The Parapsychological Association publishes across several programs—the Mindfield Bulletin, convention proceedings in the Abstracts of Presented Papers, its upcoming anthology series (TBA) and other general communications. This guide sets the shared standard for editors, authors, and contributors. It is short by design; when a case is not covered here, refer to APA style.
General Notes
- Use American English spelling.
- Use APA style.
- Place periods at the end of bulleted copy.
- Serial comma or series comma (also called an Oxford comma or a Harvard comma) preferred — a comma placed immediately before the coordinating conjunction (usually and or or) in a series of three or more terms (i.e. “data, theories, and experiment conclusions” NOT “data, theories and experiment conclusions”).
- Spell out ordinals first through ninth when they indicate a sequence in time or location.
- Spell out numerals one through ten.
- Capitalize words with four letters or more in a title like Psi Based on Information Transfer Between Brains (NOT Psi Based on Information Transfer between Brains). Also capitalize the second word in hyphenated constructions like Pre-Stimulus.
- Theories/fields of study are generally lowercase (such as central state materialism), but set with an uppercase letter if the name contains a proper noun (Planck’s constant).
- Use lowercase for roles but set uppercase when used in direct address: “The meeting began with the president’s address; the crowd cheered when President Seinfeld announced raises for his cabinet members.”
- Quotation marks go outside a comma, semicolon, colon, or period like this:” Or this.”
- Et al.: “et” should not be followed by a period, but al. is.
- Periods should be used for “e.g.,:” NOT “eg:”.
- Use double quotes “like this” NOT single quotes ‘like this’ when highlighting or introducing a term.
- See APA suggestions to minimize gender bias, accommodate gender diversity, and utilize nonhandicapping language in writing. See also the APA guidelines for non-sexist use of language and guidance on generative AI.
Words
Please refer to spellings in Merriam-Webster’s. Here are some common issues:
- well-being
- skepticism
- Unitarian (proper noun, capitalize)
- Spiritualist (proper noun, capitalize)
APA References — Basics
(See the full APA style guide here.)
Basic Format for URLs
Contributors’ names (Last edited date). Title of resource. Retrieved from http://web address.com.
Basic Format for Books
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
- For books published outside of Australia or the United States, include the city/town followed by the country. Books published in the United Kingdom should include the country (e.g., England, Scotland) in the place of publication rather than the United Kingdom or UK.
Basic Format for Journal Articles
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy
Organizing and Styling
- Avoid having only one subsection heading and subsection within a section. Use at least two subsection headings within a given heading, or use none.
- Topics of equal importance have the same level of heading.
- Note that there is no need to indent paragraphs.
- Please use one space after periods (i.e., not two or a double space).
Graphics
- Submitted images should be at least 600 pixels on the shortest side.