Who needs an author note? You … maybe

Professional papers intended for submission to a journal must always include an author note. Student papers do not typically include an author note.

Adams, A. (2020, July 21). Who needs an author note? You … maybe. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/author-note

What’s an author note?

An author note provides additional information about authors, study registration, data sharing, disclaimers or statements regarding conflicts of interest, and help or funding that supported the research. It also provides a point of contact for interested readers.

Professional papers intended for submission to a journal must always include an author note. Student papers do not typically include an author note. However, if you are a student working collaboratively with others on a work that would require you to include an author note or if your instructor requests one, then please do so.

What are the current author note guidelines?

There are several notable changes for author notes in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual for manuscripts being submitted to APA journals. They are as follows:

• An author’s affiliation goes in the byline; this update is consistent with other publishers in the field.
• The label “Author Note” is centered and bolded.
• Content is formatted into paragraphs.

• The first paragraph should include ORCID iDs, for any author that has one.
• The second paragraph should include any changes of affiliation for an author.
• The third paragraph should include additional study details (e.g., study registration, open practices and data sharing, disclosure of related reports and conflicts of interest, acknowledgments of financial support and other assistance).
• The fourth paragraph should include the corresponding author’s contact information.

Authors, if a paragraph does not apply to your manuscript, you may omit it from your author note.

Also, if you are planning to submit your work to non-APA publishers, please note that their requirements for an author note may differ from those listed in this blog post.

For more information on author note guidelines and author note examples, please see Section 2.7 in the Publication Manual and the Title Page Setup and Sample Papers pages in the Style and Grammar Guidelines section of the website.

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