Citing Special Sources: J-Z

Note that legal cases can be varied. They can include: court cases (opinions) and legislative materials such as Congressional Hearings, US Federal Bills and Resolutions, US Federal Reports, US Federal Statues, US Federal Administrative Regulations, US State Bills and Resolutions, and US State Statutes.

They can be broadly grouped into the categories or: court cases, legislation, and legal journals.

Legislation may include enacted laws, which are entered into the US Code (USC) or state statutes and given a section number (§), and debated laws.

Legal references gathered online will include all the information listed below plus the URL and accessed date, as any other online reference.

AMA

You may need to consult section 3.16 of the AMA manual for a full elaboration of the item you are citing, but briefly here are the basics.

Use following elements where applicable:

For legal cases: First party v Second party, Reporter Volume & Number Official reporter abbreviation & First page of the case or specific case used. (Deciding court and year of decision).

For legislation:

• Enacted laws/Statues: Official name of the act, title number, the abbreviation of the code cited, the section number (the date the code edition cited).
• Laws under debate but not enacted: Name of the bill, abbreviated name of the chamber (S) for Senate or (HR) for House of Representatives, number of the legislative body, session number (if available), year of publication.
• Law Journals: Cited like any other journal entry.

APA

You may need to consult section 7.1 of the APA manual for a full elaboration of the item you are citing, but briefly here are the basics.

Use following elements where applicable:

• For legal cases: Name v. Name, Volume Source Page (Court Date).

• For enacted legislation/statues: Name of Act, Volume Source § Section number (Year).

• For debated legislation: Title, Number of the Legislative Body and Name of Legislative Body (Year)

Personal correspondence is not listed in the references in either AMA or APA. You should cite it in-text, but refrain from putting it into your reference list. Personal correspondence includes:

• lectures
• conversations
• letters
• emails

While not all journals require permission from the source of the correspondence, it is good form to request permission from the source before citing them.

AMA

Note the highest academic degree where appropriate. If the affiliate of the communicator is important to the author of the message, then note it, for example if the communication came from a drug manufacturer.

Use following elements where applicable:

Name, Form of the communication, and Date, using the Month and Year.

APA

Use following elements where applicable:

Name, personal communication, Month Day, Year

In papers or manuscripts you shouldn't cite or reproduce a specific table from a paper, so there isn't a formal rule regarding how to give attribution when reproducing a table in a presentation. It is generally recommended to attribute the table as you would anything else. So let's say you want to attribute this table:

This was taken from the Leprosy update 2011 report from the WHO's Weekly epidemiological record available here: http://www.who.int/wer/2011/wer8636.pdf?ua=1

AMA

Attribute it with a number and then cite the report as you would any other report. If you need help with how to do that, see our section on citing Organization or Government reports.

Authors. Title of table or description of data. Journal/original publisher. Publication year;issue:pages.

APA

Use the standard in-text citation style, which in this case would be (WHO, 2011) then cite it at the end as you would any other report. If you need help with how to do that, see our section on citing Organization or Government reports

Name of researching organization. (year). [Brief explanation of what type of data it is, what form it is in]. Project Information. URL

AMA

Use following elements where applicable:

Thesis Dissertation: Author AA. Title of master's thesis [master's thesis]. City: University; Year.

APA

Use following elements where applicable:

Thesis from a database: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of thesis (Publication No.) [Master's thesis, Name of Institution]. Name of Database.

Unpublished Thesis: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of thesis [Unpublished master's thesis]. Name of Institution.

Unpublished meeting items can include conferences which do not publish posters or briefs, oral or poster presentations.

AMA

Use following elements where applicable:

Name. Title of the item. Paper or poster presented at: Meeting of organization name; Month, Year; Location.

APA

Use following elements where applicable:

Name. (Year, Month Day). Title of paper or poster [Description of contribution]. Title of Meeting, Location.

Be sure to distinguish between the creator of the video, whose information may not be readily available, and the person or organization hosting the video.

AMA

Use following elements where applicable:

Author. Title of video [Video]. YouTube (or other Host). URL. Published Month Date, Year. Accessed Month Date, Year.

APA

Use following elements where applicable:

Creator/Author. (Date published). Title of video [Type of content, Video file, Web log content, etc.]. Production Company OR Website host. URL

AMA

Use following elements where applicable:

Author/Website Title. Article title/page title. URL. Published Month Date, year. Updated Month Date, Year. Accessed Month Date, Year. 

APA

Use following elements where applicable:

Author, A. A. (or company that runs website). (Date of electronic publication or update). Title of the document [or Description of content]. URL