Guidelines on APA or DIN citation standard

This chapter presents:

  1. The most common cases of the APA citation system when used as in-text reference according to the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e. APA 7), released in October 2019.
  2. Examples of the most common cases of APA references in the list of references according to the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e. APA 7), released in October 2019.
  3. Examples of the most common cases of footnotes and DIN citation standard in the list of references

1. The APA citation system in in-text references

The basis of APA citation system is the brief in-text reference. The emphasis is on the date a work was created. Readers find more information about the source in the bibliography. Find clear guidelines on the standard APA requires for in-text references if, for example, referring to a book written by one author.

Book (1 author): surname & year of publication

Example intext citation

Ridley (2012) pointed out…
Literature review is both a product and a process (Ridley, 2012)

One work/ book with 2 authors: name both authors, each time you cite the work. The word ‘and’ between the two names within text, and the ampersand & in brackets.

Example intext citation
Research by Pecorari and Petric (2014) explains….
or
Borrowing from text helps students experiment with language in an unfamiliar register (Pecorari & Petric, 2014).

A work with three or more authors:List only the first author’s surname followed by et al. in every citation.

Example in-text citation

Belcher et al. (2011) found….

Unknown author: if there is no author refer to the work, the title takes author position. Cite the whole title or the first few words in brackets. If you refer to titles of books and reports in your text, the titles are italicized; titles of articles, chapters and webpages are in quotation marks.

Example in-text citation
In a report on electrical cars (Report of the Turkish Commission on Electrical Cars, 2009) …
In an article on energy standards (“PPR in Practice,” 2008) …

Two or more works within the same parentheses: These should be ordered in the same way as they appear in the bibliography. If the same author published works in the same year, these are distinguished by the suffixes a, b, c and so on after the year.If works by different authors are cited within the same parentheses these are separated by semicolons.

Example in-text citation
Recent research (Belcher 2010, 2011) shows …
Past analyses (Houston, 1997a, 1997b; Belcher 2010) showed…

Group as authors/ institutional author: When citing a corporation or agency as a source, simply list the year of the study in parentheses. If you do not mention agency in the text, write it out entirely, along with the year. In subsequent citations you can abbreviate the name.

Example in-text citation

The Environmental Protection Agency (2007) issued an alarming report on global warming.

A study (The Environmental Protection Agency, 2007) predicted….

Continued ozone depletion may result in widespread skin cancer (EPA, 2007).

Citing a source found in another source:If you you discover a quotation or idea mentioned in another author’s book/ article try to find the original source. Otherwise indicate that you use an indirect source, using the phrase as cited in.

In your reference list you only list the source you used. You do not need to include the indirect source.

Example in-text citation

“I dream of space full of wonder. […] When I place the first line on paper to capture the dream, the dream becomes less” (Kahn, 1944 as cited in Frampton, 1995, p.212)

or

De Groot’s study on chess expertise (as cited in Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006) is…

Citing specific parts of a source: When a specific idea is taken from a source, paraphrased or quoted, the page should be indicated. Page and chapter are abbreviated in text citations (page = p.; pages= pp., chapter = cha.)

Example in-text citation
(Belcher, 2010, p.204)

Unknown author or date: If no author or date is given, use the title in the text or the first word or two of the title in the brackets and n.d. for ‘no date’.

Example in-text citation
Another study of how students rely on help in tutorials showed … (“Tutorials and Students”, n.d.)

Sources without page numbers: Electronic sources often lack page numbers. Then try to include information that enables readers to find the passage such as heading or section name, or a paragraph number.

Example in-text citation

Smith’s calculation (2012, para.8) confirms…

Citing personal communications (also confidential): These include interviews as well as letters, emails. These are not included in the reference list because they are not retrievable data; they should be cited in the text only. The surname and initials of the person(s), together with as exact a date as possible are given. Reference should be made in the text to their inclusion in any relevant appendix.

Example in-text citation:

M. Hofstetter (interview/personal communication, October 20, 2012) agrees…( see Appendix A for details)

Personal communication  (MH, or no initial, 2012) confirmed….

Citing Wikipedia: When referring Wikipedia, the title of the page takes author position, plus year of publication.

Example in-text citation

As APA Style (2020) explains….

“APA Style is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books” (APA Style, 2020).

Citing non-text material: Writers who photocopy and use visuals – a chart, a table, a diagram, or another form of non-text material – must cite the source of that material immediately following the caption of the visual or in the list of tables and figures.

Example in-text citation

Figure 1: Development of house prices in the Canary Islands. In Krollo, 2009, p. 45.

(full details appear in list of tables and figures).

Citing FROM a website: When you cite a particular document or piece of information from a website, include both a reference list entry and an in-text citation. For intext citations you include author and date as with any other APA Style citation.

Where no author is indicated, cite the title (or the first few words of the title if it is very long), and the year of publication.

If there is no date, include the abbreviation n.d.

Example in-text citation

Lopez (n.d.) points out….

Pulses have more benefits than disadvantages (What are Pulses?, n.d.).

Cite magazine or newspaper articles: surname and date (or n.d.)

Example in-text citation

(O’Hehir, 2008) or According to O’Hehir (2008)

Citing TED talk or YouTube: For online material/ presentations use again the author, date principle.

Example in-text citation

Palmer (2013) or (Palmer, 2013)

or

TED (2013)

2. List of references (according to APA citation standard)

Let us see what you already know.

Activity

The order of entries in the bibliography should be arranged in alphabetical order of the first author. If there is no author, the title moves to author position, and the entry is alphabetised by the first significant word in the title. Go to the bibliography of this book to see an example.

 Please note:

  • If no date of publication is available, write (n.d.)
  • If there is no author, start with the title. Letter of the first ‘real’ word indicates the position in the bibliography.
  • In the title of a non- periodical, or of an article or chapter, capitalise only the first word in the title as well as nouns that need capital letters such as names.
  • Book title, article title or journal article title. Use a period at the end of each title.
  • Book titles are italicized. Only the first word of titles and subtitles are capitalized; all other words are lowercase.
  • Article titles are given no italics or quotation marks.
  • Periodical titles, journal titles, newspaper titles are italicized like book titles

 

Examples how to list your various sources

A book/ non-periodical:

Helfers, C. & Schmitten, V. (2008). An introduction to Game Theory.  Bilten.

Surname, initial & surname, initial. (year). Title of work.  Publisher.

note: APA 7th edition does not require location of publication any more.

A journal/ periodical (online):

Richards, B.A. (2001). Market value of electrical cars in Sweden. Electrical Car Journal, 14, 28-56. URL or DOI

Surname, initial.initial. (year). Title of article. Title of periodical, xx(volume no.) (x) (issue number), xxx-xxxx (page numbers). ( URL or DOI)

Because online materials can change URLs, APA recommends providing a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) – if available – instead of URL. Many publishers provide an article’s DOI on the first page of the document

An edited book:

Hampert, K. & Johns, M. (Eds.) (1985). Chaos Management: A survey. Smith&Smith.

Surname, initial & surname, initial. (Eds.). (year). Title of work. Publisher.

Part of a non-periodical (e.g. book chapter)

Johns, A.M. & Makalela, L. (2011). Needs Analysis, Critical Ethnography, and Context: Perspectives from the Client – and the Consultant. In D. Belcher, A.M. Johns & B. Paltridge (Eds.), New Directions in English for Specific Purposes Research, (pp. 197-221). University of Michigan Press.

Surname, initial & surname, initial.  (year). Title of chapter. In initial, surname, initial, surname & initial, surname (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xxx-yyy). Publisher.

Multiple authors: Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors should be provided in the reference list (instead of 7 in previous APA editions).

Encyclopaedia or dictionary

Lea, D. (Ed.) (1950). Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of Academic English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Surname, initial. (year). Title of work. (xth ed., Vols.x-x). Location: Publisher.

Wikipedia

APA Style. (2020, March 2). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APA_style&olid=943787101

Title of webpage (year, month date). In Wikipedia. URL of archived version of page. Access archived version by clicking “view history”, then clicking the date of the version you would like to cite.

Website (no author)

What are Pulses? (n.d.) Benefits. URL

Website title. (date). title. URL

A (online) newspaper or magazine article:

Burraco, A. B. (2017, Feb 02). How the Language We Speak Affects the Way We Think. Linguistics and neuroscience find better answers to old questions. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com

Surname, initial.(year, month day). Title of article. Title of Magazine, xx, xxx-xxx or URL

 

A (online) newspaper or magazine article with no author:

How to bring cities back from the brink. (2017, May 4). The Economist. https://www.economist.com

Title of article. (year, month day). Title of Newspaper, pp. xx-xx. or URL

A (government) report (online)

Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE (2018). Energy Strategy 2050 once the new energy act is in force. Retrieved from http://www.bfe.admin.ch/energiestrategie2050/index.html?lang=en&dossier_id=07008

Name of institution. (year). Title of report (details of series). URL

Online stand-alone document (with no author identified)

Title of document. (year) URL or database

 

YouTube or other Streaming Video
Palmer, A. (2013, February). The art of asking [Video file]. https://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking

Speaker’s surname, initials (year, month day). Title of talk [Video file]. Streaming Service. URL

or

the author who posted (such as TED or Youtube) takes author position

TED. (2013, March 1). Amanda Palmer: The art of asking [Video file]. YouTube. URL

APA Citation style/ dealing with confidential sources

When writing project reports for industry some information obtained might be confidential. This can be either personal communication or internal documents (e.g. from the intranet).

Do the following:

1) Ask the company for permission.

2) If you have permission, you can cite the information as ‘personal communication’ because it cannot be retrieved by everyone.

3) Since the information is not retrievable it is only referred within the text (intext) but not listed in the list of references.

In-text:

According to a confidential ABB document (personal communication, 16 September 2019), “ABB employees will….”.

For not-confidential documents but which are not accessible to the reader (because it is for example on the intranet), add a footnot in the list of references.

Example:

Name/ organisation (Year, month, day). Document name [type of document]. http://website

ABB (2016, September, 23). Guidelines employees. [guidelines]. intranet.abb/new…

In the text:

Internal documents show (ABB, 2016) that….

 Please note:

  • If no date of publication is available, write (n.d.)
  • If there is no author, start with the title. Letter of the first ‘real’ word indicates the position in the bibliography.
  • In the title of a non- periodical, or of an article or chapter, capitalise only the first word in the title as well as nouns that need capital letters such as names.
  • For long URLs you can shorten them by going to

Activity

For more information on referring to electronic sources go to APA’s own website. HSLU library also provides access to their Style Guide to Electronic References.

3. Foot notes or DIN citation standard

A standard often used by architects is a German standard: DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung). In-text citations are based on footnotes with superscript markers 1. This system acknowledges the author, year of publication and page number (if necessary) on the same page without interrupting the flow of the text.

Examples for in-text ciations

Direct citations

“Architecture is textual as well as visual and spatial.” 1

Footnote on the same page: 1 Borden and Rüedi Ray, 2006, p.1

 

When referring to the same source as in the previous footnote use:

1ibid. (ibidem = same place).

Indicate if information is from a different page:

2 ibid., p.5

The same principle is applied when paraphrasing or summarising information from previous research just without quotation marks. More examples for direct and indirect quotations are provided in Chapter on in-text citations.

Footnotes are usually placed at the end of a sentence (not directly after the phrase to which they relate).

 

Bibliography/ list of references (DIN standard)

Order: List the entries in alphabetical order.

Examples of how to list various sources

A book with one author:

Bailey, Stephen: Academic Writing. A Handbook for International Students. London 2011.

Surname, first name: Title. Subtitle. Place of publication Year of publication.

If there is more than one author:

Borden, Iain/ Rüedi Ray, Katerina: The Dissertation. An Architecture Student’s Handbook. Oxford 2006.

Surname, first name/ surname, first name/ surname, first name: Title. Subtitle. Place of publication Year of publication.

No author:

An Illustrated Dictionary of Technical Terms. Bielefeld 1993.

Title. Subtitle. Place of publication Year of publication.

If the book was edited:

Hyland, Ken/Shaw, Philip (Eds.): The Routledge Handbook of English for Academic Purposes. Milton Park 2016.

Surname, first name (Ed.): Title. Subtitle. Place of publication Year of publication.

Essay in exhibition catalogue

Kretzschmar, Ulrike: Urban Theater. I.M. Pei’s Exhibition Building. In: The Exhibition Building of the German Historical Museum Berlin/2003, pp.21-33.

Surname, first name: Title. Subtitle. In: title of catalogue/Year of publication, pp. x-xx.

Contribution to journal/ magazine

Casakin, Hernan Pablo (2007). Factors of metaphors in design problem-solving: Implications for design creativity. In: International Journal of Design/2007, pp. 21-33.

Surname, first name: Title. In: title of publication/ Year of publication. pp. x-xx.

online source: add URL and access date

Ayiran, Nezih: The role of metaphors in the formation of architectural identity. In: A/Z ITU Journal of the architectural faculty/2012, pp.1-21. https://www.journalagent.com/itujfa/pdfs/ITUJFA_9_2_1_21.pdf (Accessed 29 July 2018)

Missing information:

  • Use n.d. (no date) if no year of publication is provided.

 

 

Licence

Academic Writing in a Swiss University Context Copyright © 2018 by Irene Dietrichs. All Rights Reserved.