research paper on size

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Formatting guide

This guide describes how to prepare contributions for submission. We recommend you read this in full if you have not previously submitted a contribution to Nature . We also recommend that, before submission, you familiarize yourself with Nature ’s style and content by reading the journal, either in print or online, particularly if you have not submitted to the journal recently.

Formats for Nature contributions

Articles are the main format for original research contributions to Nature . In addition, Nature publishes other submitted material as detailed below.

Articles are original reports whose conclusions represent a substantial advance in understanding of an important problem and have immediate, far-reaching implications. In print, physical sciences papers do not normally exceed 6 pages on average, and biological, clinical and social-sciences papers do not normally exceed 8 pages on average. However, the final print length is at the editor’s discretion.

Articles start with a fully referenced summary paragraph, ideally of no more than 200 words, which is separate from the main text and avoids numbers, abbreviations, acronyms or measurements unless essential. It is aimed at readers outside the discipline. This summary paragraph should be structured as follows: 2-3 sentences of basic-level introduction to the field; a brief account of the background and rationale of the work; a statement of the main conclusions (introduced by the phrase 'Here we show' or its equivalent); and finally, 2-3 sentences putting the main findings into general context so it is clear how the results described in the paper have moved the field forwards. Please refer to our annotated example   to see how the summary paragraph should be constructed.

The typical length of a 6-page article with 4 modest display items (figures and tables) is 2500 words (summary paragraph plus body text). The typical length of an 8-page article with 5-6 modest display items is 4300 words. A ‘modest’ display item is one that, with its legend, occupies about a quarter of a page (equivalent to ~270 words). If a composite figure (with several panels) needs to occupy at least half a page in order for all the elements to be visible, the text length may need to be reduced accordingly to accommodate such figures. Keep in mind that essential but technical details can be moved into the Methods or Supplementary Information.

As a guideline, articles typically have no more than 50 references. (There is no such constraint on any additional references associated with Methods or Supplementary Information.)

Sections are separated with subheadings to aid navigation. Subheadings may be up to 40 characters (including spaces).

Word counts refer to the text of the paper. Title, author list, acknowledgements and references are not included in total word counts.

Matters Arising and Corrections

Matters Arising are exceptionally interesting or important comments and clarifications on original research papers or other peer-reviewed material published within the past 18 months in Nature . They are published online but not in print.

For further details of and instructions for how to submit such comments on peer-reviewed material published in Nature — or to notify editors of the potential need for a correction — please consult our Matters Arising page.

Other contributions to Nature

Please access the other submitted material pages for further details on any of the contribution types below:

News and Comment

Correspondence

Books & Arts

News & Views

Insights, Reviews and Perspectives

Technology Features

The editorial process

See this section for an explanation of Nature 's editorial criteria for publication, refereeing policy and how editors handle papers after submission. Submission to a Nature journal is taken by the journal to mean that all the listed authors have agreed to all of the contents. See authorship policy for more details.

Presubmission enquiries

If you wish to enquire whether your Article might be suitable for consideration by Nature , please use our online presubmission enquiry service . All presubmission enquiries must include a cover paragraph to the editor stating the interest to a broad scientific readership, a fully referenced summary paragraph, and a reference list.

Readability

Nature is an international journal covering all the sciences. Contributions should therefore be written clearly and simply so that they are accessible to readers in other disciplines and to readers for whom English is not their first language. Thus, technical jargon should be avoided as far as possible and clearly explained where its use is unavoidable. Abbreviations, particularly those that are not standard, should also be kept to a minimum. The background, rationale and main conclusions of the study should be clearly explained. Titles and abstracts in particular should be written in language that will be readily intelligible to any scientist. Essential but specialized terms should be explained concisely but not didactically.

For gene, protein and other specialized names authors can use their preferred terminology so long as it is in current use by the community, but they must give all known names for the entity at first use in the paper. Nature prefers authors to use internationally agreed nomenclature. Papers containing new or revised formal taxonomic nomenclature for animals, whether living or extinct, are accepted conditional on the provision of LSIDs (Life Science Identifiers) by means of registration of such nomenclature with ZooBank, the proposed online registration system for the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN).

Even though no paper will be rejected because of poor language, non–native English speakers occasionally receive feedback from editors and reviewers regarding language and grammar usage in their manuscripts. You may wish to consider asking colleagues to read your manuscript and/or to use a professional editing service such as those provided by our affiliates Nature Research Editing Service or American Journal Experts . You can also get a fast, free grammar check of your manuscript that takes into account all aspects of readability in English. Please note that the use of a language editing service is not a requirement for publication in Nature .

Nature 's editors provide detailed advice about the expected print length when asking for the final version of the manuscript. Nature 's editors often suggest revised titles and rewrite the summary paragraphs of Articles so the conclusions are clear to a broad readership.

After acceptance, Nature 's subeditors (copyeditors) ensure that the text and figures are readable and clear to those outside the field, and edit papers into Nature 's house style. They pay particular attention to summary paragraphs, overall clarity, figures, figure legends and titles.

Proofs are sent before publication; authors are welcome to discuss proposed changes with Nature 's subeditors, but Nature reserves the right to make the final decision about matters of style and the size of figures.

A useful set of articles providing general advice about writing and submitting scientific papers can be found on the SciDev.Net website.

Format of Articles

Contributions should be double-spaced and written in English (spellings as in the Oxford English Dictionary ).

Contributions should be organized in the sequence: title, authors, affiliations (plus present addresses), bold first paragraph, main text, main references, tables, figure legends, methods (including separate data and code availability statements), methods references, acknowledgements, author contributions, competing interest declaration, additional information (containing supplementary information line (if any) and corresponding author line), extended data figure/table legends. In order to facilitate the review process, for initial submissions we encourage authors to present the manuscript text and figures together in a single file (Microsoft Word or PDF, up to 30 MB in size). The figures may be inserted within the text at the appropriate positions or grouped at the end, and each figure legend should be presented together with its figure. Also, please include line numbers within the text.

Titles do not exceed two lines in print. This equates to 75 characters (including spaces). Titles do not normally include numbers, acronyms, abbreviations or punctuation. They should include sufficient detail for indexing purposes but be general enough for readers outside the field to appreciate what the paper is about.

An uninterrupted page of text contains about 1250 words.

A typical 6-page Article contains about 2,500 words of text and, additionally, 4 modest display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and online-only methods section if applicable. A composite figure (with several panels) usually needs to take about half a page, equivalent to about 600 words, in order for all the elements to be visible (see section 5.9 for instructions on sizing figures).

A typical 8-page Article contains about 4300 words of text and, additionally, 5-6 modest display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and online-only methods section if applicable. A composite figure (with several panels) usually needs to take about half a page, equivalent to about 600 words, in order for all the elements to be visible (see section 5.9 for instructions on sizing figures).

Authors of contributions that significantly exceed the limits stated here (or as specified by the editor) will have to shorten their papers before acceptance, inevitably delaying publication.

Nature requires authors to specify the contribution made by their co-authors in the end notes of the paper (see section 5.5). If authors regard it as essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an asterisk symbol with the caption ‘These authors contributed equally to this work’ immediately under the address list. If more than three co-authors are equal in status, this should be indicated in the author contributions statement. Present addresses appear immediately below the author list (below the footnote rule at the bottom of the first page) and may be identified by a dagger symbol; all other essential author-related explanation is placed in the acknowledgements.

Our preferred format for text is Microsoft Word, with the style tags removed.

TeX/LaTeX: If you have prepared your paper using TeX/LaTeX, we will need to convert this to Word after acceptance, before your paper can be typeset. All textual material of the paper (including references, tables, figure captions, online methods, etc.) should be included as a single .tex file.

We prefer the use of a ‘standard’ font, preferably 12-point Times New Roman. For mathematical symbols, Greek letters and other special characters, use normal text or Symbol font. Word Equation Editor/MathType should be used only for formulae that cannot be produced using normal text or Symbol font.

The ‘Methods’ section is in the main text file, following the figure legends. This Methods section will appear in the PDF and in the full-text (HTML) version of the paper online, but will not appear in the printed issue. The Methods section should be written as concisely as possible but should contain all elements necessary to allow interpretation and replication of the results. As a guideline, the Methods section does not typically exceed 3,000 words. To increase reproducibility, authors are encouraged to deposit a detailed description of protocols used in their study in a protocol sharing platform of their choice. Springer Nature’s protocols.io is a free and open service designed to help researchers share experimental know-how. Protocols deposited by the authors in www.protocols.io will be linked to the online Methods section upon publication

Detailed descriptions of methods already published should be avoided; a reference number can be provided to save space, with any new addition or variation stated.

The Methods section should be subdivided by short bold headings referring to methods used and we encourage the inclusion of specific subsections for statistics, reagents and animal models. If further references are included in this section their numbering should continue from the end of the last reference number in the rest of the paper and they are listed after the Methods section.

Please provide separate Data Availability and Code Availability statements after the main text statements and before the Extended Data legends; detailed guidance can be found in our data availability and data citations policy . Certain data types must be deposited in an appropriate public structured data depository (details are available here ), and the accession number(s) provided in the manuscript. Full access is required at the time of publication. Should full access to data be required for peer review, authors must provide it.

The Methods section cannot contain figures or tables (essential display items should be included in the Extended Data or exceptionally in the Supplementary Information).

References are each numbered, ordered sequentially as they appear in the text, tables, boxes, figure legends, Methods, Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends.

When cited in the text, reference numbers are superscript, not in brackets unless they are likely to be confused with a superscript number.

Do not use linked fields (produced by EndNote and similar programs). Please use the one-click button provided by EndNote to remove EndNote codes before saving your file.

As a guideline, Articles allow up to 50 references in the main text if needed and within the average page budget. Only one publication can be listed for each number. Additional references for Methods or Supplementary Information are not included in this count.

Only articles that have been published or accepted by a named publication, or that have been uploaded to a recognized preprint server (for example, arXiv, bioRxiv), should be in the reference list; papers in preparation should be mentioned in the text with a list of authors (or initials if any of the authors are co-authors of the present contribution).

Published conference abstracts, numbered patents, preprints on recognized servers, papers in press, and research datasets that have been assigned a digital object identifier may be included in reference lists, but text, grant details and acknowledgements may not. (An exception is the highlighted references which we ask authors of Reviews, Perspectives and Insights articles to provide.)

All authors should be included in reference lists unless there are more than five, in which case only the first author should be given, followed by ‘et al.’.

Please follow the style below in the published edition of Nature in preparing reference lists.

Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names.

Titles of all cited articles are required. Titles of articles cited in reference lists should be in upright, not italic text; the first word of the title is capitalized, the title written exactly as it appears in the work cited, ending with a full stop. Book titles are italic with all main words capitalized. Journal titles are italic and abbreviated according to common usage. Volume numbers are bold. The publisher and city of publication are required for books cited. (Refer to published papers in Nature for details.)

Research datasets may be cited in the reference list if they have been assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) and include authors, title, publisher (repository name), identifier (DOI expressed as a URL). Example: Hao, Z., AghaKouchak, A., Nakhjiri, N. & Farahmand, A. Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System (GIDMaPS) data sets. figshare http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.853801 (2014).

Recognized preprints may be cited in the reference list. Example: Babichev, S. A., Ries, J. & Lvovsky, A. I. Quantum scissors: teleportation of single-mode optical states by means of a nonlocal single photon. Preprint at http://arXiv.org/quant-ph/0208066 (2002).

References to web-only journals should give authors, article title and journal name as above, followed by URL in full - or DOI if known - and the year of publication in parentheses.

References to websites should give authors if known, title of cited page, URL in full, and year of posting in parentheses.

End notes are brief and follow the Methods (or Methods References, if any).

Acknowledgements should be brief, and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors, inessential words, or effusive comments. A person can be thanked for assistance, not “excellent” assistance, or for comments, not “insightful” comments, for example. Acknowledgements can contain grant and contribution numbers.

Author Contributions: Authors are required to include a statement to specify the contributions of each co-author. The statement can be up to several sentences long, describing the tasks of individual authors referred to by their initials. See the authorship policy page for further explanation and examples.

Competing interests  statement.

Additional Information: Authors should include a set of statements at the end of the paper, in the following order:

Papers containing Supplementary Information contain the statement: “Supplementary Information is available for this paper.”

A sentence reading "Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to XX.” Nature expects this identified author to respond to readers’ enquiries and requests for materials, and to coordinate the handling of any other matters arising from the published contribution, including corrections complaints. The author named as corresponding author is not necessarily the senior author, and publication of this author’s name does not imply seniority. Authors may include more than one e-mail address if essential, in which event Nature will communicate with the first-listed address for any post-publication matters, and expect that author to coordinate with the other co-authors.

Peer review information includes the names of reviewers who agree to be cited and is completed by Nature staff during proofing.

A sentence reading “Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.”

Life sciences and behavioural & social sciences reporting guidelines

To improve the transparency of reporting and the reproducibility of published results, authors of life sciences and behavioural & social sciences Articles must provide a completed Reporting Summary that will be made available to editors and reviewers during manuscript assessment. The Reporting Summary will be published with all accepted manuscripts.

Please note: because of the advanced features used in these forms, you must use Adobe Reader to open the documents and fill them out.

Guidance and resources related to the use and reporting of statistics are available here .

Tables should each be presented on a separate page, portrait (not landscape) orientation, and upright on the page, not sideways.

Tables have a short, one-line title in bold text. Tables should be as small as possible. Bear in mind the size of a Nature page as a limiting factor when compiling a table.

Symbols and abbreviations are defined immediately below the table, followed by essential descriptive material as briefly as possible, all in double-spaced text.

Standard table formats are available for submissions of cryo-EM , NMR and X-ray crystallography data . Authors providing these data must use these standard tables and include them as Extended Data.

Figure legends

For initial submissions, we encourage authors to present the manuscript text and figures together in a single Word doc or PDF file, and for each figure legend to be presented together with its figure. However, when preparing the final paper to be accepted, we require figure legends to be listed one after the other, as part of the text document, separate from the figure files, and after the main reference list.

Each figure legend should begin with a brief title for the whole figure and continue with a short description of each panel and the symbols used. If the paper contains a Methods section, legends should not contain any details of methods. Legends should be fewer than 300 words each.

All error bars and statistics must be defined in the figure legend, as discussed above.

Nature requires figures in electronic format. Please ensure that all digital images comply with the Nature journals’ policy on image integrity .

Figures should be as small and simple as is compatible with clarity. The goal is for figures to be comprehensible to readers in other or related disciplines, and to assist their understanding of the paper. Unnecessary figures and parts (panels) of figures should be avoided: data presented in small tables or histograms, for instance, can generally be stated briefly in the text instead. Avoid unnecessary complexity, colouring and excessive detail.

Figures should not contain more than one panel unless the parts are logically connected; each panel of a multipart figure should be sized so that the whole figure can be reduced by the same amount and reproduced on the printed page at the smallest size at which essential details are visible. For guidance, Nature ’s standard figure sizes are 90 mm (single column) and 180 mm (double column) and the full depth of the page is 170 mm.

Amino-acid sequences should be printed in Courier (or other monospaced) font using the one-letter code in lines of 50 or 100 characters.

Authors describing chemical structures should use the Nature Research Chemical Structures style guide .

Some brief guidance for figure preparation:

Lettering in figures (labelling of axes and so on) should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized and no full stop.

Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field. Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000). Unusual units or abbreviations are defined in the legend.

Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors.

Layering type directly over shaded or textured areas and using reversed type (white lettering on a coloured background) should be avoided where possible.

Where possible, text, including keys to symbols, should be provided in the legend rather than on the figure itself.

Figure quality

At initial submission, figures should be at good enough quality to be assessed by referees, preferably incorporated into the manuscript text in a single Word doc or PDF, although figures can be supplied separately as JPEGs if authors are unable to include them with the text. Authors are advised to follow the initial and revised submissions guidelines with respect to sizing, resolution and labelling.

Please note that print-publication quality figures are large and it is not helpful to upload them at the submission stage. Authors will be asked for high-quality figures when they are asked to submit the final version of their article for publication.At that stage, please prepare figures according to these guidelines .

Third party rights

Nature discourages the use or adaptation of previously published display items (for example, figures, tables, images, videos or text boxes). However, we recognize that to illustrate some concepts the use of published data is required and the reuse of previously published display items may be necessary. Please note that in these instances we might not be able to obtain the necessary rights for some images to be reused (as is, or adapted versions) in our articles. In such cases, we will contact you to discuss the sourcing of alternative material.

Figure costs

In order to help cover some of the additional cost of four-colour reproduction, Nature Portfolio charges our authors a fee for the printing of their colour figures. Please contact our offices for exact pricing and details. Inability to pay this charge will not prevent publication of colour figures judged essential by the editors, but this must be agreed with the editor prior to acceptance.

Production-quality figures

When a manuscript is accepted in principle for publication, the editor will ask for high-resolution figures. Do not submit publication-quality figures until asked to do so by an editor. At that stage, please prepare figures according to these guidelines .

Extended Data

Extended Data figures and tables are online-only (appearing in the online PDF and full-text HTML version of the paper), peer-reviewed display items that provide essential background to the Article but are not included in the printed version of the paper due to space constraints or being of interest only to a few specialists. A maximum of ten Extended Data display items (figures and tables) is typically permitted. See Composition of a Nature research paper .

Extended Data tables should be formatted along similar lines to tables appearing in print (see section 5.7) but the main body (excluding title and legend, which should be included at the end of the Word file) should be submitted separately as an image rather than as an editable format in Word, as Extended Data tables are not edited by Nature’s subediting department. Small tables may also be included as sub-panels within Extended Data figures. See Extended Data Formatting Guide .

Extended Data figures should be prepared along slightly different guidelines compared to figures appearing in print, and may be multi-panelled as long as they fit to size rules (see Extended Data Formatting Guide ). Extended Data figures are not edited or styled by Nature’s art department; for this reason, authors are requested to follow Nature style as closely as possible when preparing these figures. The legends for Extended Data figures should be prepared as for print figures and should be listed one after the other at the end of the Word file.

If space allows, Nature encourages authors to include a simple schematic, as a panel in an Extended Data figure, that summarizes the main finding of the paper, where appropriate (for example, to assist understanding of complex detail in cell, structural and molecular biology disciplines).

If a manuscript has Extended Data figures or tables, authors are asked to refer to discrete items at an appropriate place in the main text (for example, Extended Data Fig. 1 and Extended Data Table 1).

If further references are included in the Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends, the numbering should continue from the end of the last reference number in the main paper (or from the last reference number in the additional Methods section if present) and the list should be added to the end of the list accompanying the additional Methods section, if present, or added below the Extended Data legends if no additional Methods section is present.

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (SI) is online-only, peer-reviewed material that is essential background to the Article (for example, large data sets, methods, calculations), but which is too large or impractical, or of interest only to a few specialists, to justify inclusion in the printed version of the paper. See the Supplementary Information page for further details.

Supplementary Information should not contain figures (any figures additional to those appearing in print should be formatted as Extended Data figures). Tables may be included in Supplementary Information, but only if they are unsuitable for formatting as Extended Data tables (for example, tables containing large data sets or raw data that are best suited to Excel files).

If a manuscript has accompanying SI, either at submission or in response to an editor’s letter that requests it, authors are asked to refer to discrete items of the SI (for example, videos, tables) at an appropriate point in the main manuscript.

Chemical structures and characterization of chemical materials

For guidelines describing Nature ’s standards for experimental methods and the characterization of new compounds, please see the information sheet on the characterization of chemical materials .

We aim to produce chemical structures in a consistent format throughout our articles. Please use the Nature Portfolio Chemical Structures Guide and ChemDraw template to ensure that you prepare your figures in a format that will require minimal changes by our art and production teams. Submit final files at 100% as .cdx files.

Registered Reports

Registered Reports are empirical articles testing confirmatory hypotheses in which the methods and proposed analyses are pre-registered and peer reviewed prior to research being conducted. For further details about Registered Reports and instructions for how to submit such articles to Nature please consult our Registered Reports page.

All contributions should be submitted online , unless otherwise instructed by the editors. Please be sure to read the information on what to include in your cover letter as well as several important content-related issues when putting a submission together.

Before submitting, all contributors must agree to all of Nature's publication policies .

Nature authors must make data and materials publicly available upon publication. This includes deposition of data into the relevant databases and arranging for them to be publicly released by the online publication date (not after). A description of our initiative to improve the transparency and the reproducibility of published results is available here . A full description of Nature’s publication policies is at the Nature Portfolio Authors and Referees website .

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An account of the relationship between all the Nature journals is provided at the Nature family page . 

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13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

• Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
• Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

• Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
• Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
• Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

• Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
• In-text citations of research sources
• References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

• Title of the paper
• Author’s name
• Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
• Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

• Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
• Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
• Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
• Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
• Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

• Your title page
• The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
• Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

• Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
• Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
• The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
• The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
• The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

• MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
• Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
• Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

• The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
• The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
• The full title of the source
• For books, the city of publication
• For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
• For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
• For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

• Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
• Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
• APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
• APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
• In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
• In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

How to Format Your Research Paper

Writing your paper: apa 7th edition, apa style papers 7th edition.

• MLA Paper Format
• Chicago Paper Format
• Hanging Indents
• Ask a Librarian

APA 7th Edition Resources

• APA Style | Style and Grammar Guidelines The style and grammar guidelines pages present information about APA Style as described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition.
• Purdue OWL: APA Style Guide This Purdue OWL style guide will help you in citing your sources in the APA Style commonly used to cite sources within the area of social sciences.

Things to know before you begin:

• Sans serif fonts: Arial (11-point), Calibri (11-point), or Lucinda Sans Unicode (10-point)
• Serif fonts: Times New Roman (12-point), Georgia (11-point), or Computer Modern (10-point)
• Margins:  1 inch on all sides
• Paragraphs:  All paragraphs (except in the Abstract) should be indented
• Spacing:  All of the text in your paper should be double-spaced (title page included)

Typical APA style papers have four main sections:

See the tabs below for a breakdown of how each portion should be formatted.

• Paper Templates
• Sample Papers
• APA 7 Citations

Below you will find templates for APA Style papers. Click the link to make a copy of the file. 

• Google Docs : To make a copy of these templates you must first sign in to your Google account. After you’re signed in, click "File" and then click “Make a Copy.”
• Microsoft Word : To make a copy of these templates download the file. 

• APA Style Student Paper Template (7th Edition) - Word Download a copy of this Word Doc and change the pre-filled information to your own.

APA Style Report Templates: These templates include multiple heading levels and should be used for report style papers.

• APA Style Student Report Template (7th Edition) - Word Download a copy of this Word Doc and change the pre-filled information to your own.

Below you will find an example of an accurately formatted APA Style student paper. 

• APA Style Student Paper Sample (7th Edition) - PDF Click here to see a sample of an accurately formatted APA style student paper.
• APA Style Student Paper Sample (7th Edition) - Word Click here to see a sample of an accurately formatted APA style student paper.

Place only page numbers in the header. 

Your paper should have the full title in bold. Place an extra space beneath the title and before your name.

Your name, your affiliation, the course title, professor’s name, and due date should be double spaced beneath the title.

All of this should be in the center of the title page.

• Put the word “Abstract” on the top of the page. Be sure it is center-aligned and in bold.
• Do not indent any paragraphs on this page.

Indent all other paragraphs throughout the body of the paper. 

• Place the entire title of your paper in Title Case on the top line of a new page.
• Be sure it is center-aligned and in bold.

• Center-align the word “References” on the first line of a new page, be sure that it is in bold.
• Your citations should be alphabetized.
• Entries are double-spaced with no extra lines between them.
• Be sure to use a hanging indent for any citations that require more than one line.

Need help formatting your APA style citations using the 7th edition of the  Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ? Click the image or link below to go to the citation guide.

• APA 7th Edition Citations

Need help learning what hanging indents are and how to create them using Google Docs or Microsoft Word? 

• Hanging Indents This page gives a brief description of what they are, where to find information on when and how to properly use them, and also video tutorials on how to create them.
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• Last Updated: Jul 19, 2024 3:41 PM
• URL: https://necc.mass.libguides.com/formatting

To cite this LibGuide use the following templates:

APA : Northern Essex Community College Library. (Date updated). Title of page . Title of LibGuide. URL

MLA : Northern Essex Community College Library. "Title of Page." Title of LibGuide, Date updated, URL.

Paper Format

Consistency in the order, structure, and format of a paper allows readers to focus on a paper’s content rather than its presentation.

To format a paper in APA Style, writers can typically use the default settings and automatic formatting tools of their word-processing program or make only minor adjustments.

The guidelines for paper format apply to both student assignments and manuscripts being submitted for publication to a journal. If you are using APA Style to create another kind of work (e.g., a website, conference poster, or PowerPoint presentation), you may need to format your work differently in order to optimize its presentation, for example, by using different line spacing and font sizes. Follow the guidelines of your institution or publisher to adapt APA Style formatting guidelines as needed.

Academic Writer ®

Master academic writing with APA’s essential teaching and learning resource

Course Adoption

Teaching APA Style? Become a course adopter of the 7th edition Publication Manual

Instructional Aids

Guides, checklists, webinars, tutorials, and sample papers for anyone looking to improve their knowledge of APA Style

APA 7th ed. Style Guide

• Formatting Your Paper
• In-text Citations
• Textual Works
• Data Sets, Software, Tests
• Audiovisual Media
• Online Media

Formatting guidelines and sample papers are found in chapter 2 of the APA 7th edition Publication Manual

Sample papers.

You can find sample papers from Purdue OWL's website, APA 7th edition Publication Manual, or APA style website.

• APA Style Student Paper with Annotations in the Comments A Word Document featuring an APA 7th edition Style Student Paper that includes annotations as comments.
• APA Style Professional Paper with Annotations in Comments A Word Document featuring an APA 7th edition Style Professional Paper that includes annotations as comments.
• Purdue OWL Sample Papers

General Formatting Guidelines

Follow these guidelines throughout your paper:

• Double space text
• Header for student and professional papers includes the page number in the upper right hand corner
• Single space after ending punctuation
• Font size and style: Times New Roman 12 pt, Arial 11 pt, Calibri 11 pt, or Georgia 11 pt
• Use the same font type and size throughout the paper (exceptions for figure images, computer code, and footnotes - see 2.19 in APA Manual)
• Margins: 1 inch on all sides
• Left align paragraphs and leave ragged (uneven) margins on the right
• Indention: use 0.5 inch indention for the first line of every paragraph (use tab key for consistency)

Formatting Title Page

The 7th edition Publication Manual for APA introduced the student and professional papers. The major difference between these two types of papers is found on the title page. Please, see the guidelines below for formatting the title page of your document. Also note, follow your professors' guidelines for formatting the title page.

General Title Page Guidelines:

• Double space
• The title should summarize the main idea and be focused/succinct (avoid unnecessary words)
• Title written in title case (the first letter of each word is capitalized), bold, centered, and positioned in the upper half of the title page
• Use the author(s) first name, middle initial, and last name as the author's byline

Student Papers:

• title of the paper
• name of the author(s)
• author affiliation (department and institution name)
• course number and name 
• instructor name
• assignment due date (i.e. November 4, 2020)
• page number (in the header)

Professional Papers:

• author affiliation
• author note
• running head (abbreviated title) - Flush with left margin and written in all capital letters

Formatting Headings

Follow this format for headings (see 2.27 of the Publication Manual for additional details):

Level 1 headings are written in bold title case and aligned to the center. The text begins as a new paragraph.

Level 2 headings are written in bold title case and aligned flush to the left. The text begins as a new paragraph.

Level 3 headings are written in bold, italicized title case, and aligned flush to the left. The text begins as a new paragraph.

Level 4 headings are written in bold title case, indented from the left, and end with a period. The text begins after the period and continues like a regular paragraph.

Level 5 headings are written in bold, italicized title case, indented from the left, and end with a period. The text begins after the period and continues like a regular paragraph.

Formatting Reference List

The following are guidelines for formatting your reference list:

• Start on a new page after the last page of text
• Label the page Reference(s) with a capitalized R, written in bold and centered
• Double space all entries
• Use hanging indent for reference entries (first line of the reference is flush with left margin, subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches)
• Order alphabetically (see chapter 9 section 44-49 for additional instructions on entry order)
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• Last Updated: Mar 20, 2024 11:48 AM
• URL: https://guides.uu.edu/APA7

How Long Should a Research Paper Be? Data from 61,519 Examples

I analyzed a random sample of 61,519 full-text research papers, uploaded to PubMed Central between the years 2016 and 2021, in order to answer the questions:

What is the typical overall length of a research paper? and how long should each section be?

I used the BioC API to download the data (see the References section below).

Here’s a summary of the key findings

1- The median length of a research paper is 4,133 words (equivalent to 166 sentences or 34 paragraphs), excluding the abstract and references, with 90% of papers being between 2,023 and 8,284 words.

2- A typical article is divided in the following way:

• Introduction section: 14.6% of the total word count.
• Methods section: 29.7% of the total word count.
• Results section: 26.2% of the total word count.
• Discussion section: 29.4% of the total word count.

Notice that the Materials and methods is the longest section of a professionally written article. So always write this section in enough depth to provide the readers with the necessary details that allow them to replicate your study if they wanted to without requiring further information.

Overall length of a research paper

Let’s start by looking at the maximum word count allowed in some of the well-known journals. Note that the numbers reported in this table include the Abstract , Figure legends and References unless otherwise specified:

[1] excluding figure legends [2] excluding references

⚠ Note A review paper is either a systematic review or a meta-analysis, and an original research paper refers to either an observational or an experimental study conducted by the authors themselves.

Notice the large variability between these journals: The maximum number of words allowed ranges between 3,000 and 9,000 words.

Next, let’s look at our data.

Here’s a table that describes the length of a research paper in our sample:

90% of research papers have a word count between 2,023 and 8,284. So it will be a little weird to see a word count outside of this range.

Our data also agree that a typical review paper is a little bit longer than a typical original research paper but not by much (3,858 vs 3,708 words).

Length of each section in a research article

The median article with an IMRaD structure (i.e. contains the following sections: Introduction , Methods , Results and Discussion ) is in general characterized by a short 553 words introduction. And the methods, results and discussion sections are about twice the size of the introduction:

For more information, see:

• How Long Should a Research Title Be? Data from 104,161 Examples
• How Long Should the Abstract Be? Data 61,429 from Examples
• How Long Should the Introduction of a Research Paper Be? Data from 61,518 Examples
• How Long Should the Methods Section Be? Data from 61,514 Examples
• How Long Should the Results Section Be? Data from 61,458 Examples
• How Long Should the Discussion Section Be? Data from 61,517 Examples
• Length of a Conclusion Section: Analysis of 47,810 Examples
• Comeau DC, Wei CH, Islamaj Doğan R, and Lu Z. PMC text mining subset in BioC: about 3 million full text articles and growing,  Bioinformatics , btz070, 2019.

Thesis and Dissertation Guide

• « Thesis & Dissertation Resources
• The Graduate School Home

• Introduction
• Copyright Page
• Dedication, Acknowledgements, Preface (optional)
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Symbols

Non-Traditional Formats

Font type and size, spacing and indentation, tables, figures, and illustrations, formatting previously published work.

• Internet Distribution
• Open Access
• Registering Copyright
• Using Copyrighted Materials
• Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials
• Submission Steps
• Submission Checklist
• Sample Pages

II. Formatting Guidelines

All copies of a thesis or dissertation must have the following uniform margins throughout the entire document:

• Left: 1″ (or 1 1/4" to ensure sufficient room for binding the work if desired)
• Right: 1″
• Bottom: 1″ (with allowances for page numbers; see section on Pagination )
• Top: 1″

Exceptions : The first page of each chapter (including the introduction, if any) begins 2″ from the top of the page. Also, the headings on the title page, abstract, first page of the dedication/ acknowledgements/preface (if any), and first page of the table of contents begin 2″ from the top of the page.

Non-traditional theses or dissertations such as whole works comprised of digital, artistic, video, or performance materials (i.e., no written text, chapters, or articles) are acceptable if approved by your committee and graduate program. A PDF document with a title page, copyright page, and abstract at minimum are required to be submitted along with any relevant supplemental files.

Fonts must be 10, 11, or 12 points in size. Superscripts and subscripts (e.g., formulas, or footnote or endnote numbers) should be no more than 2 points smaller than the font size used for the body of the text.

Space and indent your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• The text must appear in a single column on each page and be double-spaced throughout the document. Do not arrange chapter text in multiple columns.
• New paragraphs must be indicated by a consistent tab indentation throughout the entire document.
• The document text must be left-justified, not centered or right-justified.
• For blocked quotations, indent the entire text of the quotation consistently from the left margin.
• Ensure headings are not left hanging alone on the bottom of a prior page. The text following should be moved up or the heading should be moved down. This is something to check near the end of formatting, as other adjustments to text and spacing may change where headings appear on the page.

Exceptions : Blocked quotations, notes, captions, legends, and long headings must be single-spaced throughout the document and double-spaced between items.

Paginate your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Use lower case Roman numerals (ii, iii, iv, etc.) on all pages preceding the first page of chapter one. The title page counts as page i, but the number does not appear. Therefore, the first page showing a number will be the copyright page with ii at the bottom.
• Arabic numerals (beginning with 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) start at chapter one or the introduction, if applicable. Arabic numbers must be included on all pages of the text, illustrations, notes, and any other materials that follow. Thus, the first page of chapter one will show an Arabic numeral 1, and numbering of all subsequent pages will follow in order.
• Do not use page numbers accompanied by letters, hyphens, periods, or parentheses (e.g., 1., 1-2, -1-, (1), or 1a).
• Center all page numbers at the bottom of the page, 1/2″ from the bottom edge.
• Pages must not contain running headers or footers, aside from page numbers.
• If your document contains landscape pages (pages in which the top of the page is the long side of a sheet of paper), make sure that your page numbers still appear in the same position and direction as they do on pages with standard portrait orientation for consistency. This likely means the page number will be centered on the short side of the paper and the number will be sideways relative to the landscape page text. See these additional instructions for assistance with pagination on landscape pages in Microsoft Word .

Format footnotes for your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Footnotes must be placed at the bottom of the page separated from the text by a solid line one to two inches long.
• Begin at the left page margin, directly below the solid line.
• Single-space footnotes that are more than one line long.
• Include one double-spaced line between each note.
• Most software packages automatically space footnotes at the bottom of the page depending on their length. It is acceptable if the note breaks within a sentence and carries the remainder into the footnote area of the next page. Do not indicate the continuation of a footnote.
• Number all footnotes with Arabic numerals. You may number notes consecutively within each chapter starting over with number 1 for the first note in each chapter, or you may number notes consecutively throughout the entire document.
• Footnote numbers must precede the note and be placed slightly above the line (superscripted). Leave no space between the number and the note.
• While footnotes should be located at the bottom of the page, do not place footnotes in a running page footer, as they must remain within the page margins.

Endnotes are an acceptable alternative to footnotes. Format endnotes for your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Always begin endnotes on a separate page either immediately following the end of each chapter, or at the end of your entire document. If you place all endnotes at the end of the entire document, they must appear after the appendices and before the references.
• Include the heading “ENDNOTES” in all capital letters, and center it 1″ below the top of the first page of your endnotes section(s).
• Single-space endnotes that are more than one line long.
• Number all endnotes with Arabic numerals. You may number notes consecutively within each chapter starting over with number 1 for the first note in each chapter, or you may number notes consecutively throughout the entire document.
• Endnote numbers must precede the note and be placed slightly above the line (superscripted). Leave no space between the number and the note.

Tables, figures, and illustrations vary widely by discipline. Therefore, formatting of these components is largely at the discretion of the author.

For example, headings and captions may appear above or below each of these components.

These components may each be placed within the main text of the document or grouped together in a separate section.

Space permitting, headings and captions for the associated table, figure, or illustration must be on the same page.

The use of color is permitted as long as it is consistently applied as part of the finished component (e.g., a color-coded pie chart) and not extraneous or unprofessional (e.g., highlighting intended solely to draw a reader's attention to a key phrase). The use of color should be reserved primarily for tables, figures, illustrations, and active website or document links throughout your thesis or dissertation.

The format you choose for these components must be consistent throughout the thesis or dissertation.

Ensure each component complies with margin and pagination requirements.

Refer to the List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations section for additional information.

If your thesis or dissertation has appendices, they must be prepared following these guidelines:

• Appendices must appear at the end of the document (before references) and not the chapter to which they pertain.
• When there is more than one appendix, assign each appendix a number or a letter heading (e.g., “APPENDIX 1” or “APPENDIX A”) and a descriptive title. You may number consecutively throughout the entire work (e.g., 1, 2 or A, B), or you may assign a two-part Arabic numeral with the first number designating the chapter in which it appears, separated by a period, followed by a second number or letter to indicate its consecutive placement (e.g., “APPENDIX 3.2” is the second appendix referred to in Chapter Three).
• Include the chosen headings in all capital letters, and center them 1″ below the top of the page.
• All appendix headings and titles must be included in the table of contents.
• Page numbering must continue throughout your appendix or appendices. Ensure each appendix complies with margin and pagination requirements.

You are required to list all the references you consulted. For specific details on formatting your references, consult and follow a style manual or professional journal that is used for formatting publications and citations in your discipline.

Your reference pages must be prepared following these guidelines:

• If you place references after each chapter, the references for the last chapter must be placed immediately following the chapter and before the appendices.
• If you place all references at the end of the thesis or dissertation, they must appear after the appendices as the final component in the document.
• Select an appropriate heading for this section based on the style manual you are using (e.g., “REFERENCES”, “BIBLIOGRAPHY”, or “WORKS CITED”).
• Include the chosen heading in all capital letters, and center it 1″ below the top of the page.
• References must be single-spaced within each entry.
• Include one double-spaced line between each reference.
• Page numbering must continue throughout your references section. Ensure references comply with margin and pagination requirements.

In some cases, students gain approval from their academic program to include in their thesis or dissertation previously published (or submitted, in press, or under review) journal articles or similar materials that they have authored. For more information about including previously published works in your thesis or dissertation, see the section on Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials and the section on Copyrighting.

If your academic program has approved inclusion of such materials, please note that these materials must match the formatting guidelines set forth in this Guide regardless of how the material was formatted for publication.

Some specific formatting guidelines to consider include:

• Fonts, margins, chapter headings, citations, and references must all match the formatting and placement used within the rest of the thesis or dissertation.
• If appropriate, published articles can be included as separate individual chapters within the thesis or dissertation.
• A separate abstract to each chapter should not be included.
• The citation for previously published work must be included as the first footnote (or endnote) on the first page of the chapter.
• Do not include typesetting notations often used when submitting manuscripts to a publisher (i.e., insert table x here).
• The date on the title page should be the year in which your committee approves the thesis or dissertation, regardless of the date of completion or publication of individual chapters.
• If you would like to include additional details about the previously published work, this information can be included in the preface for the thesis or dissertation.

Previous: Order and Components

Next: Distribution

• Locations and Hours
• UCLA Library
• Research Guides
• Research Tips and Tools

Poster Presentations

• Size, Layout, and Text

Elements of a Poster

Change size in powerpoint, using the ruler, grid, and guides in powerpoint, more powerpoint training, template resources, font choice, text alignment.

• Colors and Images

Your poster should include these elements:

• Author(s), with affiliations and emails

If your poster is a representation of a research study, you will want to include the following sections:

• Introduction or objective
• Conclusions and/or discussion
• Acknowledgements

If your poster is a representation of an event or other kind of project, you may want to forego formal abstract sections in favor of the 5 Ws:

• Who (introduce the author, organization, or community)
• What (what did you do? how did you do it?)
• Where (where did you do it?)
• When (when did it take place?)
• Why (what are the outcomes, implications, or future possibilities?)

To change the size in Powerpoint:

• Go to the Design tab and choose "Slide Size" (it's on the right size of the ribbon)
• Choose "Custom Slide Size"
• Change "Slides sized for:" to "Custom"
• Fill in your desired width and height. 

Click the View tab to see checkboxes that will allow you to turn on the Ruler, Grid, and Guides (click the image below to see a screenshot).

Ruler : Allows you to see the dimensions of your slide. You'll see a vertical and horizontal ruler.

Grid : By default, the gridlines are 1 inch apart. Right click in white space of your poster to get more options for spacing. This enables precise alignment.

Guides : By default, you'll get one horizontal and one vertical guide placed in the center of your poster. Right click on a guide to add more guidelines, or to delete one. You can use Guides to invisibly define columns of your poster, margins, and more. This gives you manual control, alternatively, you can use Smart Guides (see below).

Smart Guides : Powerpoint has a built-in system for showing you alignment as you move objects around. The video below demonstrates what Smart Guides look like.

Once you've got your slide layout set, you'll want to start creating Shapes and Text Boxes. Here are some tips and tricks for working with objects:

• Use Ctrl+D to duplicate any object.
• Then you can format them all at once, identically!
• You can also group them, for easier movement and alignment (right click to see the Group option).

Most posters are landscape (horizontal) orientation. The title/author(s) will be across the top, with 3–4 columns below that contain the rest of the poster elements. Make sure you leave plenty of white space in your design—a poster crammed full of text and images is very difficult to read.

Here is an example of a 2 column poster layout using the 5 Ws for headings (who, what, where, when, and why):

Use the links below to download this template and other similar templates in two sizes: 24x36 and 36x48. These templates include a variety of placeholder elements for photos and figures.

• 2 column Powerpoint template, size 24x36
• 3 column Powerpoint template, size 24x36
• 3 column Powerpoint template, size 36x48
• 4 column Powerpoint template, size 36x48

Below are some additional web resources where you can search for templates. Keep in mind that you may need adjust the size of a template for your own poster. Alternatively, you can use the resources on this page to design your own layout in Powerpoint.

• David Geffen School of Medicine poster templates Although this is labeled for the sciences, the information can be used in many disciplines.
• Penn State poster template
• PhD Posters
• MakeSigns.com poster templates
• The body of your poster should have a minimum 24 point font . Viewers should be able to read your smallest text from a few feet away.
• The title of your poster should have a 50+ font size, depending on the size of your poster and the length of the title.
• Do not use all uppercase letters for the title or body of the poster.
• Avoid using more than 2 or 3 different fonts in one poster.
• Stick with basic fonts like Times New Roman or Georgia for serif, or Arial or Helvetica for sans-serif. Avoid elaborate, difficult-to-read, or cartoon-like fonts.

• In general, left-align your text boxes (with the possible exception of your title and any image captions). Avoid centering the text on your whole poster.
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• Last Updated: Nov 9, 2023 2:31 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucla.edu/posters

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• An Bras Dermatol
• v.89(4); Jul-Aug 2014

Sample size: how many participants do I need in my research? *

Jeovany martínez-mesa.

1 Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group - Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil.

David Alejandro González-Chica

2 Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) - Florianópolis (SC), Brazil.

João Luiz Bastos

Renan rangel bonamigo.

3 Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA) - Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil.

Rodrigo Pereira Duquia

The importance of estimating sample sizes is rarely understood by researchers, when planning a study. This paper aims to highlight the centrality of sample size estimations in health research. Examples that help in understanding the basic concepts involved in their calculation are presented. The scenarios covered are based more on the epidemiological reasoning and less on mathematical formulae. Proper calculation of the number of participants in a study diminishes the likelihood of errors, which are often associated with adverse consequences in terms of economic, ethical and health aspects.

INTRODUCTION

Investigations in the health field are oriented by research problems or questions, which should be clearly defined in the study project. Sample size calculation is an essential item to be included in the project to reduce the probability of error, respect ethical standards, define the logistics of the study and, last but not least, improve its success rates, when evaluated by funding agencies.

Let us imagine that a group of investigators decides to study the frequency of sunscreen use and how the use of this product is distributed in the "population". In order to carry out this task, the authors define two research questions, each of which involving a distinct sample size calculation: 1) What is the proportion of people that use sunscreen in the population?; and, 2) Are there differences in the use of sunscreen between men and women, or between individuals that are white or of another skin color group, or between the wealthiest and the poorest, or between people with more and less years of schooling? Before doing the calculations, it will be necessary to review a few fundamental concepts and identify which are the required parameters to determine them.

WHAT DO WE MEAN, WHEN WE TALK ABOUT POPULATIONS?

First of all, we must define what is a population . Population is the group of individuals restricted to a geographical region (neighborhood, city, state, country, continent etc.), or certain institutions (hospitals, schools, health centers etc.), that is, a set of individuals that have at least one characteristic in common. The target population corresponds to a portion of the previously mentioned population, about which one intends to draw conclusions, that is to say, it is a part of the population whose characteristics are an object of interest of the investigator. Finally, study population is that which will actually be part of the study, which will be evaluated and will allow conclusions to be drawn about the target population, as long as it is representative of the latter. Figure 1 demonstrates how these concepts are interrelated.

Graphic representation of the concepts of population, target population and study population

We will now separately consider the required parameters for sample size calculation in studies that aim at estimating the frequency of events (prevalence of health outcomes or behaviors, for example), to test associations between risk/protective factors and dichotomous health conditions (yes/no), as well as with health outcomes measured in numerical scales. 1 The formulas used for these calculations may be obtained from different sources - we recommend using the free online software OpenEpi ( www.openepi.com ). 2

WHICH PARAMETERS DOES SAMPLE SIZE CALCULATION DEPEND UPON FOR A STUDY THAT AIMS AT ESTIMATING THE FREQUENCY OF HEALTH OUTCOMES, BEHAVIORS OR CONDITIONS?

When approaching the first research question defined at the beginning of this article (What is the proportion of people that use sunscreen?), the investigators need to conduct a prevalence study. In order to do this, some parameters must be defined to calculate the sample size, as demonstrated in chart 1 .

Description of different parameters to be considered in the calculation of sample size for a study aiming at estimating the frequency of health ouctomes, behaviors or conditions

Chart 2 presents some sample size simulations, according to the outcome prevalence, sample error and the type of target population investigated. The same basic question was used in this table (prevalence of sunscreen use), but considering three different situations (at work, while doing sports or at the beach), as in the study by Duquia et al. conducted in the city of Pelotas, state of Rio Grande do Sul, in 2005. 3

Sample size calculation to estimate the frequency (prevalence) of sunscreen use in the population, considering different scenarios but keeping the significance level (95%) and the design effect (1.0) constant

p.p.= percentage points

The calculations show that, by holding the sample error and the significance level constant, the higher the expected prevalence, the larger will be the required sample size. However, when the expected prevalence surpasses 50%, the required sample size progressively diminishes - the sample size for an expected prevalence of 10% is the same as that for an expected prevalence of 90%.

The investigator should also define beforehand the precision level to be accepted for the investigated event (sample error) and the confidence level of this result (usually 95%). Chart 2 demonstrates that, holding the expected prevalence constant, the higher the precision (smaller sample error) and the higher the confidence level (in this case, 95% was considered for all calculations), the larger also will be the required sample size.

Chart 2 also demonstrates that there is a direct relationship between the target population size and the number of individuals to be included in the sample. Nevertheless, when the target population size is sufficiently large, that is, surpasses an arbitrary value (for example, one million individuals), the resulting sample size tends to stabilize. The smaller the target population, the larger the sample will be; in some cases, the sample may even correspond to the total number of individuals from the target population - in these cases, it may be more convenient to study the entire target population, carrying out a census survey, rather than a study based on a sample of the population.

SAMPLE CALCULATION TO TEST THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TWO VARIABLES: HYPOTHESES AND TYPES OF ERROR

When the study objective is to investigate whether there are differences in sunscreen use according to sociodemographic characteristics (such as, for example, between men and women), the existence of association between explanatory variables (exposure or independent variables, in this case sociodemographic variables) and a dependent or outcome variable (use of sunscreen) is what is under consideration.

In these cases, we need first to understand what the hypotheses are, as well as the types of error that may result from their acceptance or refutation. A hypothesis is a "supposition arrived at from observation or reflection, that leads to refutable predictions". 4 In other words, it is a statement that may be questioned or tested and that may be falsified in scientific studies.

In scientific studies, there are two types of hypothesis: the null hypothesis (H 0 ) or original supposition that we assume to be true for a given situation, and the alternative hypothesis (H A ) or additional explanation for the same situation, which we believe may replace the original supposition. In the health field, H 0 is frequently defined as the equality or absence of difference in the outcome of interest between the studied groups (for example, sunscreen use is equal in men and women). On the other hand, H A assumes the existence of difference between groups. H A is called two-tailed when it is expected that the difference between the groups will occur in any direction (men using more sunscreen than women or vice-versa). However, if the investigator expects to find that a specific group uses more sunscreen than the other, he will be testing a one-tailed H A .

In the sample investigated by Duquia et al., the frequency of sunscreen use at the beach was greater in men (32.7%) than in women (26.2%).3 Although this what was observed in the sample, that is, men do wear more sunscreen than women, the investigators must decide whether they refute or accept H 0 in the target population (which contends that there is no difference in sunscreen use according to sex). Given that the entire target population is hardly ever investigated to confirm or refute the difference observed in the sample, the authors have to be aware that, independently from their decision (accepting or refuting H 0 ), their conclusion may be wrong, as can be seen in figure 2 .

Types of possible results when performing a hypothesis test

In case the investigators conclude that both in the target population and in the sample sunscreen use is also different between men and women (rejecting H 0 ), they may be making a type I or Alpha error, which is the probability of rejecting H 0 based on sample results when, in the target population, H 0 is true (the difference between men and women regarding sunscreen use found in the sample is not observed in the target population). If the authors conclude that there are no differences between the groups (accepting H 0 ), the investigators may be making a type II or Beta error, which is the probability of accepting H 0 when, in the target population, H 0 is false (that is, H A is true) or, in other words, the probability of stating that the frequency of sunscreen use is equal between the sexes, when it is different in the same groups of the target population.

In order to accept or refute H 0 , the investigators need to previously define which is the maximum probability of type I and II errors that they are willing to incorporate into their results. In general, the type I error is fixed at a maximum value of 5% (0.05 or confidence level of 95%), since the consequences originated from this type of error are considered more harmful. For example, to state that an exposure/intervention affects a health condition, when this does not happen in the target population may bring about behaviors or actions (therapeutic changes, implementation of intervention programs etc.) with adverse consequences in ethical, economic and health terms. In the study conducted by Duquia et al., when the authors contend that the use of sunscreen was different according to sex, the p value presented (<0.001) indicates that the probability of not observing such difference in the target population is less that 0.1% (confidence level >99.9%). 3

Although the type II or Beta error is less harmful, it should also be avoided, since if a study contends that a given exposure/intervention does not affect the outcome, when this effect actually exists in the target population, the consequence may be that a new medication with better therapeutic effects is not administered or that some aspects related to the etiology of the damage are not considered. This is the reason why the value of the type II error is usually fixed at a maximum value of 20% (or 0.20). In publications, this value tends to be mentioned as the power of the study, which is the ability of the test to detect a difference, when in fact it exists in the target population (usually fixed at 80%, as a result of the 1-Beta calculation).

SAMPLE CALCULATION FOR STUDIES THAT AIM AT TESTING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN A RISK/PROTECTIVE FACTOR AND AN OUTCOME, EVALUATED DICHOTOMOUSLY

In cases where the exposure variables are dichotomous (intervention/control, man/woman, rich/poor etc.) and so is the outcome (negative/positive outcome, to use sunscreen or not), the required parameters to calculate sample size are those described in chart 3 . According to the previously mentioned example, it would be interesting to know whether sex, skin color, schooling level and income are associated with the use of sunscreen at work, while doing sports and at the beach. Thus, when the four exposure variables are crossed with the three outcomes, there would be 12 different questions to be answered and consequently an equal number of sample size calculations to be performed. Using the information in the article by Duquia et al. 3 for the prevalence of exposures and outcomes, a simulation of sample size calculations was used for each one of these situations ( Chart 4 ).

Ho - null hypothesis; Ha - alternative hypothesis

E=exposed group; NE=non-exposed group; r=NE/E relationship; PONE=prevalence of outcome in the non-exposed group (percentage of positives in non-exposed group), estimated based on formula from chart 3 , considering an PR of 1.50; PR=prevalence ratio/incidence or expected relative risk; n= minimum necessary sample size; ND=value could not be determined, as prevalence of outcome in the exposed would be above 100%, according to specified parameters.

Estimates show that studies with more power or that intend to find a difference of a lower magnitude in the frequency of the outcome (in this case, the prevalence rates) between exposed and non-exposed groups require larger sample sizes. For these reasons, in sample size calculations, an effect measure between 1.5 and 2.0 (for risk factors) or between 0.50 and 0.75 (for protective factors), and an 80% power are frequently used.

Considering the values in each column of chart 3 , we may conclude also that, when the nonexposed/exposed relationship moves away from one (similar proportions of exposed and non-exposed individuals in the sample), the sample size increases. For this reason, intervention studies usually work with the same proportion of individuals in the intervention and control groups. Upon analysis of the values on each line, it can be concluded that there is an inverse relationship between the prevalence of the outcome and the required sample size.

Based on these estimates, assuming that the authors intended to test all of these associations, it would be necessary to choose the largest estimated sample size (2,630 subjects). In case the required sample size is larger than the target population, the investigators may decide to perform a multicenter study, lengthen the period for data collection, modify the research question or face the possibility of not having sufficient power to draw valid conclusions.

Additional aspects need to be considered in the previous estimates to arrive at the final sample size, which may include the possibility of refusals and/or losses in the study (an additional 10-15%), the need for adjustments for confounding factors (an additional 10-20%, applicable to observational studies), the possibility of effect modification (which implies an analysis of subgroups and the need to duplicate or triplicate the sample size), as well as the existence of design effects (multiplication of sample size by 1.5 to 2.0) in case of cluster sampling.

SAMPLE CALCULATIONS FOR STUDIES THAT AIM AT TESTING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN A DICHOTOMOUS EXPOSURE AND A NUMERICAL OUTCOME

Suppose that the investigators intend to evaluate whether the daily quantity of sunscreen used (in grams), the time of daily exposure to sunlight (in minutes) or a laboratory parameter (such as vitamin D levels) differ according to the socio-demographic variables mentioned. In all of these cases, the outcomes are numerical variables (discrete or continuous) 1 , and the objective is to answer whether the mean outcome in the exposed/intervention group is different from the non-exposed/control group.

In this case, the first three parameters from chart 4 (alpha error, power of the study and relationship between non-exposed/exposed groups) are required, and the conclusions about their influences on the final sample size are also applicable. In addition to defining the expected outcome means in each group or the expected mean difference between nonexposed/exposed groups (usually at least 15% of the mean value in non-exposed group), they also need to define the standard deviation value for each group. There is a direct relationship between the standard deviation value and the sample size, the reason why in case of asymmetric variables the sample size would be overestimated. In such cases, the option may be to estimate sample sizes based on specific calculations for asymmetric variables, or the investigators may choose to use a percentage of the median value (for example, 25%) as a substitute for the standard deviation.

SAMPLE SIZE CALCULATIONS FOR OTHER TYPES OF STUDY

There are also specific calculations for some other quantitative studies, such as those aiming to assess correlations (exposure and outcome are numerical variables), time until the event (death, cure, relapse etc.) or the validity of diagnostic tests, but they are not described in this article, given that they were discussed elsewhere. 5

Sample size calculation is always an essential step during the planning of scientific studies. An insufficient or small sample size may not be able to demonstrate the desired difference, or estimate the frequency of the event of interest with acceptable precision. A very large sample may add to the complexity of the study, and its associated costs, rendering it unfeasible. Both situations are ethically unacceptable and should be avoided by the investigator.

Conflict of Interest: None

Financial Support: None

* Work carried out at the Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group (LACOG), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), and Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA), Brazil.

Como citar este artigo: Martínez-Mesa J, González-Chica DA, Bastos JL, Bonamigo RR, Duquia RP. Sample size: how many participants do I need in my research? An Bras Dermatol. 2014;89(4):609-15.

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APA Style papers should be written in a font that is legible and widely accessible. For example:

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The passive voice is most useful when the point of the sentence is just to state what was done, not to emphasize who did it. For example, “The projector was mounted on the wall” is better than “James and I mounted the projector on the wall” if it’s not particularly important who mounted the projector.

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With APA legal citations, it’s recommended to cite all the reporters (publications reporting cases) in which a court case appears. To cite multiple reporters, just separate them with commas in your reference entry . This is called parallel citation .

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Since these are general guidelines, use your own judgment and feedback from others for effective presentation of numbers.

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When citing a whole podcast series, if different episodes have different hosts, list the executive producer(s) instead. Again, include a label identifying their role, e.g. Lechtenberg, S. (Producer).

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Previously, in the 6th edition of the APA manual, it was recommended to just use APA 6 in-text citations to refer to the Bible, and omit it from the reference list.

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An APA in-text citation is placed before the final punctuation mark in a sentence.

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In an APA in-text citation , you use the phrase “ as cited in ” if you want to cite a source indirectly (i.e., if you cannot find the original source).

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Popular word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs can order lists in alphabetical order, but they don’t follow the APA Style alphabetization guidelines .

If you use Scribbr’s APA Citation Generator to create citations, references are ordered automatically based on the APA guidelines, taking into account all the exceptions.

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Read more about alphabetizing the APA reference page .

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• The privacy concerns around social media
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Any sources cited in your appendices should appear in your reference list . Do not create a separate reference list for your appendices.

When you include more than one appendix in an APA Style paper , they should be labeled “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” and so on.

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An appendix contains information that supplements the reader’s understanding of your research but is not essential to it. For example:

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Something is only worth including as an appendix if you refer to information from it at some point in the text (e.g. quoting from an interview transcript). If you don’t, it should probably be removed.

If you adapt or reproduce a table or figure from another source, you should include that source in your APA reference list . You should also acknowledge the original source in the note or caption for the table or figure.

APA doesn’t require you to include a list of tables or a list of figures . However, it is advisable to do so if your text is long enough to feature a table of contents and it includes a lot of tables and/or figures.

A list of tables and list of figures appear (in that order) after your table of contents , and are presented in a similar way.

In an APA Style paper , use a table or figure when it’s a clearer way to present important data than describing it in your main text. This is often the case when you need to communicate a large amount of information.

Before including a table or figure in your text, always reflect on whether it’s useful to your readers’ understanding:

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If the data you need to present only contains a few relevant numbers, try summarizing it in the text (potentially including full data in an appendix ). If describing the data makes your text overly long and difficult to read, a table or figure may be the best option.

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An APA abstract is around 150–250 words long. However, always check your target journal’s guidelines and don’t exceed the specified word count.

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Common examples include conversations, emails, messages, letters, and unrecorded interviews or performances.

Interviews you conducted yourself are not included in your reference list , but instead cited in the text as personal communications .

Published or recorded interviews are included in the reference list. Cite them in the usual format of the source type (for example, a newspaper article , website or YouTube video ).

To cite a public post from social media , use the first 20 words of the post as a title, include the date it was posted and a URL, and mention the author’s username if they have one:

Dorsey, J. [@jack]. (2018, March 1). We’re committing Twitter to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/jack/status/969234275420655616

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When you quote or paraphrase a specific passage from a source, you need to indicate the location of the passage in your APA in-text citation . If there are no page numbers (e.g. when citing a website ) but the text is long, you can instead use section headings, paragraph numbers, or a combination of the two:

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Section headings can be shortened if necessary. Kindle location numbers should not be used in ebook citations , as they are unreliable.

If you are referring to the source as a whole, it’s not necessary to include a page number or other marker.

When no individual author name is listed, but the source can clearly be attributed to a specific organization—e.g., a press release by a charity, a report by an agency, or a page from a company’s website—use the organization’s name as the author in the reference entry and APA in-text citations .

When no author at all can be determined—e.g. a collaboratively edited wiki or an online article published anonymously—use the title in place of the author. In the in-text citation, put the title in quotation marks if it appears in plain text in the reference list, and in italics if it appears in italics in the reference list. Shorten it if necessary.

APA Style usually does not require an access date. You never need to include one when citing journal articles , e-books , or other stable online sources.

However, if you are citing a website or online article that’s designed to change over time, it’s a good idea to include an access date. In this case, write it in the following format at the end of the reference: Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/about-the-university/about-the-university.html

The 7th edition APA Manual , published in October 2019, is the most current edition. However, the 6th edition, published in 2009, is still used by many universities and journals.

The APA Manual 7th edition can be purchased at Amazon as a hardcover, paperback or spiral-bound version. You can also buy an ebook version at RedShelf .

The American Psychological Association anticipates that most people will start using the 7th edition in the spring of 2020 or thereafter.

It’s best to ask your supervisor or check the website of the journal you want to publish in to see which APA guidelines you should follow.

If you’re citing from an edition other than the first (e.g. a 2nd edition or revised edition), the edition appears in the reference, abbreviated in parentheses after the book’s title (e.g. 2nd ed. or Rev. ed.).

In the 7th edition of the APA manual, no location information is required for publishers. The 6th edition previously required you to include the city and state where the publisher was located, but this is no longer the case.

In an APA reference list , journal article citations include only the year of publication, not the exact date, month, or season.

The inclusion of volume and issue numbers makes a more specific date unnecessary.

In an APA journal citation , if a DOI (digital object identifier) is available for an article, always include it.

If an article has no DOI, and you accessed it through a database or in print, just omit the DOI.

If an article has no DOI, and you accessed it through a website other than a database (for example, the journal’s own website), include a URL linking to the article.

You may include up to 20 authors in a reference list entry .

When an article has more than 20 authors, replace the names prior to the final listed author with an ellipsis, but do not omit the final author:

Davis, Y., Smith, J., Caulfield, F., Pullman, H., Carlisle, J., Donahue, S. D., James, F., O’Donnell, K., Singh, J., Johnson, L., Streefkerk, R., McCombes, S., Corrieri, L., Valck, X., Baldwin, F. M., Lorde, J., Wardell, K., Lao, W., Yang, P., . . . O’Brien, T. (2012).

Include the DOI at the very end of the APA reference entry . If you’re using the 6th edition APA guidelines, the DOI is preceded by the label “doi:”. In the 7th edition , the DOI is preceded by ‘https://doi.org/’.

• 6th edition: doi: 10.1177/0894439316660340
• 7th edition: https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0894439316660340

APA citation example (7th edition)

Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. (2016). The relations among social media addiction, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in university students. Social Science Computer Review , 35 (5), 576–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439316660340

When citing a webpage or online article , the APA in-text citation consists of the author’s last name and year of publication. For example: (Worland & Williams, 2015). Note that the author can also be an organization. For example: (American Psychological Association, 2019).

If you’re quoting you should also include a locator. Since web pages don’t have page numbers, you can use one of the following options:

• Paragraph number: (Smith, 2018, para. 15).
• Heading or section name: ( CDC, 2020, Flu Season section)
• Abbreviated heading:  ( CDC, 2020, “Key Facts” section)

Always include page numbers in the APA in-text citation when quoting a source . Don’t include page numbers when referring to a work as a whole – for example, an entire book or journal article.

If your source does not have page numbers, you can use an alternative locator such as a timestamp, chapter heading or paragraph number.

Instead of the author’s name, include the first few words of the work’s title in the in-text citation. Enclose the title in double quotation marks when citing an article, web page or book chapter. Italicize the title of periodicals, books, and reports.

No publication date

If the publication date is unknown , use “n.d.” (no date) instead. For example: (Johnson, n.d.).

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).

The easiest way to set up APA format in Word is to download Scribbr’s free APA format template for student papers or professional papers.

Alternatively, you can watch Scribbr’s 5-minute step-by-step tutorial or check out our APA format guide with examples.

You need an APA in-text citation and reference entry . Each source type has its own format; for example, a webpage citation is different from a book citation .

Use Scribbr’s free APA Citation Generator to generate flawless citations in seconds or take a look at our APA citation examples .

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

Yes, page numbers are included on all pages, including the title page , table of contents , and reference page . Page numbers should be right-aligned in the page header.

To insert page numbers in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, click ‘Insert’ and then ‘Page number’.

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What is the structure of a research paper, what is the layout of a research paper, what is the average length of a research paper, what are the dimensions of a research paper, what is the proper margin for a research paper, what font size is used for a research paper, how long is a mini-research paper, what is the spacing for a research paper, what font style is best for a research paper, what is the minimum page of a research paper, how many pages should a research paper have, what is an apa format, how long should the introduction section be in a research paper, more in documents.

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What is the standard/recommended font to use in papers?

I looked around but did not find that anyone has asked this before, but what are the fonts that are standard/recommended while writing academic reports/papers?

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• 19 No need to search for the perfect font. You just download the latex/word template that the journal / conference provides and you stick to it. –  Alexandros Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 10:12
• 3 In my case there isn't a template, that is the problem. –  Man Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 10:12
• 1 @O.R.Mapper yes very true, although I assume if the OP was looking for the standard font of every language in the world for academic publishing, we could close it as "too broad" –  user-2147482637 Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 15:35
• 10 People stick with the Computer Modern default in LaTeX so much that I once had someone tell me a paper where I intentionally chose a different serif font "looked unprofessional." –  Matt Reece Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 17:32
• 3 Please do not be "that person" who has the only paper in the journal or proceedings with a different font from the others. –  Max Commented Aug 8, 2014 at 8:42

4 Answers 4

If there's no template, then the choice is yours. However, you should make sure to pick a font that's easy to read. The usual standards in academia tend to be the Times, Helvetica/Arial, and Computer Modern families. This doesn't restrict you from using fonts like Book Antiqua, Myriad Pro, Goudy Old Style, or Garamond, but they're definitely not standard.

• 9 As to Helvetica/Arial: I think conventional wisdom is that serif fonts are preferred for large bodies of text, while sans serif should be reserved for short chunks like labels, headings, etc. I've certainly never seen a published paper set entirely in Helvetica. Then again, in my field everyone uses LaTeX, so unless you make a special effort, everything comes out in Computer Modern. –  Nate Eldredge Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 15:52
• @NateEldredge: You are correct that serif fonts are easier to handle in large doses, but Helvetica is the "default" font for most "official" documents and reports throughout most of Europe. And this extends to preprints when not done in LaTeX. –  aeismail Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 15:56
• 14 Eurghhhhhhhhhhh. –  Nate Eldredge Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 16:14
• @NateEldredge: This is not undisputed. @ aeismail: It’s rather Arial due that popular operating system (which does not make this any better; not because of serif vs. sans-serif, but because I do not want to see that font anymore to the extent that I tweaked my browser to auto-replace any resembling fonts). –  Wrzlprmft ♦ Commented Aug 8, 2014 at 8:35
• @Wrzlprmft: True, it is normally Arial that is specified; fortunately the differences are small enough that I use Helvetica and no one complains. (And actually I'm starting to see more references to Helvetica nowadays.) –  aeismail Commented Aug 8, 2014 at 12:00

For an academic paper each publisher journal have their standards. These do not affect or are affected by the manuscripts sent in to the journal. Some journals specify fonts, commonly standard Times Roman, for their manuscripts. If the journal specifies something, follow that specification. Otherwise use a font that is easy to read. There is no need to use anything but a standard font for whatever typesetting/word processor system.

There isn't any.

Focus on the content, write using your favorite writing software's default font, and let the journal's typesetting staff worry about the looks of the published version.

For the subset of journals that do not take care of typesetting, first make sure they are legitimate, then use the template they provide.

If no template is provided discuss with your supervisor and colleagues whether the journal is really worth your time, if it is then use your favorite software's default font.

As others have mentioned, the standard font varies, but is usually a serif font such as Times New Roman, although sans serif fonts such as Arial and Helvetica seem to be gaining traction as well. Their is major disagreement over which is easier to read--serif or sans serif fonts, with no clear consensus on the outcome. For example, see this paper .

Font size is typically twelve point. Follow the guidelines on this one, and make sure to keep your font consistent. Nothing is more likely to get you minus points than some obvious monkeying with the font size, whether to lengthen your manuscript (most commonly seen in undergrad papers) or to fit your text into the page limit (the rest of us!).

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United States Toilet Paper Market

United States Toilet Paper Market Size, Share, Forecast: By Type: 1 Ply, 2 Ply, Others; By End Use: Residential, Commercial; By Distribution Channel: B2B, B2C; Regional Analysis; Market Dynamics: SWOT Analysis, Porter’s Five Forces Analysis, Key Indicators for Demand; Value Chain Analysis; Competitive Landscape; 2024-2032

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United States Toilet Paper Market Size

The United States toilet paper market reached approximately USD 10.74 billion in 2023. The market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.90% between 2024 and 2032. It is estimated to reach a value of around USD 16.52 billion by 2032.

United States Toilet Paper Market Outlook

• As of 2024, the toilet paper sector including both wet and dry toilet paper amounted to approximately USD 107.4 billion. The planetwide sales reached an estimate of nearly 46 million metric tons of toilet paper.
• Eco-friendly startups based in the U.S.A. are using alternatives to trees for making toilet papers since its production is wiping out the source of the wood pulp and Canadian forests. These include brands such as Whole Foods, Green Forest, Who Gives a Crap and a startup called Reel Paper.
• On January 10, 2024, to expand its production in the US, the Italian manufacturer of hygiene papers ‘Sofidel’ bought a tissue mill in Duluth, Minnesota, from ST Paper.

United States Toilet Paper Market Growth

Increased health awareness and concerns and growing awareness regarding sanitation

have been key drivers of the market. Approximately 57 sheets of toilet paper are used daily by an average American. Customers are adopting high-quality toilet paper that may offer a comfortable clean, durability when wiping, and less lint and residue due to the increased focus on optimal sanitation. Consumer spending on personal care products has increased as a result of rising living standards and disposable incomes, supporting industry expansion. Major companies are actively investing in modernizing their manufacturing facilities to produce toilet paper while utilizing recycled fibres.

E-commerce platforms and online delivery websites and applications are rapidly increasing which has also positively impacted the toilet paper market in the country. The demand for toilet paper is on the rise in the states and especially saw a significant upturn in 2023. The convenience of getting day-to-day necessities like this delivered to your doorstep has driven up sales. Many platforms also offer subscription services where consumers can have toilet paper delivered regularly. Due to high competition in the market, retailers on online platforms offer discounts that make it more cost-effective than offline stores.

The rising trend for sustainability is also propelling this market. The preference for toilet paper made of sustainable sources is growing due to changes in purchasing patterns and environmental consciousness. Examples of these materials include bamboo, recycled paper, and non-wood fibre alternatives. Market players are actively developing new materials, improving production processes and coming up with ways to minimize wastage due to the change in people’s spending habits.

United States Toilet Paper Industry Segmentation

‘The United States Toilet Paper Market Report and Forecast 2024-2032’ offers a detailed analysis of the market based on the following segments

Market Breakup by Type

• 1 Ply 
• 2 Ply 

Market Breakup by End Use

• Residential

Market Breakup by Distribution Channel

Market Breakup by Region

• New England
• Great Lakes
• Rocky Mountain

United States Toilet Paper Market Share

According to industry reports, consumers are increasingly leaning towards the 2-ply type of toilet paper. This may be due to several factors including the fact that they are softer and more comfortable on the skin. 2 ply paper is also more absorbent and has a better absorption compared to the single-ply variant. While these are also usually more expensive, the consumers are ready to pay more for comfort, quality, and sustainability.

Leading Companies in the United States Toilet Paper Market

The market players are increasingly using sustainable and recyclable materials to attract customers.

• Kimberly-Clark Corp. 
• GCP Paper USA Inc. 
• Procter & Gamble Co.
• Cascades Inc. 
• Georgia-Pacific LLC
• Kruger Inc. 
• Suzano S.A.
• Softex Group 
• Cardinal Tissue, LLC

Key Highlights of the Report

*While we strive to always give you current and accurate information, the numbers depicted on the website are indicative and may differ from the actual numbers in the main report. At Expert Market Research, we aim to bring you the latest insights and trends in the market. Using our analyses and forecasts, stakeholders can understand the market dynamics, navigate challenges, and capitalize on opportunities to make data-driven strategic decisions.

1    Preface   2    Report Coverage – Key Segmentation and Scope 3    Report Description     3.1    Market Definition and Outlook     3.2    Properties and Applications     3.3    Market Analysis     3.4    Key Players 4    Key Assumptions 5    Executive Summary     5.1    Overview     5.2    Key Drivers         5.3    Key Developments     5.4    Competitive Structure     5.5    Key Industrial Trends 6    Market Snapshot 7    Opportunities and Challenges in the Market 8    North America Toilet Paper Market Overview     8.1    Key Industry Highlights     8.2    North America Toilet Paper Historical Market (2018-2023)      8.3    North America Toilet Paper Market Forecast (2024-2032) 9    United States Toilet Paper Market Overview     9.1    Key Industry Highlights     9.2    United States Toilet Paper Historical Market (2018-2023)      9.3    United States Toilet Paper Market Forecast (2024-2032) 10    United States Toilet Paper Market by Type     10.1    1 Ply         10.1.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         10.1.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     10.2    2 Ply         10.2.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         10.2.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     10.3    Others 11    United States Toilet Paper Market by End Use     11.1    Residential         11.1.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         11.1.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     11.2    Commercial         11.2.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         11.2.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032) 12    United States Toilet Paper Market by Distribution Channel     12.1    B2B         12.1.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         12.1.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     12.2    B2C         12.2.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         12.2.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032) 13    United States Toilet Paper Market by Region     13.1    New England         13.1.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         13.1.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     13.2    Mideast         13.2.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         13.2.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     13.3    Great Lakes         13.3.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         13.3.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     13.4    Plains         13.4.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         13.4.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     13.5    Southeast         13.5.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         13.5.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     13.6    Southwest         13.6.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         13.6.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     13.7    Rocky Mountain         13.7.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         13.7.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032)     13.8    Far West         13.8.1    Historical Trend (2018-2023)         13.8.2    Forecast Trend (2024-2032) 14    Market Dynamics     14.1    SWOT Analysis         14.1.1    Strengths         14.1.2    Weaknesses         14.1.3    Opportunities         14.1.4    Threats     14.2    Porter’s Five Forces Analysis         14.2.1    Supplier’s Power         14.2.2    Buyer’s Power         14.2.3    Threat of New Entrants         14.2.4    Degree of Rivalry         14.2.5    Threat of Substitutes     14.3    Key Indicators for Demand     14.4    Key Indicators for Price 15    Value Chain Analysis 16    Trade Data Analysis (HS Code – 481810)     16.1    Major Exporting Countries          16.1.1    By Value         16.1.2    By Volume     16.2    Major Importing Countries          16.2.1    By Value         16.2.2    By Volume 17    Competitive Landscape     17.1    Market Structure     17.2    Company Profiles         17.2.1    Kimberly-Clark Corp.               17.2.1.1    Company Overview             17.2.1.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.1.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.1.4    Certifications         17.2.2    Essity AB              17.2.2.1    Company Overview             17.2.2.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.2.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.2.4    Certifications         17.2.3    GCP Paper USA Inc.               17.2.3.1    Company Overview             17.2.3.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.3.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.3.4    Certifications         17.2.4    Procter & Gamble Co.               17.2.4.1    Company Overview             17.2.4.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.4.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.4.4    Certifications         17.2.5    Cascades Inc.               17.2.5.1    Company Overview             17.2.5.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.5.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.5.4    Certifications         17.2.6    Georgia-Pacific LLC              17.2.6.1    Company Overview             17.2.6.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.6.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.6.4    Certifications         17.2.7    Kruger Inc.               17.2.7.1    Company Overview             17.2.7.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.7.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.7.4    Certifications         17.2.8    Suzano S.A.               17.2.8.1    Company Overview             17.2.8.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.8.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.8.4    Certifications         17.2.9    Softex Group               17.2.9.1    Company Overview             17.2.9.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.9.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.9.4    Certifications         17.2.10     Cardinal Tissue, LLC              17.2.10.1    Company Overview             17.2.10.2    Product Portfolio             17.2.10.3    Demographic Reach and Achievements             17.2.10.4    Certifications         17.2.11    Others 18    Key Trends and Developments in the Market

List of Key Figures and Tables

1.    North America Toilet Paper Market: Key Industry Highlights, 2018 and 2032 2.    United States Toilet Paper Market: Key Industry Highlights, 2018 and 2032 3.    United States Toilet Paper Historical Market: Breakup by Type (USD Billion), 2018-2023 4.    United States Toilet Paper Market Forecast: Breakup by Type (USD Billion), 2024-2032 5.    United States Toilet Paper Historical Market: Breakup by End Use (USD Billion), 2018-2023 6.    United States Toilet Paper Market Forecast: Breakup by End Use (USD Billion), 2024-2032 7.    United States Toilet Paper Historical Market: Breakup by Distribution Channel (USD Billion), 2018-2023 8.    United States Toilet Paper Market Forecast: Breakup by Distribution Channel (USD Billion), 2024-2032 9.    United States Toilet Paper Historical Market: Breakup by Region (USD Billion), 2018-2023 10.    United States Toilet Paper Market Forecast: Breakup by Region (USD Billion), 2024-2032 11.    Major Exporting Countries by Value 12.    Major Importing Countries by Value 13.    Major Exporting Countries by Volume 14.    Major Importing Countries by Volume 15.    United States Toilet Paper Market Structure

What was the United States toilet paper market value in 2023?

It is estimated that the market reached approximately USD 10.74 billion in 2023.

What is the growth rate of the market?

The toilet paper market in United States is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.90% between 2024 and 2032.

What is the United States toilet paper market forecast for 2024-2032?

The market is projected to reach a value of around USD 16.52 billion by the year 2032.

What are the major drivers of the market?

Expansion of tourism sector, growing number of e-commerce platforms, and adoption of advanced technologies in the production process are the major drivers of the market.

What are the key trends in the market?

The increasing inclination towards sustainable products and rising hygiene consciousness are the key trends of the market.

What is the market segmentation based on type?

Based on type, the market is divided into 1 ply, 2ply, and others.

Who are the key players in the United States toilet paper industry, according to the report?

The key players in the market are Kimberly-Clark Corp., Essity AB, GCP Paper USA Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Cascades Inc., Georgia-Pacific LLC, Kruger Inc., Suzano S.A., Softex Group, Cardinal Tissue, LLC, and others.

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FHFA Statistics Land Price Appreciation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction.

Land values are highly correlated with mortgage collateral risks and underlying location desirability; hence, these data are in high demand by researchers and policymakers. As a means with which to determine the replacement value of a structure, they are also important for estimating insurance premiums and executing rigorous climate scenario analysis.

In 2021, Davis, Larson, Oliner, and Shui estimated and made available an annual panel dataset for single-family residential land prices from 2012-2019 at the tract level. [1] We have updated these data through 2022, which will enable data users to gain insights into land price appreciation over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Interested readers may download these updated data at https://www.fhfa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-08/Land-Prices_2024_20_June.xlsx . In this blog post, we share some preliminary insights from these data.

Methodology

In updating the land price indices by an additional three years, we made no changes to the methodology as implemented in the published 2021 paper. We refer readers to the 2021 paper for more information on this methodology.

As in the previous paper, we compute two kinds of land value estimates, both of which are provided in the linked dataset. First, we compute as-is estimates, which are straightforward, per-acre values of land. We also report standardized estimates, which report land prices for hypothetical lots of a quarter-acre size, which is approximately the median lot size in our data. These estimates address the plattage effect, which refers to the observation that larger lots typically cost less on a per-acre basis, and thus value may be accreted by dividing larger lots into smaller ones.

Summary Statistics

Using a very large data set of appraisals, we generate annual panel data from 2012 through 2022 of the average price of land for single-family homes for 1,054 counties, 8,660 ZIP codes, and 12,057 census tracts. Additionally, we create a “pooled cross-section” dataset, which combines all data from 2012 through 2022 in the appraisal database and centers the estimates using 2015 prices. Pooling increases the number of geographic areas that satisfy the minimum required sample sizes.

Relative to the earlier data, improved geocoding as well as the additional years of data enables a modest increase in covered geographies. In what follows, we report increases relative to 2019 in parentheses. Our pooled cross-section includes data for 2,444 (+66) counties, 19,397 (+1,075) ZIP codes, and 54,515 (+1,371) census tracts. In the second dataset, we do not pool data by year and simply report annual estimates for a balanced panel. Given our minimum data requirements, we report land prices for 1,054 (+94) counties, 8,660 (+1,218) ZIP codes, and 12,057 (+1,542) census tracts each year from 2012 through 2022. The annual and pooled data sets cover 87 percent and 99 percent of the U.S. population residing in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, respectively, and 85 percent and 98 percent of the single-family housing units. The coverage difference between the annual and pooled datasets is small because well-populated areas are included in both.

Table 1 shows some basic statistics from our as-is estimates generated by applying an equal weight to each county. The top panel reports estimates from the pooled cross-section of counties, and the bottom panel reports estimates from the annual panel data of counties (pooled to cover 2012–2022). As in the previous data, both land prices and land shares display large variation. Land prices and land shares are uniformly higher in the panel data as many rural counties with cheap land and low land shares are dropped due to insufficient observations.

Table 1 : Land Statistics

As-Is Estimates of Land Value Reported Per Acre

We estimate that the land share for the United States in the aggregate increased from 37.0 percent in 2012 to 39.9 percent in 2022. This nearly 3 percentage point increase was driven by a rapid increase in land prices at the national level of 8.0 percent per year that outstripped the national rise in house prices. In Figure 1, we sort counties into 25 bins based on the number of single-family housing units over 2013–2017. Each bin represents the experience of about 40 counties. The blue triangles in each bin show the aggregate value of land in single-family, residential use in 2012 for all the counties included in each bin. These triangles represent the weight for each bin in the national aggregate.

Land Price Appreciation since the Onset of the Pandemic

Figure 1:  Changes in Land Prices and Land Shares by County-Based Quantiles of Housing Units, 2012-2022

(a) Changes in Land Prices

(b) Changes in Land Shares

Source: FHFA

Note: Counties in the annual panel data set are sorted into 25 bins based on the number of single-family housing units in 2013–2017, as measured in the American Community Survey for those years (5-year sample). In both panels, the blue triangles show the aggregate value of land in 2012 for all the counties in each bin. In the left (right) panel, the red bars show annualized growth in the price of land (change in the land share) for each bin and the black dashed line shows annualized growth in the price of land (change in the land share) in the aggregate United States between 2012 and 2022, 7.96 percent (2.9 percentage points) per year.

The red bars in the left panel of Figure 1 show the change in as-is land prices in each bin from 2012 to 2022, and the red bars in the right panel show the change in the land share over the same period. The right-most bin alone, which is dominated by counties in California, has greater aggregate land value than all 24 other bins combined and 4.6 times the land value of the bottom 18 bins combined. This explains why the increase in land prices at the national level over 2012–2022 – 7.96 percent per year on average, as shown by the black dashed line – outpaced the much slower rise in most of the county bins.

To provide clarity on the geographic heterogeneity of the national trend presented in Figure 1, especially as affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Figure 2 presents maps of land share and as-is land price appreciation since 2019. While 66.2 percent of counties nationwide saw flat or declining land shares, 95.1 percent of counties saw appreciating land prices. Reinforcing certain stylized facts about pandemic-era housing markets, the three counties we observe to have had the most appreciation in land prices are rich in natural amenities. These are Teton County, Wyoming, St. Lucie County, Florida, and Canyon County, Idaho. Similarly, the three counties with the greatest land share appreciation also support a shift in homeowner preferences toward larger properties with greater access to outdoor recreation opportunities; these are San Bernadino County, California, Vilas County, Wisconsin, and Washington County, Utah.

Figure 2 : Mapped Changes of County-Level Land Shares and Land Prices

(a) County-Level Changes to Land Shares

(b) County-Level Changes to As-Is Land Prices

Panel (b) reinforces the interpretation that rapid changes in the value of housing, as observed in the Sunbelt states since the outbreak of COVID-19, were driven by changes in the underlying value of the land. Yet panel (a) suggests land share increases were modest. Major metropolitan areas subject to pandemic-era in-migration saw increases to land shares on the order of 5-13 percent. Large swathes of the country, including rural and suburban counties in the Midwest and the Eastern seaboard, saw flat to decreasing land shares. This is consistent with widely reported inflation in construction costs during the pandemic. Because of elevated replacement costs relative to land price appreciation, land share decreased, even as house values boomed.

Using a very large data set of appraisals, we generate annual panel data from 2012 through 2022 of the average price of land for single-family homes for 1,054 counties, 8,660 ZIP codes, and 12,057 census tracts. We also calculate pooled cross-sectional estimates of land prices for more than twice as many counties and ZIP codes and five times as many census tracts. We describe changes in the level and growth rate of land prices inclusive of pandemic-era home price appreciation. We expect that researchers will use the data we generate to build on our results, and current and future policymakers will monitor these data to better understand a variety of risks, including climate-related risks, in housing markets.

[1] These data are available for download at https://www.fhfa.gov/research/papers/wp1901 .

Tagged: FHFA Stats Blog; Land Prices; Replacement Cost; Data; Open Data; Source: FHFA

By: Matthew Suandi

Senior Economist

Division of Research and Statistics

File Attachments:

Land Prices – 2024 June