# Why does APA suggest to report the F statistic with an ANOVA result?

I probably view it too pragmatic but to me, the F statistic is merely a result of a calculation that is used to (magically) determine the value that I'm really interested in: the p. APA, though, wants the F reported along with the degrees of freedom (and the p). Why is knowing the F and the df relevant? Is this used as a short test whether my calculation was right? Or is there any information in the F value that I don't get?

• Drives me crazy. People write F=17.435, p<0.05. (And they don't report the df, of course.) – Jeremy Miles Sep 1 '15 at 19:54

This cuts both ways. With a significant $p$ value based on a high F but few degrees of freedom, I might worry about issues specific to a particular data set and a spurious or non-generalizable result. With low F but many degrees of freedom, I might wonder if a statistically significant result really is substantial enough to consider significant for practical application.