---
name: jpsp-writing-style
description: Use when drafting or polishing the prose of a Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP) manuscript — long-format APA 7th writing that fits the section's capped introduction and discussion, plus a ≤250-word abstract. Guides style and structure; it does not ghost-write the paper.
---

# Writing Style — Long-Format APA 7th (jpsp-writing-style)

JPSP is long-format, but the **introduction and discussion are capped** by section, so the craft is
**disciplined length**: a rich, theory-driven narrative that still respects the word budget. This is
the opposite of a 2,000-word short report — here you must develop a theory and several studies, yet
write tightly enough to fit ASC's 3,500-word or IRGP's 5,000-word intro+discussion limit.

## When to trigger

- Drafting the manuscript or tightening it to fit the section's word cap
- Writing the abstract (and any limitations statement)
- Polishing for the APA Publication Manual (7th edition)

## Section word rules (verify on the live per-section page — 待核实)

| Section | Intro + discussion cap | Notes |
|---------|------------------------|-------|
| **ASC** | introduction + study intros + Discussion + General Discussion **≤ 3,500 words** | |
| **IRGP** | introduction + discussion **≤ 5,000 words total**; **≤ 5 studies** in main text | results accessible to general statistical readers |
| **PPID** | "as succinctly as possible" — no fixed cap stated | 待核实 |
| All | **abstract ≤ 250 words** | a ≤200-word limitations statement may follow the abstract (待核实) |

Tables/figures are embedded and **not counted** toward the word limit — use exhibits to carry detail.

## Writing the long-format manuscript

1. **Front-load the contribution.** State the theoretical advance in the first page; do not make the
   reader wait for the General Discussion.
2. **One narrative across studies.** Use transitions ("Study 1 established…; Study 2 asks whether…")
   so the package reads as one argument, not a stapled set.
3. **Compress method, expand theory.** Push procedural detail and complex statistics to tables,
   notes, and supplements; spend capped words on theory and interpretation.
4. **Abstract (≤250 words).** State the question, the approach (note it is multi-study), the key
   finding with direction, and the contribution.
5. **Limitations statement (if required).** Cover internal, construct, statistical, and external
   validity for nonspecialists, within the cap (待核实).
6. **APA 7th throughout.** Bias-free language, author–date citations, headings, statistical notation;
   inclusive description of samples.

## Anti-patterns

- Treating "long-format" as license for a bloated, unfocused introduction
- Blowing the intro+discussion cap by putting method/stats prose where exhibits belong
- An abstract over 250 words, or one that hides the finding
- A General Discussion that introduces new claims the studies never tested
- Studies written as disconnected mini-papers with no through-line

## Where the capped words go: a section-by-section budget

The craft at JPSP is allocating a *fixed* intro+discussion budget across a multi-study narrative. The percentages below are **illustrative planning anchors**, not journal rules — the only binding figures are the section caps, which you must confirm against the journal's current submission guidelines.

| Manuscript element | Illustrative share of the capped words | What earns the space at JPSP |
|--------------------|----------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| Opening contribution statement | ~10% | The theoretical advance, stated on page one |
| Literature/theory setup | ~30% | The gap and the diagnostic hypotheses, not a survey |
| Brief study-to-study transitions | ~15% | "Study 1 established…; Study 2 asks whether…" through-line |
| General Discussion | ~35% | Interpretation, the **internal meta-analysis** takeaway, scope |
| Limitations statement | ~10% (if required) | Internal/construct/statistical/external validity, for nonspecialists |

Method and complex statistics are **not** in this budget: push them to embedded tables, notes, and the supplement, which do not count toward the word limit.

## Worked example: an ASC abstract under 250 words

*Illustrative — invented to model structure, not a real abstract.*

A four-sentence skeleton for the gratitude→construal package, fitting comfortably under the **250-word** abstract cap: (1) *Question* — "Does incidental gratitude broaden how abstractly people construe events?" (2) *Approach, flagged as multi-study* — "Across four preregistered studies (total N = 1,420), we manipulated gratitude and measured construal level." (3) *Key finding with direction and magnitude* — "Gratitude reliably raised abstract construal (internal meta-analytic d = 0.31, 95% CI [0.18, 0.45]); the effect attenuated under time pressure." (4) *Contribution* — "These findings identify gratitude as an antecedent of construal and connect emotion to social-cognitive abstraction." Note the multi-study signal in sentence 2 and the pooled effect in sentence 3 — both are what an ASC reviewer scans the abstract for.

## Output format

```
【Section cap】ASC 3,500 / IRGP 5,000 / PPID succinct — intro+discussion within it? [Y/N]
【Abstract】word count (≤250) — question + multi-study approach + finding + contribution
【Limitations statement】present + within cap? (待核实)
【Through-line】studies read as one argument? [Y/N]
【APA 7th】citations, headings, bias-free language? [Y/N]
【Next】jpsp-open-science-and-transparency
```

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — papaja / apa7 LaTeX, reference managers, APA 7th formatting
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — per-section word caps and abstract rule