NYENRODE GUIDELINES FOR THESIS

WRITING
Formatting & citing sources in APA style

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July 2015
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Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 5
1 Format ......................................................................................................................................................... 7

1.1 General formatting guidelines ................................................................................................. 7

1.2 Typography ................................................................................................................................ 7

1.2.1 Chapters and sections: use of titles........................................................................ 7

1.2.2 Body text .................................................................................................................. 8

1.3 The cover and the title page .................................................................................................... 8

1.4 The table of contents................................................................................................................ 9
1.5 Appendices ................................................................................................................................ 10
1.6 Figures and Tables .................................................................................................................... 10
1.7 Footnotes ................................................................................................................................... 12
1.8 Quotations ................................................................................................................................. 13

2 Citing your sources .................................................................................................................................... 15

2.1 In-text citations ......................................................................................................................... 15

2.2 In-text citations for legal sources............................................................................................ 19
2.3 The reference list....................................................................................................................... 20

2.3.1 List format ................................................................................................................. 20

2.3.2 Main components of a reference ........................................................................... 21
2.3.3 Books and reports .................................................................................................... 23
2.3.4 Articles in periodicals .............................................................................................. 24
2.3.5 Contributions to books or conference proceedings ........................................... 26
2.3.6 Data sets .................................................................................................................... 26
2.3.7 Company reports...................................................................................................... 27
2.3.8 Web content.............................................................................................................. 27
2.3.9 Legal sources ............................................................................................................. 29

2.4 APA Tips and tricks ................................................................................................................. 29

Introduction
What format should my thesis have? How do I avoid plagiarism? Which sources do I cite and
how does this work? Is there a standardized format I should use for my citations and reference
list? You will find answers to these questions in the “Nyenrode guidelines for thesis writing”.
Chapter 1 gives some general guidelines for the format of your thesis. It covers topics such as
typography, the cover, footnotes, and quotations. Chapter 2 will provide you with information
about Nyenrode’s conventions for citing sources and making reference lists. At the end of the
chapter you will find some time-saving tips and tricks.

Good luck!

Note on terminology
The term "thesis" in this document is used collectively to refer to Master’s theses, Bachelor’s
theses and Final projects.

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6
1 Format
What format should my thesis have? In this chapter you will find some practical guidelines for
the format of your thesis. They will help you to give your thesis a clear and consistent layout, and
to contribute to the "corporate identity" of Nyenrode Business Universiteit. In some cases your
faculty supervisor or program management may give additional guidelines.

1.1 General formatting guidelines

There are a number of general formatting guidelines for a thesis:
- Language: for English language theses choose either American or British English and
make sure your spelling is consistent.
- Paper size: A4, copied double-sided.
- Font type: use a serif font, size 12 for body text. Examples of serif fonts are: Garamond
and Times New Roman. Garamond is Nyenrode’s house style font.
Exception: for figure labels (text in figures), use a sans serif font type, such as Arial.
- Margins: normal (approximately 2.5 cm at the top, bottom, left and right).
- Line interval: 1.0 or 1.5.
- Page numbering should be:
o Continuous in Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, …)
o Preferably in the middle of the footer of each page
o Start counting from the title page, but only in your thoughts: hide the page
numbers on the pages before the Introduction chapter. The Introduction chapter
is the first page showing a page number.
- Printing: print your thesis on a laser printer.
- Binding: have your thesis bound (e.g., at Nyenrode’s Service point).

1.2 Typography
You can clarify the structure of your thesis by showing typographically where different parts like
chapters and sections start and end, and which parts should be given more attention. Below are
some guidelines for typography.

1.2.1 Chapters and sections: use of titles

Formatting guidelines for chapters and sections:
- Start every chapter on a new, uneven page (i.e., on the right side).
- Make sure that titles and subtitles are clearly identifiable:
o Leave two white lines above a title.

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 o Make sure the typography is consistent; always use the same typography for titles
and subtitles at the same level (font size, italics, bold, capital letters, etc.).
- Do not put a period after titles or subtitles.
- Number chapters and sections with a decimal division.
- Do not number deeper than 3 levels (i.e., not 1.2.1.1).
- Only have a leveled subsection if there are at least two levels (i.e., no 1.2.1 if there is no
1.2.2).
- Do not put a period after the last digit of a decimal classification.
- Make sure that a title never stands alone at the bottom of the page; at least three lines of
text should be typed there.
- Start every section at the beginning of the line.

1.2.2 Body text

Formatting guidelines for the body text:
- Mark important words in the text in bold or italics.
- Emphasize enumeration with symbols and use different symbols for different levels
within one enumeration.
- Insert a space after punctuation in a text: comma, semicolon, colon, or period, etc.
- Do not insert a space before and after a slash (/).
- Do not start the first word after a colon with a capital letter but in lower case, unless it is
the first word of a complete sentence.
- In English-language theses use a period as a decimal separator and a comma as a
thousands separator: EURO 1,500.50 and 45.5%.
- Indent the second and every following paragraph after the title or subtitle. Do not indent
the first paragraph directly after the title or subtitle.
- A paragraph should include more than one sentence.

1.3 The cover and the title page

A thesis not only has a cover, but also a title page.

The cover contains:

- the title of the thesis
- the subtitle, if applicable
- the type of thesis (Master’s thesis Accountancy, Final project IMBA, etc.)
- the name of the author
- the date.

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On the title page you write:
- the title of the thesis
- the subtitle, if applicable
- the type of thesis (Master’s thesis Accountancy, Final project IMBA, etc.)
- the name of the author
- the name and address of Nyenrode Business Universiteit
- the name of the faculty supervisor, second reader, and company supervisor
- the name and address of the company, if applicable
- the date.

The title should be precise (i.e., it should give the central theme and the limitations) and not
vague, and it should be concise and attractive. The subtitle gives extra information that cannot
be given in the title. A good subtitle can make the concise title more precise and attractive. You
can also use the subtitle to explain what kind of research you have done, e.g., explorative,
descriptive, evaluative, etc.

1.4 The table of contents

The table of contents helps the reader to understand the structure of the text and serves as a
useful guide. Therefore both format and content are equally important. The format should be
clear and well organized, with proper page numbering. The table of contents contains the titles
of the chapters and sections as you have named them in the thesis. Make sure that your table of
contents contains the correct titles and page numbers! If your thesis includes a lot of figures and
tables, you should give a separate list with the numbers, titles and page numbers of these figures
and tables.

Tip!
Microsoft Word enables you to automatically create a table of contents based on the
headings in your thesis. This tool will save you time and you will avoid making mistakes. See
the video ‘Introduction to Table of Contents’ on https://support.office.com/

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1.5 Appendices
Most theses have a number of appendices, because the actual thesis should be written as
concisely as possible. Appendices contain illustrative material, such as supplements and all the
material on which your research is based. Inclusion of all of this material in the main text would
result in a very confusing and unbalanced thesis. Examples of appendices are:
- copies of letters
- questionnaires (uncompleted)
- lists of symbols or abbreviations used
- additional or more detailed analyses of data

If you use appendices, present them in the following way:

- Add them at the end of the thesis directly after the reference list.
- List them in the same order you refer to them in the main text.
- Begin each appendix on a separate page.
- Give each appendix a consecutive capital letter and a title. When referring to an
appendix in the main text, always use the capital letter belonging to this reference, e.g.,
"More detailed information on this topic can be found in Appendix A".

1.6 Figures and Tables

You can illustrate the text with figures and tables. Make sure that you always explain them in the
text before you present them.
Guidelines:
- Number figures and tables throughout the text simply by using the numbers 1 through
99 and give each of them a title which is relevant for the content you show in the figure
or table.
- The number and title for a figure appears below the figure and the number and title for
a table appears above the table.
- The text in a figure or table should be at least the same size as the main text.
- Figures and tables should not be embedded in the text. They should appear on their own
line.
- The content of both figures and tables should be clear to the reader without the need to
refer to the main text for explanations.

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 Example

a . Fig ures
Quite often software allows you to give as much information as possible in figures instead of in
text. Do not do this automatically: always ask yourself whether the information is relevant
enough to put in figures and what the added value is of a figure compared to text. Plain and
simple information can best be put in text instead of in diagrams or pies: "The results show that
25% of the respondents have a microwave oven, whereas 75% do not own one". The following
checklist will help you to present your figures effectively.

Figure checklist
- Is the figure necessary?
- Is the figure simple, clean, and free of extraneous detail?
- Are all elements of the figure clearly labeled?
- Do the figure labels have a sans serif font type?
- Are figures of equally important concepts prepared according to the same scale?
- Are all figures numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers?
- If the figure is from another source, is the source properly cited?
- Are all figures mentioned in the text?
(Source: American Psychological Association. (2010). Concise rules of APA style (6th ed.)
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.)

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b. T a bles
Tables are very useful for complex information. Statistical software can do this job easily, but
you are responsible for the logical and consistent structure of the tables. Thus, do not simply
copy-paste SPSS output tables (or tables from other software). You must analyze them and
include the information in standard tables. This holds for tables both in the main text and in the
appendices. Make sure the tables are unequivocal and easy to read. Be consistent in the structure
of the tables, so that the same type of information can be found on the same spot every time.
Do not forget to explain abbreviations. The following checklist will help you to present your
tables effectively.

Table checklist
- Is the table necessary?
- Are all comparable tables consistent in presentation?
- Is the title brief but explanatory?
- Does every column have a column head?
- Are all abbreviations explained, as well as special use of italics, parentheses, dashes,
boldface and special symbols?
- Are the notes in the following order: general note, specific note, probability note?
- Are all vertical rules eliminated?
- If the table or its data are from another source, is the source properly cited?
- Is the table referred to in the text?
(Source: American Psychological Association. (2010). Concise rules of APA style (6th ed.)
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.)

1.7 Footnotes
In order to clarify your text, you can use footnotes. These are usually an explanation or a
justification of certain parts of your text. Keep them short and make sure that the text is also
understandable without the notes. Footnotes should not be used for referencing. Number them
consecutively using Arabic numbers (1,2,3, etc.).
If you only use a few footnotes, you can place them at the bottom of the page. If you use
a lot of notes in the text, you can number them per chapter and list them, with the
corresponding number, after the actual text, before the reference list. These notes are called
endnotes.

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1.8 Quotations
Sometimes you can use a quotation to make your text clearer. The following guidelines apply for
quotations:
- Quote literally and without mistakes.
- Show clearly where you start and end the quotation:
o If a quotation comprises fewer than 40 words: incorporate the quotation into
the text and enclose it with double quotation marks.
o If a quotation comprises 40 or more words: indent each line 5 spaces; do not
use quotation marks.
- Make sure that the sentence in which you use the quotation still flows well.
- If you omit a part of the citation, you use an ellipsis (...) in that space.
- If you need to insert words in the quotation, place them in brackets: [ ].
- If you want to emphasize words in the quotation, italicize them. Immediately after these
words, insert within brackets: [emphasis added]. See the short quotation below.

Examples

Short quotation (fewer than 40 words):

The American Psychological Association (2010) states that “A critical part of the writing process
is helping readers place your contribution in context [emphasis added] by citing the researchers who
influenced you” (p. 169).

Long quotation (more than 40 words):

The American Psychological Association (2010) explains the following:
Cite the work of those individuals whose ideas, theories, or research have directly
influenced your work. They may provide key background information, support or
dispute your thesis, or offer critical definitions and data. Citation of an article implies that
you have personally read the cited work. (p. 169)

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14
2 Citing your sources
The scientific status of your thesis is linked to a correct way of referring to the information you
have used. You always have to show where you got your information from, even when you put
somebody else's text in your own words or restate what someone else has said or written. Keep
track of the information you find and refer to your sources correctly. This will help you to avoid
plagiarism!

When to cite?
There are three ways to use information from another source in the text of your thesis. Firstly,
you can literally quote a part of the text. Secondly, you can paraphrase: put a passage from
another source into your own words. Thirdly, you can summarize the main ideas of another
source. In all three cases, you must refer to the original source.

H ow does it work?
First of all, place a short in-text citation directly after the last sentence of the quotation,
paraphrase, or summary. This in-text citation usually includes the author’s name or authors’
names and the year of publication. With this information the reader will be able to look up the
full reference in the reference list at the end of your thesis. Nyenrode has standardized the
format of in-text citations and reference lists and uses the APA format. The APA format,
published by the American Psychological Association, is commonly used in the social sciences,
as well as business and economics. In the following sections you will learn how to use the APA
format 1.

2.1 In-text citations

Whenever you use information from another source, a brief in-text citation should be placed
directly after this information. The purpose of an in-text citation is to refer the reader to the full
reference in the alphabetical reference list at the end of your thesis. Therefore if you cite
publications in the text, make sure that you list them in your reference list!

An in-text citation is placed inside parentheses, usually at the end of a sentence before
the final period. The in-text citation includes:
- The author’s last name.
If you mention the name of an author in the text, do not repeat it in the citation.
- The year of publication.

1 Source: American Psychological Association. (2010). Concise rules of APA style (6th ed.) Washington, DC: American

Psychological Association.

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 - Add the page number for quotations.
- Add the page number, chapter, or paragraph when you cite a specific part of a
source.
Abbreviations: Page is abbreviated as p.
Pages is abbreviated as pp.
Paragraph is abbreviated as para.
Do not abbreviate the word chapter.

Examples

- Later research produced similar results (Swanborn, 2002).

- Wainwright (2012) found the more time students had spent on Facebook, the less happy
they felt over time.

- Kotler (2004) states that “With the growing recognition of finite resources and high
environmental costs, marketers need to re-examine their theory and practices” (p. 132).

The examples below explain the most important APA rules for the format of in-text citations. At
the end of this chapter you will find more sources that can help you to use the APA format.

Note:
If you mention the author names in the running text do not repeat them in the citation inside
parentheses. As you can see below the ampersand (&) is used in the parenthetical citation. If you
mention the authors in the running text you should use the word and instead of &.

Publication by one author:

(Swanborn, 2002)

Publication by two authors:

(Kotler & Robben, 2007)

Or, if you mention the authors in the running text:

Kotler and Robben (2007) explain that innovation in marketing is critical.

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Publication by three to five authors:

Give all names in the first citation:

- (Wilson, Lee, Johnson, Thompson, & Armstrong, 2005)

- Wilson, Lee, Johnson, and Armstrong (2005) came to another conclusion.

In subsequent citations, include only the first author followed by et al.:

- (Wilson et al., 2005)

- Wilson et al. (2005) explain that more research should be done.

Publication by six or more authors:

- (Vermeer et al., 2001)

- Vermeer et al. (2001) corroborate these findings.

Publication with no author:

Use the first few words of the title instead of an author’s name:

Article, chapter or web page: (“How digital,” 2001)

Book or report: (Reinventing Marketing, 2010)

If you use several publications written by the same author, published in the same year,
differentiate them with the letters a, b, etc.:

(Slywotzky, 2008a)

(Slywotzky, 2008b)

Also use these letters (a, b, etc.) in the full reference in the alphabetical reference list at the end
of your thesis. Example:

Slywotzky, A. W. (2008a). Demand: How to discover it, exploit it, and why everything depends on it. New
York, NY: Crown Business.

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Citing two or more publications within the same parentheses

Order the citations of two or more works by different authors within the same parentheses
alphabetically in the same order in which they appear in the reference list. Separate the citations
with semicolons:

(Miller, 1999; Shafranske & Mahoney, 1998)

Arrange two or more works by the same author by year of publication. Place in-press citations
last. Give the authors' surnames once; for each subsequent work, give only the date:

(Gogel, 1990, 2006, in press)

Online material without page numbers:

Online material, such as e-books or webpages, quite often do not have page numbers. If you
want to cite a specific part of online material and no page numbers are available, use paragraph
numbers instead of page numbers:

(Veldhuizen & Breevoort, 2009, para. 2)

If neither page numbers nor paragraph numbers are available, cite the heading and the number
of the paragraph following it:

(Brealey, 2012, Conclusion, para. 1)

If the heading is long, use a short version in double quotation marks:

(Moore, 2009, “Avoiding plagiarism when,” para. 4)

Personal communications

Examples of personal communications are: letters, e-mail, interviews and telephone

conversations. Cite personal communications in text only. Give initials, surname and date:

(S. Miller, personal communication, September 28, 2014)

Personal communications are not included in the reference list, because they do not provide
recoverable data.

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2.2 In-text citations for legal sources
The citation style for legal sources, such as legislation and jurisdiction, is quite different. The
APA style is not suitable for these sources.
The rules for Dutch and international legal sources can be found in the Leidraad
voor juridische auteurs (freely available on the Internet: http://www.recht.nl/109338/leidraad-
voor-juridische-auteurs-2013/). This document explains several methods for citing sources. For
legal sources Nyenrode uses the ‘Full reference in footnote’ method (Volledig in voetnoot).
References to legal sources are not listed in the reference list. Therefore make sure the
full reference in the footnote is accurate and contains all the information necessary to enable a
reader to locate the publication. Sometimes authors include separate lists of items such as
jurisprudence or articles of law at the end of a paper.
For foreign legal sources it is customary to use the rules of the country concerned. For
example, the rules for US legal sources can be found in the ‘Bluebook : A uniform system of
citation’ 2.

Dutch Legal source:

1. Wetsvoorstel partnerschapsregistratie, Kamerstukken II 1993/94-1996/97, 23761.

2See also Appendix 7.1 in: American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6th ed.) Washington, DC: Author. Available in the Nyenrode Library.

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2.3 The reference list
The reference list consists exclusively of the publications that are cited in your thesis. The in-text
citations refer the reader to this alphabetical reference list. It enables the reader to trace and
verify the sources that were used in the thesis. It is important that you make proper and correct
references in APA format. The following sections will give examples of the most common types
of sources. At the end of this chapter you will find more sources that can help you use the APA
format.
Personal communications, such as conversations, telephone calls, personal letters, and
email are not included in a reference list, because they cannot be verified. Cite personal
communications in text only (see section 2.1).

2.3.1 List format

Some general guidelines for the format of the reference list are:
- The reference list should be given on separate pages at the end of your thesis, before the
appendices and after the endnotes (if used).
- The references are listed alphabetically by the last name of the author, or - if there is no
author - by the first word of the title (disregarding articles).
- For multiple publications by the same author, list the references in chronological order,
from earliest to most recent.
- After the first line of each reference, indent the next lines approximately 1.3 cm (0.5
inches). This is called a hanging indent.

Example: hanging indent

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2.3.2 Main components of a reference
In the following sections you will find examples of references for several types of publications.
In general, a reference contains the following main components:

Author(s)
A reference starts with the author name(s) in reverse order: last name first, followed by initials.
List up to seven authors. If there are more than seven authors, list the first six followed by three
ellipsis dots . . . and the last author’s name (which is not preceded by &).
Examples:
Lucas, J.
Slywotzky, A. J. [a space is placed between the initials]
Sartre, J.-P.
Jones, H. W., Jr.
Kotler, P., Lane, K., & Brady, M. D. [a comma is placed before the &]
Bottorff, J. L., Carey, J., Mowatt, R., Varcoe, C., Johnson, J., Hutchinson, P., . . . Wardman, D.

Dutch author names

For surnames with prefixes (van, de, van der, etc.) the author’s spelling is retained. Capitalize and
spell the name just as you see it in the publication you’re citing. Dutch authors typically use
lowercase letters (van der Linden) while American authors use capital letters (Van Nuys). The
APA style requires that the surname in your in-text citation and in your reference list are exactly
the same. Note the lowercase letters and the position of the prefixes in the examples below.
In-text citation:
Parental and adolescent personality have significant effects on parenting (de Haan,
Deković, & Prinzie, 2012).
Reference list entry:
de Haan, A. D., Deković, M., & Prinzie, P. (2012). Longitudinal impact of parental and
adolescent personality on parenting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102,
189–199. doi:10.1037/a0025254
In the text, only capitalize a prefix if it begins a sentence or if it is the first word after a colon (:)
Example:
De Haan, Deković, and Prinzie (2012) studied the impact of parental and adolescent
personality on parenting.

Publication date
The publication date is given inside parentheses, immediately after the author names.
Examples:
Books/reports and journals: (2009).
Magazines and newspapers: (2009, June 6).
If the publication date is unknown, write (n.d.).
For manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published, write (in press).

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Title
A colon (:) divides the title and subtitle.
Italicize titles and subtitles of books and periodicals.
Books/reports and articles: capitalize the first word in a title and subtitle.
Periodicals: capitalize all important words in the title. Do not abbreviate the title.

Edition
Give the edition number and the abbreviation “ed.” inside parentheses after the title.
Example: (6th ed.)

Place of publication
For books and reports, give the place of publication. If there are several places of publication,
always give the first one mentioned. If the publisher is located outside the US, give city and
country. If the publisher is located in the US, give city and state.
Examples:
Breukelen, The Netherlands
Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Publisher’s name
For books, give the publisher’s name. Omit superfluous terms, such as Uitgeverij, BV,
Publishers, Co. or Inc. Do not omit the words Books and Press.
Examples:
Pearson Education
Springer

DOIs and URLs

References to online material include a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or an URL. A DOI is a
unique label for a digital object.
Example: doi:10.1145/2500876

The DOI is preferred to the URL, since it is more reliable. If the online material does not have a
DOI, provide the URL. To avoid nonworking URLs, give the URL of the homepage of the
journal or the book/report publisher when the online publication can easily be found by search.
If this is not the case, give the exact URL.
Do not type a period at the end of a DOI or URL!

Most of these reference components are given on the title page of the publication, and on the
reverse side of it (the "copyright page").

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 Tip!
Long URLs can cause a lot of empty space in your reference list. In Microsoft Word
you can insert a break into an URL, by inserting a special character after a slash: Choose:
Insert>Symbol>More symbols >Special Characters>No-Width Optional Break

In a reference the following abbreviations are allowed according to the APA format. Please
note that not all abbreviations apply to all publication types (see the examples in the following
sections).

ed. Edition p. (pp.) page (pages)

Rev. ed. Revised edition Vol.(Vols.) Volume (volumes)
2nd. ed. Second edition No. Number
Ed./Eds. Editor/Editors Pt. Part
Trans. Translator(s) Suppl. Supplement
n.d. no date

2.3.3 Books and reports

The basic format:

Last name, Initials. (Publication date). Title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Explanation:
- For e-books the DOI or URL takes the place of the publisher location and name.
- If you read a book on an e-reader, include the e-book format in brackets after the title.

Examples: books and reports

Basic format [print book]:

Kotler, P., & Lane, K. (2009). Marketing management (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Education.

No author [print book]:

Communication in the digital era. (1993). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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Corporate author and publisher are the same [print book]:
International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation. (2009). International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRSs): A briefing for chief executives, audit committees & boards of directors.
Washington, DC: Author.

Edited book [print]:

Van Montfort, K., Oud, J., & Satorra, A. (Eds.). (2010). Longitudinal research with latent variables.
Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.

Publication date unknown [print book]:

Miller, D. C. (n.d.). Handbook of research design and social measurement (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
E-book with DOI:
Morrell, K. (2012). Organization, society and politics: An Aristotelian perspective.
doi:10.1057/9781137026880

E-book with URL and e-reader format:

Morrell, K. (2012). Organization, society and politics: An Aristotelian perspective [Adobe Digital Editions
version]. Retrieved from http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/index.html

2.3.4 Articles in periodicals

The basic format:

Last name, initials. (publication date). Title article. Title journal, volume(issue), pages.

Explanation:
- Issue: only give the issue number if the journal is paginated by issue (each issue begins
on page 1). The volume is in italics, the issue is not.
- Publication date: for journals, give the year; for magazines, newsletters and newspapers,
give the year and the exact date.
- Pages: type p. (page) or pp. (pages) before the page numbers only in references of
newspapers.
- If you have found an online journal article in an aggregated database, such as EBSCO
Business Source Complete or PsychINFO, it is not necessary to include information on
this database. Preferably give the DOI. If there is no DOI, do a quick web search to
locate the homepage URL of the journal.

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 Examples: articles in periodicals

Journal article [print]:

Lawton, S. (1995). Intranets fuel growth of internet access tools. Digital News & Review, 12,
920-921.

Journal article, paginated by issue [print]:

Yeates, R. (1995). CD-ROM networking is still alive! Managing Information, 2(12), 32-34.

Online journal article with DOI:

McDonagh, P., & Prothero, A. (2014). Sustainability marketing research. Journal of Marketing
Management, 30, 1186-1219. doi:10.1080/0267257X.2014.943263

Online journal article without DOI:

Carr, N., & Meehan, T. (2005). What's the problem? Information Architecture, 2(193), 2-16.
Retrieved from http://alistapart.com/articles

Online journal article published before print (advance online publication):

McDonagh, P., & Prothero, A. (2014). Sustainability marketing research. Journal of Marketing
Management. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/0267257X.2014.943263

Newspaper article [print]:

Murray, S. (2009, April 24). Supply chains: Regulation must point the way. Financial Times, p. 55.

Online newsletter article:

Caldo, G., Hoene, M., & Olanrewaju, T. (2014, December). How winning banks refocus their IT
budgets for digital. McKinsey & Company Insights & Publications. Retrieved from
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/

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2.3.5 Contributions to books or conference proceedings
Explanation:
- Capitalize the name of a conference (e.g., 19th International Online Information
Meeting).
- For e-books the DOI or URL takes the place of the publisher location and name.
- If you read a book on an e-reader, include the e-book format in brackets after the title.

Examples: contributions to books or conference proceedings

Chapter in an edited book [print]:

Goldstein, D. R., & Russo, M. V. (2007). Seventh generation: Balancing customer expectations
with supply chain realities. In J. Hamschmidt (Ed.), Case studies in sustainability management
and strategy: The oikos collection (pp. 30-51). Sheffield, United Kingdom: Greenleaf.

Paper in conference proceedings published in book form [print]:

Palmer, M. J. (1995). Don't sell, inform: How the best international companies are using the web
to reach their most influential audiences. In D. I. Raitt, & B. Jeapes (Eds.), Online
Information 95: Proceedings of the 19th International Online Information Meeting (pp. 585-587).
Oxford, United Kingdom: Learned Information Europe.

Paper in conference proceedings, published regularly [online]:

Carvalho Myskiw, J., Benetti, F., & Izquierdo, I. (2013). Behavioral tagging of extinction learning.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(3), 1071-1076.

2.3.6 Data sets

Explanation:
- Italicize the title of a dataset.
- Include a description of form in brackets after the title.

Example: datasets

Basic format:
Steinmetz Archives. (2003). Cultural changes in the Netherlands 2002 - CV'02 [data file]. Retrieved
from http://www.scpdata.nl/study_units/view/21

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2.3.7 Company reports
For annual company reports you mention the official name of the company as it is written on
the title page of the report, and then the title (in italics) of the annual company report. If you
have used several annual company reports of the same company, you mention all of them.

Examples: company reports

Basic format [print]:

General Motors Corporation. (1998). Annual Report. Detroit, MI: Author.

More annual company reports [online]:

Shell. (1990, 1992-1997). Annual Report. Retrieved from http://www.shell.com

2.3.8 Web content

Web content is a very broad concept. It includes all kinds of information that can be found on
the internet. If you are using web content that can be seen as a “common” publication type (e.g.,
a book, journal article, conference paper, etc.), use the APA format for that publication type. For
other types of web content, use the format that will be explained in this section. If you cite an
entire website, webpage, Facebook feed or Twitter feed, it is sufficient to give the URL in text
(in parentheses). Do not include it in your reference list. However, if you cite a particular
retrievable piece of information from a website or social media, you should add it to your
reference list.
Retrievability is an important issue here. If you are using information from social media
that cannot be retrieved by your readers (if it is not publicly accessible due to privacy settings),
do not include it in your reference list. Only make an in-text citation and treat the information as
‘personal communication’ (see section 2.1). Since posts on social media are not archived, they
may no longer be available in the future. The APA therefore recommends self-archiving the
information.
The following basic reference format can be used for web content that does not fall into
a category of “common” publication types, such as books, journal articles, etc.:

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Basic format
Last name, initials [Screen name]. (date). Title of document [Format description]. Retrieved
from http://xxxxxxxxx

Explanation:
- The format description is used only when the format is something out of the ordinary,
such as a blog post, blog comment, lecture notes, map, video file, Tweet, Facebook
status update, etc.
- The screen name can be useful when you cite information from social media. On most
social media the author has a screen name. If only the screen name is known, it replaces
the last name and initials.
- If a publication date is not available, write n.d. (no date).
- Do not include retrieval dates unless the publication may change over time (e.g.,
Wikis). See the Wiki example below.

Examples: web content

Blog post:
Freakonomics. (2010, October 29). E-ZPass is a life-saver [Web log post]. Retrieved from
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/e-zpass-is-a-life-saver-literally/

Message posted to an online forum:

Foster, G. (2009, March 31). Success with social media marketing? [Online forum content].
Retrieved from http://econsultancy.com/forums/best-practice/success-with-social-
media-marketing

Video blog post (Youtube):

Ebster, C. (2012, January 26). Data analysis in SPSS made easy [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0G_GAdo268

Twitter post:
Cook, T. [Tim Cook]. (2014, October 27 ). Inspired by the students, teachers, and administrators
at the 114 schools we’re partnering with for ConnectED [Twitter post]. Retrieved from
https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/526869864032391168

Wiki:
International Financial Reporting Standards. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 26, 2015,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Financial_Reporting_Standards

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2.3.9 Legal sources
Legal sources, such as laws and jurisdiction, are not listed in the reference list. Sometimes
authors include separate lists of items such as jurisprudence or articles of law at the end of a
paper. They are cited in the text only. Therefore make sure that your in-text citations are accurate
and contain all the information necessary to enable a reader to locate the publication. Section 2.2
explains the guidelines for citing legal sources in the text.

2.4 APA Tips and tricks

Manage your sources

Did you know that free software is available that can help you to manage your sources and to
create in-text citations and references in APA format? Examples are:
- Source Manager in Microsoft Office
(See the tutorial Create a bibliography on https://support.office.com)
- Mendeley: http://www.mendeley.com/
- Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/

Use the APA tools in online journal databases

Many online databases enable you to download the citation details directly in APA format. You
will also find this tool in many of the online journal databases the Nyenrode library provides
access to (Discover, for example).

Always check!
Although the tools mentioned above are very helpful, always check the format of the in-text
citations and references yourself. For example, Dutch author names might not be presented
correctly.

APA manuals
This document only gives basic information on the APA format. You will find more information
in the APA manuals available in the Nyenrode library:

- American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American

Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
- American Psychological Association. (2010). Concise rules of APA style (6th ed.)
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
- Houghton, P. M., Houghton, T. J., & Pratt, M. M. (2007). APA: The easy way! Flint, MI:
Baker College

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 Useful websites
These websites can help you to cite your sources in APA format:
- American Psychological Association: Learning APA Style
http://www.apastyle.org/learn/index.aspx
- Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA formatting and style guide
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
- Tilburg University: How do I reference?
https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/students/skills/scriptorium/citingsources/styles/

Do you have any questions?

If you have any questions about citing your sources, please contact the Academic Services Center
located in the Nyenrode Library:
T 0346-291286
E ASC@nyenrode.nl

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