APA 7th and commercial databases

This discussion was created from comments split from: Item Type for Commercial Databases.
  • APA 7th ed. says prefer DOI for refs from commercial databases. If no DOI, then format as print source.

    But include database name only if from databases with original, proprietary content and works of limited circulation -- so generally not from databases like ProQuest or EBSCO, or other widely available databases.

    Also don't include URL if it is session-specific (meaning it will not resolve for readers). Instead, provide the URL of the database home page or login page instead.

    From: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/database-information#work

    We have had inconsistent results at best with getting Zotero to get the database name to appear in the citation in Word. Changing the Item Type works sometimes, but it comes at the cost of losing important metadata such as volume and issue info.

    I guess the easiest workaround is to break the coding at the very end, and manually add the database name for these specific, limited database types.

    Some good news is that many of the refs that we see do have DOIs. And if they don't, many come from databases like ProQuest, and students can simply cite as print sources.
  • edited May 3, 2020
    @kynorton To reference the database for an item in APA 7, enter the database name in the Publisher or Archive field and the database number if needed in the Location in Archive field.
  • To see how to enter all of the items in APA 7th edition manual, see this library: https://www.zotero.org/groups/2205533

    If the item is a thesis and comes from ProQuest, you should include the ProQuest information. If it is a journal article, those are rarely only available through ProQuest. But in that case, include the URL (ProQuest URL is fine) rather than omitting any retrieval information at all.
  • Thank you bwiernik for the answer, and for the link to your Test Items library! Super helpful.
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