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Albert S. Cook Library

APA Style

Citation guide for the Publication Manual for the American Psychological Association (7th ed).

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Determining Authorship

Audiovisual media is defined by the APA as media that may have both visual and audio components, audio components only or visual components only. The basic format for each is the same, although the pattern is based on whether the work stands alone or is part of a greater whole (e.g. a whole TV series or a single TV series episode). 

The author is determined by the type of media you are citing. 

Media Type Include as the Author
Film Director
TV series Executive producer(s)
TV series episode Writer and director of the episode
Modern music album or song Recording artist
Webinar Instructor
Online streaming video Person or group who uploaded the video

 

Audiovisual Works

Film

Director, A. A. (Director). (Date). Title of work [Description of media]. Production Company. URL

Fleming, V. (Director), (1939). The wizard of Oz [Film]. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 

TV series

Producer, A.A. (Executive Producer). (Date range). Title of work [Description]. Production Company. URL if available

Simon, D., Colesberry, R.F., & Kostroff Noble, N. (Executive Producers). (2002-2008). The wire [TV series]. Blown Productions, HBO.

Duffer, M., Duffer, R. (Writer & Director). (2016-present). Stranger things. [TV series]. 21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre, & Netflix. 

TV episode

Writer, A.A. (Writer), & Director, A.A. (Director). (Original Air Date). Title of episode (Season No., Episode No.) [Description]. In A.A. Producer's (Executive Producer), Title of TV series. Production Company. URL if available

Pelecanos, G. (Writer), Chappelle, J. (Director). (2004, December 12). Middle ground (Season 3, Episode 11) [TV series episode]. In J. Chappelle's (Executive Producer), The Wire. Blown Productions, HBO. 

Trefry, K. (Writer), Stanton, A. (Director). (2017 October 27). Chapter six: The spy (Season 2, Episode 6) [Series episode]. In M. Duffer and R. Duffer's (Executive Producers), Stranger things. 21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre, & Netflix.

TED Talk

When citing from the TED website directly, list the speaker as the author; when citing from YouTube, integrate the speakers' name into the tile of the talk and list the owner of the YouTube account as the author.

Bu, L. (2013 February). How books can open your mind [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_bu_how_books_can_open_your_mind?referrer=playlist-a_love_letter_to_libraries

TED. (2013 February). Lisa Bu: How books can open your mind [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/6ibCtsHgz3Y

YouTube video or other streaming video

The person or group who uploaded the video is listed as the author, even if they did not create the work. 

Albert S. Cook Library. (2017 November 13). Using Google in a scholarly way: Advanced search. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/UQqNz0DL7IE

Fogarty, M. [Grammar Girl]. (2016, September 30). How to diagram a sentence (absolute basics) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/deiEY5Yq1ql 

Koshkin, M. (2017 October 5). Ode to joy [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/236904749

Conference session and presentations

Presenter, A.A. (Date of presentation). Title of contribution [Type of contribution]. Conference Name, Location. DOI or URL

Connaway, L.S., Hammond, J., Harvey, W., Kitzie, V., & Mikitish, S. (2017, March 23). Changing track: a future-focused ACRL research agenda [conference session]. Association College and Research Libraries Conference, Baltimore, MD, United States. https://www.oclc.org/research/themes/user-studies/acrl-agenda.html

Audio Works

Only include a URL in the reference if that location is the only means of retrieval for the audience. For example, if the artist has only released music in one location, like their personal website. Otherwise, omit the URL in your reference citation.

Music album

Parton, D. (2014).  Blue smoke [Album]. Dolly Records. 

Single song

Beyoncé. (2016). Formation [Song]. On Lemonade. Parkwood; Columbia 

No associated album

Childish Gambino. (2018) This is America [Song]. mcDJ; RCA 

Podcast 

Abumrad, J. (Host). (2019-present). Dolly Parton's America [Audio podcast]. WNYC Studios. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america

Podcast episode

Mars, R. (Host). (2019, March 19). Palaces for the people (No. 346) [Audio podcast episode]. In 99% Invisible. Radiotopia. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/palaces-for-the-people/

Visual Works

Artwork

The same format is used for all types of artwork, including paintings, photographs, sculptures, and installations. Always include a description of the format in brackets after the title. If the work is untitled, include a brief description in square brackets in place of a title.

Artist, A.A., (Date). Title of work [Description]. Museum Name, Museum Location. URL

Leyster, J. (1630). Self-portrait [Painting]. National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Josephson, N. (2015). Papa Legba at the Amen Clinic [Mixed media sculpture]. American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, United States. http://www.avam.org/exhibitions/great-mystery-show.shtml

Infographic

Only use this format to cite, not reproduce, an infographic.

American Library Association. (2018). Top 11 challenged books of 2018 [Infographic]. Banned & Challenged Books Infographics. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/statistics

Photographs and images

This format is for use for images and photographs not associated with a museum. The source is the name of the site from which the photograph was retrieved. If there is no title available for the image, include a description in square brackets in place of the title. To cite an image found from a web search, like Google Images, you must cite the original source creator or owner. 

El-Mofty, N. (2018 February 13). Yemen starving mothers [Photograph]. Associated Press. http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Yemen-Starving-Mothers/8512e56dfbc64c85ba3d12d1c0fa0b0d/58/1

PowerPoint slides or lecture notes

If you are citing slides from a course management site, like Blackboard, and you are writing for an audience with access, provide the URL.

Speight, M. (2018). [Lecture notes on Cook library website resources]. Albert S. Cook Library, Towson University. https://towson.libraries.edu/resourcepage 

Swift, T. & West, K. (2018) Conflict resolution tips for musicians [PowerPoint slides]. Blackboard@TU. https://towson.blackboard.edu