How to Reference an Editorial in APA Format

An editorial can be a newspaper article or an encyclopedia entry that doesn’t have an author. In either case, the APA citation style requires you to include the title and date of publication.

The APA format has several sections, including an introduction, method, results, discussion, and references. Each section should be centered on its own page.

Title of the Editorial

A newspaper or other periodical may publish an editorial as a pseudonymous or anonymous work. This can be a good way to avoid having a name slapped on the back of your document. When citing such works, however, you need to make sure you’re doing your homework. Both the MLA and APA styles have rules of thumb when it comes to citing an anonymously written piece.

For the aficionados out there, you can also reference an online version of the same work by providing a URL. This can be done as simple as a copy and paste from your browser’s address bar, or you could use a URL service like CopyrightFreebie or OpenURL which will automatically convert the link to a valid BibTex citation.

The APA has an entire section devoted to online citations and bibliographies, so you should be in the know when it comes to this type of source material. For instance, if the citation is located in a website accessed via the library’s e-journal database, you should be prepared to provide a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) as well as an actual publication date.

If you’re still stuck trying to figure out the best way to reference your paper or article, don’t hesitate to contact our librarians to help! They can also point you in the right direction for more information on the APA style or other research methods. They’re also available to assist with writing projects and a range of other academic needs. You can reach them by email, phone or a visit to the office.

Author(s)

An editorial is a piece of writing that expresses an opinion about a certain issue. It may have a single author or an anonymous writer. It is sometimes published in a magazine, newspaper, or other periodical. The same rules apply for citing an editorial in APA format as they do for a regular piece of writing.

The author of an editorial is usually a single person, but it can also be a group or organization. Examples include a speaker at a TED talk, the editor of a book, or someone who comments on a web page.

If the editorial has a single author, write out the last name and first initial of that person in a citation. For a work with two authors, use an ampersand (&) between the names in parenthetical in-text citations.

When a work has more than two authors, add the names of all the authors in parenthetical citations. If you have more than 20 authors, list the first 19 with a comma and three spaced ellipsis points and then replace them with another ellipsis followed by a comma and the last author’s name.

You can also cite the name of a group or organization in its entirety. For example, if the reference is for a website that is maintained by a government agency or a non-profit organization, write out the full name of the organization.

However, if you have a group that is responsible for content on the website, it is best to spell out the group’s name in the citation one time and then use an abbreviated version of the group name throughout your paper.

Aside from a single author, the only other time you need to cite an individual in your APA style references is if they have written something on their own. For example, if you have a friend who has done research on a certain topic, it is a good idea to cite them in your paper.

If you are unsure which version of APA to use, your lecturer should be able to give you guidance. In addition, check your subject outline for the specific guidelines for a given paper.

Publisher

For a newspaper article, APA style requires the publisher name and date of publication. In a print article, the name of the newspaper is followed by page numbers or ranges (a letter before each number). For online articles, the URL is listed after the title and date of publication. The APA style citation for a newspaper article also includes the author, the publication date and the headline of the article.

A book with multiple authors is cited like an individual work, and the full name of all the authors is given in the reference list. The names of the editors are shortened, and their names are not included in the list of authors. The full list of authors should be included in the reference list for a work with three or more editors, and for more than 20 editors, the first 19 names should be included and the last editor’s name should be inserted into place of the last author’s name with “(Eds.)” in quotation marks.

The APA style guide advises that the name of the publisher should appear on the first page of the reference, as well as in the bibliographical information at the end of your paper. This will help you identify the publisher, and it will prevent confusion in the future if the same book is cited more than once.

Generally, the APA style guide recommends that you give the book’s title in italics and only the first letter of the word and proper nouns are capitalised. The APA style guide also recommends that you include the year of publication in parentheses after the title. If the book is a series, you should also include the number of volumes in parentheses after the title.

In a journal that uses continuous pagination, cite the volume number and issue number in the reference listing. Those of you who use printed journals, note that the first issue usually begins with page “1” and continues in the same order each new issue. If the journal uses a different system, you should cite each issue separately.

Date of Publication

The date of publication is the year that the editorial was published in a journal or book. If the year of publication is not known on the copyright page or on the first page of an article, it should be included in parentheses and followed by a period (APA 7th edition).

The American Psychological Association (APA) style for citing reference materials, including books, is widely used in academic writing and other publications. The APA Publication Manual is the primary source for guidance on APA citations, and a number of other resources are available to help you with your reference work.

APA 7th edition also provides guidelines for referencing online material, such as Wikipedia articles. For online references, APA recommends providing a Digital Object Identifier, when it is available. This is a long alphanumeric code that will link to the specific version of the article you are citing, and can be retrieved from most major search engines.

However, online references can be tricky to cite. The dates of publication of many online documents can change over time, and some may not have a published DOI.

As a result, you may need to find an alternative way to indicate the date of publication in your reference list or your in-text citation. The best solution is to use a consistent date for your citations, such as the most recent date you found the information or the date you read it.

In-text citations of online sources should use the same date for both the in-text citation and the reference list entry. In-text citations should also use the author and year, as with all APA references.

Depending on the type of source you are using, you may need to include additional information in the reference list or in your in-text citations. In this case, the APA Style website and the APA Style Blog are excellent resources for answering your questions about APA style.

The APA Publication Manual provides some guidance for citing an anonymous editorial in APA, and some other style guides also have rules for this. If you have questions about citing an anonymous editorial in APA, you can ask the authors of the style guide or other sources that you are using.