APA Style CENTRAL® Update: Improved Searching of Learning Center Content

Posted on April 12, 2018January 4, 2019 by Patti Avellanet in For Faculty, For Students

The search function in the Learning Center has been improved! APA Style CENTRAL recently added features and updated tools to help with your research and writing in APA Style (also see our previous blog posts for details about spell-check and appendices and citing within paper elements).

After discovering that users were not easily finding relevant quick guides, sample references, and other content when searching the Learning Center, we updated the behind-the-scenes indexing for the learning objects to make them easier to find.

You can now enter a variety of search terms without having to exactly match the terms used in the learning object’s description or title. All of the relevant parts of the search results are highlighted in yellow. If the answer can be found in both the learning object and an associated PDF in the LEARN MORE section, both will be highlighted.

For example: Searching for “chapter” results in highlighting of the quick guide title “Book Chapter Reference”; all instances of the word “chapter” in this quick guide’s DESCRIPTION heading; the video preview box in the THUMBNAIL section; and the text in the LEARN MORE section, “APA Style Guide to Electronic References, Examples 19-20″.

Another notable example: Searching for “Bible” will display the “Citing References in Text” quick guide, with highlighting of the relevant section of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association that addresses the citation of classical works.

Let us know! If you search the Learning Center but don’t find what you’re looking for, please email us! Tell us what search term(s) you used and what you expected to find so that we can update the content indexing to improve the search functionality.

Search tip: To quickly clear your search terms from the search box or view all learning objects again, use the “Show all items” link to the left of the search box (see screenshot above).

Related resources:

APA Style Blog: APA Style CENTRAL – Using Embed Links to add a quick guide, tutorial, self-quiz, or Learning Center sample into any HTML page
APA Style CENTRAL handouts:
- Saving Favorite Items in the Learning Center (PDF, 573KB)
- Accessing the Publication Manual (PDF, 1.2 MB)
The cumulative list of platform updates (also linked from the APA Style CENTRAL’s training and support page)

Questions? Want to see more features added to APA Style CENTRAL?
Let us know! support@apastylecentral.org

New Features in APA Style CENTRAL®’s Writing Center – Citing Within Paper Elements

Posted on March 28, 2018January 4, 2019 by Marta Soto in For Faculty, For Librarians, For Students

APA Style CENTRAL recently added and updated tools to help with your research and writing in APA Style. See our previous blog post for details about spell-check and appendices.

You can now cite references in abstracts, figure captions, table bodies, and table captions, in the same way you cite references in the body of the paper.

Why cite within these parts of the paper?

If your research is a reply or follow-up to previously published work, you’d usually cite that work in the abstract.

If your figure summarizes data from another published work, you’ll want to credit that researcher in the figure caption

If you’re doing a literature review or meta-analysis and want to summarize the results of several previous studies in a table, you’ll want to cite those studies in the table body.
If your table includes results you found using a concept or a survey developed by another researcher, you’ll want to credit them in your table caption.

To cite within a paper element, you can create a new reference, search for a reference in PsycINFO, or choose from My References.

Once the in-text citation is created, the reference is added to the Paper Reference List and marked as cited.

You can read the full list of platform updates on APA Style CENTRAL’s training and support page.

APA Style CENTRAL Handout: Adding References to Papers

Tutorial: Inserting References

Questions?
Want to see more features added to APA Style CENTRAL?
Let us know! support@apastylecentral.org

New Features in APA Style CENTRAL®’s Writing Center – Spell-Check and Appendices

Posted on March 21, 2018January 4, 2019 by Marta Soto in For Faculty, For Librarians, For Students

APA Style CENTRAL recently added and updated tools to help with your research and writing in APA Style, including improved spell-check and a new location for appendices.

Spell-Check

You can Run Spell-Check Tool at any time to open a window where you choose to “ignore” or “change” words.

You can now also Check As I Write, which will underline misspelled words in red as you work.
Suggested words are provided if you click any underlined word. The spell-check includes words from the APA Dictionary of Psychology and surnames of famous psychologists, so these words will not be flagged as misspelled.

Appendices

Appendices are now managed in a tab below the body of the paper. You can create an appendix, or call it out in the body, in the same way you would a reference, table, or figure.

Please note: Any appendices created in a paper’s body before February 2018 will be moved automatically to the Call Out Appendices tab.

You can read the full list of platform updates on APA Style CENTRAL’s training and support page.

Questions?
Want to see more features added to APA Style CENTRAL?
Let us know! support@apastylecentral.org