APA Style Guide: Other sources

Comments on publications are becoming increasingly commonplace. With this new avenue for critical commentary on the literature, you may need to cite a comment in a paper or manuscript. Take for example this comment left in PubMed.

Use following elements where applicable:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the comment. [Peer commentary on the paper "Title of the original paper" by B. Author]. URL

There are two types of conference materials that you may be interested in citing: Presented papers/posters and proceedings. The key difference between the two is that proceedings are published, typically in a journal.

Use following elements where applicable:

Presented paper/poster: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year, Month Day). Title of paper or poster [Description]. Title of Conference, Location.

Published Proceedings: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of paper or poster. Title of Proceedings, Volume, Issue, Pages-Pages. DOI or URL

For dictionaries, it is generally bad practice to cite dictionary definitions in academic papers. But you may be discussing different uses of a word, in which case, you would need to cite a dictionary. Dictionaries often have no authors present for individual entries, but generally have editors who edit the work.

Use following elements where applicable:

Dissertation from a database: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dissertation (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation, Name of Institution]. Name of Database.

Unpublished Dissertation: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dissertation [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Name of Institution.

Use following elements where applicable:

Manufacturer's Name. (Year). Name of drug. [package insert].

For databases, they can be broken down into databases with and without authors. For some databases, like UpToDate, the author(s) of the section is/are listed. You should cite the author and name the editor if available; note for UpToDate that Denise S. Basow is the editor for UpToDate so cite her rather than the section or deputy editors for the entry you are citing. For database entries without authors, you can cite the database as the author.

Use following elements where applicable:

Title of database. (n.d.). Publisher. URL

Electronic books are handled very similarly to print books, except with the addition of a URL and date accessed.

Use following elements where the book can only be purchased or accessed online, and is not in print.

Full books:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title. Publisher. URL

Example:

Brown, K.A. & Simpson, E.R. (2014). Obesity and breast cancer. Springer. http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-1-4899-8002-1

Chapters:

Author, A. A. (Year). Chapter title. In: Editors, ed(s). Book title (pages of chapters). Publisher. URL

If there are no page numbers, use the chapter or entry title.

Use following elements where applicable:

Reports with named authors:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of work (Report No. XXX). Publisher. URL

Institutional authors:
Name of the organization. (Year). Title of work (Report No. XXX). Publisher. URL

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

Which was taken from the Graph from New Zealand's National Institute for Communicable Diseases' Monthly Surveillance Report available here: http://www.nicd.ac.za/assets/files/Monthly%20NICD%20Surveillance%20Report%20-%20January%202013.pdf

Use the standard in-text citation style, which in this case would be (NICD, 2013) then cite it at the end as you would any other report. If you need help with how to do that, see our section above 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

Example:

National Institute for Communicable Diseases. (2013). [Number of Salmonella cases by month in South Africa, 2012 and 2013]. National Institute for Communicable Diseases' Monthly Surveillance Report. http://www.nicd.ac.za/assets/files/Monthly%20NICD%20Surveillance%20Report%20-%20January%202013.pdf

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

This was taken from the State-Specific Trends in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Among Adults --- United States, 2000--2009 report from the CDC available here: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5935a1.htm?s_cid=mm5935a1_w

Use the standard in-text citation style, which in this case would be (CDC, 2010) then cite it at the end as you would any other report. If you need help with how to do that, see our section above on citing Organization or Government reports

In Process is the designation for manuscripts which have been submitted, but not accepted for publication. The reasoning for specifying the year the manuscript was written rather than when it was submitted is that the publication process may take enough time to cause a disparity between the year it was submitted to the publisher and the year it is published. You should not name the journal it was submitted to because the manuscript may be rejected by the journal and resubmitted to another journal which would cause your citation to be misleading and inaccurate.

Use following elements where applicable:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year the manuscript was written). Title of paper [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Department, Institution.

In Press is the term used for articles which have been accepted for publication by a journal, but not formally published. There may be advanced copies of the article available from the publisher's website, but since it has been formally published is no volume or page numbers. In cases of an article being available on the publisher's website, you may need to include some additional information to complete the citation.

Use following elements where applicable:

Accepted for publication, but no advanced copy available: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (in press). Title of paper. Journal.

Advance copy available: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year the advanced copy is posted to the journal's website). Title of paper [Advance online publication]. Journal. DOI or URL

Use following elements where applicable:

Name of the Institution. (Year, Month Day). Title of the issue brief (Issue Brief No. XXX). Publisher. URL

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Use following elements where applicable:

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

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