Citing Dissertations APA 6th Edition

emh1976
Zotero is not exporting dissertations (type=thesis) from a database service (e.g. ProQuest) according to APA 6th edition. The manual states:

For a doctoral dissertation or master's thesis available from a database service, use the following reference template:
Author, A. A. (2003). Title fo doctoral dissertation or master's thesis (Doctoral dissertation or master's thesis). Retrieved from Name of database. (Accession or Order No.)

The title should be italicized. In the case of ProQuest (the most used site at my institution), the Order No. is "UMI No."

Here is what Zotero currently exports:
Cotter-Lemus, K. (2009). Children of possibility: Children’s musicking in communities of practice (Ph.D.). University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College, United States -- Rhode Island. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/pqdtft/docview/305172971/abstract/137E5CE6C3767FA8431/16?accountid=14667

OR

Tsugawa, S. (2009). Senior adult music learning, motivation, and meaning construction in two New Horizons ensembles. Arizona State University, United States -- Arizona.

In the case of the first dissertation, it should read:
Cotter-Lemus, K. (2009). [IN ITALICS]Children of possibility: Children’s musicking in communities of practice[STOP ITALICS] (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (UMI No. 3401141)

I've read up on editing csi code, unfortunately, it's a little over my head. Does anyone have a suggestion? Can this be fixed in a future update?
Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    The problem is not so much the citation style - which afaict does most of this correctly - as the fact that metadata for dissertations comes poorly standardized, so you have to manually touch up items from proquest (and other dissertation databases).

    1. The title should be italicized already - if not - are you using the thesis item type?
    2. "Doctoral Dissertation" needs to be in the type file of the item.
    3. "ProQuest Dissertations and Theses" needs to be in the archive field
    4. "UMI No. 3401141" needs to be in the loc .in archive field.
  • emh1976
    Thanks, Adam. I have been adjusting the fields in the same way as above. However, the punctuation use for these fields is not correct. I understand about the lack of metadata standards, and am fine with adjusting fields, however, an update to the field titles (and punctuation) would be of benefit. When searching the forums, it seemed this was a common occurrence/complaint.
  • adamsmith
    sorry, I don't follow about punctuation. Could you provide examples?
  • dipahart
    Hey Adam, 7.05 in APA manual says this should be avaliable from
    (see item 20). Which is really annoying as all the others are retrieved from

    I just don't know enough to suggest a fix! Question: when is type used? I'm sure there's something on it somewhere.

    The above was SO helpful. I couldn't figure out what went into what field. It be great if Zotero came with example citations for each one.
    But you probably already have that somewhere.
  • dipahart
    edited December 2, 2012
    And your missing "database" in the above example ProQuest and Dissertations and Theses database

    And it's Doctoral dissertation (dissertation is not caps)
  • DrPas13
    Is there a way to change "Retrieved" to Available in Zotero?
    My program requires "Available from".

    Drpas
  • adamsmith
    for all items or just for dissertations?
  • candaceruiz
    Adam, I am using what you suggested above:
    1. The title should be italicized already - if not - are you using the thesis item type?
    2. "Doctoral Dissertation" needs to be in the type file of the item.
    3. "ProQuest Dissertations and Theses" needs to be in the archive field
    4. "UMI No. 3401141" needs to be in the loc .in archive field.

    But when I populate my Reference list the ProQuest section states, "Retrieved from" rather than "Available from" as my University suggested below. Can this be changed? Or do I have to make a manual change?

    Example from my University:
    Kirwan, J. G. (2005). An experimental study of the effects of small-group, face-to-face facilitated dialogues on the development of self-actualization levels: A movement towards fully functional persons (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text database. (UMI No. 3159996)
  • bwiernik
    The Zotero CSL style for APA does format dissertation citations correctly (italicized title, all punctuation) when the information is entered into the correct field as adamsmith describes. If you are getting something incorrect, please post an example so we can we what is happening.

    As for "Available from", this is one of the rather absurd APA rules, like calling for symposia to use the words "conducted at" whereas other presentations use the words "presented at". The CSL language only (easily) allows for one form of the "retrieved from" words, so the style doesn't change it for theses published in databases. I have never seen a journal care about that rule, but if your program does, it would be easiest to just change it manually at the end of the process. In practice, I see most publications of dissertations simply use the URL, rather than the technically correct database citation. That is easier for the read to use anyway.
  • adamsmith
    edited September 8, 2015
    The CSL language only (easily) allows for one form of the "retrieved from" words, so the style doesn't change it for theses published in databases.
    that's not actually the case. We have separate terms for "retrieved" and "available at" (that can be re-defined as needed), so this isn't especially hard to differentiate as long as the manual has clear rules when to use what.
  • bwiernik
    Okay, so I looked into "Retrieved from" versus "Available from" in the manual. In the printed manual, there is no clear explanation for which to use.

    The 2012 Guide to Electronic References has this additional note:
    "For sources in which Retrieved from may seem misleading, Available from represents a useful alternative (here, the video can be ordered from the URL, but the content cannot be viewed online)." (p. 26)

    "Available from" is only used two times. Once for a DVD on sale from a web store (to which the above note refers). The second time is for a thesis in the ProQuest database with a UMI number. However, the generic reference for a ProQuest thesis uses "Retrieved from", so using "Available from" might be a misprint or APA could be suggesting that it is important to distinguish whether a PDF is available from ProQuest (for some reason).

    In any event, the rationale seems to be "Can the user find the full text of the material at the URL? If yes, use 'Retrieved from'. If the user can merely order a copy of the material from the URL, use 'Available from'." With that reasoning, I'm not sure whether there would be any way for Zotero to determine which would be used (and personally it seems rather pointless).
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