{"id":7749,"date":"2017-05-30T22:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T16:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/?p=7749"},"modified":"2023-10-10T17:19:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T11:19:38","slug":"citing-business-sources-apa-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/citing-business-sources-apa-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Master the Skills of Citing Business Sources in APA Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Style guides provide guidelines for citations and references depending on the discipline. The American Psychological Association (APA<\/a>) is one organization that provides the format for those writing papers in the behavioral sciences. The guide provides both students and researchers with the tools necessary to attribute text in the APA citation style. Its online resource, APA Style CENTRAL<\/a>, is a one-of-a-kind compilation of instructions for writers to ensure accurate citations and references.<\/p>\n

For any writing, it is important to avoid plagiarism by ensuring that your citations and references are included and formatted correctly. Attributions to any author’s work used in your papers must appear both within the text (citation) and at the end of the paper (reference). We focus here on citing business databases and sources, such as annual reports, census data, and financial statements, using the APA citation format.<\/p>\n

APA Style<\/h2>\n

Generally, the\u00a0APA style for in-text citations<\/a> is to provide the author\u2019s name and the year that the piece was published, separated by a comma, in parentheses (e.g., [Smith, 2016]). If using the author\u2019s name in the sentence, the format is to put the date in parentheses (e.g., \u201cSmith [2016] reported that\u2026.\u201d). For in-text citations of multiple authors, an ampersand (&) is used before the last name. With author names as part of the sentence, \u201cand\u201d is used before the last name. One exception is when using a direct quote. In this case, the page number(s) is included after the publication date. In the APA style quoted text less than 40 words are enclosed in quotation marks. If more than 40 words, then the text is indented and blocked with a space between that and the last line of the previous paragraph. No quotation marks are used in blocked quotations. Citations are noted in parentheses.<\/p>\n

All citations are included in a reference or literature cited list in alphabetical order by author and double-spaced, using a Times New Roman 12-point font, no quotation marks, and no boldface type. Book and journal titles are italicized and the text is set in \u201csentence case\u201d (i.e., only the first word is initial capped) unless proper nouns are included. The \u201changing indent\u201d is used for each listing. Citing business-related text might not be so standard, especially business databases. The following provides information to help you with this.<\/p>\n

How Do I Cite Business Sources in APA Style?<\/h2>\n

Business reports include annual profit and loss statements, investment accounting, and marketing campaigns, but there are also databases that include reports issued by the government, such as annual censuses. When referring to these databases or statistics, they need to be cited correctly. Below are a few examples of how to cite a company website and their reports (note that this is a protocol only; the font, line spacing, and hanging indent should be used in your papers as indicated above).<\/p>\n

Annual Reports<\/h3>\n

In text<\/em>: (Canadian Tire Corporation, 2012)<\/p>\n

Reference<\/em>: Canadian Tire Corporation. (2012). Annual report<\/em>. Retrieved from\u00a0http:\/\/corp.canadiantire.ca\/EN\/Investors\/FinancialReports\/Annual%20Reports%20Library\/CTC_AR_2012.pdf.<\/p>\n

Company Reports<\/h3>\n

In text<\/em>: (Mergent, 2013)<\/p>\n

Reference<\/em>: Mergent. (2013). Apple Inc. general company information report<\/em>. Retrieved June 21, 2013, from Mergent Online database.<\/p>\n

Government Reports<\/h3>\n