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The APA Publication Manual establishes technical guidelines for the layout of graphs. Generally, scatterplots, bar graphs, and line graphs should be constructed to be slightly wider than they are tall. The independent variable must be plotted on the $$x$$-axis, and the dependent variable on the $$y$$-axis. Furthermore, numerical values must increase from left to right on the $$x$$-axis and from bottom to top on the $$y$$-axis, with both axes strictly beginning at the value of zero.

Layout of APA Style Graphs

Bar graphs are commonly used in research to present and compare the mean scores for two or more groups or conditions. Following conventions, researchers typically use a bar graph when the independent variable plotted on the $$x$$-axis is categorical.

APA Style Bar Graphs

Line graphs are utilized in research reporting when the independent variable on the $$x$$-axis is measured continuously, such as time, or to display correlations between quantitative variables when the independent variable is organized into a small number of distinct levels. Each plotted point on a line graph represents the mean score on the dependent variable for participants at a single level of the independent variable, and these points often include error bars to visualize standard error.

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