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CHAPTER 13: Communication in Psychology 423societies such as the Eastern, Midwestern, Southeastern, and Western PsychologicalAssociations sponsor conferences at which researchers give brief oral presentationsor present posters describing their recent work. Such conferences providean opportunity for timely discussion and debate among investigators interestedin the same research questions. Research that is “in press” (i.e., waiting completionof the publication process) may be discussed, thus giving conference attendeesa preview of important, but yet-to-be-published, research findings.Researchers often must obtain financial support in the form of a grant froma government or private agency in order to carry out their research. Grants areawarded on the basis of a competitive review of research proposals. Researchproposals also typically are required of graduate students when preparing amaster’s thesis or dissertation. A faculty committee then reviews the proposalbefore the thesis or dissertation research is begun. So, too, undergraduatestudents often are required to prepare a research proposal as part of a researchmethods or laboratory class in psychology. Finally, researchers at all levelswill find that research proposals are required by Institutional Review Boardsin order to assess the ethical nature of proposed research at an institution (seeChapter 3). Research proposals require a slightly different style and formatfrom a journal article that reports results of a completed study. We providesuggestions for preparing a research proposal later in this chapter.Tips on Manuscript Preparation The primary resource for scientific writingin psychology is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(APA, 2010), now in its sixth edition. Journal editors and authors usethis manual to ensure a consistent style across the many different journalsin psychology. The manual is an invaluable source for almost any questionpertaining to the style and format of a manuscript intended for publicationin a psychological journal. It contains information on the appropriate contentand organization of a manuscript; the expression of ideas and reducing biasin language; displaying results in tables and figures; reference list formatincluding referencing electronic media; and policies regarding manuscriptacceptance and production, including guidelines for electronic submissionof manuscripts. The manual also discusses ethical issues in scientific writing(see our discussion of this in Chapter 3). However, APA also acknowledgesthat neither editorial style nor the technology of publishing is static. Anyoneseeking to prepare a manuscript under the APA guidelines should alsoconsult the APA website, which provides updates to the Publication Manualand latest changes in APA style and in APA policies and procedures: www.apastyle.org.The APA website provides a free tutorial on APA basic style, including presentationof a sample manuscript, and a frequently asked questions and answers section.What do journal articles, oral presentations, and research proposals haveto do with you? If you attend graduate school in psychology, you will likelyhave to describe your research using all three of these types of scientific