The method answers a single question: could someone else repeat your study from what you wrote? It is written in the past tense and, unlike the introduction, it does have subsections. The APA reporting standards (Appelbaum et al., 2018) and the STROBE guideline (von Elm et al., 2007) detail what it should include.
What it should contain
- DesignType of study, for example cross-sectional correlational, and the variables being related.
- ParticipantsInclusion and exclusion criteria, sampling method, sample size calculation and description of the final sample.
- InstrumentsName, author, number of items, response scale and evidence of validity and reliability in your sample.
- ProcedureHow, when and where data were collected; ethics approval and informed consent.
- Data analysisSoftware, data cleaning, statistical tests, significance level and effect size.
How it should sound
- Replicable. Numbers, dates, criteria and full names, not general descriptions.
- With your own evidence. The reliability published by the instrument’s authors is not enough: report what you obtained in your sample.
- Ordered like the results. Describe the analyses in the same order you will report them.
- Transparent about the data. Explain how many cases were excluded and why.
Before and after
| Weak version | Problem | Improved version |
|---|---|---|
| Students from a university participated. | No size, criteria or sampling | A convenience sample of 333 students aged 18 to 30 participated; the minimum size (n = 194) was calculated to detect r = .20 with α = .05 and power of .80. |
| A stress questionnaire was administered. | Instrument neither identified nor evaluated | The Academic Stress Scale (Author, year) was administered: 15 items answered from 1 to 5; in this sample, α = .87. |
| Data were analyzed with statistical software. | No tests or criteria | After cleaning the dataset, Pearson correlations were computed with α = .05 and 95% confidence intervals; effect sizes were interpreted following Cohen (1988). |
What each journal decides. The order and names of the subsections, where the ethics statement goes and whether a reporting guideline is required, such as STROBE for observational studies or CONSORT for clinical trials, change from one journal or conference to another. Check their author guidelines.
Before you call it done
- Does it name the design and the variables?
- Does it explain how the sample size was calculated?
- Does it report validity and reliability in its own sample?
- Does it describe data cleaning and how many cases were excluded?
- Does it mention ethics approval and informed consent?
Calculate and justify your sample with Sample Size, and clean your dataset with Data Cleaning, which includes the paragraph to report it.
References
Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M., & Rao, S. M. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. American Psychologist, 73(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000191
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
von Elm, E., Altman, D. G., Egger, M., Pocock, S. J., Gøtzsche, P. C., & Vandenbroucke, J. P. (2007). The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement: Guidelines for reporting observational studies. PLoS Medicine, 4(10), e296. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0040296