Checklist –Literature Review
Use the check sheet below to make sure your paper is the best it can be! Make sure you answer “Yes” to all questions before submitting your paper or you will lose points! Please note that the 7th Edition of the American Psychological Association Publication Manual has some flexibility in terms of language, font, spacing, and other items, but that papers in this course MUST adhere to the guidelines listed below. We use the “Professional” paper format as well (not the student format)
General Paper Format
Yes
No
Is everything in your paper (including headers, the main body of your study one literature review, and references) in 12 point Times New Roman font?
Is everything in your paper double spaced, including references (here I mean the spacing above and below each line, not the spaces following a period)?
Do you have one inch margins on all sides of the paper (one inch from the top of the page, one inch from the bottom, and one inch from each side)
Are the first lines of all paragraphs indented roughly ½ inch?
Are your paragraphs aligned left? (That is, text should be flush left, with lines lining up on the left of the page, but text should NOT line up on the right side of the page – it should look ragged)
Are your sections in this exact order: Title page, literature review, references?
Do you need help figuring out how to configure a word document in APA format (inserting headers, page numbers, indents, etc.) using the professional (not student) formatting guidelines? If YES or NO, I recommend watching this video which walks you through setting up an APA formatted paper! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZTCN6yOgSg
Title page
Yes
No
Header
Is your header title in ALL CAPS, and is it a shorter version of your real title?
Is your Running head in 12 point Times New Roman font?
Do you have a page number that is flush right (also in 12 point Times New Roman font)?
Is your header title 50 characters or less (including spaces and punctuation)?
Title / Name / Institution
Is your title focused and short, avoiding unnecessary words and abbreviations that serve no purpose (as recommended by the APA)?
Does your title describe your general paper theme (while avoiding something bland like “Paper One: Literature Review”)? Note that your header should be a shorter version or your title (For example, the first few words are fine)
Do all title words with three letters or more start with a capital letter?
Is your title in bold?
If your title is longer than one line, is it double-spaced (like everything else in your paper)?
Are your name and institution correct?
Are your title, name, and institution elements centered and in 12 point Times New Roman font?
Literature Review
Yes
No
Header
Is your header title present and identical to your header from the title page?
Is your header title in ALL CAPS and 12 point Times New Roman font?
Do you have a page numbers?
Title for the literature review
Do you have the identical title you used on the title page rewritten at the top of your literature review (including being in bold)?
Is this title centered?
Yes
No
Main body of the literature review
Does your literature review start broadly, giving a brief overview of the paper to come?
Does your literature review start to narrow down toward your hypotheses?
Does your literature review include a theory/theoretical foundation?
Do your paragraphs transition from one to the next? (That is, avoid simply listing studies you read. Tie them together. How does Study A in paragraph A relate to Study B in paragraph B?)
Does your paper end in your very specific hypotheses? (You will lose a lot of points if your paper doesn’t provide the specific predictions!)
Did you make sure your predictions are written in the past tense?
Is your paper at least four pages long (not including the hypotheses)?
Citations for the literature review
Did you cite a minimum of 6-8 PEER REVIEWED articles? (Two things: websites do not count as peer reviewed, so if you want to include websites, add them in addition to the 6-8 peer reviewed citations. You can give a lot of detail for some articles you cite but only a sentence or two for others. How much detail you go into depends on how important the article is in helping your support your hypotheses)
Are your citations in APA format (That is, ONLY the last name of the author(s) and date of publication)?
Note that you do NOT include first names, initials, or the title of the article the authors wrote when citing. That information belongs in the references pages only.
Also note that you only use an ampersand – the & symbol – when it occurs within parentheses. In other instances, use the word “and”
If you quoted, did you provide a page number for the direct quote?
If you paraphrased in any way, did you cite the source of that information?
5. Did you cite everything that sounded like it was factual information?
6. Did you make sure the period follows the citation rather than coming before it?
If there are two authors, did you cite both of them? If in parentheses, did you use the & symbol? If outside of parentheses, did you use the word “and”?
If there are three or more authors in the same citation, did you use the phrase et al. every time you cited them?
Is your literature review AT LEAST 2 pages (not including title page & references?)
References Page
Yes
No
Title for the references page
Do references start on their own page?
Is the word “References” centered? Is it in bold?
References – Make sure these are in APA format!
Are references listed in alphabetical order (starting with the last name of the first author listed)?
Are all citations from the literature review referenced?
Is the first line of the reference flush left while subsequent lines are indented (Note: Use the ruler function for this. DO NOT simply tab)?
Did you use the “&” symbol when listing more than one author name?
Did you include the date of publication
For article references, is the article title (which is not italicized) present, with only the first word and proper names starting with a capital letter?
For article references, is the name of the journal present with all major words starting with a capital letter (Note: this journal title is italicized)?
For article references, is the volume number italicized
For article references, are the page numbers present (not italicized)
For article references, is the DOI present
Writing Quality
Yes
No
1. Did you proofread your paper, go to the writing center, go to the research methods help center, or use the Pearson writer to make sure your paper flows well?
2. Did you use the past tense (which is recommended, since your papers in this class will reflect work you already did rather than work you will do)?
3. Did you use a scientific / objective terms like “people”, “participants”. “users”, “readers”, etc. (as opposed to subjective words like “you”, “we”, “me”, “I”, or “us”, etc.)? Note that you can use the word “I” when referring to your own work.
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