Reporting Statistics and Numbers in APA Style 7th Edition: Full Guideline

APA Reporting: Basic Information

APA statistics reporting is a section where you list collected information and describe numbers, formulas and other assessments involved in research. Readers will only follow your ideas if you clearly explain your statistical data. A statistics report allows readers to approve or refute your theory based on numerical data. This includes ranges, proportions or correlations.

While using data in numeric format, you should include a brief explanation. Your readers don’t have to draw conclusions on their own, as your task is to provide useful information on a given topic. Each measurement should have an explanation. For this reason, you should know exactly how to report numbers and statistics in APA style.

APA Statistics: Reporting Numbers in APA 7th Edition

Reporting statistics in APA implies working with numbers and measurements. Numerals are one of the most prominent units that you will deal with in nearly every report. No matter what study you are carrying out, you will have to include some numbers. But with so many rules out there, students quite often get confused. Let’s finally get things in order.  

A general rule of thumb in an APA statistics report is to use words for writing numbers up to 10. When it comes to mentioning data above 10, you should use regular numbers (15, 73). However, there is no need to spell out time or percentiles. 

Use numbers to represent values of:

• points and grades
• amount of time or money
• exact units of measure.

When dealing with exact measurements, you should use only numbers and abbreviated unit symbols. However, if you want to provide approximate measurements, you will need to spell out both numbers and units. Let’s look at this example to get an idea on how things work.

It took 1 h to conduct an experiment.

It took around one hour to conduct an experiment.

If you need to state percentages, insert a special symbol (%) without any space before it. Spell out the word “percentage” only if there are no exact numbers. Consider this example. 

Only 8% of respondents knew how to report percentages.

This percentage was lower in 2019.

How to Report Range in APA

When it comes to reporting range in APA, there are no specific requirements described in the 7th Edition of Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. However, APA Manual further notes that researchers should be specific and never abbreviate the ranges of numbers. Unlike MLA where you can include only the last 2 digits of your second number, you should present both numbers fully. Insert an en dash (–) between numbers.

Research results are presented in various forms, so you should familiarize yourself with general requirements in advance. You can get advice on this issue from your instructor, but it is still convenient to have a quick guide on hand.

APA Format Statistics: Decimal Places

There is 1 thing you should keep in mind when reporting APA decimal places: APA Style puts extra emphasis on clarity and precision in scientific writing. For this reason, you should always decide on the importance of  obtained values. For example, digits after a decimal point may not be valuable at all, since the focus may be only on the beginning. In this case you should round your number. 

Generally, you will round your number to either 1 or 2 decimal places depending on a type of statistics you work with. Round a number to the nearest tenth if you are stating the means, standard deviations or descriptive statistics. However, you will include 2 decimal places to report correlations, proportions or test statistics.

Reporting Leading Zeros in APA Style

APA Style has explicit rules for reporting leading zeros in statistics:

• Include a leading zero if a number can potentially exceed 1.0.
• Omit a leading zero if your statistic can’t exceed 1.0.

Also, don’t use a leading zero when stating p values and correlation coefficients.

Mathematical Formulas in APA Style Report

Many students specify formulas in APA style reporting statistics. Brief formulas that are used for explanations are shown on one line for easy understanding. You should also simplify the order of your calculations. For this purpose, you can use different brackets:

• 1st step: (parentheses)
• 2nd step: [square brackets]
• 3rd step: {curly brackets}.

As for equations that occupy more than one line, they are presented as usual. Using mathematical formulas and equations allows you to show your process of obtaining results and make it clear for your reader.

Statistical Terms in APA Reporting

Statistical data are difficult to understand, so scientists use several ways of presenting information in APA statistics reports. For this purpose, you can include tables, figures and diagrams.

Here are several APA guidelines you should remember to format your statistical terms properly:

• Use italicization and Latin letters to include sample statistics.
• In case you work with population parameters, the Greek alphabet is used.
• Italicize such terms as p value, F value or z test.
• Don’t use italics for Greek letters, subscripts, and geometrical terms.

There is no need to explain the abbreviations of constants in your formulas. But you will need to provide explanations for:

• abbreviations that do not show statistics
• non-standard abbreviations
• abbreviations that are mentioned in your tables.

Additionally, it is recommended to indicate the purpose of this or that equation. Various information makes it easier for readers to understand your study.

APA Format Report: Tests

You will have to quote data while reporting statistics in APA in any case. To evaluate research results, you need to use information about the studied groups. For this reason, several types of tests are used. Rules for formatting information are different.

• Chi-square tests.

A student should provide the degrees of freedom and an x-square value. As a result, we get:

“The test of independence showed that taste preferences depend on gender χ 2 (5) = 24.8, p = .017”.

• Z tests.

A researcher indicates p and z values for each individual case. Here’s an example of a z-test format:

“The scores of participants were higher than among the population: z = 1.29, p = 0.014”.

• T tests.

Your t test should include p and t values as well as degrees of freedom. As a result, it is possible to obtain such report:

“Older people experience more loneliness: t (32) = 2.94, p = 0.006”.

This reporting type allows you to assess the impact of a particular factor on your research results. You can discover a connection by conducting research in multiple groups, where participants are in the same conditions.

Statistics APA Format Analysis

Sometimes, you will need to study the difference between the means of more than 2 groups, or in other words make an Analysis of Variance. There are several things you should mention about ANOVA in APA statistics reporting:

• Degrees of freedom
• F value
• p value.

The degree of freedom must be indicated in parentheses so that it’s easy to digest. A researcher can conclude that there is a connection between the management style and the degree of employee engagement using this format:

F (2, 78) = 4.58, p = 0.013

Your analysis can also include indicators of correlation and regression. In each case, your values may differ, which means that you can evaluate your research accuracy. You can gain insights about a few options for formatting data on correlation and regression down below.

Reporting Correlations APA

Correlation results are an obligatory part of any report. Correlations allow you to determine a change in behavior depending on specific research conditions. You will need to report correlations in an APA statistics report using a fixed format. Make sure you provide additional information that affects the results. 

Researchers should indicate these details to report correlations:

• coefficient of correlations
• degree of freedom in parentheses
• p value.

The values ​​help evaluate the transparency of your experimental conditions. An experimenter can connect two factors and determine their influence. Here’s an example:

“During research, a correlation was found between the air temperature and the number of colds r (365) = 0.38, p <0.001”.

Reporting Regression APA

Your APA regression reporting should include several mandatory indicators that affect the final result:

• coefficient of determination R2
• F statistics
• degree of freedom in round parentheses
• p value.

Using numbers will help point out the meaning of a test and make a correct report. As an example, use this format:

“Research results showed a preliminary grade point average of college students, R2 = 0.35, F (1, 421) = 7.26, p = 0.008.”

A huge amount of data is typical for this section, therefore, it’s advised to present information using a table format. This method turned out to be more effective, since it is much easier for readers to assess numerical data.

You will work with the result section APA while writing your research paper. Keep in mind that we have the whole blog that will help you with this section's formatting.  

Final Thoughts on How to Report Statistics in APA

Writing this section becomes more complicated as each paragraph has its own requirements. Study the rules carefully, as this will allow you to create reporting statistics in APA that will meet the established standard. It is important to realize the value of  your work and offer statistical data in a convenient format.