Business & Economics

Elements of Reference List Entries

Reference list entries include the four elements of the author, date, title, and source. Find more detail at the link above.

While most library databases offer citation help of some kind and the APA manual offers clear guidelines for more traditional resources like articles & books, business resources often don't fall neatly into the usual categories. To cite one of these resources in your reference list you'll need the following elements:

• Author(s) – either individuals  (Surname, Initials.) or a group author – such as an organization.
• (Date of publication) or (n.d.) when there is no date
• Title  
• [Bracketed description] - to help identify works outside academic literature (i.e. works other than articles, books, etc.) provide a description of the work in square brackets after the title and before the period. Capitalize the first letter of the description.
• Publisher name – omit this element if the publisher is the same as the author.
• URL --ONLY use if item is a non-academic resource found on the open web. If found in a library database, you don't need the URL  HOWEVER, if the resource found within the database is proprietary--that is, found only in the context of that database, list the name of the database

Business Source Premier - Reports

MarketLine. (2023, May 8). General Mills, Inc. [Company profile]. Business Source Premier. 

MarketLine. (2022, January). Bakery & cereals in the United States. [Industry profile]. Business Source Premier. 

ProQuest One Business - Reports

D & B Hoovers. (2023, April 1). Johnson & Johnson. [Company profile]. ProQuest One Business.

MarketResearch.com Academic- Market Research Reports

Packaged Facts. (2022, July). U.S. beverage market outlook 2022: Inflation, supply chains, & trends in beverage consumption. [Market research report]. MarketResearch.com Academic. 

*Note that though not shown above, citations with multiple lines should have a hanging indent.

Before making use of any generative AI tool (such as ChatGPT) for class assignments, consult your instructor and your syllabus for guidance on using, quoting, and citing generative AI.

For guidelines on citing generative AI in APA style see the entry on “How to Cite ChatGPT” from the official APA style website.

Example:

In-text:
When prompted “Why is toxic positivity a problem in the workplace,” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “toxic positivity can be harmful as it can lead to a dismissive attitude towards the concerns or struggles of employees” (OpenAI, 2023)

Entry in reference list:
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 23 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Would you like to better organize the citations that you gather during research?

Would you like assistance with creating in-text citations and reference lists so that they are in the correct citation style?

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RefWorks Instructional Guide