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APA guidelines: Data sets reference examples

A comprehensive explanation of the latest edition of APA (7th) with many examples

Data set

Data sets consist of research data ('raw data') used in a document for a table, for example.

  • If there is no version number it is omitted.
  • The publication date for published sets is the year of publication and for unpublished sets is the year(s) of collection.

Owner of the data set. (Publication date). Title of data set (Version number) [Dataset]. Publisher. Retrieved Month day, year, from http://xxxx of https://xxxx of https://doi.org/xxxx

Pew Research Center. (2018). America trends panel Wave 26 [Dataset]. Retrieved February 21, 2021, from https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/dataset/american-trends-panel-wave-26/

Parenthetical citation: (Pew Research Center, 2018)

Narrative citation: Pew Research Center (2018)

  • If you are citing existing data or statistics, cite the publication in which the data were published (e.g., a journal article, report, or webpage) rather than the data set itself.

Software or mobile app

  • Common software (e.g. Word, Excel, Photoshop or SPSS) and mobile apps (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) mentioned in the text, but not paraphrased or quoted, do not need citations. Simply give the proper name of the software or app along with version number in the text, if relevant.
Data were analysed with IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 25).

 

  • The publication date of a computer software is the year of publication of the version used;
  • The bracketed description is flexible: [Computer Software], [Mobile App], [Apparatus and software];
  • For a mobile app the publisher can be stated as Google Play Store or App Store;
  • To cite a content of a social media app see Social Media.

Author, A. (Publication date). Name of programme (Version number) [Description]. Publisher. Retrieved Month day, year, from http://xxxx of https://xxxxx

Koha-community. (2021). Koha Library Software (Version 20.05.09) [Computer software]. Koha. Retrieved February 28, 2021, from https://download koha-community.org

Parenthetical citation: (Koha-community, 2021)

Narrative citation: Koha-community (2021)

ChatGPT

Currently, APA experts are gathering as much experience as possible with the aim of formulating an official guideline. For now, the recommendation is to mention chatbot in the source list as follows:

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Feb 13 version) [Large language model]. Retrieved March 13, 2023, from https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

Indicate in the text which part was generated by ChatGPT. This can be done either with a citation or paraphrase. Indicate which 'prompt' (command) was given. An example:

  • To formulate the problem statement, ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2023) was used with the prompt "...". 

At the part "..." will contain the text used for the chatbot.
If the text created by ChatGPT is included as an attachment, the text need only refer to the attachment:

  • ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A) was used to formulate the problem statement.

It is recommended to add the text generated by ChatGPT, e.g. as an appendix. This way, the reader or reviewer of your report can see your content for themselves.