirability bias can be mitigated by ensuring participants feel at ease and comfortable sharing their views.

Make sure to pay attention to your own body language and any physical or verbal cues, such as nodding or widening your eyes. This type of can also occur in observations if the participants know they’re being observed. They might alter their behaviour accordingly.

  • Open-ended and flexible
  • Impossible to answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (questions that start with ‘why’ or ‘how’ are often best)
  • Unambiguous, getting straight to the point while still stimulating discussion
  • Unbiased and neutral
  • The third variable and directionality problems are two main reasons why,
  • The third variable problem means that a affects both variables to make them seem causally related when they are not.
  • The directionality problem is when two variables correlate and might actually have a causal relationship, but it’s impossible to conclude which variable causes changes in the other.

establish causality, whereas only show associations between variables.

  • In an experimental design, you manipulate an and measure its effect on a dependent variable. Other variables are so they can’t impact the results.
  • In a correlational design, you measure variables without manipulating any of them. You can test whether your variables change together, but you can’t be sure that one variable caused a change in another.

In general, correlational research is high in while experimental research is high in, A is a single number that describes the strength and direction of the relationship between your variables. Different types of correlation coefficients might be appropriate for your data based on their and,

  • A positive correlation means that both variables change in the same direction.
  • A negative correlation means that the variables change in opposite directions.
  • A zero correlation means there’s no relationship between the variables.

can last anywhere from weeks to decades, although they tend to be at least a year long. are better to establish the correct sequence of events, identify changes over time, and provide insight into cause-and-effect relationships, but they also tend to be more expensive and time-consuming than other types of studies.

Longitudinal study Cross-sectional study
Repeated observations Observations at a single point in time
Observes the same group multiple times Observes different groups (a ‘cross-section’) in the population
Follows changes in participants over time Provides snapshot of society at a given point

are less expensive and time-consuming than many other types of study. They can provide useful insights into a population’s characteristics and identify for further research. Sometimes only cross-sectional data are available for analysis; other times your may only require a cross-sectional study to answer it.

  1. A states your predictions about what your research will find.
  2. It is a tentative answer to your that has not yet been tested.
  3. For some research projects, you might have to write several hypotheses that address different aspects of your research question.
  4. A hypothesis is not just a guess.
  5. It should be based on existing theories and knowledge.

It also has to be testable, which means you can support or refute it through scientific (such as experiments, observations, and of data). A research is your proposed answer to your research question. The research hypothesis usually includes an explanation (‘ x affects y because ‘).

A statistical hypothesis, on the other hand, is a mathematical statement about a population parameter. Statistical hypotheses always come in pairs: the null and alternative hypotheses. In a, the statistical hypotheses correspond logically to the research hypothesis. Individual Likert-type questions are generally considered, because the items have clear rank order, but don’t have an even distribution.

Overall scores are sometimes treated as interval data. These scores are considered to have directionality and even spacing between them. The type of data determines what you should use to analyse your data. A is a rating scale that assesses opinions, attitudes, or behaviours.

  1. It is made up of four or more questions that measure a single attitude or trait when response scores are combined.
  2. To use a Likert scale in a, you present participants with Likert-type questions or statements, and a continuum of items, usually with five or seven possible responses, to capture their degree of agreement.

A is a data collection tool or instrument, while a is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analysing data from people using questionnaires. A true experiment (aka a controlled experiment) always includes at least one that doesn’t receive the experimental treatment.

However, some experiments use a to test treatments without a control group. In these designs, you usually compare one group’s outcomes before and after a treatment (instead of comparing outcomes between different groups). For strong, it’s usually best to include a control group if possible. Without a control group, it’s harder to be certain that the outcome was caused by the experimental treatment and not by other variables.

An experimental group, also known as a treatment group, receives the treatment whose effect researchers wish to study, whereas a does not. They should be identical in all other ways. can be self-administered or researcher-administered. Self-administered questionnaires can be delivered online or in paper-and-pen formats, in person or by post.

  • All questions are standardised so that all respondents receive the same questions with identical wording.
  • Researcher-administered questionnaires are interviews that take place by phone, in person, or online between researchers and respondents.
  • You can gain deeper insights by clarifying questions for respondents or asking follow-up questions.

You can organise the questions logically, with a clear progression from simple to complex, or randomly between respondents. A logical flow helps respondents process the questionnaire easier and quicker, but it may lead to bias. Randomisation can minimise the bias from order effects.

  • Closed-ended, or restricted-choice, questions offer respondents a fixed set of choices to select from.
  • These questions are easier to answer quickly.
  • Open-ended or long-form questions allow respondents to answer in their own words.
  • Because there are no restrictions on their choices, respondents can answer in ways that researchers may not have otherwise considered.

is a method where you record the behaviours of your research subjects in real-world settings. You avoid interfering or influencing anything in a naturalistic observation. You can think of naturalistic observation as ‘people watching’ with a purpose. You can use several tactics to minimise,

  • Use to hide the purpose of your study from all observers.
  • Triangulate your data with different methods or sources.
  • Use multiple observers and ensure inter-rater reliability.
  • Train your observers to make sure data is consistently recorded between them.
  • Standardise your observation procedures to make sure they are structured and clear.

The occurs when researchers influence the results of their own study through interactions with participants. Researchers’ own beliefs and expectations about the study results may unintentionally influence participants through, occurs when a researcher’s expectations, opinions, or prejudices influence what they perceive or record in a study.

It usually affects studies when observers are aware of the research aims or hypotheses. This type of is also called detection bias or, is necessary for valid and appropriate analyses. Dirty data contain inconsistencies or, but cleaning your data helps you minimise or resolve these. Without data cleaning, you could end up with a in your conclusion.

These types of erroneous conclusions can be practically significant with important consequences, because they lead to misplaced investments or missed opportunities. involves spotting and resolving potential data inconsistencies or errors to improve your data quality.

  • An is any value (e.g., recorded weight) that doesn’t reflect the true value (e.g., actual weight) of something that’s being measured.
  • In this process, you review, analyse, detect, modify, or remove ‘dirty’ data to make your dataset ‘clean’.
  • Data cleaning is also called data cleansing or data scrubbing.

takes place between and data analyses. But you can use some methods even before collecting data. For clean data, you should start by designing measures that collect valid data. Data validation at the time of data entry or collection helps you minimize the amount of data cleaning you’ll need to do.

  • After data collection, you can use data standardisation and data transformation to clean your data.
  • You’ll also deal with any missing values, outliers, and duplicate values.
  • Are valid, accurate, complete, consistent, unique, and uniform.
  • Dirty data include inconsistencies and errors.
  • Dirty data can come from any part of the research process, including poor, inappropriate measurement materials, or flawed data entry.

is used in experiments with a between-groups or independent measures design. In this research design, there’s usually a and one or more experimental groups. Random assignment helps ensure that the groups are comparable. In general, you should always use random assignment in this type of when it is ethically possible and makes sense for your study topic.

To implement, assign a unique number to every member of your study’s, Then, you can use a random number generator or a lottery method to randomly assign each number to a control or experimental group. You can also do so manually, by flipping a coin or rolling a die to randomly assign participants to groups.

is often used when the issue you’re studying is new or when the is challenging for some reason. You can use exploratory research if you have a general idea or a specific question that you want to study but there is no preexisting knowledge or paradigm with which to study it.

  • Is used to investigate how or why a phenomenon occurs.
  • Therefore, this type of research is often one of the first stages in the, serving as a jumping-off point for future research.
  • Is a research method used to investigate how or why something occurs when only a small amount of information is available pertaining to that topic.

It can help you increase your understanding of a given topic. is important to reduce bias (e.g.,, ) and ensure a study’s, If participants know whether they are in a, they may adjust their behaviour in ways that affect the outcome that researchers are trying to measure.

  • In a single-blind study, only the participants are blinded.
  • In a, both participants and experimenters are blinded.
  • In a triple-blind study, the assignment is hidden not only from participants and experimenters, but also from the researchers analysing the data.

Many academic fields use, largely to determine whether a manuscript is suitable for publication. Peer review enhances the of the published manuscript. However, peer review is also common in non-academic settings. The United Nations, the European Union, and many individual nations use peer review to evaluate grant applications.

It is also widely used in medical and health-related fields as a teaching or quality-of-care measure. Peer assessment is often used in the classroom as a pedagogical tool. Both receiving feedback and providing it are thought to enhance the learning process, helping students think critically and collaboratively.

can stop obviously problematic, falsified, or otherwise untrustworthy research from being published. It also represents an excellent opportunity to get feedback from renowned experts in your field. It acts as a first defence, helping you ensure your argument is clear and that there are no gaps, vague terms, or unanswered questions for readers who weren’t involved in the research process.

  • First, the author submits the manuscript to the editor.
  • The editor can either:
    • Reject the manuscript and send it back to author, or
    • Send it onward to the selected peer reviewer(s)
  • Next, the peer review process occurs. The reviewer provides feedback, addressing any major or minor issues with the manuscript, and gives their advice regarding what edits should be made.
  • Lastly, the edited manuscript is sent back to the author. They input the edits, and resubmit it to the editor for publication.

is a process of evaluating submissions to an academic journal. Utilising rigorous criteria, a panel of reviewers in the same subject area decide whether to accept each submission for publication. For this reason, academic journals are often considered among the most you can use in a research project – provided that the journal itself is trustworthy and well regarded.

Anonymity means you don’t know who the participants are, while confidentiality means you know who they are but remove identifying information from your research report. Both are important, You can only guarantee anonymity by not collecting any personally identifying information – for example, names, phone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses, physical characteristics, photos, or videos.

You can keep data confidential by using aggregate information in your research report, so that you only refer to groups of participants rather than individuals. Research misconduct means making up or falsifying data, manipulating data analyses, or misrepresenting results in research reports.

It’s a form of academic fraud. These actions are committed intentionally and can have serious consequences; research misconduct is not a simple mistake or a point of disagreement but a serious matter for scientific integrity, human rights and dignity, and collaboration between science and society. These principles make sure that participation in studies is voluntary, informed, and safe.

Anything You Can Fit In The Circle I’ll Pay For

are a set of principles that guide your research designs and practices. These principles include voluntary participation, informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, potential for harm, and results communication. Scientists and researchers must always adhere to a certain code of conduct when,

These considerations protect the rights of research participants, enhance research, and maintain scientific integrity. are aspects of experiments that may give away the research objective to participants. occurs when participants automatically try to respond in ways that make them seem likeable in a study, even if it means misrepresenting how they truly feel.

Participants may use demand characteristics to social norms or experimenter expectancies and act in socially desirable ways, so you should try to for demand characteristics wherever possible. refers to conditions or factors that take place during the process of responding to surveys, affecting the responses.

One type of response bias is, and cluster sampling may look similar, but bear in mind that groups created in cluster sampling are heterogeneous, so the individual characteristics in the cluster vary. In contrast, groups created in stratified sampling are homogeneous, as units share characteristics.

Relatedly, in you randomly select entire groups and include all units of each group in your sample. However, in stratified sampling, you select some units of all groups and include them in your sample. In this way, both methods can ensure that your sample is representative of the target,

A is a list of every member in the entire, It is important that the sampling frame is as complete as possible, so that your sample accurately reflects your population. and are both methods. They both use non-random criteria like availability, geographical proximity, or expert knowledge to recruit study participants.

However, in convenience sampling, you continue to sample units or cases until you reach the required sample size. In quota sampling, you first need to divide your of interest into subgroups (strata) and estimate their proportions (quota) in the population.

Then you can start your, using to recruit participants, until the proportions in each subgroup coincide with the estimated proportions in the population. Random sampling or is based on random selection. This means that each unit has an equal chance (i.e., equal probability) of being included in the sample.

On the other hand, involves stopping people at random, which means that not everyone has an equal chance of being selected depending on the place, time, or day you are collecting your data. and both involve dividing the into subgroups and selecting units from each subgroup.

  1. The purpose in both cases is to select a representative sample and/or to allow comparisons between subgroups.
  2. The main difference is that in stratified sampling, you draw a random sample from each subgroup ().
  3. In quota sampling you select a predetermined number or proportion of units, in a non-random manner ().

is best used in the following cases:

  • If there is no available (e.g., people with a rare disease)
  • If the of interest is hard to access or locate (e.g., people experiencing homelessness)
  • If the research focuses on a sensitive topic (e.g., extra-marital affairs)

relies on the use of referrals. Here, the researcher recruits one or more initial participants, who then recruit the next ones. Participants share similar characteristics and/or know each other. Because of this, not every member of the has an equal chance of being included in the sample, giving rise to, are related terms.

  • A successful reproduction shows that the data analyses were conducted in a fair and honest manner.
  • A successful replication shows that the of the results is high.

and discriminant validity are both subtypes of, Together, they help you evaluate whether a test measures the concept it was designed to measure.

  • Convergent validity indicates whether a test that is designed to measure a particular construct correlates with other tests that assess the same or similar construct.
  • Discriminant validity indicates whether two tests that should not be highly related to each other are indeed not related

You need to assess both in order to demonstrate construct validity. Neither one alone is sufficient for establishing construct validity. Construct validity has convergent and discriminant subtypes. They assist determine if a test measures the intended notion.

  • Shows you how accurately a test or other measurement method taps into the various aspects of the specific construct you are researching.
  • In other words, it helps you answer the question: “does the test measure all aspects of the construct I want to measure?” If it does, then the test has high content validity.

The higher the content validity, the more accurate the measurement of the construct. If the test fails to include parts of the construct, or irrelevant parts are included, the of the instrument is threatened, which brings your results into question. refers to how well a test measures the concept (or construct) it was designed to measure.

  • Assessing construct validity is especially important when you’re researching concepts that can’t be quantified and/or are intangible, like introversion.
  • To ensure construct validity your test should be based on known indicators of introversion ().
  • On the other hand,assesses how well the test represents all aspects of the construct.

If some aspects are missing or irrelevant parts are included, the test has low content validity. and are similar in that they both evaluate how suitable the content of a test is. The difference is that face validity is subjective, and assesses content at surface level.

When a test has strong face validity, anyone would agree that the test’s questions appear to measure what they are intended to measure. For example, looking at a 4th grade math test consisting of problems in which students have to add and multiply, most people would agree that it has strong face validity (i.e., it looks like a math test).

On the other hand, content validity evaluates how well a test represents all the aspects of a topic. Assessing content validity is more systematic and relies on expert evaluation. of each question, analysing whether each one covers the aspects that the test was designed to cover.

  • Convergent validity indicates whether a test that is designed to measure a particular construct correlates with other tests that assess the same or similar construct.
  • Discriminant validity indicates whether two tests that should not be highly related to each other are indeed not related. This type of validity is also called divergent validity,

You need to assess both in order to demonstrate construct validity. Neither one alone is sufficient for establishing construct validity. and are both types of measurement, In other words, they both show you how accurately a method measures something. While construct validity is the degree to which a test or other measurement method measures what it claims to measure, criterion validity is the degree to which a test can predictively (in the future) or concurrently (in the present) measure something.

  1. Construct validity is often considered the overarching type of,
  2. You need to have,, and criterion validity in order to achieve construct validity.
  3. Refers to participants leaving a study.
  4. It always happens to some extent – for example, in randomised control trials for medical research.
  5. Differential attrition occurs when attrition or dropout rates differ systematically between the intervention and the,

As a result, the characteristics of the participants who drop out differ from the characteristics of those who stay in the study. Because of this, study results may be, evaluates how well a test measures the outcome it was designed to measure. An outcome can be, for example, the onset of a disease.

is a validation strategy where the the scores of a test and the criterion are obtained at the same time

  1. shows how much a measure of one construct aligns with other measures of the same or related,
  2. On the other hand, is about how a measure matches up to some known criterion or gold standard, which can be another measure.
  3. Although both are established by calculating the association or between a test score and another, they represent distinct validation methods.

The purpose of theory-testing mode is to find evidence in order to disprove, refine, or support a theory. As such, is not the aim of theory-testing mode. Due to this, the priority of researchers in theory-testing mode is to eliminate alternative causes for relationships between,

In other words, they prioritise over, including, Scope of research is determined at the beginning of your, prior to the stage. Sometimes called “scope of study,” your scope delineates what will and will not be covered in your project. It helps you focus your work and your time, ensuring that you’ll be able to achieve your goals and outcomes.

Defining a scope can be very useful in any research project, from a to a or, A scope is needed for all types of research:,, and, To define your scope of research, consider the following: To make, you need to use instruments that are capable of measuring the quantity you want to observe.

  • Reformulating the sentence (e.g., change, or start from a different point)
  • Combining information from multiple sentences into one
  • Leaving out information from the original that isn’t relevant to your point
  • Using synonyms where they don’t distort the meaning

The main point is to ensure you don’t just copy the structure of the original text, but instead reformulate the idea in your own words. means using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own. means putting someone else’s ideas into your own words. So when does paraphrasing count as plagiarism?

  • Paraphrasing is plagiarism if you don’t properly credit the original author.
  • Paraphrasing is plagiarism if your text is too close to the original wording (even if you cite the source). If you directly copy a sentence or phrase, you should it instead.
  • Paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you put the author’s ideas completely into your own words and properly,

To present information from other sources in, it’s best to in most cases. This shows that you’ve understood the ideas you’re discussing and incorporates them into your text smoothly. It’s appropriate to when:

  • Changing the phrasing would distort the meaning of the original text
  • You want to discuss the author’s language choices (e.g., in )
  • You’re presenting a precise definition
  • You’re looking in depth at a specific claim

A is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in and credited to the original author or speaker. Every time you, you must include a correctly formatted, This looks slightly different depending on the, For example, a is cited like this: ‘This is a quote’ (Streefkerk, 2020, p.5).

  • Every in-text citation should also correspond to a full reference at the end of your paper.
  • In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so should generally be kept to a minimum.
  • In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.

In social sciences, it varies. If your research is mainly, you won’t include many quotes, but if it’s more, you may need to quote from the, As a general guideline, quotes should take up no more than 5–10% of your paper. If in doubt, check with your instructor or supervisor how much quoting is appropriate in your field.

Smith states that ‘the literature on this topic (Jones, 2015; Sill, 2019; Paulson, 2020) shows no clear consensus’ (Smith, 2019, p.4).

or numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted. If you want to (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase ‘as cited in’ in your citation. A is a long formatted as a separate ‘block’ of text.

  • The information should be up to date and current.
  • The author and publication should be a trusted authority on the subject you are researching.
  • The sources the author cited should be easy to find, clear, and unbiased.
  • For a web source, the URL and layout should signify that it is trustworthy.

Common examples of primary sources include, photographs, novels, paintings, films, historical documents, and official statistics. Anything you directly analyze or use as first-hand evidence can be a primary source, including that you collected yourself.

Common examples of secondary sources include academic books, reviews,, and textbooks. Anything that summarizes, evaluates or interprets can be a secondary source. If a source gives you an overview of background information or presents another researcher’s ideas on your topic, it is probably a secondary source.

To determine if a source is primary or secondary, ask yourself:

  • Was the source created by someone directly involved in the events you’re studying (primary), or by another researcher (secondary)?
  • Does the source provide original information (primary), or does it summarize information from other sources (secondary)?
  • Are you directly analyzing the source itself (primary), or only using it for background information (secondary)?

Some types of sources are nearly always primary: works of art and literature, raw statistical data, official documents and records, and personal communications (e.g. letters, ). If you use one of these in your research, it is probably a primary source.

Primary sources are often considered the most in terms of providing evidence for your argument, as they give you direct evidence of what you are researching. However, it’s up to you to ensure the information they provide is reliable and accurate. Always make sure to properly to, A fictional movie is usually a primary source.

A documentary can be either primary or secondary depending on the context. If you are directly analysing some aspect of the movie itself – for example, the cinematography, narrative techniques, or social context – the movie is a primary source. If you use the movie for background information or analysis about your topic – for example, to learn about a historical event or a scientific discovery – the movie is a secondary source.

Whether it’s primary or secondary, always properly cite the movie in the you are using. Learn how to create an or an, Articles in and magazines can be primary or secondary depending on the focus of your research. In historical studies, old articles are used as primary sources that give direct evidence about the time period.

In social and communication studies, articles are used as primary sources to analyse language and social relations (for example, by conducting or). If you are not analysing the article itself, but only using it for background information or facts about your topic, then the article is a secondary source.

  • Reformulating the sentence (e.g., change, or start from a different point)
  • Combining information from multiple sentences into one
  • Leaving out information from the original that isn’t relevant to your point
  • Using synonyms where they don’t distort the meaning

The main point is to ensure you don’t just copy the structure of the original text, but instead reformulate the idea in your own words. are often not required, and they aren’t particularly common. They specifically aren’t required for APA Style, though you should be careful to follow their other,

If you have many figures and tables in your thesis or dissertation, include one may help you stay organised. Your educational institution may require them, so be sure to check their guidelines. can usually be found wherever the was published. For example, for a diagram in a, look on the journal’s website or the database where you found the article.

found on sites like are listed with clear copyright information. If you find that permission is required to reproduce the material, be sure to contact the author or publisher and ask for it. A compiles all of the figures and tables that you used in your thesis or dissertation and displays them with the page number where they can be found.

  • A is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic.
  • In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader.
  • Your glossary only needs to include terms that your reader may not be familiar with, and is intended to enhance their understanding of your work.

A is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. In contrast, an index is a list of the contents of your work organised by page number.

  1. Are not mandatory, but if you use a lot of technical or field-specific terms, it may improve readability to add one to your thesis or dissertation.
  2. Your educational institution may also require them, so be sure to check their specific guidelines.
  3. A is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic.

In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. In contrast, dictionaries are more general collections of words. The of your thesis or dissertation should include your name, department, institution, degree program, and submission date.

  • Your instructor requires one, or
  • Your paper is a group project

In those cases, you should use a title page instead of a header, listing the same information but on a separate page. When you mention different chapters within your text, it’s considered best to use Roman numerals for most citation styles. However, the most important thing here is to remain consistent whenever,

  • Your anticipated title
  • Your abstract
  • Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review, research methods, avenues for future research, etc.)

While a describes the theoretical underpinnings of your work based on existing research, a allows you to draw your own conclusions, mapping out the variables you may use in your study and the interplay between them. A and a are not the same thing and cannot be used interchangeably.

  1. While a theoretical framework describes the theoretical underpinnings of your work, a literature review critically evaluates existing research relating to your topic.
  2. You’ll likely need both in your,
  3. A theoretical framework can sometimes be integrated into a, but it can also be included as its own chapter or section in your,

As a rule of thumb, if your research involves dealing with a lot of complex theories, it’s a good idea to include a separate theoretical framework chapter. An is a concise summary of an academic text (such as a journal article or ). It serves two main purposes:

  • To help potential readers determine the relevance of your paper for their own research.
  • To communicate your key findings to those who don’t have time to read the whole paper.

Abstracts are often indexed along with keywords on academic databases, so they make your work more easily findable. Since the abstract is the first thing any reader sees, it’s important that it clearly and accurately summarises the contents of your paper.

  • The abstract should focus on your original research, not on the work of others.
  • The abstract should be self-contained and fully understandable without reference to other sources.

There are some circumstances where you might need to mention other sources in an abstract: for example, if your research responds directly to another study or focuses on the work of a single theorist. In general, though, don’t include citations unless absolutely necessary.

  1. Results are usually written in the, because they are describing the outcome of completed actions.
  2. The chapter or section simply and objectively reports what you found, without speculating on why you found these results.
  3. The interprets the meaning of the results, puts them in context, and explains why they matter.

In, results and discussion are sometimes combined. But in, it’s considered important to separate the objective results from your interpretation of them. Formulating a can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your,

  1. Researchability
  2. Feasibility and specificity
  3. Relevance and originality

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a or aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your is and worthy of being conducted.

  1. A is a word that represents a person, thing, concept, or place (e.g., ‘John’, ‘house’, ‘affinity’, ‘river’).
  2. Most sentences contain at least one noun or,
  3. Nouns are often, but not always, preceded by an (‘the’, ‘a’, or ‘an’) and/or another such as an adjective.
  4. Are words like ‘I’, ‘she’, and ‘they’ that are used in a similar way to,

They stand in for a noun that has already been mentioned or refer to yourself and other people. Pronouns can function just like nouns as the head of a noun phrase and as the subject or object of a verb. However, pronouns change their forms (e.g., from ‘I’ to ‘me’) depending on the grammatical context they’re used in, whereas nouns usually don’t.

  • Common nouns are words for types of things, people, and places, such as ‘dog’, ‘professor’, and ‘city’.
  • They are not and are typically used in combination with and other determiners.
  • Are words for specific things, people, and places, such as ‘Max’, ‘Dr Prakash’, and ‘London’.
  • They are always capitalised and usually aren’t combined with articles and other determiners.

A proper adjective is an that was derived from a and is therefore, Proper adjectives include words for nationalities, languages, and ethnicities (e.g., ‘Japanese’, ‘Inuit’, ‘French’) and words derived from people’s names (e.g., ‘Bayesian’, ‘Orwellian’).

  • The names of seasons (e.g., ‘spring’) are treated as common nouns in English and therefore not,
  • People often assume they are proper nouns, but this is an error.
  • The names of days and months, however, are capitalised since they’re treated as in English (e.g., ‘Wednesday’, ‘January’).
  • No, as a general rule, academic concepts, disciplines, theories, models, etc.

are treated as, not, and therefore not, For example, ‘five-factor model of personality’ or ‘analytic philosophy’. However, proper nouns that appear within the name of an academic concept (such as the name of the inventor) are capitalised as usual. For example, ‘Darwin’s theory of evolution’ or ‘‘.

  • In US English, it’s standard to treat all collective nouns as singular, even when they are in appearance (e.g., ‘The Rolling Stones is ‘). Using the plural form is usually seen as incorrect.
  • In UK English, collective nouns can be treated as singular or plural depending on context. It’s quite common to use the plural form, especially when the noun looks plural (e.g., ‘The Rolling Stones are ‘).

The plural of “crisis” is “crises”. It’s a loanword from Latin and retains its original Latin form (similar to “analyses” and “bases”). It’s wrong to write “crisises”. For example, you might write “Several crises destabilized the regime.” Normally, the plural of “fish” is the same as the singular: “fish”.

It’s one of a group of irregular in English that are identical to the corresponding singular nouns (e.g., “moose”, “sheep”). For example, you might write “The fish scatter as the shark approaches.” If you’re referring to several species of fish, though, the regular plural “fishes” is often used instead.

For example, “The aquarium contains many different fishes, including trout and carp.” The correct plural of “octopus” is “octopuses”. People often write “octopi” instead because they assume that the is formed in the same way as Latin loanwords such as “fungus/fungi”.

  • But “octopus” actually comes from Greek, where its original plural is “octopodes”.
  • In English, it instead has the regular plural form “octopuses”.
  • For example, you might write “There are four octopuses in the aquarium.” The plural of “moose” is the same as the singular: “moose”.
  • It’s one of a group of in English that are identical to the corresponding singular nouns.

So it’s wrong to write “mooses”. For example, you might write “There are several moose in the forest.” affects the and of your findings, leading to false conclusions and a misinterpretation of the truth. This can have serious implications in areas like medical research where, for example, a new form of treatment may be evaluated.

occurs when the researcher’s assumptions, views, or preconceptions influence what they see and record in a study, while actor–observer bias refers to situations where respondents attribute internal factors (e.g., bad character) to justify other’s behaviour and external factors (difficult circumstances) to justify the same behaviour in themselves.

is a general term used to describe a number of different conditions or factors that cue respondents to provide inaccurate or false answers during surveys or, These factors range from the interviewer’s perceived social position or appearance to the the phrasing of questions in surveys.

  • Nonresponse bias occurs when the people who complete a are different from those who did not, in ways that are relevant to the research topic.
  • Nonresponse can happen either because people are not willing or not able to participate.
  • In research, are cues that might indicate the aim of a study to participants.

These cues can lead to participants changing their behaviors or responses based on what they think the research is about. Demand characteristics are common problems in psychology experiments and other social science studies because they can bias your research findings.

  1. Are a type of that can affect the outcomes of the study.
  2. They can invalidate studies by providing an alternative explanation for the results.
  3. These cues may nudge participants to consciously or unconsciously change their responses, and they pose a threat to both,
  4. You can’t be sure that your manipulation worked, or that your findings can be applied to other people or settings.

You can control by taking a few precautions in your and materials. Use these measures:

  • Deception: Hide the purpose of the study from participants
  • : Give each participant only one independent variable treatment
  • : Conceal the assignment of groups from participants and yourself
  • Implicit measures: Use indirect or hidden measurements for your variables

To avoid, applying some of these measures can help you reduce participant dropout (attrition) by making it easy and appealing for participants to stay.

  • Provide compensation (e.g., cash or gift cards) for attending every session
  • Minimise the number of follow-ups as much as possible
  • Make all follow-ups brief, flexible, and convenient for participants
  • Send participants routine reminders to schedule follow-ups
  • Recruit more participants than you need for your sample (oversample)
  • Maintain detailed contact information so you can get in touch with participants even if they move

If you have a small amount of, you can use a few to try to make up for this, Multiple imputation involves using simulations to replace the missing data with likely values. Alternatively, you can use to make up for the uneven balance of participants in your sample.

  1. Are used in medical research for new medication or therapies, called clinical trials.
  2. In these trials some people are given a placebo, while others are given the new medication being tested.
  3. The purpose is to determine how effective the new medication is: if it benefits people beyond a predefined threshold as compared to the placebo, it’s considered effective.

Although there is no definite answer to what causes the, researchers propose a number of explanations such as the power of suggestion, doctor-patient interaction, classical conditioning, etc. Belief bias and confirmation bias are both types of that impact our judgment and decision-making.

  • Relates to how we perceive and judge evidence.
  • We tend to seek out and prefer information that supports our preexisting beliefs, ignoring any information that contradicts those beliefs.
  • Belief bias describes the tendency to judge an argument based on how plausible the conclusion seems to us, rather than how much evidence is provided to support it during the course of the argument.

Positivity bias is phenomenon that occurs when a person judges individual members of a group positively, even when they have negative impressions or judgments of the group as a whole. Positivity bias is closely related to, or the e xpectation that things will work out well, even if rationality suggests that problems are inevitable in life.

  • Is a problem because it prevents us from seeing situations or people objectively.
  • Rather, our expectations, beliefs, or emotions interfere with how we interpret reality.
  • This, in turn, can cause us to misjudge ourselves or others.
  • For example, our prejudices can interfere with whether we perceive people’s faces as friendly or unfriendly.

Cardinal numbers (e.g., one, two, three) can be placed before a noun to indicate quantity (e.g., one apple). While these are sometimes referred to as ‘numeral ‘, they are more accurately categorised as or quantifiers. Proper adjectives are formed from a (i.e., the name of a specific person, place, or thing) that are used to indicate origin.

Like proper nouns, proper adjectives are always capitalised (e.g., Newtonian, Marxian, African). The cost of proofreading depends on the type and length of text, the turnaround time, and the level of services required. Most proofreading companies charge per word or page, while freelancers sometimes charge an hourly rate.

For proofreading alone, which involves only basic corrections of typos and formatting mistakes, you might pay as little as £0.01 per word, but in many cases, your text will also require some level of, which costs slightly more. It’s often possible to purchase combined proofreading and editing services and in advance based on your requirements.

  • Julie is better than Jesse.
  • I’d rather spend my time with you than with him.
  • I understand Eoghan’s point of view better than Claudia’s.

There are numerous synonyms and near synonyms for the various meanings of “”:

Prefer ( ) Approval ( )
Advocate Adoration
Approve of Appreciation
Endorse Praise
Support Respect

There are numerous synonyms and near synonyms for the two meanings of “”:

Preferred ( ) Most-liked ( )
Advocated Adored
Approved of Appreciated
Endorsed Praised
Supported Preferred

two words) is an meaning ‘nobody’. People sometimes mistakenly write ‘noone’, but this is incorrect and should be avoided. ‘No-one’, with a hyphen, is also acceptable in, Nobody and are both meaning ‘no person’. They can be used interchangeably (e.g., ‘nobody is home’ means the same as ‘no one is home’). Some synonyms and near synonyms of include:

  • Each time
  • Whenever
  • Without exception

‘Everytime’ is sometimes used to mean ‘each time’ or ‘whenever’. However, this is incorrect and should be avoided. The correct phrase is (two words). Yes, the because is a, but one with a long history. It originates in Middle English from the “bi” (“by”) and the “cause”.

  1. Over time, the open compound “bi cause” became the closed compound “because”, which we use today.
  2. Though it’s spelled this way now, the “be” is not one of the words that makes up “because”.
  3. Yes, today is a, but a very old one.
  4. It wasn’t originally formed from the “to” and the “day”; rather, it originates from their Old English equivalents, “tō” and “dæġe”.

In the past, it was sometimes written as a hyphenated compound: “to-day”. But the is no longer included; it’s always “today” now (“to day” is also wrong). Pathetic fallacy and appeal to pathos sound similar but they refer to entirely different things.

  • is a figure of speech, at least in most contexts, and not a reasoning error. It refers to the attribution of human emotions to something non-human in novels or poems.
  • Appeal to pathos, on the other hand, is a in which the speaker or author takes advantage of emotions, like fear or love for one’s family, to convince their audience instead of using rational arguments.

In other words, pathetic fallacy and appeal to pathos both relate to pathos or emotion but to a different end. is defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and used in their publications. It’s also a widely used for students in technical fields like electrical and electronic engineering, computer science, telecommunications, and computer engineering.

An in-text citation consists of a number in brackets at the relevant point in the text, which points the reader to the right entry in the numbered reference list at the end of the paper. For example, ‘Smith states that ‘ A location marker such as a page number is also included within the brackets when needed: ‘Smith argues ‘ The consists of a list of references numbered in the order they were cited in the text.

The title ‘References’ appears in bold at the top, either left-aligned or centered. The numbers appear in square brackets on the left-hand side of the page. The reference entries are indented consistently to separate them from the numbers. Entries are single-spaced, with a normal paragraph break between them.

If you cite the same source more than once in your writing, use the same number for all of the for that source, and only include it on the once. The source is numbered based on the first time you cite it. For example, the fourth source you cite in your paper is numbered, If you cite it again later, you still cite it as,

You can cite different parts of the source each time by adding page numbers, A is a word that indicates a physical action (e.g., ‘drive’), a mental action (e.g., ‘think’) or a state of being (e.g., ‘exist’). Every sentence contains a verb. Verbs are almost always used along with a or to describe what the noun or pronoun is doing.

  • Regular verbs are whose simple past and are formed by adding the suffix ‘-ed’ (e.g., ‘walked’).
  • Irregular verbs are verbs that form their and past participles in some way other than by adding the suffix ‘-ed’ (e.g., ‘sat’).
  • The indefinite articles a and an are used to refer to a general or unspecified version of a (e.g., a house).

Which indefinite article you use depends on the pronunciation of the word that follows it.

A is used for words that begin with a consonant sound (e.g., a bear).

An is used for words that begin with a vowel sound (e.g., an eagle).

Indefinite articles can only be used with singular, Like definite articles, they are a type of, are different steps in the process of revising a text. Editing comes first, and can involve major changes to content, structure and language. The first stages of editing are often done by authors themselves, while a professional editor makes the final improvements to grammar and style (for example, by improving and ).

  • Take a break : Set your work aside for at least a few hours so that you can look at it with fresh eyes.
  • Proofread a printout : Staring at a screen for too long can cause fatigue – sit down with a pen and paper to check the final version.
  • Use digital shortcuts : Take note of any recurring mistakes (for example, misspelling a particular word, switching between, or inconsistently a term), and use Find and Replace to fix it throughout the document.

If you want to be confident that an important text is error-free, it might be worth choosing a instead. There are many different routes to becoming a professional proofreader or editor. The necessary qualifications depend on the field – to be an academic or scientific proofreader, for example, you will need at least a university degree in a relevant subject.

For most proofreading jobs, experience and demonstrated skills are more important than specific qualifications. Often your skills will be tested as part of the application process. To learn practical proofreading skills, you can choose to take a course with a professional organisation such as the, Alternatively, you can apply to companies that offer specialised on-the-job training programmes, such as the,

Though they’re pronounced the same, there’s a big difference in meaning between,

  • Its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive form of it, so it means ‘belonging to it’.
  • It’s (with an apostrophe) is a (shortened form) of it is or it has.

are often confused, but its (without apostrophe) is the possessive form of ‘it’ (e.g., its tail, its argument, its wing). You use ‘its’ instead of ‘his’ and ‘her’ for neuter, inanimate nouns. are two with different meanings and grammatical roles.

Then (pronounced with a short ‘e’ sound) refers to time. It’s often an, but it can also be used as a meaning ‘that time’ and as an referring to a previous status.

Than (pronounced with a short ‘a’ sound) is used for comparisons. Grammatically, it usually functions as a, but sometimes it’s a,

Examples: Then in a sentence Examples: Than in a sentence
Mix the dry ingredients first, and then add the wet ingredients. Max is a better saxophonist than you.
I was working as a teacher then, I usually like coaching a team more than I like playing soccer myself.

is a tool designed to automatically check your text for spelling errors, grammatical issues,, and problems with, You can check out our analysis of the to learn more. edits your text more actively, changing things whether they were grammatically incorrect or not.

It can your sentences to make them more concise and readable or for other purposes. You can check out our analysis of the best free paraphrasing tools to learn more. Some tools available online combine both functions. Others, such as, have separate grammar checker and paraphrasing tools. Be aware of what exactly the tool you’re using does to avoid introducing unwanted changes.

Good grammar is the key to expressing yourself clearly and fluently, especially in professional communication and, Word processors, browsers, and email programs typically have built-in grammar checkers, but they’re quite limited in the kinds of problems they can fix.

  • Our research indicates that the available online is the,
  • We tested 10 of the most popular checkers with the same sample text (containing 20 grammatical errors) and found that QuillBot easily outperformed the competition, scoring 18 out of 20, a drastic improvement over the second-place score of 13 out of 20.
  • It even appeared to outperform the premium versions of other grammar checkers, despite being entirely free.

A teacher’s aide is a person who assists in teaching classes but is not a qualified teacher. is a meaning ‘assistant’, so it will always refer to a person. ‘Teacher’s aid’ is incorrect. A visual aid is an instructional device (e.g., a photo, a chart) that appeals to vision to help you understand written or spoken information.

is often placed after an or (like ‘visual’) that describes the type of help provided. ‘Visual aide’ is incorrect. A job aid is an instructional tool (e.g., a checklist, a cheat sheet) that helps you work efficiently. is a meaning ‘assistance’. It’s often placed after an or (like ‘job’) that describes the specific type of help provided.

‘Job aide’ is incorrect. There are numerous synonyms for the various meanings of :

In a truthful way Absolutely Properly
Candidly Completely Accurately
Honestly Really Correctly
Openly Totally Exactly
Truthfully Precisely

is a phrase used at the end of a formal letter or email. It can also be used (typically in a humorous way) as a to refer to oneself (e.g., ‘The dinner was cooked by yours truly ‘). The latter usage should be avoided in formal writing. It’s formed by combining the ‘yours’ with the ‘‘.

is not a, It is a literary device or figure of speech that often occurs in literature when a writer attributes human emotions to things that aren’t human, such as objects, the weather, or animals. Pathetic fallacy is used to reflect a character’s emotions. For example, if a character has lost a loved one, they may hear “mournful” birdsong.

A can be a short phrase or a whole sentence and is often used in novels and poetry. Pathetic fallacies serve multiple purposes, such as:

  • Conveying the emotional state of the characters or the narrator
  • Creating an atmosphere or set the mood of a scene
  • Foreshadowing events to come
  • Giving texture and vividness to a piece of writing
  • Communicating emotion to the reader in a subtle way, by describing the external world.
  • Bringing inanimate objects to life so that they seem more relatable.

is a designed by the American Medical Association. It’s frequently used in the field of medicine. You may be told to use AMA style for your student papers. You will also have to follow this style if you’re submitting a paper to a journal published by the AMA.

An consists of the number of the relevant reference on your, written in superscript 1 at the point in the text where the source is used. It may also include the page number or range of the relevant material in the source (e.g., the part you quoted 2(p46) ). Multiple sources can be cited at one point, presented as a range or list (with no spaces 3,5–9 ).

An usually includes the author’s last name and initials, the title of the source, information about the publisher or the publication it’s contained in, and the publication date. The specific details included, and the formatting, depend on the source type.

References in are presented in numerical order (numbered by the order in which they were first cited in the text) on your reference page. A source that’s cited repeatedly in the text still only appears once on the reference page. An just consists of the number of the relevant entry on your, written in superscript at the point in the text where the source is referred to.

You don’t need to mention the author of the source in your sentence, but you can do so if you want. It’s not an official part of the citation, but it can be useful as part of a introducing the source. On your, author names are written with the last name first, followed by the initial(s) of their first name and middle name if mentioned.

  • There’s a space between the last name and the initials, but no space or between the initials themselves.
  • The names of multiple authors are separated by, and the whole list ends in a period, e.g., ‘Andreessen F, Smith PW, Gonzalez E’.
  • The names of up to six authors should be listed for each source on your, separated by,

For a source with seven or more authors, you should list the first three followed by ‘ : ‘Isidore, Gilbert, Gunvor, et al’. In the text, mentioning author names is optional (as they aren’t an official part of ). If you do mention them, though, you should use the first author’s name followed by ‘et al’ when there are three or more : ‘Isidore et al argue that ‘ Note that according to AMA’s rather minimalistic punctuation guidelines, there’s no period after ‘et al’ unless it appears at the end of a sentence.

This is different from most other styles, where there is normally a period. Yes, you should normally include an access date in an (or when citing any source with a URL). This is because webpages can change their content over time, so it’s useful for the reader to know when you accessed the page. When a publication or update date is provided on the page, you should include it in addition to the access date.

The access date appears second in this case, e.g., ‘Published June 19, 2021. Accessed August 29, 2022.’ Don’t include an access date when citing a source with a (such as in an ). Some variables have fixed levels. For example, gender and ethnicity are always data because they cannot be ranked.

  • At an, you could create 5 income groupings and code the incomes that fall within them from 1–5.
  • At a, you would record exact numbers for income.

If you have a choice, the ratio level is always preferable because you can analyse data in more ways. The higher the level of measurement, the more precise your data is. tell you how precisely variables are recorded. There are 4 levels of measurement, which can be ranked from low to high:

  • : the data can only be categorised.
  • : the data can be categorised and ranked.
  • : the data can be categorised and ranked, and evenly spaced.
  • : the data can be categorised, ranked, evenly spaced and has a natural zero.

The is often abbreviated as H 0, When the null hypothesis is written using mathematical symbols, it always includes an equality symbol (usually =, but sometimes ≥ or ≤). The is often abbreviated as H a or H 1, When the alternative hypothesis is written using mathematical symbols, it always includes an inequality symbol (usually ≠, but sometimes ).

When there are only one or two, the is shaped like a backwards ‘J’. When there are three or more degrees of freedom, the distribution is shaped like a hump. As the degrees of freedom increase, the hump becomes less right-skewed and the peak of the hump moves to the right. The distribution becomes more and more similar to a,

Some synonyms and near synonyms for the expression include:

  • Eagerly awaiting your response
  • Hoping to hear from you soon
  • It would be great to hear back from you
  • Thanks in advance for your reply

People sometimes mistakenly write ‘looking forward to hear from you’, but this is incorrect. The correct phrase is, The ‘look forward to’ is always followed by a direct object, the thing you’re looking forward to. As the direct object has to be a, it should be the ‘hearing’, not the ‘hear’.

  • I’m looking forward to hear from you soon.
  • I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Traditionally, the sign-off is used in an email message or letter when you are writing to someone you have interacted with before, not a complete stranger. Yours faithfully is used instead when you are writing to someone you have had no previous correspondence with, especially if you greeted them as ‘’.

  • Is a standard phrase used to (or other message) that’s intended to ask someone for a response or follow-up action in a friendly, informal way.
  • However, it’s a cliché opening that can come across as passive-aggressive, so we recommend avoiding it in favor of a more direct opening like “We previously discussed ” In a more personal context, you might encounter “just checking in” as part of a longer phrase such as “I’m just checking in to see how you’re doing”.

In this case, it’s not asking the other person to do anything but rather asking about their well-being (emotional or physical) in a friendly way. “Earliest convenience” is part of the phrase, meaning “as soon as you can”. It’s typically used to in a formal context by asking the recipient to do something when it’s convenient for them to do so.

  • Constitute
  • Embody
  • Form
  • Make up

People increasingly use “comprise” as a synonym of “compose.” However, this is normally still seen as a mistake, and we recommend avoiding it in your, “Comprise” traditionally means “to be made up of,” not “to make up.” Some synonyms and near synonyms of the are:

  • Be composed of
  • Be made up of
  • Consist of
  • Contain
  • Include

People increasingly use “comprise” as interchangeably with “compose,” meaning that they consider words like “compose,” “constitute,” and “form” to be synonymous with “comprise.” However, this is still normally regarded as an error, and we advise against using these words interchangeably in,

  • Correlation/causation fallacy: Claiming that two events that occur together have a cause-and-effect relationship even though this can’t be proven
  • : Making inferences about the nature of individuals based on aggregate data for the group
  • The : Following through on a project or decision because we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, even if the current costs outweigh the benefits
  • The : Ignoring base-rate or information, such as sample size or the relative frequency of an event, in favor of less relevant information e.g., pertaining to a single case, or a small number of cases
  • The : Underestimating the time needed to complete a future task, even when we know that similar tasks in the past have taken longer than planned

The refers to people’s tendency to underestimate the resources needed to complete a future task, despite knowing that previous tasks have also taken longer than planned. For example, people generally tend to underestimate the cost and time needed for construction projects.

The planning fallacy occurs due to people’s tendency to overestimate the chances that positive events, such as a shortened timeline, will happen to them. This phenomenon is called or positivity bias. Although both red herring fallacy and straw man fallacy are logical fallacies or reasoning errors, they denote different attempts to “win” an argument.

More specifically:

  • A refers to an attempt to change the subject and divert attention from the original issue. In other words, a seemingly solid but ultimately irrelevant argument is introduced into the discussion, either on purpose or by mistake.
  • A involves the deliberate distortion of another person’s argument. By oversimplifying or exaggerating it, the other party creates an easy-to-refute argument and then attacks it.

The is a problem because it is flawed reasoning. It is a distraction device that causes people to become sidetracked from the main issue and draw wrong conclusions. Although a red herring may have some kernel of truth, it is used as a distraction to keep our eyes on a different matter.

  • Escalation of commitment (aka commitment bias ) is the tendency to be consistent with what we have already done or said we will do in the past, especially if we did so in public. In other words, it is an attempt to save face and appear consistent.
  • is the tendency to stick with a decision or a plan even when it’s failing. Because we have already invested valuable time, money, or energy, quitting feels like these resources were wasted.

In other words, escalating commitment is a manifestation of the sunk cost fallacy: an irrational escalation of commitment frequently occurs when people refuse to accept that the resources they’ve already invested cannot be recovered. Instead, they insist on more spending to justify the initial investment (and the incurred losses).

When you are faced with a, the best way to respond is to draw attention to the fallacy and ask your discussion partner to show how your original statement and their distorted version are the same. Since these are different, your partner will either have to admit that their argument is invalid or try to justify it by using more flawed reasoning, which you can then attack.

The is a problem because it occurs when we fail to take an opposing point of view seriously. Instead, we intentionally misrepresent our opponent’s ideas and avoid genuinely engaging with them. Due to this, resorting to straw man fallacy lowers the standard of constructive debate.

  1. A is a distorted (and weaker) version of another person’s argument that can easily be refuted (e.g., when a teacher proposes that the class spend more time on math exercises, a parent complains that the teacher doesn’t care about reading and writing).
  2. This is a straw man argument because it misrepresents the teacher’s position, which didn’t mention anything about cutting down on reading and writing.

The straw man argument is also known as the straw man fallacy, A slippery slope argument is not always a fallacy.

  • When someone claims adopting a certain policy or taking a certain action will automatically lead to a series of other policies or actions also being taken, this is a slippery slope argument.
  • If they don’t show a causal connection between the advocated policy and the consequent policies, then they commit a,

There are a number of ways you can deal with slippery slope arguments especially when you suspect these are fallacious:

  • Slippery slope arguments take advantage of the gray area between an initial action or decision and the possible next steps that might lead to the undesirable outcome. You can point out these missing steps and ask your partner to indicate what evidence exists to support the claimed relationship between two or more events.
  • Ask yourself if each link in the chain of events or action is valid. Every proposition has to be true for the overall argument to work, so even if one link is irrational or not supported by evidence, then the argument collapses.
  • Sometimes people commit a unintentionally. In these instances, use an example that demonstrates the problem with slippery slope arguments in general (e.g., by using statements to reach a conclusion that is not necessarily relevant to the initial statement). By attacking the concept of slippery slope arguments you can show that they are often fallacious.

People sometimes confuse cognitive bias and logical fallacies because they both relate to flawed thinking. However, they are not the same:

  • is the tendency to make decisions or take action in an illogical way because of our values, memory, socialization, and other personal attributes. In other words, it refers to a fixed pattern of thinking rooted in the way our brain works.
  • relate to how we make claims and construct our arguments in the moment. They are statements that sound convincing at first but can be disproven through logical reasoning.

In other words, cognitive bias refers to an ongoing predisposition, while logical fallacy refers to mistakes of reasoning that occur in the moment. An appeal to ignorance (ignorance here meaning lack of evidence) is a type of informal, It asserts that something must be true because it hasn’t been proven false—or that something must be false because it has not yet been proven true.

For example, “unicorns exist because there is no evidence that they don’t.” The appeal to ignorance is also called the burden of proof fallacy, An ad hominem (Latin for “to the person”) is a type of informal, Instead of arguing against a person’s position, an ad hominem argument attacks the person’s character or actions in an effort to discredit them.

This rhetorical strategy is fallacious because a person’s character, motive, education, or other personal trait is logically irrelevant to whether their argument is true or false. Name-calling is common in ad hominem fallacy (e.g., “environmental activists are ineffective because they’re all lazy tree-huggers”).

Ad hominem is a persuasive technique where someone tries to undermine the opponent’s argument by personally attacking them. In this way, one can redirect the discussion away from the main topic and to the opponent’s personality without engaging with their viewpoint. When the opponent’s personality is irrelevant to the discussion, we call it an,

tu quoque (‘you too”) is an attempt to rebut a claim by attacking its proponent on the grounds that they uphold a double standard or that they don’t practice what they preach. For example, someone is telling you that you should drive slowly otherwise you’ll get a speeding ticket one of these days, and you reply “but you used to get them all the time!” Argumentum ad hominem means “argument to the person” in Latin and it is commonly referred to as argument or personal attack.

Ad hominem arguments are used in debates to refute an argument by attacking the character of the person making it, instead of the logic or premise of the argument itself. The opposite of the is called slothful induction fallacy or appeal to coincidence, It is the tendency to deny a conclusion even though there is sufficient evidence that supports it.

Slothful induction occurs due to our natural tendency to dismiss events or facts that do not align with our personal biases and expectations. For example, a researcher may try to explain away unexpected results by claiming it is just a coincidence. To avoid a we need to ensure that the conclusions drawn are well-supported by the appropriate evidence.

  • In, if we want to draw inferences about an entire population, we need to make sure that the sample is random and representative of the, We can achieve that by using a, like or,
  • In, use precise language and measured phases. Try to avoid making absolute claims, cite specific instances and examples without applying the findings to a larger group.
  • As readers, we need to ask ourselves “does the writer demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the situation or phenomenon that would allow them to make a generalization?”

The hasty generalization fallacy and the anecdotal evidence fallacy are similar in that they both result in conclusions drawn from insufficient evidence. However, there is a difference between the two:

  • The involves genuinely considering an example or case (i.e., the evidence comes first and then an incorrect conclusion is drawn from this).
  • The anecdotal evidence fallacy (also known as “cherry-picking” ) is knowing in advance what conclusion we want to support, and then selecting the story (or a few stories) that support it. By overemphasizing anecdotal evidence that fits well with the point we are trying to make, we overlook evidence that would undermine our argument.

Although many sources use circular reasoning fallacy and begging the question interchangeably, others point out that there is a subtle difference between the two:

  • occurs when you assume that an argument is true in order to justify a conclusion. If something begs the question, what you are actually asking is, “Is the premise of that argument actually true?” For example, the statement “Snakes make great pets. That’s why we should get a snake” begs the question “are snakes really great pets?”
  • on the other hand, occurs when the evidence used to support a claim is just a repetition of the claim itself. For example, “People have free will because they can choose what to do.”

In other words, we could say begging the question is a form of circular reasoning. uses circular reasoning to support an argument. More specifically, the evidence used to support a claim is just a repetition of the claim itself. For example: “The President of the United States is a good leader (claim), because they are the leader of this country (supporting evidence)”.

An example of a non sequitur is the following statement: “Giving up nuclear weapons weakened the United States’ military. Giving up nuclear weapons also weakened China. For this reason, it is wrong to try to outlaw firearms in the United States today.” Clearly there is a step missing in this line of reasoning and the conclusion does not follow from the premise, resulting in a,

The difference between the and the is that post hoc fallacy infers a causal connection between two events where none exists, whereas the non sequitur fallacy infers a conclusion that lacks a logical connection to the premise. In other words, a post hoc fallacy occurs when there is a lack of a cause-and-effect relationship, while a non sequitur fallacy occurs when there is a lack of logical connection.

An example of is the following line of reasoning: “Yesterday I had ice cream, and today I have a terrible stomachache. I’m sure the ice cream caused this.” Although it is possible that the ice cream had something to do with the stomachache, there is no proof to justify the conclusion other than the order of events.

Therefore, this line of reasoning is fallacious. Post hoc fallacy and hasty generalisation fallacy are similar in that they both involve jumping to conclusions. However, there is a difference between the two: In other words, post hoc fallacy involves a leap to a causal claim; hasty generalisation fallacy involves a leap to a general proposition.

  • The fallacy of composition involves drawing an inference about the characteristics of a whole or group based on the characteristics of its individual members.
  • The involves drawing an inference about a population or class of things on the basis of few atypical instances or a small of that population or thing.

In other words, the fallacy of composition is using an unwarranted assumption that we can infer something about a whole based on the characteristics of its parts, while the hasty generalization fallacy is using insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion.

  • Avoid making an important decision in haste. When we are under pressure, we are more likely to resort to cognitive shortcuts like the and the, Due to this, we are more likely to factor in only current and vivid information, and ignore the actual probability of something happening (i.e., base rate).
  • Take a long-term view on the decision or question at hand. Look for relevant statistical data, which can reveal long-term trends and give you the full picture.
  • Talk to experts like professionals. They are more aware of probabilities related to specific decisions.

Suppose there is a population consisting of 90% psychologists and 10% engineers. Given that you know someone enjoyed physics at school, you may conclude that they are an engineer rather than a psychologist, even though you know that this person comes from a population consisting of far more psychologists than engineers.

  1. When we ignore the rate of occurrence of some trait in a (the base-rate information) we commit,
  2. Cost-benefit fallacy is a common error that occurs when allocating sources in project management.
  3. It is the fallacy of assuming that cost-benefit estimates are more or less accurate, when in fact they are highly inaccurate and biased.

This means that cost-benefit analyses can be useful, but only after the cost-benefit fallacy has been acknowledged and corrected for. Cost-benefit fallacy is a type of, In advertising, the is often used to create a pun. For example, a billboard company might advertise their billboards using a line like: “Looking for a sign? This is it!” The word sign has a literal meaning as billboard and a figurative one as a sign from God, the universe, etc.

Equivocation is a fallacy because it is a form of argumentation that is both misleading and logically unsound. When the meaning of a word or phrase shifts in the course of an argument, it causes confusion and also implies that the conclusion (which may be true) does not follow from the premise. The is an informal logical fallacy, meaning that the error lies in the content of the argument instead of the structure.

Fallacies of relevance are a group of fallacies that occur in arguments when the premises are logically irrelevant to the conclusion. Although at first there seems to be a connection between the premise and the conclusion, in reality fallacies of relevance use unrelated forms of appeal.

For example, the makes an appeal to the source or origin of the claim in an attempt to assert or refute something. The ad hominem fallacy and the genetic fallacy are closely related in that they are both fallacies of relevance. In other words, they both involve arguments that use evidence or examples that are not logically related to the argument at hand.

However, there is a difference between the two:

  • In the, the goal is to discredit the argument by discrediting the person currently making the argument.
  • In the, the goal is to discredit the argument by discrediting the history or origin (i.e., genesis) of an argument.

is also known as false dichotomy, false binary, and “either-or” fallacy. It is the of presenting only two choices, outcomes, or sides to an argument as the only possibilities, when more are available. The works in two ways:

  • By presenting only two options as if these were the only ones available
  • By presenting two options as mutually exclusive (i.e., only one option can be selected or can be true at a time)

In both cases, by using the false dilemma fallacy, one conceals alternative choices and doesn’t allow others to consider the full range of options. This is usually achieved through an”either-or” construction and polarised, divisive language (“you are either a friend or an enemy”). The best way to avoid a is to pause and reflect on two points:

  • Are the options presented truly the only ones available ? It could be that another option has been deliberately omitted.
  • Are the options mentioned mutually exclusive ? Perhaps all of the available options can be selected (or be true) at the same time, which shows that they aren’t mutually exclusive. Proving this is called “escaping between the horns of the dilemma.”

is an argument in which you assume what you are trying to prove. In other words, your position and the justification of that position are the same, only slightly rephrased. For example: “All freshmen should attend college orientation, because all college students should go to such an orientation.” The complex question fallacy and begging the question fallacy are similar in that they are both based on assumptions.

  • A complex question fallacy occurs when someone asks a question that presupposes the answer to another question that has not been established or accepted by the other person. For example, asking someone “Have you stopped cheating on tests?”, unless it has previously been established that the person is indeed cheating on tests, is a fallacy.
  • occurs when we assume the very thing as a premise that we’re trying to prove in our conclusion. In other words, the conclusion is used to support the premises, and the premises prove the validity of the conclusion. For example: “God exists because the Bible says so, and the Bible is true because it is the word of God.”

In other words, begging the question is about drawing a conclusion based on an assumption, while a complex question involves asking a question that presupposes the answer to a prior question. “” arguments aren’t always fallacious. When there is a generally accepted definition of who or what constitutes a group, it’s reasonable to use statements in the form of “no true Scotsman”.

  • For example, the statement that “no true pacifist would volunteer for military service” is not fallacious, since a pacifist is, by definition, someone who opposes war or violence as a means of settling disputes.
  • Arguments are fallacious because instead of logically refuting the counterexample, they simply assert that it doesn’t count.

In other words, the counterexample is rejected for psychological, but not logical, reasons. The appeal to purity or is an attempt to defend a generalisation about a group from a counterexample by shifting the definition of the group in the middle of the argument.

  • Is the authority cited really a qualified expert in this particular area under discussion? For example, someone who has formal education or years of experience can be an expert.
  • Do experts disagree on this particular subject? If that is the case, then for almost any claim supported by one expert there will be a counterclaim that is supported by another expert. If there is no consensus, an appeal to authority is fallacious.
  • Is the authority in question biased? If you suspect that an expert’s prejudice and bias could have influenced their views, then the expert is not reliable and an argument citing this expert will be fallacious.To identify an appeal to authority fallacy, you ask yourself whether the authority cited is a qualified expert in the particular area under discussion.

is a fallacy when those who use it do not provide any justification to support their argument. Instead they cite someone famous who agrees with their viewpoint, but is not qualified to make reliable claims on the subject. is often convincing because of the effect authority figures have on us.

When someone cites a famous person, a well-known scientist, a politician, etc. people tend to be distracted and often fail to critically examine whether the authority figure is indeed an expert in the area under discussion. The is common in politics. One example is the following viewpoint: “The majority of our countrymen think we should have military operations overseas; therefore, it’s the right thing to do.” This line of reasoning is fallacious, because popular acceptance of a belief or position does not amount to a justification of that belief.

In other words, following the prevailing opinion without examining the underlying reasons is irrational. The plays on our innate desire to fit in (known as “bandwagon effect”). If many people believe something, our common sense tells us that it must be true and we tend to accept it.

  • An tries to persuade others by claiming that something is true or right because a lot of people think so.
  • An tries to persuade by claiming a group of experts believe something is true or right, therefore it must be so.

To identify a, you need to carefully analyse the argument:

  • When someone claims that one event directly causes another, ask if there is sufficient evidence to establish a cause-and-effect relationship.
  • Ask if the claim is based merely on the chronological order or co-occurrence of the two events.
  • Consider alternative possible explanations (are there other factors at play that could influence the outcome?).

By carefully analysing the reasoning, considering alternative explanations, and examining the evidence provided, you can identify a false cause fallacy and discern whether a causal claim is valid or flawed. examples include:

  • Believing that wearing your lucky jersey will help your team win
  • Thinking that everytime you wash your car, it rains
  • Claiming that playing video games causes violent behavior

In each of these examples, we falsely assume that one event causes another without any proof. The planning fallacy and procrastination are not the same thing. Although they both relate to time and task management, they describe different challenges:

  • The describes our inability to correctly estimate how long a future task will take, mainly due to and a strong focus on the best-case scenario.
  • Procrastination refers to postponing a task, usually by focusing on less urgent or more enjoyable activities. This is due to psychological reasons, like fear of failure.

In other words, the planning fallacy refers to inaccurate predictions about the time we need to finish a task, while procrastination is a deliberate delay due to psychological factors. A real-life example of the is the construction of the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

When construction began in the late 1950s, it was initially estimated that it would be completed in four years at a cost of around $7 million. Because the government wanted the construction to start before political opposition would stop it and while public opinion was still favorable, a number of design issues had not been carefully studied in advance.

Due to this, several problems appeared immediately after the project commenced. The construction process eventually stretched over 14 years, with the Opera House being completed in 1973 at a cost of over $100 million, significantly exceeding the initial estimates.

An example of is the following appeal by a student to their professor: “Professor, please consider raising my grade. I had a terrible semester: my car broke down, my laptop got stolen, and my cat got sick.” While these circumstances may be unfortunate, they are not directly related to the student’s academic performance.

While both the and can serve as a distraction from the original discussion topic, they are distinct fallacies. More specifically:

  • Appeal to pity fallacy attempts to evoke feelings of sympathy, pity, or guilt in an audience, so that they accept the speaker’s conclusion as truthful.
  • Red herring fallacy attempts to introduce an irrelevant piece of information that diverts the audience’s attention to a different topic.

Both fallacies can be used as a tool of deception. However, they operate differently and serve distinct purposes in arguments. Argumentum ad misericordiam (Latin for “argument from pity or misery”) is another name for, It occurs when someone evokes sympathy or guilt in an attempt to gain support for their claim, without providing any logical reasons to support the claim itself.

  1. Appeal to pity is a deceptive tactic of argumentation, playing on people’s emotions to sway their opinion.
  2. Yes, it’s quite common to start a sentence with a preposition, and there’s no reason not to do so.
  3. For example, the sentence ” To many, she was a hero” is perfectly grammatical.
  4. It could also be rephrased as “She was a hero to many”, but there’s no particular reason to do so.

Both versions are fine. Some people argue that you shouldn’t, but that “rule” can also be ignored, since it’s not supported by serious language authorities. Yes, it’s fine to, The “rule” against doing so is overwhelmingly rejected by modern style guides and language authorities and is based on the rules of Latin grammar, not English.

Trying to avoid ending a sentence with a often results in very unnatural phrasings. For example, turning “He knows what he’s talking about ” into “He knows about what he’s talking” or “He knows that about which he’s talking” is definitely not an improvement. No, ChatGPT is not a of factual information and can’t be cited for this purpose in,

While it tries to provide accurate answers, it often gets things wrong because its responses are based on patterns, not facts and data. Specifically, the for includes five criteria: currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose, ChatGPT fails to meet at least three of them:

  • Currency: The dataset that ChatGPT was trained on only extends to 2021, making it slightly outdated.
  • Authority: It’s just a language model and is not considered a trustworthy source of factual information.
  • Accuracy: It bases its responses on patterns rather than evidence and is unable to,

So you shouldn’t cite for a factual claim. You might still for other reasons – for example, if you’re writing a paper about AI language models, ChatGPT responses are a relevant, ChatGPT is an AI language model that was trained on a large body of text from a variety of sources (e.g., Wikipedia, books, news articles, scientific journals).

  • The dataset only went up to 2021, meaning that it lacks information on more recent events.
  • It’s also important to understand that ChatGPT doesn’t access a database of facts to answer your questions.
  • Instead, its responses are based on patterns that it saw in the training data. So,
  • It can usually answer general knowledge questions accurately, but it can easily give misleading answers on more specialist topics.

Another consequence of this way of generating responses is that ChatGPT usually can’t accurately. It doesn’t really know what source it’s basing any specific claim on. It’s best to check any information you get from it against a, No, it is not possible to,

  • You can ask it to create citations, but it isn’t designed for this task and tends to make up sources that don’t exist or present information in the wrong format.
  • ChatGPT also cannot add citations to in your text.
  • Instead, use a tool designed for this purpose, like the,
  • But you can in other ways, to provide inspiration, feedback, and general writing advice.

GPT stands for “generative pre-trained transformer”, which is a type of large language model: a neural network trained on a very large amount of text to produce convincing, human-like language outputs. The Chat part of the name just means “chat”: is a chatbot that you interact with by typing in text.

The technology behind ChatGPT is GPT-3.5 (in the free version) or GPT-4 (in the premium version). These are the names for the specific versions of the GPT model. GPT-4 is currently the most advanced model that OpenAI has created. It’s also the model used in Bing’s chatbot feature. was created by OpenAI, an AI research company.

It started as a nonprofit company in 2015 but became for-profit in 2019. Its CEO is Sam Altman, who also co-founded the company. OpenAI released ChatGPT as a free “research preview” in November 2022. Currently, it’s still available for free, although a more advanced premium version is available if you pay for it.

  1. OpenAI is also known for developing DALL-E, an AI image generator that runs on similar technology to ChatGPT.
  2. Is owned by OpenAI, the company that developed and released it.
  3. OpenAI is a company dedicated to AI research.
  4. It started as a nonprofit company in 2015 but transitioned to for-profit in 2019.
  5. Its current CEO is Sam Altman, who also co-founded the company.

In terms of who owns the content generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI states that it, and the state that “you can use Content for any purpose, including commercial purposes such as sale or publication”. This means that you effectively own any content you generate with ChatGPT and can use it for your own purposes.

  • Be cautious about how you use ChatGPT content in an academic context.
  • Are still developing, so even if you “own” the content, you’re often not allowed to submit it as your own work according to your university or to publish it in a journal.
  • Is a chatbot based on a large language model (LLM).
  • These models are trained on huge datasets consisting of hundreds of billions of words of text, based on which the model learns to effectively predict natural responses to the prompts you enter.

ChatGPT was also refined through a process called reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), which involves “rewarding” the model for providing useful answers and discouraging inappropriate answers – encouraging it to make fewer mistakes. Essentially, ChatGPT’s answers are based on predicting the most likely responses to your inputs based on its training data, with a reward system on top of this to incentivise it to give you the most helpful answers possible.

It’s a bit like an incredibly advanced version of predictive text. This is also one of : because its answers are based on probabilities, they’re, OpenAI may store conversations for the purposes of future training. Additionally, these conversations may be monitored by human AI trainers. Users can choose not to have their chat history saved.

Unsaved chats are not used to train future models and are permanently deleted from ChatGPT’s system after 30 days. The official app is currently only available on iOS devices. If you don’t have an iOS device, only use the official OpenAI website to access the tool.

This helps to eliminate the potential risk of downloading fraudulent or malicious software. conversations are generally used to train future models and to resolve issues/bugs. These chats may be monitored by human AI trainers. However, users can opt out of having their conversations used for training. In these instances, chats are monitored only for potential abuse.

Yes, is a great way to practice a language in an interactive way. Try using a prompt like this one: “Please be my Spanish conversation partner. Only speak to me in Spanish. Keep your answers short (maximum 50 words). Ask me questions. Let’s start the conversation with the following topic:,” Yes, there are a variety of ways to, including treating it as a conversation partner, asking it for translations, and using it to generate a curriculum or practice exercises.

AI detectors aim to identify the presence of AI-generated text (e.g., from ) in a piece of writing, but they can’t do so with complete accuracy. In our comparison of the, we found that the 10 tools we tested had an average accuracy of 60%. The best free tool had 68% accuracy, the best premium tool 84%.

Because of, they can never guarantee 100% accuracy, and there is always at least a small risk of false positives (human text being marked as AI-generated). Therefore, these tools should not be relied upon to provide absolute proof that a text is or isn’t AI-generated.

  • Rather, they can provide a good indication in combination with other evidence.
  • Tools called AI detectors are designed to label text as AI-generated or human.
  • By looking for specific characteristics in the text, such as a low level of randomness in word choice and sentence length.
  • These characteristics are typical of AI writing, allowing the detector to make a good guess at when text is AI-generated.

But these tools can’t guarantee 100% accuracy. Check out our comparison of the to learn more. You can also manually watch for clues that a text is AI-generated – for example, a very different style from the writer’s usual voice or a generic, overly polite tone.

  1. Our research into the (aka summarisers or summarising tools) found that the best summariser available in 2023 is the one offered by QuillBot.
  2. While many summarisers just pick out some sentences from the text, QuillBot generates original summaries that are creative, clear, accurate, and concise.
  3. It can summarise texts of up to 1,200 words for free, or up to 6,000 with a premium subscription.

requires a large dataset (e.g., images or text) to learn from. The more diverse and representative the data, the better the model will learn to recognise objects or make predictions. Only when the training data is sufficiently varied can the model make accurate predictions or recognise objects from new data.

Models can be biased in their predictions if the training data consist of biased information. For example, if a deep learning model used for screening job applicants has been trained with a dataset consisting primarily of white male applicants, it will consistently favour this specific population over others.

A (i.e., one that will get you the kinds of responses you want):

  • Gives the tool a role to explain what type of answer you expect from it
  • Is precisely formulated and gives enough context
  • Is free from bias
  • Has been tested and improved by experimenting with the tool

are the textual inputs (e.g., questions, instructions) that you enter into ChatGPT to get responses. ChatGPT predicts an appropriate response to the prompt you entered. In general, a more specific and carefully worded prompt will get you better responses.

Yes, is currently available for free. You have to sign up for a free account to use the tool, and you should be aware that to train future versions of the model. To sign up and use the tool for free, go to and click “Sign up”. You can do so with your email or with a Google account. A premium version of the tool called ChatGPT Plus is available as a monthly subscription.

It currently costs £16 and gets you access to features like GPT-4 (a more advanced version of the language model). But it’s optional: you can use the tool completely free if you’re not interested in the extra features. You can access by signing up for a free account:

  1. Follow to the ChatGPT website.
  2. Click on “Sign up” and fill in the necessary details (or use your Google account). It’s free to sign up and use the tool.
  3. Type a prompt into the chat box to get started!

A ChatGPT app is also available for iOS, and an Android app is planned for the future. The app works similarly to the website, and you log in with the same account for both.

  1. According to OpenAI’s terms of use, users have the right to reproduce text generated by during conversations.
  2. However, publishing ChatGPT outputs may have, such as copyright infringement.
  3. Users should be aware of such issues and use ChatGPT outputs as a source of inspiration instead.

According to OpenAI’s terms of use, users have the right to use outputs from their own conversations for any purpose (including commercial publication). However, users should be aware of the potential of publishing ChatGPT outputs. ChatGPT responses are not always unique: different users may receive the same response.

Furthermore, ChatGPT outputs may contain copyrighted material. Users may be liable if they reproduce such material. can sometimes reproduce biases from its, since it draws on the text it has “seen” to create plausible responses to your prompts. For example, users have shown that it sometimes makes sexist assumptions such as that a doctor mentioned in a prompt must be a man rather than a woman.

Some have also pointed out political bias in terms of which political figures the tool is willing to write positively or negatively about and which requests it refuses. The tool is unlikely to be consistently biased toward a particular perspective or against a particular group.

Rather, its responses are based on its training data and on the way you phrase your, It’s sensitive to phrasing, so asking it the same question in different ways will result in quite different answers. Information extraction refers to the process of starting from unstructured sources (e.g., text documents written in ordinary English) and automatically extracting structured information (i.e., data in a clearly defined format that’s easily understood by computers).

It’s an important concept in, For example, you might think of using news articles full of celebrity gossip to automatically create a database of the relationships between the celebrities mentioned (e.g., married, dating, divorced, feuding). You would end up with data in a structured format, something like MarriageBetween(celebrity 1,celebrity 2,date),

  • The challenge involves developing systems that can “understand” the text well enough to extract this kind of data from it.
  • Nowledge representation and reasoning (KRR) is the study of how to represent information about the world in a form that can be used by a computer system to solve and reason about complex problems.

It is an important field of research. An example of a KRR application is a semantic network, a way of grouping words or concepts by how closely related they are and formally defining the relationships between them so that a machine can “understand” language in something like the way people do.

A related concept is, concerned with how to get structured information from unstructured sources. Yes, you can to help you express your ideas more clearly, explore different ways of phrasing your arguments, and avoid repetition. However, it’s not specifically designed for this purpose. We recommend using a specialised tool like, which will provide a smoother user experience.

Yes, you by having it generate feedback on certain aspects of your work (consistency of tone, clarity of structure, etc.). However, is not able to adequately judge qualities like vulnerability and authenticity. For this reason, it’s important to also ask for feedback from people who have experience with college essays and who know you well.

Alternatively, you can get advice using, No, having write your college essay can negatively impact your application in numerous ways. ChatGPT outputs are unoriginal and lack personal insight. Furthermore, Passing off AI-generated text as your own work is considered, may be used to detect this offense, and it’s highly unlikely that any university will accept you if you are caught submitting an AI-generated admission essay.

However, you can during the preparation and revision stages (e.g., for brainstorming ideas and generating feedback). and other can have unethical uses. These include:

  • Reproducing biases and false information
  • in academic contexts
  • Violating the privacy of others by inputting personal information

However, when used correctly, AI writing tools can be helpful resources for improving your and skills. Some ways to include:

  • Following your institution’s guidelines
  • Critically evaluating outputs
  • Being transparent about how you used the tool

: How do I cite a source with multiple authors in Harvard style?

Do you have to say et al in a sentence?

Et Al. in Turabian In-Text Citations with Multiple Authors – Using et al. in your in-text citations is the same in Turabian as it is in Chicago style. You’ll put et al. in your footnotes (short and long) and within your text. Below are examples of each. In the author-date system, et al.

Should you never write et al in your reference list?

Harvard Referencing: Top 10 mistakes.and how to avoid them A common mistake we see is the incorrect use of et al. To remind you, this stands for ‘ and others ‘ and it should be used in your in-text citations only, to indicate a work has multiple authors.

  1. In your reference list at the end of your work, you should include all of the authors.
  2. It should only be used if the source you are citing has four or more authors.
  3. Where a source has one, two or three authors, you should name them all in both your in-text citation and your reference. et al,
  4. Should always be written in italics, with a full stop at the end of al,

Citation: Davey et al, (2015) discuss the mechanisms of antibacterial drugs. or Citation: Certain hepatropic viruses infect many people (Davey et al., 2015, p.66). Reference: Davey, P., Wilcox, M.H, Irving, W. and Thwaites, G. (2015) Antimicrobial chemotherapy,7th edn.

  1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  2. Has information on Setting out Citations.
  3. From the homepage, select ‘choose your referencing style’ then select the Harvard option and you will see ‘setting out citations’ listed on the right hand side.
  4. This gives comprehensive guidance on how to cite one, two, three and ‘four or more’ authors.

You will need to log in with your SGUL network login to see it. : Harvard Referencing: Top 10 mistakes.and how to avoid them

Whose name goes first in et al?

Should I use the name of the first author or the corresponding author before “et al.” in a reference? | Editage Insights 1 Answer to this question You should always use the and not the name of the contact author. This is because the first author is the lead author or main author of the paper; typically, the person who carried out the majority of the research with the assistance of the other co-authors.

  • The contact author or corresponding author is usually a senior author who provides intellectual inputs and approves the protocols to be followed in the study.
  • Since the contribution of the first author is the maximum, the name of the first author should always be included in reference and citations, followed by ” et al.

” You might also be interested in reading this informative article about, : Should I use the name of the first author or the corresponding author before “et al.” in a reference? | Editage Insights

How do you cite 2 authors in Harvard?

LibGuides: Harvard: Citing authors with Harvard If you are citing a source with eight or more authors, the surname of only the first person attributed as one of the source’s authors should be included in your in-text citation, followed by the words ‘et al’.

The rest of the reference should follow the usual style for the type of source you are citing. In-text citation: (Clark et al., 2020) Reference list:

Clark, K., Cletheroe, D., Gerard, T., Haller, I., Jozwik, K., Shi, K., Thomsen, B., Williams, H., et al (2020). ‘Synchronous subnanosecond clock and data recovery for optically switched data centres using clock phase caching’, Nature Electronics, 3, pp.426-433. : LibGuides: Harvard: Citing authors with Harvard

How do you cite one or two authors in text?

APA Citations (7th ed.): In-text Citation Author Rules

  • For a work with one or two authors, include the author name(s) in every citation.
  • (McCall, 2019)
  • (Moyer & Hendricks, 2014)
  • Thornton and Manning (2016)

For a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus “et al.” in every citation, including the first citation, unless doing so would create ambiguity.

  1. (Huerta et al., 2019)
  2. Kapoor, Bloom, Montez, et al. (2017)
  3. Kapoor, Bloom, Zucker, et al. (2017)

To learn more about avoiding ambiguity in in-text citations, see pp.266-267 of the manual. : APA Citations (7th ed.): In-text Citation Author Rules

Do you use et al for 3 authors?

A Work by Three or More Authors – List only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, even the first, unless doing so would create ambiguity between different sources. (Kernis et al., 1993) Kernis et al. (1993) suggest. In et al.

, et should not be followed by a period. Only “al” should be followed by a period. If you’re citing multiple works with similar groups of authors, and the shortened “et al” citation form of each source would be the same, you’ll need to avoid ambiguity by writing out more names. If you cited works with these authors: Jones, Smith, Liu, Huang, and Kim (2020) Jones, Smith, Ruiz, Wang, and Stanton (2020) They would be cited in-text as follows to avoid ambiguity: (Jones, Smith, Liu, et al., 2020) (Jones, Smith, Ruiz, et al., 2020) Since et al.

is plural, it should always be a substitute for more than one name. In the case that et al. would stand in for just one author, write the author’s name instead.

How do you cite 3 authors in APA 7?

How many authors? APA has strict rules for how to show the author’s names in the text of your assignment and in your reference list. You need to check the number of authors you have for your work, and then format your references accordingly:

1-2 authors 3-20 authors More than 20 authors

See the tabs on this box for details. Things to Note: Pay attention to the use of commas, the ampersand (&), and the word “and”.

You use the word “and” when you are using the author’s names as part of your sentence, but an “&” when the names are in the brackets or the reference list. In text, you will always use a comma after each author (except the last one) when you have more than two names. In your reference list, you put a comma after each author (except the last one).

You always put a full stop after the al. in et al., because it is short for “et alia” (“and others”). For one or two authors, always mention the names of all authors In Text: Narrative citation: Zhang and Webb (2019) noted that students who read bilingual books performed better in vocabulary tests.

Parenthetical citation: Students who read bilingual books may perform better in vocabulary tests ( Zhang & Webb, 2019). In Your Reference List: When you have 3 or more authors, you only use the first author’s surname in text, and abbreviate the rest of the list with “et al.” (Latin for “and others”).

In your reference list, you list all of the authors (up to 20), In Text: Narrative citation: Boers et al.’s (2017) research into the use of pictures in glosses found they may decrease the amount of attention given to the words. Parenthetical citation: Using pictures to illustrate glosses may, in fact, decrease the amount of attention given to the words ( Boers et al.

  • 2017). In Your Reference List: Boers, F., Warren, P., He, L., & Deconinck, J. (2017).
  • Does adding pictures to glosses enhance vocabulary uptake from reading? System, 66, 113-129.
  • Https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.system.2017.03.017 When you have more than 3 authors (regardless of how many), you only use the first author’s surname in text, and abbreviate the rest of the list with “et al.”.

In your reference list, you list the first 19 authors and the last one, using an ellipses (.) to show that some authors have been omitted (do not use an ampersand &). In Text: Narrative citation: Tobler et al.’s (2017) research found genetic evidence that suggests Australian Aboriginal people have inhabited the Australian landmass for approximately 50,000 years.

  1. Parenthetical citation: Genetic evidence suggests the Australian Aboriginal people have inhabited the Australian landmass for approximately 50,000 years ( Tobler et al., 2017).
  2. In Your Reference List: Always include no more than twenty names, the first 19 and the last one: Tobler, R., Rohrlach, A., Soubrier, J., Bover, P., Llamas, B., Tuke, J., Bean, N., Abdullah-Highfold, A., Agius, S., O’Donoghue, A., O’Loughlin, I., Sutton, P., Zilio, F., Walshe, K., Williams, A.N., Turney, C.S.M., Williams, M., Richards, S.M., Mitchell, N.,,

Cooper, A. (2017), Aboriginal mitogenomes reveal 50,000 years of regionalism in Australia. Nature, 544 (7649), 180-184. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21416

How do you write a 5 author name in a research paper?

Provide all the authors’ last names when you first refer to a document with 3-5 authors. Only list the first author with the Latin abbreviation ‘et al.’ for any subsequent references. Example: Jones, Chavez, Jackson, and Chen (2010) duplicated

How do you cite multiple authors in APA 7?

Source with Three to Twenty Authors Note: For all sources with three to twenty authors, you must write out all of the authors on the References page. For in-text citations, sources with three or more authors can be abbreviated to (Author, et al., year) from the first use.