Citelle · Library
APA 7: cite a published conference paper
Cite a paper published in edited proceedings in APA 7, with the proceedings editor, book title, pages and publisher in their own places.
A published paper, not a talk
This case is a paper that appeared in a published proceedings volume, handled like a chapter in an edited book. A talk you heard but that was never published, a whole proceedings volume, and a proceedings paper printed in a journal are different sources with different references. Look for the proceedings book itself, its editors and the paper's pages before you start.
For the symposium paper, the APA 7 example on this page reads: Stone, M. (2024). A conference paper. In L. Rowan (Ed.), Proceedings of the Sample Symposium (pp. 12–18). Example Press. The proceedings title, Proceedings of the Sample Symposium, is italicized; the paper title is plain text in sentence case.
Meeting details stay in the record, not in this entry
The record on this page also carries the meeting itself: 1–2 June 2024, in London. They belong to the record because other styles need them, but they do not appear in the APA entry above. In the workbench you can still type them into Meeting location, Meeting start date and Meeting end date; the APA output simply leaves them out. Keep in mind that the year of the meeting and the year of publication can differ, and you cite the publication year.
Entering the symposium paper
- Choose APA 7 reference and Published conference paper as the Source kind, with Print version.
- Add Maya Stone as the author and Leo Rowan as the editor; APA output needs the editor for this kind.
- Enter A conference paper as the title and Proceedings of the Sample Symposium in Containing work or site.
- Fill Example Press, 2024 and the page range 12-18, then press Create reference.
How the app handles proceedings
In the app the Conference paper type labels the container field Proceedings title and shows a Pages field. The Editors section appears for this type only when the looked-up record already lists editors, so a manually entered proceedings paper may have no editor row; check the preview before you copy it. When Crossref gives a series name and a volume title together, Citelle keeps the volume title as the container. If a record has no proceedings title at all, the app uses the event name it received.
Proceedings mistakes to look for
- Using the conference year when the proceedings appeared in a later year.
- Treating the meeting city as the publisher's location.
- Citing an online slide deck as if it proved the paper was published in proceedings.
- Putting the proceedings editor in the author row.
Gather the source details
- Find the published paper and its proceedings record.
- Keep paper author and paper title separate from proceedings editors and title.
- Record publication details and the paper’s pages.
- Retain meeting dates and location when the selected form needs them.
- Author
- Maya Stone
- Title as supplied
- A conference paper
- Publication year
- 2024
- Containing work or site
- Proceedings of the Sample Symposium
- Editor
- Leo Rowan
- Publisher
- Example Press
- Published pages
- 12-18
- Publication place
- London
- Meeting dates
- 1–2 June 2024
- Meeting place
- London
Tools
Sources
Next guide: Chicago 18 author-date: cite a published conference paper