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May 17, 2012

Missing Pieces: How to Write an APA Style Reference Even Without All the Information
by Chelsea Lee
Most APA Style references are straightforward to writethe guidance and examples in Chapter 7 of the Publication Manual and on this blog make
that possible. Weve written a good deal about the architecture of a generic reference (the four basic pieces of author, date, title, and source).
Sometimes, however, one or more of those pieces is missing, and writing the reference can get more difficult. This post will help you adapt the
classic APA Style reference template to fit any situation where information might be missing, as well as show you how to create the corresponding in-text
citations for those references.
The table below shows how to write an APA Style reference when information is missing. It is also available for download as a PDF.
Whats missing?

Solution

Reference template
Position A

Nothingall pieces

List information in the order of author, date,

are present

title (with description in square brackets if

necessary for explanation of nonroutine

Author, A. A.

Position B
(date).

Position C
Title of document

Retrieved

[Format].

from
http://xxxxx

or

information), and source

Title of document

Author is missing

Substitute title for author; then provide date

Title of document

and source

[Format].

(date).

Provide author, substitute n.d. for no date,

or

[Format].

Retrieved

n/a

Month Day,
Year, from
http://xxxxx

or

Date is missing

Position D

or

Title of document

Location:

[Format].

Publisher.

Author, A. A.

(n.d.).

and then give title and source

Title of document

or

[Format].

doi:xxxxx

or
Title of document
[Format].
Title is missing

Provide author and date, describe document

Author, A. A.

(date).

inside square brackets, and then give source

[Description of
document].

Author and date

Substitute title for author and n.d. for no

Title of document

are both missing

date; then give source

[Format].

(n.d.).

n/a

(date).

n/a

(n.d.).

[Description of

or
Title of document
[Format].
Author and title

Substitute description of document inside

[Description of

are both missing

square brackets for author; then give date

document].

and source
Date and title are

Provide author, substitute n.d. for no date,

both missing

describe document inside square brackets,

Author, A. A.

document].

and then give source

Author, date, and

Substitute description of document inside

[Description of

title are all missing

square brackets for author, substitute n.d. for

document].

(n.d.).

n/a

07/04/2015 2:14 PM

APA Style Blog: Missing Pieces: How to Write an APA Style Reference...

2 of 2

http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/05/missing-pieces.html

no date, and then give source

Source is missing

Cite as personal communication (see 6.20)

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

or find a substitute
Title Variations
As shown in the table, the title of a document is only sometimes italicized, depending on the independence of the source. That is, do italicize the title of a
document that stands alone (books, reports, etc.), but do not italicize the title of a document that is part of a greater whole (chapters, articles, etc., which are part
of edited books or journals, respectively). Also do not italicize the titles of software, instruments, and apparatus (see 7.08 in the Publication Manual). If you
have trouble determining whether something stands alone (such as for a document on a website), choose not to italicize. For examples and more explanation, see
the blog post on capitalization and formatting of reference titles in the reference list.
Source Variations
As shown in the Position D column of the table, the source part of a reference list entry can vary as well. It should reflect either a retrieval URL (for online
documents without DOIs), a publisher location and name (for print sources), or a DOI (for any document that has one, whether print or online). It is not usually
necessary to include a retrieval date for online sources; one should be provided only if the source is likely to change over time, such as with an unarchived wiki
page.
Sometimes source information is incomplete but with a little detective work you can find what you need; for example, if you know a publisher name but not its
location, you can research the publisher to find the location. Even sources of limited availability can be cited in APA Style, including unpublished and informally
published works (see 7.09) and archival documents and collections (see 7.10).
Note, however, that it is not possible to write a traditional APA Style reference if source information is truly missing. The purpose of an APA Style reference is to
provide readers with information on how to locate the source that you used, and if you cannot tell them how to do so, you either have to find a substitute or cite
the source as personal communication (see 6.20 in the Publication Manual).
Creating In-Text Citations
Create an in-text citation for any reference by using the pieces from Positions A and B in the table above. For most references, this will be the author and date
(Author, date). For titles in Position A, use italics for works that stand alone (Title of Document, date) and quotation marks for works that are part of a greater
whole (Title of Document, date). Retain square brackets for descriptions of documents in Position A ([Description of document], date). For examples and more
explanation, see our post on formatting and capitalization of titles in the text.
We hope this guide to missing pieces will help you as you create your APA Style references.
Posted by Chelsea Lee at 12:19:45 PM in Digital Object Identifier (DOI), Electronic references, How-to, Personal communications, Reference list, References,
Text citations, URLs, Websites

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