4 Exploring Source Types
To identify the correct APA citation elements needed for your reference list citation, you first need to know what type of source you have. Looking at a source’s visual clues can help you figure this out.
A source can be in different formats. For example:
- a book can be in print or available online as an ebook
- an article can be in a print journal or available online in a Library database or on a journal webpage
- a video can be on a DVD or streamed online
- and so on…
Other sources exist only electronically, such as blogs or websites and their individual webpages.
It can be a bit confusing figuring out what type of source you have. To help, we will go through some examples of source types and clues to look for.