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Research Guides

JDM3619: Digital Media Distribution

A guide to business research tools available at UTL

Writing help through the School of Graduate Studies

The School of Graduate Studies (SGS) offers free writing help for native and non-native speakers of English through the Graduate Centre for Academic Communication (CGAC). There offerings include workshops, personal consultation appointments, courses, and writing boot camps. See their website for more details!

http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/currentstudents/Pages/GCAC.aspx

Citing your Sources & Creating your Bibliography

APA Citation Style

APA style is the preferred citation format in business and management. The guidelines on when and how to properly cite your sources in APA Style can be found in the American Psychological Association's Publication Manual.

APA style includes two key elements that you must include in your assignment:

  • In-text citations which identify the sources for specific ideas that you use in your writing (incl. page number for exact quotes)
  • Reference list (bibliography) which provides other readers with the citation information to find the sources for their own review.  

Resource for APA Style

(Scroll further down for workshop examples of citing reports)

Examples in APA style

Reports

Market and Company reports fall under the category of gray literature (a type of material that has not been published in book or journal form and is often produced by government departments, corporations, and other organizations (e.g., technical and research reports, annual reports, brochures and fact sheets, press releases, and white papers). Grey literature can be either print or online resources.

Gray literature should be cited like a book, with author (or organizational author), year of publicationtitle (in italics), and either publisher information (for printed documents) or ‘Retrieved from’ and URL (for online material).

Additionally, you will include when available:

  • Report number or series 
  • Description of form (for less typical types of resources (e.g., brochures, press releases, white papers, fact sheets). 

 

General Reference Format

 Author, A. A. (year). Title of work (Report No. xxx) [Description of form]. Retrieved from Agency Name

website: http://xxxxx

 

Example 1: Market report downloaded from business database

Using this TechNavio report that we found in Factiva database, we can examine the cover and end pages to pull the relevant information for the citation and apply the APA style (see images below): 

a) In-Text citation: an online report from business database

Cover of report - title and report series title are highlighted

(Author's last name, A. A. or Corporate Author's Name, Publication Year, page number for direct quotes)

  • Paraphrase: (TechNavio, 2015)
  • Direct quote: "truck routing software, in-cab scanning services, and freight tracking" (TechNavio, 2015, p. 27)
b) Reference List: an online report from business database

Author, F.M. (Publication Year). Title of report(Report No. XXX). Retrieved from Business database. 

   TechNavio. (2015). Global fleet management system market 2015- 2019(TechNavio Insights). Retrieved

           from Factiva database: Factiva.com

 

 

Example 2: Annual Report downloaded from company website 

cover of PACCAR 2015 Annual Report

a) In-Text citation: Document from company website

(Author's Last Name or Corporate Author's Name, Year)

  • Paraphrase: (PACCAR Inc., 2015)
  • Direct quote: "The new driver assist systems integrate cruise control with global positioning system data to anticipate roadcontours, enabling the PACCAR MX-13 engine to achieve outstanding fuel economy" (PACCAR Inc., 2015, p.26).

 

b) Reference List: Document from company website

Author's last name, A. A. or Corporate Author's Name. (Year report was published/updated, Month Day if given).
       Title of report: Subtitle if applicable (Pub. No. if given). Retrieved from URL

PACCAR Inc. (2015). 2015 Annual Report. Retrieved from: http://www.paccar.com/media/2486/paccar-ar-2015.pdf

Citation Management

IMPORTANT NOTE! Some databases like EBSCO and Proquest have built-in citation makers. While these are great to help you get started, your citations usually need some fine-tuning before they fully conform the citation styles.