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APA 7th ed. Citation Guide: When Information Is Missing

Contains the latest changes and updates to APA Style

Missing Citation Information

 

Missing Components of a Citation

 

You may run into a situation where a source does not have all the information required for a citation, both reference entry or in-text.  This table provides the recommended solution for handling those cases.

Missing element Solution Reference Entry In-text Citation
Nothing - all elements are present Provide the author, date, title, and source of the work. Author. (Date). Title. Source. (Author, year)
Author* Provide the title, date, and source. *If the Author is listed as Anonymous, use that as the Author name. Title. (Date). Source. (Title, year)
Date Provide the author, write "n.d." (no date), and then provide the title and source. Author. (n.d.). Title. Source (Author, n.d.)
Title Provide the author and date, describe the work in square brackets, and then provide the source. Author. (Date). [Description of work]. Source (Author, year)
Author and date Provide the title, write "n.d." (no date), and then provide the source. Title. (n.d.). Source (Title, n.d.)
Author and title Describe the work in square brackets, and then provide the date and source. [Description of work]. (Date). Source. ([Description of work], year)
Date and title Provide the author, write "n.d." (no date), describe the work in square brackets, and then provide the source. Author. (n.d.). [Description of work]. Source (Author, n.d.)
Author, date, and title Describe the work in square brackets, write "n.d." (no date) and then provide the source [Description of work]. (n.d.). Source ([Description of work]. n.d.)
Source Cite as a personal communication or find another work to cite. No reference list entry (C.C. Communicator, personal communication, month, day, year)
       

 

No Author

If no author or creator is provided, start the citation with the title/name of the item you are citing instead. Follow the title/name of the item with the date of publication, and the continue with other citation details.

Note: an author/creator won't necessarily be a person's name. It may be an organization or corporation, for example Health Canada or a username on a site such a YouTube.

In-Text

If no author or creator is provided, use a shortened version of the title where you'd normally put the author's last name. 

If you're citing something which is part of a bigger work, like an article from a magazine, newspaper, journal or encyclopedia, or chapter or short story from a book, put the shortened title in quotation marks in your in-text citation. 

Example, paraphrasing: ("A few words", 2014) 

If you're citing an entire work, like a book, website, video, etc., italicize the shortened title in your in-text citation

Example, 'paraphrasing: (A few words, 2014)

Anonymous

If and only if an item is signed as being created by Anonymous, use "Anonymous" where you'd normally put the author's name.

Alphabetical Order in References List

When putting works in alphabetical order, ignore initial articles such as "the", "a", or "an". For example the title The best of Canada would be alphabetized as if it started with the word best instead of the word The

If the title begins with a number, alphabetize it as if the number was spelled out. For example the title 5 ways to succeed in business would be alphabetized under F as if it had started with the word Five.

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