American Psychological Association to end use of APA Style by 2020

Washington, DC (April 1, 2016): The American Psychological Association (APA) recently announced that it plans to end the use of APA Style by the year 2020. APA Style is a set of editorial rules for scientific writing that was used by many social sciences, including psychology, until this announcement. The APA announced that it will also no longer be publishing the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition which presents the rules for APA Style. It is currently the “#1 Best Seller in Medical Research” according to Amazon.

As a replacement for APA Style, the American Psychological Association will be endorsing the use of AMA Style, the style guide of the American Medical Association. “We must act more like physicians if we want to be taken seriously in the evolving healthcare marketplace” an APA spokesperson stated when reached for comment. “Therefore, the standard in our field will become using AMA Style for our writing.” In addition to requiring accredited internships, the spokesperson added under condition of anonymity that by 2030 all psychologists will be expected to be board certified like physicians too. She stated “sure they call us doctors now, but we want them to really mean it.”

As part of APA’s transition from APA Style to AMA Style, APA also plans to sell the two buildings it owns in Washington, DC and move in to the basement of the American Medical Association. In this way, psychology can be “co-located” with physicians. An APA spokesperson stated “leasing space from the AMA and living in their basement is a better long-term strategy for psychology.” When asked how she thought psychologists would react to this, the APA spokesperson stated “what’s good for psychology isn’t necessarily what’s good for psychologists; we’re not here for psychologists.” The APA spokesperson added “psychology is getting out of the psychologist business while the getting is good; those guys are toast. It is in psychology’s best interest to cut them loose.”

Happy Friday,

Todd

P.S. Hopefully you enjoyed this April 1 post and you at least got a smirk; I don’t want to waste your time. This weekend I’ll post the Referral Source of the Month for April; it will also appear on my free Reviews & IME’s newsletter (which you can learn more about by going here).

If this is your first time reading my Psychology.news blog; welcome! This is an unusual post in that it was made on April 1. Psychology DOT news provides psychologists with useful news and practical resources for life as a psychologist. We aim to use our voice to both inform and support others in challenging assumptions; it’s what we do. The content is curated by me, clinical psychologist Dr. Todd Finnerty. On the blog I tend to write in the first person; I also sometimes publish relatively amusing rants which only a select group of people appreciate. Each month I also publish a new, specific referral source geared toward psychologists. If you haven’t already please take a moment to subscribe to get new posts delivered to you automatically by email. I usually only post once or twice per week.

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Todd Finnerty, Psy.D.
Columbus, OH