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APA 6th Style:  Other: statistics, standards, case studies, apps, etc.

UON Library guide for APA 6th

Various other sources

Citing other sources

Select a tab to view the general rules and examples for various other sources

Book Reviews

 

Book reviews can be published in a variety of sources such as newspapers or journals. When citing book reviews, the general formatting is reliant on the source material in which the book review is published, but the following information should be always added after the title of the review in the format of [Review of the book Title of book, by A. A. Author].

 

The general format for citing a book review:

Reviewer, A. A. (Date). Title of review [Review of the book Title of book, by A. A. Author]. Title of complete work, volume(issue), page range. doi or URL

 

Example:

Kakutani, M. (2016, November 7). Friendship takes a path that diverges [Review of the book Swing time, by Z. Smith]. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/books/zadie-smiths-swing-time-explores-friends-diverging-paths.html

Schatz, B. R. (2000, November 17). Learning by text or context? [Review of the book The social life of information, by J. S. Brown & P. Duguid]. Science, 290(5495), 1304. doi:10.1126/science.290.5495.1304

​

 

Case studies

 

APA does not have a specific format for how to reference case studies as an individual resource - the formatting is reliant on the source material in which the case study is found, e.g. for a case study featured in a book, you would reference the book.

If required for your assignment, the case study can be specifically mentioned in your text, just add the standard in-text reference for the source. As the case study is something specific within a larger resource, it is recommended that you add a page number to your in-text citation to help the reader locate it.

For case studies accessed as:

Case studies found in other types of sources will follow the same pattern as above - refer to the appropriate pages.

 

Example taken from an edited book chapter:

In-text

Mention the case study as appropriate to your assignment and include in-text referencing for the source:

As the case study detailed by Stein-Parbury (2008, p. 165) shows, an over-reliance on systems-focused communication can have unintended consequences ...

Reference list

Reference the source as you would normally:

Data sets

 

General rules:

  • Titles of data sets should be italicized.
  • Include the description Data file in square brackets after the full title.
  • If a DOI is listed include it, otherwise add the access URL.
  • General reference list format is:

 

Reference list example:

Legal references

General notes:

  • Note that APA was not really designed with legal citation in mind - legal periodicals differ in how references are treated.  Page 216 of the Publication Manual states: "References to legal materials ... are more useful to the reader if they provide the information in the conventional format of legal citations" - so citing these sources may look different to others cited in APA, following the patterns for Legal Citation.

  • Treat references to legal materials like references to works with no author; that is, cite cases and legislation in-text by the case name or short title of the legislation.

  • Ensure that the brackets used in your citation match the type of brackets used in your source. Round brackets are used when the report series is organised by volume numbers, square brackets are used when the reports are organised by year rather than volume.

 

Legislation

  • Legislation includes Acts, Bills, Regulations, Rules and other forms of legislation. Acts are the most commonly cited form of legislation.
  • In the citation, the Act name and year are italicised.
  • The section number is optional. If you are referring to the Act as a whole, omit the section number. If you are referring to particular sections, include the section number(s).
  • If you have already cited an Act, the next time you refer to that Act you can omit the year and jurisdiction.
  • Direct quoting? Using a sub-section of an Act (e.g., s. 8.1 - point 1 within section 8) is the equivalent of using page numbers in a 'standard' source.

Legislation/Acts/statutes

Format:

Example:

Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (Austl.).

Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld) s. 15 (Austl.).

In-text reference:

First usage:

…means a disc, tape, paper or other device in which sounds are embodied. s. 54 (1a) of The Copyright Act 1968 (NSW) states ...

Subsequent usage:

 The Copyright Act also sets out …

 

Reference List:

The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) s. 54 (Austl.).

 

Acts online

In-text citation:

According to s. 8.1 of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW), "it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person on the ground of race".

Here the sub-section of the Act (s. 8.1) is specific enough that it takes the place of the usual page requirement for a direct quote.

 

Reference list

Bills – print

Reference list format:

In-text citation:

The Mental Health Bill 2013 (WA) prohibits…

Reference List:

Mental Health Bill 2013 (WA) (Austl.).

 

Cases

  • If you are referring to a particular page of the judgement, include a ‘pinpoint reference’ to the actual page.

  • If you haven’t mentioned the case name in the sentence, include that in your in-text reference.

  • The title or name of the case (usually one party v another party)

  • The precise jurisdiction of the court with the decision (e.g. Supreme Court of NSW) in parentheses, including the date of the decision

Reference List Format:

 

In-text citation:

In Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) v Chresta (2005) it was noted that although the magistrate erred in law, the matter should not be remitted for re-hearing.

OR

It was noted that although the magistrate erred in law, the matter should not be remitted for re-hearing (Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) v Chresta, 2005).

Reference List Entry:

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) v. Chresta (2005) 62 NSWLR 604

 

Parliamentary debates (Hansard): electronic

In-text reference:

Queensland Premier Bligh, when responding to a question said … (Queensland Parliament. Record of Proceedings, June 6, 2008, p. 2109).

Note that as this is more like a 'standard' online document, the page reference is done in the usual way for APA.

 

Format

References List:

Mobile apps

 

To cite apps used on smartphones and tablets including iPads, iPhones, Androids and Blackberries use the following format:

 

 

 

  • The rightsholder is the company (or person) owning the rights to the app.
  • Include the year the version cited was released.
  • The URL can be abbreviated - for example, http://itunes.apple.com, or http://play.google.com

 

Reference list examples:

 

Reference Works

If the app is a reference work (such as BMJ Best Practice, Micromedex, etc) which includes individual topics, cite the topic, then include the name of the app.

 

Reference list examples:

Poetry & Epigrams

 

General notes:

  • APA 6th doesn’t specifically cover how to reference poetry or poems (and their shorter forms also known as Epigrams). The information presented below has been constructed from the APA Style Blog, the Purdue OWL site and from the University of Portsmouth guide Referencing@Portsmouth.
  • If referring to a poem (as a whole) the reference is constructed in the way that reflects the source (e.g. if the poem comes from a book, reference as a book. If it comes from a website, reference as a website).
  • When using the title of poems in-text, shorter poems (minor works) should be provided in quotes (e.g. "Title of Poem"). For longer pieces (or those with multiple sections), italicise the title (e.g. Title of Poem) when discussing in-text.

 

Poem from a single author's collection of poetry - reference as a Single Author Book

In text example:

The poem "The Tyger" (Blake, 1988, pp. 36-37) idealizes the concept of divine wrath...

 

Poem from an anthology of poetry – reference as a Chapter in an Edited Book

In text example:

In The Disappointment, Behn (2001, p. 369) explores the concept of "imperfect enjoyment"...

 

Poem from the Web – reference as a Web page (access date is not required as the content is unlikely to change)

In text example:

Racism can be represented metaphorically, one example is in "The Big Black Cat" (Page, 2000) …

 

Direct quoting from a poem

How you format the direct quote will depend on how many lines of the poem you are using in your text.

 

For one line or less:

Reference as you would a standard direct quote, e.g.:

In his poem "Mending Wall", Robert Frost emphasises the "frozen-ground-swell under it" (1914, pp. 11-13)...

For two lines:

Add a slash (/) between the lines in your quote to show the reader where the line breaks are, e.g.:

In his poem "Mending Wall", Robert Frost writes: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall,/ that send the frozen-ground-swell under it" (1914, pp.11-13).

For three lines or more:

Format the text as a block quotation and indent the text in its entirety, e.g.:

In his poem "Mending Wall", Robert Frost questions the building of barriers and walls:

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense. (1914, pp. 11-13)

 

Epigraphs

 

General notes:

  • Epigraphs usually appear at the start of a document or article and serve the purpose of establishing a context for the writing to follow or to set the scene.
  • APA 6th also doesn't cover epigraphs (a quote used to introduce an article, paper or chapter). The text of the epigraph usually appears as a block quote (indented from the left margin) there are some exceptions. See the official APA Style Blog for more information.
  • NOTE: An epigraph’s source is NOT listed in the final list References unless it comes from a scholarly book, journal or is a ‘quotation used by permission’.

 

Example in-text usage:

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

-William Blake, “The Tyger”

The concept of the ‘fearful symmetry’ is alluded to in a variety of texts…

 

Reference works

 

For information on how to reference entries or chapters from reference works such as:

  • Dictionaries
  • Encyclopaedias
  • Thesaurii
  • Indexes, etc

see the Book chapters page.

Standards - electronic source

 

General format:

 

In-text citation example:

There is a procedure for internal visual inspection (Standards Australia, 1994, p. 23) in which it is desirable ...

 

Reference list example:

 

Standards - in print

 

General format:

Where the author is also the publisher, use Author after place of publication instead of repeating the actual name.

 

In-text citation example:
This complies with Section 1 of AS 4458-1997 (Standards Australia, 1997).

 

Reference list example:

 

Patents

In text, give the patent number and the issue date (not application date) of the patent. In the reference list entry, include the inventor(s) to whom the patent is issued and the official source from which the patent information can be retrieved.

Text citation:

U.S. Patent No. 123,445 (1988) OR ... (U.S. patent No. 123,445, 1988)

Reference list

Inventor, Initials. (year). Patent number. Place: Issuing office.

Example:

Smith, I.M. (1988). U.S. Patent No. 123,445. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Explanation:

This patent was issued in 1988.

I.M. Smith is the inventor who holds the patent right.

The patent number is a unique identifying code give to every patent

Note: In this reference example, the patent number represents a utility patent because there is no letter prefix. If this were a non-utility patent, such as a design paten (coded with a D), the patent number in the reference and citation would be D123,455.

Statistics

 

Online Statistics from ABS

General APA format for online statistics publications is:

Example of a Reference List Entry for an ABS publication

 

 

Reference list examples:

In-text examples:

The census data (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018) indicated that...

OR

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018) provided evidence...

 

Print statistics from ABS

The general format of a reference to an ABS publication in print format is:

Example of a Reference List Entry for an ABS publication

 

 

Note: The ABS catalogue number is located on the front cover of the publication.

Reference list examples:

 

NOTE: When the author is also the publisher (as is the case with ABS publications) it is permitted to use "Author" to indicate the publisher.

 

The general format (i.e. NOT APA specific) for referencing ABS publications is available online from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

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Subjects: Referencing