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APA – Citing Sources

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Conference papers

A conference paper is a type of article that has been presented at a conference. They may be published in a number of different ways: 

  • In a conference proceeding which is a collection of all or a selection of articles presented at a specific conference. This conference proceeding might have been published as a book but, in many cases, it is published on the conference website.
  • In some cases, it is only the abstracts that are published. These might be published on the conference website and be collected in what is sometimes called "Book of abstracts" or the like.
  • The information in the reference should consist of the author(s), year, the title of the conference paper, and source. The source can be the name of the conference proceeding or the name of the conference, including the place and date of the conference.

Conference paper in a published proceeding

Conference papers collected in a conference proceeding can be published by a publisher in print or digital form. These conference proceedings might have editors who have compiled the collection of papers. In these cases, the reference is created in a similar way to that of a book chapter. You might add a link if there is one available:

Conference paper published as a book chapter:

Basic format:​

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of paper. In C. Editor, & D. Editor (Ed./Eds.), Title of book or proceeding (pp. x–xx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx
Commentary: Write "In" followed by the editor(s) names and the abbreviation for editor/editors (Ed./Eds.) in parentheses. Use the abbreviation "pp." for pages and the page numbers in parentheses where the paper is found in the book/proceeding.

​Reference example:

Katz, I., Gabayan, K., & Aghajan, H. (2007). A multi-touch surface using multiple cameras. In J. Blanc-Talon, W. Philips, D. Popescu, & P. Scheunders (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science: Vol. 4678. Advanced concepts for intelligent vision systems (pp. 97–108). Springer. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74607-2_9​

Conference proceeding published as journal article:

Basic format:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of paper. Journal name, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

Reference example:

Duckworth, A. L., Quirk, A., Gallop, R., Hoyle, R. H., Kelly, D. R., & Matthews, M. D. (2019). Cognitive and noncognitive predictors of success. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(47), 23499–23504. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910510116

In-text citation:

  • According to a study (Katz et al., 2007) it is clear that . . .
  • Katz et al. (2007) state that . . .
  • In 2007, Katz et al. studied the . . .

Conference papers online

Conference papers can be found online on the conference website and not published in book or proceedings form (print or digital). In these cases you add the name of the conference, place, and web address:

Basic format:​

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year, date). Title of paper  [Type of paper]. Conference name, city, country. https://xxxx

​Reference example:

Kadav, A., & Swift, M. M. (2008, December 10–11). Live migration of direct-access devices [Paper presentation]. First Workshop on I/O Virtualization, San Diego, CA, United States. https://www.usenix.net/events/wiov08/tech/full_papers/kadav/kadav.pdf

In-text citation:

  • According to one study (Kadav & Swift, 2008) there is clear evidence that ...
  • Kadav and Swift (2008) state that ...

Examples:

(Kadav & Swift, 2008, p. 5)

(Kadav & Swift, 2008, para. 11)

(Kadav & Swift, 2008, Conclusion, para. 1)

(Kadav & Swift, 2008, "Migration between different devices", para. 3)