Results

The Results section follows on immediately after the end of the Materials section, without starting a new page. Use a centred heading ‘Results’ in bold (i.e., a Level 1 Heading)

The Result section reports the evidence to test your hypotheses. It includes presentation of any statistical analyses used to investigate the data. Statistical analyses include both descriptive statistics, such as percentages, means and standard deviations, as well as inferential statistical tests, such as t-tests and correlations.

The Results section is usually structured so that descriptive statistics are reported before inferential test related to the hypotheses, followed by any exploratory analyses.

The Results section usually is in the following format:

- - - begin with a description of the analysis,
    - describe the data (Means, Standard Deviations, etc.). If you have a lot of information use a graph or table (see below),
    - report the findings in sentence form,
    - report statistical tests in APA format and explain what these tests mean relative to the experiment and hypotheses.

Reporting results in APA Style

Reporting results in APA format is important because it means that there is a common and standard way of reporting that everyone understands. This means that everyone can be sure what is being reported (i.e., everyone uses M for the Mean and SD for standard deviation). Attention to detail is, therefore, essential.

Statistical notations should be in italics e.g., n, M, SD, p, t, χ²
Round statistics to 2 decimal places, except p-value which should be rounded to 3 decimal places. Don’t forget to round up when necessary.
Report exact significance (p value) where possible e.g., p = .078 rather than p <.05
If SPSS output lists p-value as .000, report as p <.001
Do not include a zero before the decimal point for p values or correlations

CORRECT: p = .024 and r = .36

INCORRECT: p =0.024 and r = 0.36

The APA Style blog provides the following Numbers and Statistics guide (PDF) which you may find useful.

Examples of how to report your results

Statistical significance

Statistical significance (p values) indicate the degree of certainty that there is an effect, but it is influenced by sample size (larger samples = more certainty). Therefore, it is a good idea to report effect sizes (e.g., Cohen’s d or partial eta squared) in addition to reporting significance values.

Some effect sizes are provided in SPSS (e.g., partial eta squared).
Formulas for calculating effect sizes are found in most statistics textbooks.
You can also use an online effect size calculator.
You should report whether the effect size is small, medium, or large – use interpretation guidelines in statistics textbooks or online.
You should also report confidence intervals to help the reader interpret the findings.
Report 95% confidence intervals (upper and lower).

Tables and Figures

A table or figure may be used to assist in presenting results from specific analyses.

Tables are visual displays of text or numbers and composed of a table number and title, columns and row headers and a notes section below the table.

A figure may be a chart, graph, photograph, drawing, plot, or any other illustration that is not a table. The most important principle to follow when creating a table or figure is to present information in a way that is easy for readers to understand. You should also provide sufficient information so that readers do not need to read the text to understand it. Finally, if the graphs or tables were removed, but the reader cannot understand the results without them, then you have not included enough information in text on the analysis and what it means.

There are two options for the placement of tables and figures. The first, is to embed tables in the text after they are first mentioned. The second, is to place them on a separate page after the references.

Tables and Figures are each numbered in order of their presentation in the report. e.g., Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2…

Always introduce the Table or Figure (using capital T and F and their relevant number) in text prior to presenting the Table or Figure. Let the reader know what to look for in the Table or Figure.

Do not repeat any results in sentences that you have already included in a Table or Figure.

The APA Style blog provides lots of examples on how to format a table.

Example of a table in APA style

If you need help setting up your tables in Word, the following You Tube video is just for you!

How to format a table in APA Style in Word [Duration: 7mins]

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Example of a figure in APA Style

As described above all types of visual displays other than tables are considered figures in APA Style. These include line graphs, bar graphs, charts (e.g., flowcharts, pie charts), drawings, etc.

Check out the example provided here to get an idea on how a figure should be formatted. The same guidelines as the tables apply here e.g., make sure that the text refers the reader to the figure but does not duplicate the information provided.

The APA Style blog has excellent examples of figures.

Creating APA Charts in Excel [Duration: 4 mins]

There are many ways in which you can create bar charts. The easiest though is probably Excel. The following video will show you how to create an APA Style bar chart in Excel.

Creating APA Bar graphs in Excel [Duration: 5 mins]

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