Considering how many people are required to use this manual by their educational institution and/or peer-reviewed journal, it should have been better -- much better! Comparing this Sixth Edition to its immediate predecessor, there are both pluses and minuses. I own the fifth printing (January 2011) that shows a copyright date of 2010. The first three printings are dated in 2009.

Changes I noticed include: (1) the chapter on student papers, new to the Fifth Edition, is disconinued in this edition; (2) The referral to the Chicago Manual as the authority for issues not covered has been discontinued; (3) previous endorsement of Courier as typeface of choice for manuscripts has been replaced with Times New Roman; (4) accommodation for audio, video and animation has been added as an online supplement to manuscripts and published journal articles; (5) a number of conventions created by computers are listed as acceptable or preferred.

I found three or four faulty formatting examples. For instance, section 6.09, "Citations Within Quotations" advises "Do not omit citations embedded within the original material you are quoting." This is clearly an instruction on how to cite secondary sources. The example is statistics published by the American Cancer Society in 2007. Two things are wrong here. First, there is no mention of the term "secondary source" (which is addressed a few pages later in section 6.17), and second, statistics published by an organization as large and visible as the American Cancer Society in a year as recent as 2007 should be readily available as a primary source. This is a very poor choice of examples. It bears repeating: Any occurrence of citations within quotations is, by definition, advice on using and reporting secondary sources. As such, brief commentary on primary versus secondary sources is indicated.

Another example to which I took exception was the sample cover letter for journal submissions, which begins, "I am enclosing a submission . . . entitled . . .." American English does not entitle articles, paintings, or books; it titles them.

In the section regarding the format for citing classical works, the instruction is to use standardized formats, but does not give the name of any source for standardized formats. A much-missed feature included in the previous edition is the extensive sample manuscript pages that illustrated use of headings and other important manuscript features.

Despite these deficiencies (and there are far too many of them for such an influential resource), there are a few things that I liked. In particular, the simplified headings structure is a welcome change. Chapters 3 and 4, "Writing Clearly and Concisely" and "The Mechanics of Style" are good additions. These chapters address most (if not all) grammatical and stylistic challenges that a writer in the social sciences might encounter. I would even recommend that these writers (and particularly students) read these sections through at least once before writing their papers. This grammatical advice is a useful summary for anyone writing anything, though not so delightfully entertaining as reading Karen Elizabeth Gordon's manuals.

The many people who need the APA manual will buy it regardless of its shortcomings. In my list of the Ten Most Common Errors in APA Papers, No. 1 is failure to buy a copy of the APA manual. Fortunately for me (as an academic editor), many people who should own a copy, don't. Also fortunately for me, this Sixth Edition advises using the services of a copy editing service for anyone who is not accustomed to writing in English or who has found it difficult to get published. ( )

This is a reference book that can be used throughout academic studies. Although it is periodically updated, a publications manual is one of the best research paper tools. ( )

A required reference book for my thesis and the APA style. There are a few changes from the 5th addition, but I could not have finished my thesis without it. ( )