Ignoring the Rules – APA 6th and Electronic Editions
May 17, 2012
We’ve been discussing APA 6th in our office this week and have come to a rather interesting conclusion – that the recommended reference style for electronic versions of print books should simply be ignored and that they should simply be referenced as if they were print.
The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(APA 6th) has made a valiant, but perhaps not very helpful, attempt to get to grips with electronic book formats by distinguishing them from print formats.
Follow up:
The example APA 6th gives is worth showing in full – you will find it on p203 –
Entire book, print version
Shotton, M.A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency. London, England: Taylor & Francis.
Electronic version of print book
Shotton, M.A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency [DX Reader version]. Retrieved from http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/html/index.asp
It is useful that the examples are of the same book because it makes the intention clear – where a book has been consulted electronically, information about the format is privileged over information about the original publisher and place of publication. Actually that’s not quite true – the DX Reader version was clearly not in existence in 1989 so the reference for the electronic version has taken its date from the print version. There is no publisher information given, although in this case the URL (http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/html/index.asp) does point to the Taylor & Francis bookstore. If it had been a Kindle version, however, the URL would have been simply to the Amazon website.
Now, it’s tempting at this point just to follow APA 6th but I think there is a strong case to be made for ignoring their advice and simply referencing the print version even when the copy you have seen has been on a web page or e-reader. This would be particularly the case where the electronic version is either a facsimile of the print edition (books from Massey Library’s EBL collection, for example) or uses its pagination, as many e-reader versions do. Why would we do this?
We need to think about the purpose of referencing. It is –
a) To identify the work and edition
b) To allow the reader to find the work
c) In most cases, especially with references to books, to allow the reader to see what the work said, particularly through referring them to specific numbered pages.
By these criteria the APA 6th reference is deficient on all counts. By ignoring all relevant information apart from author, date and title it fails to allow for the possibility of different editions published in the same year which may have different paginations and illustrations and even quite different content in some cases. If specific pages have been cited in the text, the edition/page number combination is the closest we can come to an absolute in allowing the reader to examine the passage that the author is citing. Page numbers in e-books are primarily based on the print edition – electronic versions sometimes have location numbers but these will vary between different e-readers which is why they often retain the page numbers as well.
The place of publication and name of the publisher can also convey valuable information about the book – identifying New Zealand titles, for example, or distinguishing academic titles from popular ones. The URL pointing to the vendor is not an aid to finding the book – it simply points to one vendor and by omitting the publisher the reference becomes in effect promotional material for one supplier, much as if a product were advertised by the name of a shop rather than by brand name. What is worse, many electronic books do not have a stable URL that has universal meaning for all readers. For example a Massey student citing the bookAntimicrobial resistance in the environment would see the URL –
http://ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/login?URL=http://www.massey.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=818490 –
but this points Massey staff and students to our access to the book and would be of no help to anyone outside the institution. There is massive scope for confusion here.
It might seem a little strange to “go against” APA 6th, but there is a strong case for doing so in this instance. After all what one is saying in a reference is that “I have read (or consulted) book X and on page Y it says this.” Does anyone care that you read it on a Kindle or Kobo? Or will they be more interested to know that it was published in Australia by a major university press. I would argue for the latter and just ignore the American Psychological Association until they arrive at a more common-sense solution, as they have done with journals. That we may have looked at an electronic version really makes little more difference than if we cited a journal article that we had only seen a photocopy of – in the end it’s the details of the work we are citing that counts, not how we came to see it.
Bruce White
College Liaison
2 responses to “Ignoring the Rules – APA 6th and Electronic Editions”
Leave a Reply
Search posts
Categories
Tags
Recent Comments
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- March 2022
- January 2022
- November 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- September 2009
- November 2008
Can you please confirm, is this Massey University’s official position when it comes to referencing electronic books using APA 6? It’s on a Massey blog so I’m not sure how to interpret this opinion???
Hi Hamish. That’s a good point you raise but I’m afraid that this is only an opinion, albeit it one that has been thought over and discussed. I’m not personally aware of any mechanism through which Massey could arrive at an “official” position. Our ususal advice is to follow the APA rules but in this instance they were so deficient as to prompt this posting. In the end you need to produce the best and most useful references possible.