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APA Style 7th Edition Resource Guide

A resource to help you with your APA citations.

General Advice About Citing Business Sources

Citing business sources can be challenging because neither the APA manual nor the APA Style website provides reference examples for citing business sources like industry reports or company profiles. According to an APA Style expert, many business sources located in library databases should be considered "works of limited circulation." Typically, these works include the database name in the reference, and may include a URL if a DOI is not available.

Please review the information from the APA website regarding citing works of limited circulation (scroll down to that section) and see their reference examples.

We have followed that guidance for formatting the examples below. Keep in mind that these are adaptations based on our interpretation of APA 7th edition guidance. Your instructors may have their own preferences about citing business resources.

Please contact Sue Gray with questions as this is the most confusing advice in APA, and you may not know which databases include limited circulation or proprietary content in them.

Citing Work in Limited Circulation or Proprietary Content From Business Databases

We recommend that you include the home page URL of the database in the reference entry (this is the one time you include the database name in a reference). The in-text citation follows standard APA guidance. Always ask your instructors for their preferences.

Company Profile in Business Source Premier

  • Reference List Entry:

MarketLine. (2018, November 17). New Balance Athletics, Inc. [Company profile]. Business Source Premier. https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/business-source-premier

  • In-text Citation:

(MarketLine, 2018) 

If the report has a unique identifier number, use it in parentheses after the title.

  • Reference List Entry:

Fernandez, C. (2020, August). Footwear wholesaling in the US (42434) [Industry report]. IBISWorld. https://www.ibisworld.com

  • In-text Citation:

(Fernandez, 2020). 

Citing Newspaper & Magazine Articles

Follow standard APA guidance for citing newspapers and magazines.

The source element of a newspaper or magazine article is cited in different ways depending on whether the article is in print, online, or from a library database. This primarily affects whether or not you include a URL at the end of the reference entry. If the article is from a news website (e.g., CNN, HuffPost) that does not have an associated daily or weekly newspaper, cite it as a website (see below).

Please review the reference examples on the APA Style website for guidance:

Newspaper Articles:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/newspaper-article-references

Magazine Articles:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/magazine-article-references

Magazine article from a library database:

Reference Entry:

Roehrich, R. (2022). She-Roes who are shifting the narrative In the Black and Latino community: Having diverse women in leadership can benefit the community and the workplace. Leadership Excellence39(8), 40–42.

In-Text Citation:

Roehrich (2022) or (Roehrich, 2022)

Citing Webpages and Websites

Follow standard APA guidance for citing webpages/websites.

Reference Entry:

Abel, K. (2020, August 24). Nike will no longer sell to Zappos, Dillard’s & these big retailers, analyst says. FN. https://footwearnews.com/2020/business/retail/nike-stops-selling-9-retailers-1203045746/

In-Text Citation:

Abel (2020) or (Abel, 2020)

See the reference examples from the APA Style website at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/webpage-website-references

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