Decision Making or Decision-Making? When APA 7 Wants a Hyphen, an En Dash, or Neither

This week, in one of the dissertations on my desk, the phrase decision making appears again and again, some of the time with a hyphen and some of the time without. The author isn’t careless. Both spellings are real, both show up in published research, and the dictionaries don’t agree. That last part is the whole problem.

So here is the answer for APA 7, how I got to it, and the rest of what I check whenever a hyphen or a dash turns up in a chapter. At the end there’s a correction to something I wrote on this blog in 2024, because I got part of this wrong the first time.

The short answer: it depends on the job the phrase is doing

• As a noun, no hyphen: decision making. “Participants described their decision making as intuitive.”
• Before a noun it describes, hyphen: decision-making. “A shared decision-making model,” “the decision-making process,” “decision-making skills.”
• After the noun, no hyphen: “a process of decision making.”

You don’t have to take my word for it. The Publication Manual uses this exact term as its example. Table 6.1, its guide to hyphenating temporary compounds, lists decision-making behavior under “hyphenate” and behavior related to decision making under “do not hyphenate” (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020, Section 6.12).

Why that answer, and not just “check the dictionary”

APA’s spelling rule points to two dictionaries: the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary for general words and the APA Dictionary of Psychology for psychological terms. It also says what to do when they disagree: follow the APA Dictionary of Psychology.

For this term they do disagree. Merriam-Webster enters decision-making with a hyphen even as a noun. The APA Dictionary enters decision making as two words. Under APA’s own tiebreaker, the noun is open.

The APA Dictionary also shows you the modifier. In its own entries it writes the decision-making model of counseling, and its definition of participative decision making refers to “the decision-making process.” Same dictionary, same term, with a hyphen in front of a noun and without one when the phrase stands alone. That matches APA’s general rule for compound adjectives: hyphenate before the noun to prevent misreading, as in high-anxiety group, and usually leave the hyphen out after the noun, as in group with high anxiety.

Many terms work the same way. Problem solving is open in the APA Dictionary, so it’s “problem solving improved” but “problem-solving strategies.”

One distinction is worth knowing. For most permanent open compounds, the Manual keeps them open even in front of a noun. Its own example is to write health care without a hyphen “even in a phrase like ‘health care setting’” (APA, 2020, Section 6.12). Decision making is different because making is a participle, and the Manual’s first hyphenation rule covers “a compound with a participle when it precedes the term it modifies” (APA, 2020, Table 6.1). Its other examples are water-deprived animals and Canadian-born actor.

When to use a hyphen

1. When the dictionary spells it with one. These are permanent compounds, and the hyphen goes wherever the word goes: self-esteem, well-being, evidence-based practice. “Well-being improved” keeps its hyphen even though no noun follows.
2. In a temporary compound before a noun. If the phrase isn’t in either dictionary and it modifies the next word, hyphenate it: trial-by-trial analysis, one-on-one interviews, middle-class families, low-frequency words. The Manual’s best illustration: “Adolescents resided in two parent homes” could mean two homes, while two-parent homes can only mean two parents. When in doubt, the Manual says, use a hyphen for clarity. Once the phrase moves after the noun, drop it.
3. With self- compounds, whether adjectives or nouns. Self-report technique, self-esteem, the test was self-paced. The one exception the Manual names is self psychology.
4. In number compounds before a noun. 12th-grade students, a six-trial problem, a 16-min interval, a 5-point scale. Fractions used as adjectives take a hyphen (a two-thirds majority); fractions used as nouns do not (one third of the participants).
5. With a prefix, in five situations only (APA, 2020, Table 6.3):
   • before a capitalized word: pro-Freudian, Likert-type, Stroop-like
   • before a number or an abbreviation: post-1977, pre-UCS trial
   • before a base of more than one word: non-achievement-oriented students
   • when the closed form would be misread: re-pair (pair again), re-form (form again), un-ionized
   • when the prefix ends in the same a, i, or o that begins the base word: meta-analysis, anti-intellectual, co-occur
   Everything else closes up: nonsignificant, posttest, preexperimental, covariate, socioeconomic, multimethod. Pre- and re- close up even before another e: preexisting, reexamine, reevaluate. Two terms dissertation writers ask about constantly are hyphenated by name in the Manual: meta-analysis and quasi-experimental.
6. When two compounds share an ending. Keep the hyphen on each one and leave a space after it: long- and short-term memory, 2-, 3-, and 10-min trials.

When not to use a hyphen

• After the noun it modifies: behavior related to decision making, students in the 12th grade, a majority of two thirds.
• After an -ly adverb: a widely used test, a relatively homogeneous sample, randomly assigned participants. The -ly already tells the reader what the word modifies.
• With comparatives and superlatives: less informed interviewers, higher order learning, highest scoring students.
• In Latin phrases: post hoc comparisons, a posteriori test, a priori hypotheses.
• When a letter or numeral is the second element: Group B participants, Type II error, Trial 1 performance.
• In chemical terms: sodium chloride solution.
• When the dictionary lists the term as open: health care setting, mixed methods research, cognitive behavior therapy.

When to use an en dash (–)

The en dash is longer than a hyphen and shorter than an em dash. APA uses it for two jobs, both with no spaces on either side.

1. Ranges. Page ranges in citations and references (pp. 34–36), year ranges (2019–2023), and score ranges (scores ranged 12–48). A hyphen typed into a page range is one of the most common reference-list errors I correct.
2. Two terms of equal weight joined into one modifier. Test–retest reliability, the author–date citation system, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, the theory–practice gap. Neither word modifies the other. They are partners, and you could put and, to, or versus between them.

The test I use: if the first word describes the second, it’s a hyphen (evidence-based: based on evidence). If the two words are paired, it’s an en dash (test–retest: test and retest).

And the em dash (—)

The em dash sets off an interruption or an aside, and in APA Style it takes no spaces on either side. Use it sparingly. APA’s own punctuation guidance notes that many writers overuse dashes and suggests rewording or splitting the sentence when the punctuation gets hard to follow. Never use an em dash for a range.

What I actually do in a dissertation

1. Decide each term once and write it down. A one-page style sheet saves you the most time: decision making (n.) / decision-making (adj.), well-being, test–retest. I explain the habit in Mastering Compound Words in APA 7.
2. Search for both spellings. In Word, search decision making, then decision-making. For every hit, ask one question: is the next word a noun this phrase describes? Hyphen if yes, open if no.
3. Hunt for hyphens in ranges. In Find and Replace, the code for an en dash is ^= (and ^+ is an em dash). Replace one hit at a time, not all at once. DOIs, ISBNs, and some test names contain hyphens that must stay.
4. Type the dashes directly. On a Mac, Option + hyphen gives an en dash and Option + Shift + hyphen gives an em dash. On Windows, Ctrl + the minus key on the number pad gives an en dash and Ctrl + Alt + that minus key gives an em dash (or Alt + 0150 and Alt + 0151). Be careful with Word’s AutoFormat: it turns “word - word” into an en dash with spaces, which is not what APA wants.

A correction to my own 2024 post

In July 2024 I wrote a post called Navigating Compound Adjectives in APA 7: The En Dash Dilemma. It said APA 7 had changed evidence-based practice to evidence–based practice with an en dash, and it gave cognitive–behavioral therapy and mixed–methods research as more examples.

That was wrong, and I want to say so plainly. The rule I described (an en dash when one part of the modifier is itself a multiword term, as in post–World War II) comes from The Chicago Manual of Style, not APA. APA 7 uses the en dash only for ranges and for equal-weight pairs, and its hyphenation guidance hasn’t changed since the 6th edition. The APA Dictionary spells these terms evidence-based practice (hyphen), cognitive behavior therapy (open), and mixed methods research (open). Only theory–practice gap was right. One more fix, from a compound-words post I wrote the following month: I used healthcare as my example of a one-word compound and said it stays closed in “healthcare setting.” The Manual uses the same phrase to make the opposite point: write health care as two words, “even in a phrase like ‘health care setting’” (APA, 2020, Section 6.12).

This summer I was on the other side of the red pen, answering a copyeditor’s queries on my own book. It reminded me that an editor’s job is to check the source rather than trust memory, and that includes checking mine.

Quick reference

• Hyphen (-): dictionary compounds (well-being), compound modifiers before a noun (decision-making behavior), self- words, number compounds (12th-grade students), fractions as adjectives (two-thirds majority), and the five prefix cases (pro-Freudian, post-1977, meta-analysis, quasi-experimental).
• No hyphen: the noun decision making, anything after the noun it modifies, -ly adverbs, comparatives, Latin phrases, letter or numeral second elements (Type II error), most prefixes (posttest, nonsignificant), open dictionary terms (health care setting).
• En dash (–): ranges (pp. 34–36) and equal-weight pairs (test–retest). No spaces.
• Em dash (—): an interruption, used sparingly. No spaces.

Warmly,
~Jennifer

If you’d rather hand this to someone

Hyphens, dashes, and compound terms are part of every APA 7 copyedit I do. I build the style sheet, apply it across the whole dissertation, and send you the sheet so your next draft stays consistent.

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References

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-a). Cognitive behavior therapy. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://dictionary.apa.org/cognitive-behavior-therapy

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-b). Decision making. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://dictionary.apa.org/decision-making

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-c). Decision-making model of counseling. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://dictionary.apa.org/decision-making-model-of-counseling

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-d). Evidence-based practice. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://dictionary.apa.org/evidence-based-practice

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-e). Mixed methods research. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://dictionary.apa.org/mixed-methods-research

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-f). Participative decision making. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://dictionary.apa.org/participative-decision-making

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-g). Test–retest reliability. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://dictionary.apa.org/test-retest-reliability

American Psychological Association. (2019a). Author–date citation system. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/author-date

American Psychological Association. (2019b). Punctuation. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/punctuation

American Psychological Association. (2019c). Spelling principles. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/spelling-hyphenation/spelling

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

American Psychological Association. (2022, August). Direct quotation of material with page numbers. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations/page-numbers

American Psychological Association. (2025, March). Hyphenation principles. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/spelling-hyphenation/hyphenation

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Decision-making. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decision-making

More APA 7 craft: Mastering compound words in APA 7 · Mastering numbers in APA 7 · How to make a hanging indent in Word, the right way.