Nazarbayev University LibGuides: APA Referencing Guide: Conference Papers

Published conference papers

If a conference paper has been published (for example, in a proceedings), the published form is usually either a chapter of an edited book or an article in a journal. Cite it according to the appropriate pattern.

Proceedings published in book form normally have the title of the specific conference as the title of the book, and have editors. For example: Empowering 21st Century Learners Through Holistic and Enterprising Learning: Selected Papers for Tunku Adbul Rahman University College International Conference 2016, edited by Geok Bee Teh and Siew Chee Choy
Proceedings published in journal form might be a special issue of the organising body's regular journal, or a special periodical series may exist to host the conference papers. The presence if volume and issue numbers can help with identifying these.
You can also check for an ISBN or an ISSN. A book will have an ISBN, while a journal will have an ISSN. Contact the library if you are unsure.

Paper published in conference proceedings, book form:

Format

Author, A. A. (Date). Title of paper. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of proceedings (page numbers). Publisher. DOI OR URL if relevant.

Examples

Cismas, S. C. (2010). Educating academic writing skills in engineering. In P. Dondon & O. Martin (Eds.), Latest trends on engineering education (pp. 225-247). WSEAS Press.

Morgan, R., Meldrum, K., Bryan, S., Mathiesen, B., Yakob, N., Esa, N., & Ziden, A. A. (2017). Embedding digital literacies in curricula: Australian and Malaysian experiences. In G. B. Teh & S. C. Choy (Eds.), Empowering 21st century learners through holistic and enterprising learning: Selected papers from Tunku Abdul Rahman University College International Conference 2016 (pp. 11-19). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4241-6_2

Paper published in conference proceedings, journal form:

Format	Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date). Title of article: Subtitle. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), page numbers of the whole article. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/xxxx
Examples	Chaudhuri, S., & Biswas, A. (2017). External terms-of-trade and labor market imperfections in developing countries: Theory and evidence. Proceedings of the Academy of Economics and Economic Education, 20(1), 11-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/IGDR-07-2017-0045

Conference papers, sessions and presentations

The presentation delivered at a conference may only be available as an informally published work online, or may only have been delivered live and is not available in full. Follow the pattern given below.

Paper or session presented at a conference, not formally published in proceedings (also used for poster presentations):

Format

Author, A. A. (Date). Title of Contribution [Type of contribution]. Conference Name, Location. DOI or URL, if applicable

Examples

Bland, A. (2017, November). The implementation of a junior Samoan language programme in a South Island, New Zealand secondary school context [Paper presentation]. Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference 2017, Canberra, Australia. https://bit.ly/37DvrHR

McDonald, E., Manessis, R., & Blanksby, T. (2019, July 7-10). Peer mentoring in nursing - improving retention, enhancing education [Poster presentation]. STARS 2019 Conference, Melbourne, Australia. https://unistars.org/papers/STARS2019/P30-POSTER.pdf

Note:

Make every effort to find all of the required details. However, you may find that some papers are missing certain details (for example, there may not be a named editor). In this case, you can skip this detail and move to the next part of the citation.
The title of a conference (for example, the Fourth Annual Conference of the Applied Engineering Association) is something that should be capitalised in a sentence, therefore it is capitalised in the titles of the conference proceedings and conference papers. Notice the example given above: Empowering 21st century learners through holistic and enterprising learning: Selected papers from Tunku Abdul Rahman University College International Conference 2016