apa paper presented at a conference

Caulfield, J. (2022, June 16). Citing a Conference Paper in APA Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved March 13, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/conference-paper/

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APA (7th Edition) Referencing Guide

Published conference papers

Conference papers, sessions and presentations.

If a conference paper has been published (for example, in a proceedings), the published form is usually either a chapter of an edited book or an article in a journal. Cite it according to the appropriate pattern.

Paper published in conference proceedings, book form:

Paper published in conference proceedings, journal form:

The presentation delivered at a conference may only be available as an informally published work online, or may only have been delivered live and is not available in full. Follow the pattern given below.

Paper or session presented at conference, not formally published in proceedings (also used for Poster Presentations):

APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Conferences

About Citing Sources

For each type of source in this guide, both the general form and an example will be provided.

The following format will be used:

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase) - entry that appears in the body of your paper when you express the ideas of a researcher or author using your own words. For more tips on paraphrasing check out The OWL at Purdue .

In-Text Citation (Quotation) - entry that appears in the body of your paper after a direct quote.

References - entry that appears at the end of your paper.

Information on citing and several of the examples were drawn from the APA Manual (7th ed.) .

Conference Sessions, Papers, and Posters

Note: Conference sessions, papers, and posters all follow the same citation style. The only change is in the brackets following the title of the contribution, denoting the format. Use the description provided by the conference, e.g. [Poster presentation], [Key-note address], [Conference session], etc.

General Format

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Presenter Surname, Year)

In-Text Citation (Quotation):

References:

Presenter Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year, Month Day-Day). Presentation title [Format]. Conference Name, Location. DOI or URL of website.

Tip: Include the full run of the conference in the date section, not just the day of the presentation.

(Pearson, 2018)

Pearson, J. (2018, September 27-30). Fat talk and its effects on state-based body image in women [Poster presentation]. Australian Psychological Society Congress, Sydney, NSW, Australia. http://bit.ly/2XGSThP

Subject Guide

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APA 7th Edition Citation Examples: Conference Papers

Format for conference paper

Author last name, first initial. (Date). Title of contribution [Paper presentation]. Conference Name, Location. DOI or URL

See specific examples below.

Library database or free Web

Whipple, S. (2018, March 6-9). Control beliefs as a moderator of stress on anxiety [Paper presentation]. Southeastern Psychological Association 64th Annual Meeting, Charleston, SC, United States.

See Publication Manual , 10.5.

APA Style 6th Edition: Citing Your Sources

Standard Format

Various examples.

Unpublished Paper

Contributor Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year, Month of presentation). Title of contribution. In First Initial. Second Initial. Chairperson Surname (Chair), Title of conference. Conference conducted at the meeting of Organization Name, Location.

Paper Presentation or Poster Session

Presenter Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year, Month). Title of paper or poster session. Paper presented at the meeting of Organization Name, Location.

APA Conference Citation

By definition, a conference is a gathering or meeting of a group of people to discuss a certain topic or theme. Its various types differ on the purpose, organization and participants. The first thing you need know is the guide in citing the authors. Once you are familiar with this, you can move on and learn the details of APA conference citation. Ergo, these are exactly what you will find in this article.

Table of Content

Citing the Author

Multiple authors , two to seven authors, more than seven authors, in-text citation.

The in-text citation is written inside the parentheses usually with the last name of the author and year of publication, separated by a comma.

(Spencer & Peters, 2007)

If the name of the author is included within the text, write only the year inside the parentheses.

Spencer & Peters (2007)

In quoting a part of a work, include the name of the author, year, and page number.

(Burke, 2011, p. 18)

Burke (2011, p. 18)

Reference List

Published Conference Proceedings

Editor (Ed.). (Year). Proceedings from Title of Conference. Place of publication: Name of Publisher.

Example: Stark, B. M. (Ed.). (2004). Proceedings from the 7 th Annual Conference on Business Management: Industry Trends. Detroit, MI: Craig.

Conference Paper in Published Proceedings

Basic Format: Author. (Year). Title of Paper . In Editor (Ed.), Paper presented at Title of Conference (pages). Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example: Hayes, R. & Murray, I. (2004). Consumers and Product Prices. In P. D. Garcia, Paper presented at the 7 th Annual Conference on Business Management: Industry Trends (pp. 7-10). Detroit, MI: Craig.

Basic Format: Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of Paper. Paper presented at Title of Conference. doi:0000000/000000000000 or http://dx.doi.org/10.0000/0000

Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of Paper. Paper presented at Title of Conference. Place of publication: Publisher.

Stevens, K. L. (2004, December 6). Online Marketing. Paper presented at the 7 th Annual Conference on Business Management: Industry Trends. doi:10.1024/LR.1205.208

Stevens, K. L. (2004, December 6). Online Marketing. Paper presented at the 7 th Annual Conference on Business Management: Industry Trends. Detroit, MI: Craig.

Unpublished Conference Paper

Basic Format: Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of Paper . Paper presented at Title of Conference, City, State.

Example: Owens, R. (2004, December 6). Booming Business in 2004. Paper presented at the 7 th Annual Conference on Business Management: Industry Trends, Detroit, MI.

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / APA Format / How to Cite a Conference Paper in APA

How to Cite a Conference Paper in APA

Last name, FM. (Year published). Title of Paper or Proceedings, Title of Conference, Location, Date. Place of publication: Publisher.

Cloyd, AM. (2014). Surveying students: A look at citation habits of college students, presented at EasyBib Info Lit Conference, New York City, 2014. New York, NY: EasyBib Publishing.

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

Citation Examples

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You should not use URL if the DOI number is present. The following rules will help you identify when to use DOIs and when to use URLs in references:

The in-text citation of a conference paper in APA is similar to the in-text citations used for a journal article or a book chapter. You need to know the names of the author and the publication year to cite a conference paper. Here, you can see in-text citation templates and examples for APA conference papers with one, two, and more than two authors.

Author Surname (Publication Year)

Goldstein (1999)

Parenthetical:

(Author Surname, Publication Year)

(Goldstein, 1999)

Two authors

Author Surname1 and Author Surname2 (Publication Year)

Thomas and Solomon (1998)

(Author Surname1 & Author Surname2, Publication Year)

(Thomas & Solomon, 1998)

More than two authors

Author Surname1 et al. (Publication Year)

David et al. (2004)

(Author Surname1 et al., Publication Year)

(David et al., 2004)

APA Citation Examples

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Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts

Conference Presentations

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

This resource provides a detailed overview of the common types of conference papers and sessions graduate students can expect, followed by pointers on presenting conference papers for an audience.

Types of conference papers and sessions

Panel presentations are the most common form of presentation you will encounter in your graduate career. You will be one of three to four participants in a panel or session (the terminology varies depending on the organizers) and be given fifteen to twenty minutes to present your paper. This is often followed by a ten-minute question-and-answer session either immediately after your presentation or after all of the speakers are finished. It is up to the panel organizer to decide upon this framework. In the course of the question-and-answer session, you may also address and query the other panelists if you have questions yourself. Note that you can often propose a conference presentation by yourself and be sorted onto a panel by conference organizers, or you can propose a panel with a group of colleagues. Self-proposed panels typically have more closely related topics than conference-organized panels.

Roundtables feature an average of five to six speakers, each of whom gets the floor for approximately five to ten minutes to speak on their respective topics and/or subtopics. At times, papers from the speakers might be circulated in advance among the roundtable members or even prospective attendees.

Workshops feature one or a few organizers, who usually give a brief presentation but spend the majority of the time for the session facilitating an activity that attendees will do. Some common topics for these sessions typically include learning a technology or generating some content, such as teaching materials.

Lightning talks (or Ignite talks, or Pecha Kucha talks) are very short presentations where presenters' slide decks automatically advance after a few seconds; most individual talks are no longer than 5 minutes, and a lightning talk session typically invites 10 or more presenters to participate over the course of an hour or two rather than limiting the presenters like a panel presentation. A lightning talk session will sometimes be held as a sort of competition where attendees can vote for the best talk.

SIGs (Special Interest Groups) are groups of scholars focused on a particular smaller topic within the purview of the larger conference. The structure of these sessions varies by conference and even by group, but in general they tend to be structured either more like a panel presentation, with presenters and leaders, or more like a roundtable, with several speakers and a particular meeting agenda. These styles resemble, respectively, a miniconference focusing on a particular topic and a committee meeting.

Papers with respondents are structured around a speaker who gives an approximately thirty-minute paper and a respondent who contributes their own thoughts, objections, and further questions in the following fifteen minutes. Finally, the speaker gets that same amount of time to formulate their reply to the respondent.

Poster presentations ask participants to visually display their ideas on a research poster, which is typically displayed with other research posters in a specific area at a conference. The poster needs to be understandable on its own (without the author) as viewers sometimes look through the posters outside the bounds of the poster session, which is a scheduled period of time where poster authors stand with their posters and engage viewers in conversation about the work. Research posters have long tended to follow common templates for design, but in recent years some scholars have begun challenging these templates for improved usability (for example, the Better Poster campaign as described here or the APA template based on the original, here.

Presenting the conference paper

Aim to take less time than you are given! If your presentation slot is 15 minutes, aim for 13 or 14 when you practice. A little leeway and a slightly shorter presentation is a courtesy to your audience and to your fellow presenters, and will not at all imply that you are unprepared or unprofessional — in fact, being able to keep well within your allotted time is the mark of a good presenter.

Make sure you speak slowly and clearly, using accessibility aids if available such as a microphone or closed captioning on a slide deck. Many presenters have begun bringing accessibility copies of their talks, which are printed transcripts of the talk using a larger font for audience members who need them. It is also becoming increasingly common for presenters at conferences to share their slides and copies of their talk via a shortened link or QR code found on the bottom of the slides so that audiences may access them later or even while they are in your session.

The conventions for presentation differ based on field. Some fields tend toward reading papers aloud with very little audiovisual accompaniment; others use slide decks; others speak extemporaneously. You can find out more about typical practices in your field by attending conferences yourself and by asking mentors. Generally, you will be able to improve the accessibility of your presentation if you have a visual accompaniment and prepared remarks.

Even in fields where presenters tend to read papers verbatim, it is rarely a good idea to bring a paper from a class or another research paper you have written without editing it for an oral presentation. Seminar papers tend to be too long to read in 15 minutes, and often lead to graduate students surpassing their time limits. Moreover, research papers are meant to be read — they lack the kinds of repetition and simple sentence structure that are more beneficial to listeners. Finally, conference presentations do not serve the same purposes as most class papers — typically in a class, you're expected to show that you have understood the material, but at a conference, listeners are more interested in hearing what contributions you have that might help them in their own research. It's typical to move the bulk of your literature review to an appendix or another document so that you can discuss other scholarship in the area if it comes up in the Q&A, but during your presentation you're left free to focus on your own methods and findings. (Many presenters will even say: "I'm skipping a lot of [X material] for the sake of time, but I'm happy to discuss it later with anyone who's interested.")

Since you will present your paper orally, you may repeat important points and say more about the structure of the essay than a written submission to a journal (or a paper for your undergraduate or graduate courses) would require. This often means signposting orally when you are moving to a new section of the paper or when you are shifting to a new idea. The thesis of your paper should come early in your presentation to give listeners a clear understanding of what is to follow. At this point, you may also overview or forecast your paper and tell listeners how you will move from one argument to the next. It is generally advised to quickly summarize your important points in a bulleted list at the end of your presentation to remind everyone of the two or three most essential arguments or findings.

If you use a slide presentation, you may want to follow the guidelines presented in the OWL resource, Designing an Effective PowerPoint Presentation .

APA Citations (7th ed.): Conference Sessions and Presentations

Conference Sessions & Presentations

Conference sessions and presentations include:

Include a label in square brackets after the title that matches how the presentation was described at the conference: include all authors listed as contributing, even if they were not physically present.

The date should match the date(s) of the full conference to help readers find the source, even though a session or presentation is likely to cocur on only one day.

Include the location of the conference to help with retrieval.

Conference proceedings published in a journal or book follow the same format as for a journal article, edited book, or edited book chapter.

Template for Conference Sessions & Presentations

Template for Symposium Contributions

Conference Session

Fistek, A., Jester, E., & Sonnenberg, K. (2017, July 12–15). Everybody's got a little music in them: Using music therapy to connect, engage, and motivate [Conference session]. Autism Society National Conference, Milwaukee, WI, United States. https://asa.confex.com/asa/2017/webprogramarchives/Session9517.html

Peters, I. (2019, September 24-26). What is quality in open science? [Conference session]. Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association Annual Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark. https://oaspavideos.org/conference/videos-2019

Parenthetical citations: (Fistek et al., 2017; Peters, 2019)

Narrative citations: Fistek et al. (2017) and Peters (2019)

Paper Presentation

Maddox, S., Hurling, J., Stewart, E., & Edwards, A. (2016, March 30–April 2). If mama ain't happy, nobody's happy: The effect of parental depression on mood dysregulation in children [Paper presentation]. Southeastern Psychological Association 62nd Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Rutledge, L., LeMire, S., & Mowdood, A. (2015, March 25–28). Dare to perform: Using organizational competencies to manage job performance [Paper presentation]. Association of College & Research Libraries 2015 Annual Conference, Portland, OR, United States. http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2015/Rutledge_LeMire_Mowdood.pdf

Parenthetical citations: (Maddox et al., 2016; Rutledge et al., 2015)

Narrative citations: Maddox et al. (2016) and Rutledge et al. (2015)

Poster Presentation

Craig, S. (2019, April 10–14). The cultural importance of obsidian in the upper Gila area [Poster presentation]. Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM, United States. https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/free-resources/conference-posters/

Parenthetical citation: (Craig, 2019)

Narrative citation: Craig (2019)

Symposium Contribution

De Boer, D., & LaFavor, T. (2018, April 26–29). The art and significance of successfully identifying resilient individuals: A person-focused approach. In A. M. Schmidt & A. Kryvanos (Chairs), Perspectives on resilience: Conceptualization, measurement, and enhancement [Symposium]. Western Psychological Association 98th Annual Convention, Portland, OR, United States.

Parenthetical citation: (De Boer & LaFavor, 2018)

Narrative citation: De Boer and LaFavor (2018)

APA 7th Edition Guide

Get Help Now

Or try these options:, get help from additional services in the library:, conference presentation.

For conference presentations, include the presenters' names, the dates of the entire conference, the title of the presentation, a description of the presentation, the name of the conference, the location of the conference, and a link if it is available.

The description of the presentation is flexible and should be included in square brackets after the title: e.g. [Conference presentation], [Poster session], [Keynote address], [Paper presentation], etc.

Reference Page Format:

Presenter, P. P. (Year, Month Days). Title of the presentation [Description of the presentation]. Title of Conference. City, State, and Country where the conference took place. Hyperlink.

Reference Page Example:

Sanentz, S. N., & Lesk, M. (2015, November 6-10). Toward a semantic stability index (SSI) via a preliminary exploration of translation looping [Poster session]. 78th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Information Science with Impact: Research in and for the Community, St. Louis, MO, United States. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2857143

In-text Citation Examples:

Sanentz and Lesk (2015) shared that ... ...( Sanentz & Lesk, 2015 ).

Conference Publication

Conference publications can vary in how they are formatted, generally being published in the form of journal articles, whole books, or book chapters. Determine which option best fits the source you found and cite it as you would a journal article , book , or book chapter .

Below is an example of a conference publication formatted similarly to a chapter in a book.

Author, A. A. (Year of Publication). Title of article. In A. A. Editor, Title of conference proceeding. Publisher. DOI or URL

Erdelez, S., Howarth, L. C., & Gibson, T. (2015). How can information science contribute to Alzheimer's disease research? In Proceedings of the 78th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Information science with impact: Research in and for the communit y . Association of Information Science and Technology. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2857076

Erdelez et al. (2015) shared that ... ...( Erdelez et al., 2015).

Hamersly Library

APA Style Guide 7th Edition

GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS ANd Papers

Conference Sessions and Presentations

Author Last name, First Initials. (Year and Date of Conference ). Presentation title [description]. Name of conference, location. DOI or URL if available.

Paper Published in Proceedings

Author Last name, First Initials. (Year). Article title. In Editor First Initial, Last Name (Ed.) Name of Proceedings (Page numbers). DOI or URL if available.

EXAMPLES

Conference Session

Lippold, S., Rach, J. & Fritsch, A. (2020 February 13-14). Study program development: Building a bridge between tradition and innovation - An unusual approach [Workshop session]. 2020 European Learning & Teaching Forum, Utrecht, Netherlands .

Poster Presentation

Ofori, E. & Wu, D. (2018 February 14-16). Video-based learning: Understanding usability, benefits, and perception of using online educational videos [Poster session]. 2018 Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, Blacksburg, Virginia.

Pap er Published in Conference Proceedings

Both, L.E. (2019) Why are some people optimistic while others are not? In C. Pracana & M. Wang (Eds.), Psychological Applications and Trends 2019 (pp. 33-37). InScience Press.

https://doi.org/10.36315/2019inpact008

NOTES ABOUT AUTHOR, DATE, TITLE, AND SOURCE

For conference proceedings, list the page numbers in parentheses. For example (pp. 125-145).

Publisher

For conference proceedings, list the name of the publisher.

DOIs and URLs

Conference Proceeding References

This page contains reference examples for conference proceedings, including the following:

1. Conference proceedings published in a journal

Duckworth, A. L., Quirk, A., Gallop, R., Hoyle, R. H., Kelly, D. R., & Matthews, M. D. (2019). Cognitive and noncognitive predictors of success. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , USA , 116 (47), 23499–23504. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910510116

2. Conference proceedings published as a whole book

Kushilevitz, E., & Malkin, T. (Eds.). (2016). Lecture notes in computer science: Vol. 9562. Theory of cryptography . Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49096-9

3. Conference proceedings published as a book chapter

Bedenel, A.-L., Jourdan, L., & Biernacki, C. (2019). Probability estimation by an adapted genetic algorithm in web insurance. In R. Battiti, M. Brunato, I. Kotsireas, & P. Pardalos (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science: Vol. 11353. Learning and intelligent optimization (pp. 225–240). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05348-2_21

This guidance has been revised from the 6th edition.

APA 7th Referencing Guide

Conference papers from a journal

Conference papers from a book, conference papers available online.

If the conference presentation is available online through the conference's website, use the format below.

Reference elements

Screenshot of an annotated online conference paper reference

In-text citation

Describe the presentation in square brackets after the title. e.g. [Conference session], [Paper presentation], [Poster session], [Keynote address] etc.

If the conference paper has been published in a journal (such as conference proceedings), use the format below.

Screenshot of an annotated reference of a conference paper from a journal

If the conference paper has been published in a book, use the format below.

Screenshot of an annotated reference of a conference paper from a book

For more information, see book chapters .

NOTE: This page contains the correct format for both recorded and non-recorded webinars.

Screenshot of an annotated reference of a recorded webinar

Library Catalogue

Citing conferences: APA (7th ed.) citation guide

This guide is based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed. It provides selected citation examples for common types of sources. For more detailed information consult directly a print copy of the style manual.

Keep track of your document references/citations and format your reference lists easily with Citation management software .

Conference keynote addresses, paper presentations, poster presentations, sessions

Refer to APA's Conference presentation references or consult the guide directly (Section 10.5, textual works, pp. 332-333).

Reference list example

Fairey, E. & McKenzie, J. (2012, May 30—June 2). "If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”: Simon Fraser University Library’s liaison librarian service review [Presentation]. CLA 2012 National Conference and Trade Show, Ottawa, ON.

Bodnar, M. (2016, May 30—June 2). Problems as possibilities: A Topic Generation Portal to help instructors efficiently draft assignment topics [Poster presentation]. WILU 2016 Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Reference in text example

(Bodnar, 2016)

(Fairey & McKenzie, 2012)

Conference proceedings

Refer to APA's Conference proceedings references or consult the guide (Section 10.5, textual works, p.332).

Published conference proceedings may be cited either like chapters in edited books (first example) or like journal articles (second example). This will depend on whether the publication is treated as a series (e.g. has an ISBN and an editor) or as a periodical (i.e. it is published annually).

Iyengar, S. S., & DeVoe, S. E. (2003). Rethinking the value of choice: Considering cultural mediators of intrinsic motivation. In R. Dienstbier (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 49 . Cross-cultural differences in perspectives on the self (pp. 129-174). University of Nebraska Press.

Shennan, S. (2008). Canoes and cultural evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 , 3416-3420. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800666105

(Iyengar & DeVoe, 2003)

(Shennan, 2008)

Capitalize the name of the symposium, conference or meeting (Chapter 6, Capitalization, p. 165).

Symposium contribution

Reference of this type of document uses the works that are part of a greater whole format , that is, like a chapter in an edited book or an article in a journal.

Consult example 63 in the guide (Section 10.5, textual works, p. 333).

Lane, J. (2013, May 13—15). Teaching as the class clown: What clowning can bring to the classroom and the lecture hall. In C. Kurbis (Chair), Embracing Change at SFU [Symposium]. 13th Symposium on Teaching and Learning, Burnaby, BC, Canada.

(Lane, 2013)

We have updated our APA citation guide to APA 7.

Looking for APA 6? See "Still using the 6th edition of the APA Style Guide?" in General notes & additional sources .

APA 6th referencing style

Published conference paper

Unpublished conference paper, conference paper from proceedings published regularly online.

APA Referencing – How to Cite a Conference Paper

2-minute read

8th June 2016

So you’ve been to an academic conference and you want to cite a presentation you’ve seen. Or maybe you’ve just read the conference proceedings and want to cite them.

Either way, APA referencing has specific rules for citing a conference paper, so make sure you know how it’s supposed to be done!

In-Text Citations

In-text citations for a conference paper use the standard APA referencing style of giving the author’s name, year of publication and relevant page numbers in parentheses:

Many academic conferences are “oversubscribed” (Chatterton, 2002, p. 16).

If the author is named in the text, simply give the year of publication afterwards, followed by page numbers after the quoted text:

According to Chatterton (2002), many academic conferences are “oversubscribed” (p. 16).

If you’re citing the entire proceedings of a conference, give the editor’s name in place of an author.

Reference List: Conference Proceedings

The papers presented at a conference are often published as “conference proceedings.” If you’ve cited the proceedings of a conference as a whole, the information you’ll need to provide in the reference list includes:

Editor Name, Initial. (ed.) (Year). Title of conference: Subtitle, Location, Date . Publisher.

For instance, the proceedings from a (fictional) conference about academic conferences would appear in an APA reference list as:

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Ditor, E. (ed.) (2002). Getting together: The academic benefits , Atlanta, June 2002. PME Publications.

Reference List: Published Conference Papers

Rather than citing the entire proceedings, you’ll often want to cite a single presentation you’ve seen or read. For a published paper, the reference list entry should include:

Author Name, Initial. (Year). Paper title. In: Editor Name (ed.). Title of Conference, Location, Date (page range). Publisher.

So a paper from our fictional meta-conference would appear in the reference list as:

Chatterton, T. (2002). Anachronisms and conferences. In: Ed Ditor (ed.). Getting together: The academic benefits , Atlanta, June 2002 (pp. 15-23). PME Publications.

Reference List: Unpublished Conference Papers

You can also cite a conference paper that hasn’t been published, but the format here is a little different:

Author Name, Initial. (Year, Month). Paper title. Paper presented at Conference Title, Location of Conference.

An unpublished version of the Chatterton paper used in the example above would therefore appear in an APA reference list as:

Chatterton, T. (2002, June). Anachronisms and conferences . Paper presented at Getting Together: The Academic Benefits, Atlanta, Atlanta Metropolitan State College.

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How to Cite a Speech in APA Style: Guide with Examples

Published 10 Mar 2023

Citing a speech in APA 7th edition style is one of those challenges that many students face these days when they have to provide support for an argument or an idea. When you are majoring in Law or Political Sciences, dealing with speeches in various formats is inevitable. To learn how to cite a speech in APA format, you must start with a template and see the examples that we provide. Luckily, APA 7 manual style makes it easy to create a reference. The only thing that you have to consider is the type of speech and the format of the original source. It will help your target audience and the college professor to see how to locate the speech and what medium has been used.

How to Cite a Speech in APA: Main Rules

Let us review the information that you have to include when you need to reference a speech in your paper. For example, when you are dealing with an audio recording that represents some speech available online, you must mention the speaker, the date when it has been recorded, and place the speech title in italics. Also, you must use square brackets as this is where you must specify the type of your speech. It should look like [Speech audio recording]. Then you have to add the website's name where the speech can be downloaded (heard) and add the URL. While it is not obligatory as you learn how to cite a speech in APA style, you may specify the timestamp to help your readers find the location as you use the in-text citation. Let's sum things up:

APA Speech Template

Speaker's Last Name, Initial(s). (Year, Month Day). Title of your speech . [Speech audio recording]. Website's Name. URL

APA Speech Reference

Luther King, M. Jr. (1968 April 4). I've been to the Mountaintop . [Speech audio recording]. American Rhetoric. https://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/History/-/Ive-Been-to-the-Mountaintop/16724

(Luther King, 1968, 2:17)

As for the other types and formats of a speech that can be cited in APA style, you may be dealing with a conference, a paper presentation, or deal with the personal communication source. Now, if you have to cite a TED Talk or something that has been uploaded to YouTube, you must use the referencing conventions for video citations since it is a different quote type.

Citing a Paper Presentation

When you are asked to cite a paper presentation that is related to an academic conference by turning to APA 7th edition style , you should use the following rules. Remember to include the date by stating the range of days as you can see below:

APA Citation Template

Author's Last Name, Initial(s). (Year, Month Day-Day). Title of the Document [Paper presentation]. Conference Name, City, State, Country. URL

APA Citation Reference

Holmes, N. (2015, May 11-15). Social disparity and the challenges of the school attendance problem in Scotland [Paper presentation]. SSNCV 2015: Education in Scotland Open Conference, Aberdeen, UK.

APA Speech in-Text

(Holmes, 2015)

Note: when you have to cite a published conference that comes from an academic journal or a book that is available in print, the APA 7th manual recommends using the relevant citation rules for each specific source. Using APA how to cite a speech rules means that you should either choose the book citation style or the academic journal referencing system.

Citing Speeches as Personal Communications

There are also specific scenarios when it is not possible to access the speech that has been cited because it has not been recorded and the transcript that you may have has not been a part of the official conference. In such a case, you must turn to the personal communications style that is offered by the APA style format. It is common for those cases when the target audience members are not able to access the piece of cited data themselves. If something belongs to sources that are not retrievable, it does not appear in the list of references. It includes personal communications as well. When dealing with such a reference type, you only have to mention it in your in-text citation.

Personal Communication Citation Example:

The subject of domestic violence in Chicago's suburbs has been researched in the speech (R. Barley, personal communication, June 4, 2022).

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COMMENTS

Citing a Conference Paper in APA Style
Citing a conference paper published in a journal Conference papers are sometimes published in journals. To cite one of these, use the same format as you would for any journal article. Citing a conference paper published in a book Conference papers may also be collected in book form.
Conference presentation references
The description is flexible (e.g., " [Conference session]," " [Paper presentation]," " [Poster session]," " [Keynote address]"). Provide the name of the conference or meeting and its location in the source element of the reference. If video of the conference presentation is available, include a link at the end of the reference. 2.
Conference Papers
APA (7th Edition) Referencing Guide Published conference papers If a conference paper has been published (for example, in a proceedings), the published form is usually either a chapter of an edited book or an article in a journal. Cite it according to the appropriate pattern.
APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Conferences
Note: Conference sessions, papers, and posters all follow the same citation style. The only change is in the brackets following the title of the contribution, denoting the format. Use the description provided by the conference, e.g. [Poster presentation], [Key-note address], [Conference session], etc.
Conference Presentations
Conference Presentations - APA Style 7th Edition: Citing Your Sources - Research Guides at University of Southern California Standard Format Adapted from American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000 Formatting Rules
APA 7th Edition Citation Examples: Conference Papers
Format for conference paper Format: Author last name, first initial. (Date). Title of contribution [Paper presentation]. Conference Name, Location. DOI or URL Elements: Author: List the last name, followed by the first initial (and second initial). See Authors for more information. Date: List the date between parentheses, followed by a period.
Conference Presentations
Paper Presentation or Poster Session Presenter Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year, Month). Title of paper or poster session. Paper presented at the meeting of Organization Name, Location. Various Examples Last Updated: Sep 22, 2022 11:20 AM https://libguides.usc.edu/APA-citation-style
APA Conference Citation
Conference Paper in Published Proceedings In Print Basic Format: Author. (Year). Title of Paper. In Editor (Ed.), Paper presented at Title of Conference (pages). Place of Publication: Publisher. Example: Hayes, R. & Murray, I. (2004). Consumers and Product Prices.
How to Cite a Conference Paper in APA
How to Cite a Conference Paper in APA 3.6 51) Citation Generator Source Type Search Structure: Last name, FM. (Year published). Title of Paper or Proceedings, Title of Conference, Location, Date. Place of publication: Publisher. Example: Cloyd, AM. (2014).
Conference Presentations
Types of conference papers and sessions Panel presentations are the most common form of presentation you will encounter in your graduate career. You will be one of three to four participants in a panel or session (the terminology varies depending on the organizers) and be given fifteen to twenty minutes to present your paper.
APA Citations (7th ed.): Conference Sessions and Presentations
Paper presentations Poster sessions Keynote addresses Symposium contributions Include a label in square brackets after the title that matches how the presentation was described at the conference: include all authors listed as contributing, even if they were not physically present.
Conference Presentations and Publications
For conference presentations, include the presenters' names, the dates of the entire conference, the title of the presentation, a description of the presentation, the name of the conference, the location of the conference, and a link if it is available.
Conference Papers/Presentations
For papers published in conference proceedings, just list the year in parentheses. Presentation Title For conference sessions and poster sessions, italicize the title. Include in brackets, the type of session. For papers published in conference proceedings, use regular font.
Conference proceeding references
Conference proceedings published as a whole book Conference proceedings published as a book chapter 1. Conference proceedings published in a journal Duckworth, A. L., Quirk, A., Gallop, R., Hoyle, R. H., Kelly, D. R., & Matthews, M. D. (2019). Cognitive and noncognitive predictors of success.
Library Guides: APA 7th referencing style: Conferences
This is a guide to using the APA 7th referencing style from the American Psychological Association. It is based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Conference paper Poster presentation Cancelled conference paper << Previous: ChatGPT and other generative AI tools Next: Dataset >> Last Updated: Mar 3, 2023 12:32 PM
Conference papers and webinars
e.g. [Conference session], [Paper presentation], [Poster session], [Keynote address] etc. Conference papers from a journal If the conference paper has been published in a journal (such as conference proceedings), use the format below.
Citing conferences: APA (7th ed.) citation guide
Refer to How to create an APA Style reference for a cancelled conference presentation. Conference proceedings. Refer to APA's Conference proceedings references or consult the guide (Section 10.5, textual works, p.332). Published conference proceedings may be cited either like chapters in edited books (first example) or like journal articles ...
Library Guides: APA 6th referencing style: Conferences
Conference paper from proceedings published regularly online. Elements of the reference. Author (s) of paper - last name and initials, use & for multiple authors. (Year of publication). Title of conference paper. Proceedings name - italicised, Volume - italicised (Issue or number), Page number (s). doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx.
APA Referencing
Reference List: Published Conference Papers. Rather than citing the entire proceedings, you'll often want to cite a single presentation you've seen or read. For a published paper, the reference list entry should include: Author Name, Initial. (Year). Paper title. In: Editor Name (ed.). Title of Conference, Location, Date (page range).
11. Conference papers and proceedings
11. Conference papers and proceedings. When citing from a one-off proceeding, use the same format as for a book or book chapter. For regularly published proceedings use the same format as journal articles. 1. PUBLISHED PAPERS. Capitalise the names of symposia, conferences, and meetings. a) Information literacy can be ….
How to Cite a Speech in APA Style: Guide with Examples
Note: when you have to cite a published conference that comes from an academic journal or a book that is available in print, the APA 7th manual recommends using the relevant citation rules for each specific source. Using APA how to cite a speech rules means that you should either choose the book citation style or the academic journal referencing system.