How to Cite Pseudonyms

by David Becker

“Whom do I cite: Mark Twain or Samuel Clemens?”

In this post, I provide some basic guidelines and suggestions for citing pseudonyms. There’s no official APA Style rule on this, but a few criteria can help you decide how to present the information.  I use republished books as examples here—to learn more about citing republished works, see a recent post on citing sheet music.

Citing pseudonyms can seem tricky at first, but it becomes much simpler when you take into account one of APA Style’s key mottos: Cite what you see.  When it comes to citing an author, cite whatever name is used by the source, whether it be a real name or a pseudonym.  For example, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer lists Mark Twain as its author, not Samuel Clemens, so you should cite the author’s pseudonym rather than his real name: 

Twain, M. (2010). The adventures of Tom Sawyer. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Original work published 1876)

In-text citation: (Twain, 1876/2010)

However, some pseudonyms can still be difficult to cite.  What if you’re citing a work by the Dalai Lama, for example?  Do you cite him as “Lama, D.” in the reference list and as just “Lama” in an in-text citation?  Well, the “Dalai” cannot be removed from “Lama” without losing meaning, so the author’s name should be spelled out in full as “Dalai Lama.”  Also, “Dalai Lama” is a title, so spelling it out in full makes that especially clear:

Dalai Lama. (1991). Freedom in exile: The autobiography of the Dalai Lama. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.

In-text citation: (Dalai Lama, 1991)

This same rule applies to Dr. Seuss, where the “Dr.” and the “Seuss” cannot be separated from one another without creating some confusion:

Dr. Seuss. (1985). The cat in the hat. New York, NY: Random House. (Original work published 1957)

In-text citation: (Dr. Seuss, 1957/1985)

You might have noticed that in both of the above reference list examples, there is a period after the author’s name.  If you’re wondering why that is, then read this post about punctuating reference list entries.

You may have also noticed in a previous post about citing recorded music in APA Style that Dr. Seuss is cited as “Geisel, T.” in a sample reference list entry for the song “Welcome Christmas!” from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Why was he cited by his real name, Theodor Geisel, for this song but by his pseudonym for the book The Cat in the Hat?  This is where the “cite what you see” motto comes into play again.  “Dr. Seuss” is listed as the author of The Cat in the Hat, whereas the lyricist for “Welcome Christmas!” is listed as “Theodor Geisel.”  In each case, you use whatever name was provided by the source you’re citing as the author in your citations.  This rule also applies to the Dalai Lama who occasionally goes by his birth name, Tenzin Gyatso, when authoring some books.

The “cite what you see” motto helps to keep your citations simple and uncomplicated without struggling to find extraneous information, yet it still provides readers with enough information to follow your sources.  It is an important rule of thumb to keep in mind when you are citing any source.

See sections 6.11–6.15 and 6.27 in the Publication Manual for more information about citing authors in in-text citations and reference lists.

How to Cite Cochrane Reviews in APA Style

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

Dear Style Experts,

How should I format a reference for an article from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews? I have the names of the authors, the date and the title of the topic; however, there is no journal as such. Do I use "retrieved from" with the URL, or should I include the DOI?

--Anonymous

Dear A.,

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews consists of original material written by members of the Cochrane Collaboration. Its articles may be published in database form, but it functions like an online journal: Numbered issues are published 12 times a year, and each article has its own DOI. Therefore, we can modify the journal article format to fit a Cochrane Review, as follows:

Singh, J., Kour, K., & Jayaram Mahesh, B. (2012). Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors for schizophrenia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2012(1), 1–101. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD007967.pub2

Note that the year of publication does double duty as the volume number. The issue number is needed because the journal is not continuously paginated. And because we have a DOI, neither the URL nor the Cochrane-assigned ID number is needed.

Hope this helps,
--Jeff

 

Got Volume?

by Stefanie

 

Just as no two snowflakes and no two people (and no two people who think they are special snowflakes) are alike, so too are no two references alike. Sometimes elements of standard reference formats are missing, and both the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sixth edition, and we here at the blog try to anticipate those situations with advice on what to do. Today’s blog post covers just such a situation: the missing volume number on a periodical.

 

First, double-check to make sure the volume number is actually missing. Search the front, back, and spine (if there is a spine) of the journal, magazine, or newsletter, as well as the table of contents page. Also, sometimes the volume number is buried (deep!) in the publication information. For example, I just picked up from the corner of my desk a back issue of my children’s Disney Adventures magazine. On the cover is the issue month and year (September 2006) but no volume number. On page 88, in 6-point type (OK, probably 4-point type; boy, it’s small)—along with the ISSN number, publisher contact numbers, subscription information, and copyright and trademark notices—the volume and numerical issue numbers (Vol. 18, No. 7) are included. So now I can create a reference for the Miley Cyrus and Ashley Tisdale interview that completely follows Example 7 (magazine article) on page 200 of the Publication Manual!

 

Barnes, D. (2006, September). Miley and Ashley BFF. Disney Adventures, 18(7), 26–29.

 

(Note to self: I need to clean off my desk more often.)

Second, double-check whether a volume number is needed at all. Note that in the case of online newsletters, the volume number is not required (see Example 9 on p. 200 of the Publication Manual).

 

(Online version of newsletter)

Blum, E. S. (2010). Building healthier communities from the ground up. Banking and Community Perspectives. Retrieved from http://www.dallasfed.org/ca/bcp/2010/bcp1002.pdf

 

Third, consider whether the year is pulling double duty. If I have an issue number but no volume number for a publication paginated by issue and I am working from the hard copy (i.e., not the online version, or maybe no online version is available), I have a problem, because the issue number will look funny standing alone in parentheses without the volume number to anchor it. Yet, an issue number indicates that the issue is part of a larger volume. What is number of that volume? In some cases, the volume number is the year.

 

If you look at the first page of a Banking and Community Perspectives newsletter, for example, you can see that the year appears with the issue number, much as a traditional volume number would. Also, if you look at the archive for these newsletters, you can see that the archive is organized by year, and the issue numbers refer to the order in which the issues came out during each year, starting over at 1 every new year. Thus, if you are using a hard copy of a newsletter or magazine (and therefore need a volume number in the reference) and if a separate volume number is absent, the year may be pulling double duty, as is the case for Banking and Community Perspectives. If this is the situation with your publication, use the year in both places in the reference (i.e., the year position and the volume position).

 

(Hard copy of newsletter)

Blum, E. S. (2010). Building healthier communities from the ground up. Banking and Community Perspectives, 2010(2), 3–10, 12.

 

Other questions about volume numbers? Let us know in the comments or at stylexpert@apa.org! Please include examples or links to the publications or articles in question. Thank you!
 

How to Cite Recorded Music in APA Style (+ Playlist)

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

It’s December 22, the date on which I traditionally panic about the holidays. Cards sit unwritten, unaddressed, and unstamped on my desk. Cookies are unbaked, gifts are unbought, and the house is distinctly underdecorated!

But this year I am as cool as a cup of eggnog, for I have come up with the perfect holiday playlist to accompany my last-minute flurry of activity. Don’t tell my colleagues, but certain people may be finding a mix tape in their stockings (accompanied by a reference list, of course—we are the APA Style Experts.)

The Basics
In a previous post, I showed you some examples for citing sheet music in APA Style. The format for a recorded song is similar, but it resembles a chapter rather than a book. The name of the songwriter goes in the author position:

Writer, A. (Copyright year). Title of song [Recorded by B. B. Artist].     On Title of album [Medium of recording]. Location: Label. (Date of     recording)

So, for example, where the songwriter and performing artist are the same, the reference would look like this:

Baron Cohen, E. (2010). My Hanukkah (Keep the fire alive). On     Songs in the key of Hanukkah [MP3 file]. Burbank, CA:     WaterTower Music. Fuchs, G. (2004). Light the menorah. On Eight nights of Hanukkah [CD].     Brick, NJ: Kid Kosher. Lehrer, T. (2000). (I’m spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica. On The     remains of Tom Lehrer [CD]. New York, NY: Rhino.

Variations on a Theme
If the song is recorded by someone other than the songwriter, include the information about the recording artist(s) in brackets after the song title.

Lavin, C. (2003). A Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Chanukah/Ramadan/     Boxing Day song [Recorded by C. Lavin & the Mistletones]. On The     runaway Christmas tree [CD]. West Chester, PA: Appleseed Recordings. Page, S. (2010). Hanukkah blessings [Recorded by Barenaked Ladies].     On Barenaked for the holidays [CD]. London, England: Raisin Records.

If the recording identifies the lyricist and composer, include their roles in parentheses after the name:

Geisel, T. (Lyricist), & Hague, A. (Composer). (1966). Welcome     Christmas! On Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch stole Christmas &     Horton hears a Who [CD]. New York, NY: Rhino. Wesley, C. (Lyricist), & Mendelssohn, F. (Composer). (2006). Hark! The     herald angels sing [Recorded by the Vince Guaraldi Trio]. On A     Charlie Brown Christmas [CD]. Beverly Hills, CA: Fantasy Records.

However, it’s not necessary to note the species if performers are non-Homo sapiens:

Bagdasarian, R., Sr. (1962). The chipmunk song [Recorded by D. Seville     & The Chipmunks]. On Christmas with the Chipmunks [CD]. Los Angeles,     CA: Capitol Records. (2002) Burland, S. (1963). The chickens are in the chimes [Recorded by     S. Burland, M. Adams, & The Skipjack Choir]. On The chickens are in     the chimes [Vinyl record]. New York, NY: RCA Victor. Hayes, B., & Johnson, J. W. (1948). Blue Christmas [Recorded by S. Swine     & The Squeelers]. On John Boy and Billy’s Christmas album [Audio     cassette]. Nashville, TN: Arista Records. (1998)

Particularly with traditional holiday music, the author may be unknown. In that case, the title of the song moves to the author position:

God rest ye merry, gentlemen [Recorded by Jars of Clay]. (2007). On     Christmas songs. Vancouver, Canada: Nettwerk. I have a little dreidel [Recorded by Sister Hazel]. (2007). On Santa’s     playlist. Newark, NJ: Rock Ridge Music.

Text Citations
For music recordings, the text citation consists of the songwriter(s) and date, along with the track number (or side and band, for vinyl records):

Lehrer (2000, track 11) noted that East St. Louis was not the optimal spot for a celebration of Shavuot.

If the copyright date and recording date are different, use both dates in the text citation:

Bernard, F. & Smith, R. B. (1934). Winter wonderland [Recorded by     The Eurythmics]. On A very special Christmas [CD]. Santa Monica,     CA: A&M Records. (2006) “Winter Wonderland” (Bernard & Smith, 1934/2006, track 5)

A Very Special APA Holiday
To all of our readers, we wish you happy holidays and a prosperous new year! You can listen to the entire playlist for this article on Spotify at APA Holiday.

Should Hyperlinks Be Used in APA Style?

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

If you’ve ever typed a paper using a popular word-processing program, you’ve probably encountered the automatic hyperlink: Type a URL, and the software immediately underlines it and changes the font color to blue (whether you like it or not).

Is this something that needs to be “fixed” in an APA Style paper? The APA Publication Manual (6th ed.) contains no guidelines about this. If a document is to be distributed and read electronically, active hyperlinks may be useful. However, common sense tells us that an active hyperlink is of no use in a document intended to be read on paper; furthermore, the default blue color for active hyperlinks usually prints as gray, making them difficult to read. The underlining is distracting as well. Therefore, it seems reasonable to avoid the use of active hyperlinks in documents that will be read in print.

In Word 2010, you can deactivate the auto-hyperlink feature by going to the File tab, clicking on Options, Proofing, and Auto-Correct Options, then on AutoCorrect As You Type. Deselect “Internet and network paths.” Bingo, no more hyperlinks when you type.

You can also eliminate the problem when cutting and pasting URLs by using the Paste Special feature. If you select the Plain Text or Keep Text Only options, the URL will not turn into a hyperlink.

In short, since there's no rule governing the use of hyperlinks, take your audience and delivery method into account when deciding whether URLs should become active hyperlinks in your paper.

The Long and the Short of It

by Stefanie

The goal of writing, especially scholarly writing, is to convey information. Accomplishing that task certainly involves choosing the right words, but have you also considered the length of the sentences and paragraphs in which those words appear? Onwuegbuzie, Combs, Slate, and Frels (2010) include too-short and too-long paragraphs on their list of common APA Style mistakes. Labeling these style choices mistakes may seem harsh, but if you lose readers because of the style of your presentation, the term is apt.

The troubles that come with lengthy sentences and paragraphs are more obvious than those that accompany short ones. I suspect anyone who reads has, at some point, drifted off in the middle of a long, run-on sentence. And woe be to the person who has his or her reading interrupted in the middle of a page-long paragraph! Good luck finding your place and the train of thought after that. (Whatever you do, please don’t try to write the longest sentence in English; the current record holders are legendary.)

Short sentences (insert obligatory Hemingway reference here) and paragraphs can be easily read and digested, but a bunch of either can be choppy, abrupt, even boring. Imagine a Results section that followed this pattern throughout:

    The mean was 8.8.

    The standard deviation was 9.9.

    The results were nonsignificant.

This would get old fast. (Incidentally, you may want to consider a table rather than short or long sentences for numerical results.)

A blend of long and short sentences in a paragraph is ideal. Paragraph length is a little trickier. Single-sentence paragraphs are discouraged. As for long paragraphs, as noted on page 68 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sixth edition, “if a paragraph runs longer than one double-spaced manuscript page, you may lose your readers. Look for a logical place to break a long paragraph, or reorganize the material.”

Have further questions about sentence and paragraph length? Please comment below or write to styleexpert@apa.org.

 

The Grammar of Mathematics: Percentage or %?

by Timothy McAdoo

As Chelsea so succinctly noted in her recent post about how statistical terms are introduced and used in APA Style manuscripts, “in the social sciences, the worlds of grammar and mathematics intersect.” Thus, when you first start to write about statistical results, you may encounter style questions that you’ve not considered before. In today’s post, I answer one such question:

Question: How do you decide whether to use the percentage symbol (%) or the word percentage?

Answer: Use the symbol only when it is preceded by a numeral; otherwise, spell out the word percentage.

For example,

What percentage of wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? In Experiment 1, we used a computer simulation to address this timeless question. The woodchucks (who would chuck) chucked 86.4% of the wood available during the test. This was a larger percentage than we hypothesized. Two woodchucks (33.3% of the virtual subjects) would not chuck wood (see Table 1).

You’ll find these guidelines on page 118 of the Publication Manual. On the same page, the Manual also notes just one exception: "In table headings and figure legends, use the symbol % to conserve space."

Reference Twins: Or, How to Cite Articles With the Same Authors and Same Year

by Chelsea Lee

Have you ever been friends with a pair of identical twins? Twins who looked so alike that, at first, telling them apart all hinged on finding that distinguishing freckle, or hoping someone else would call them by their names so you could memorize what clothes each was wearing that day? In the social sciences, there is a longstanding tradition of twin research, but this post refers to twins of another kind: reference twins. Specifically, this post addresses how to cite multiple articles by the same authors that were published in the same year so that everyone can easily tell them apart.

A Solution for Identical Twins

In essence, the solution to the reference twin problem is not much different from how twins are told apart at birth: Just as twins are referred to as “Baby A” and “Baby B,” “twin references” are also given letters to tell them apart. Specifically, lowercase letters are added after the year (2011a, 2011b, etc.), and the references are alphabetized by title to determine which is “a” and which is “b.” Here is an example:

Koriat, A. (2008a). Easy comes, easy goes? The link between learning and remembering and its exploitation in metacognition. Memory & Cognition, 36, 416–428. doi:10.3758/MC.36.2.416

Koriat, A. (2008b). Subjective confidence in one’s answers: The consensuality principle. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34, 945–959. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.34.4.945

In the text, citations would be styled as follows: (Koriat, 2008a) and (Koriat, 2008b).

For references that are in press or that have no date (signified by n.d., which stands for “no date”), use the following forms for the date: (in press-a), (in press-b), (n.d.-a), and (n.d.-b), and so forth.

A Solution for Not-Quite Twins

However, be careful that your references are true identical twins. That is, the method described above applies only when all author names are the same and appear in the same order. If any of the names or the order is different, then the references are distinguished in a different way: by spelling out as many author names as necessary to tell them apart.  Let’s use the following two references as an example:

Marewski, J. N., Gaissmaier, W., & Gigerenzer, G. (2010). Good judgments do not require complex cognition. Cognitive Processing, 11, 103–121. doi:10.1007/s10339-009-0337-0

Marewski, J. N., Gaissmaier, W., Schooler, L. J., Goldstein, D. G., & Gigerenzer, G. (2010). From recognition to decisions: Extending and testing recognition-based models for multi-alternative inference. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17, 287–309. doi:10.3758/PBR.17.3.287

The first in-text citations to each of these articles would be as follows:

• (Marewski, Gaissmaier, & Gigerenzer, 2010)
• (Marewski, Gaissmaier, Schooler, Goldstein, & Gigerenzer, 2010)

Now, what about subsequent in-text citations? Usually we would abbreviate studies with three or more authors to the first author name plus et al. (Latin for “and others”); however, doing so here would produce two Marewski et al. (2010) citations, leaving the reader unable to tell which one you mean. The solution is to spell out as many names as necessary (here, to the third name) upon subsequent citations to tell the two apart: 

• (Marewski, Gaissmaier, & Gigerenzer, 2010)
• (Marewski, Gaissmaier, Schooler, et al., 2010)

Notice that for the first reference, this means that all citations to this source will include all three names. For the second reference, the two remaining names can be abbreviated to et al. (Note, however, that if only one name remains to distinguish the references, that name must be spelled out with all the rest because et al. is plural—it cannot stand for only one name. This topic will be elaborated upon in an upcoming post.)

For more information and examples of citing references in text, see Chapter 6 of our sixth edition Publication Manual (pp. 174–179). You may also be interested in our primer on how in-text citations work.

Citing a Test Database

 

 By Anne Breitenbach

Some time ago, we had a post that explained how to find a DOI and provided a brief YouTube video of the process. We asked at the time for requests for tutorials about APA Style that could be useful. In response to that request, we were asked to create tutorials to explain how to cite content from two new databases APA is launching in September. The first of these, PsycTESTS, is a research database that provides descriptive and administrative information about tests, as well as access to some psychological tests, measures, scales, and other assessments. PsycTESTS is interesting in that it’s an example of citing the record itself, available only from a unique database, and not the test or supporting literature.

Take a look:

 

How to Cite a Musical Score

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

Sheet music may not be the first thing you think of citing in APA Style. However, there is a large body of research on the topic of music and emotion, not to mention the specialty of music therapy. And where there is research, there must be citation!

Basically, a musical score is analogous to a book. The underlying format is as follows:

Composer, A. A. (Date). Title of work. Location: Publisher.

However, you may need to include a little more information in square brackets to identify for the reader which score you used (e.g., the vocal vs. the orchestral score):

Picker, T. (Composer), & McClatchy, J. D. (Librettist). (1995). Emmeline: An opera in two acts [Score and parts]. Mainz, Germany: Schott Helicon.

Text citation: (Picker & McClatchy, 1995)

If you're using something like a Dover reprint of an old score, there’s no need to include the information about the original publishing company, but do include the original publication date:

Haydn, F. J. (2001). The creation. Mineola, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1798)

Text citation: (Haydn, 1798/2001)

Your reference should contain only the information needed to help your reader find the source you used. Aside from composer, date, title, and location, most of the necessary information can be included in square brackets after the title. However, some classical composers’ works are known by unique catalogue numbers, and these should be included as part of the title:

Mozart, W. A. (1970). Die Zauberflöte [The magic flute], K. 620 [Vocal score]. Munich, Germany: Becksche Verlagsbuchhandlung. (Original work published 1791)

Text citation: (Mozart, 1791/1970)

Do you have a baffling reference that you’re not sure how to cite? Take a look at our series on creating your own reference, or e-mail us at styleexpert@apastyle.org