\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{a4wide}
%\usepackage{11pt}
\usepackage{epsfig}
\usepackage{apalike}

% spacings to use when starting a new paragraph.
\parskip 0.05in
\parindent 0in

% vertical dimensions of text
\topmargin -1.3cm
\textheight 9.5in



% Figure with box drawn around it. Note that the width is hard-coded.
% the c's in the tabular environment are needed because \hline's don't work
% properly with tables with only one column.
\newenvironment{figurebox}[1][htbp]{
        \begin{figure}[#1]
        \begin{tabular}{|cp{5.6in}c|}
        \hline%&&\\
		&
		\vspace{-0.1in}
}{
        & \\ \hline
        \end{tabular}
        \end{figure}
}


\begin{document}

% versions of itemize/enumerate with less vertical spacing
\newenvironment{itemize2}{\begin{itemize}\itemsep 0in}{\end{itemize}}
\newenvironment{enumerate2}{\begin{enumerate}\itemsep 0in}{\end{enumerate}}

\bibliographystyle{apalike}

\begin{sloppypar}


Document title and abstract

% this is one way to format the contents and the list of figures.
\pagebreak
\tableofcontents
\pagebreak
\listoffigures
\pagebreak


Document parts, sections, subsections, subsubsections.



\begin{figurebox}
% this causes the eps to be scaled and centered automatically.
\centerline{\epsfxsize=4in \epsfbox{my_figure.eps}}
\caption{ figure title
\label{mylabel} }

comments
\end{figurebox}



% list of references
\bibliography{my_bib_file}

\end{sloppypar}

\end{document}