Edward & Barbara Netter Library

For Medicine, Nursing, & Health Sciences

APA Citation Help, 7th Edition for Medicine, Nursing, & Health Sciences

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There are MANY types of grey literature. Most follow the guidelines below. Detailed information can be found in Chapter 10 of the 7th edition of the APA manual (pp. 329-337).
Additional examples:

  • Grey literature - Scroll to the second set of grey boxes for the grey literature formats

Technical Reports

Generic:  ​

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of report (Report No. 1234 [if available]). Publisher Name. https://xxxxxxxxxxx
Example:  ​

National Cancer Institute. (2018). Facing forward: Life after cancer treatment (NIH Publication No. 18-2424). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/life-after-treatment.pdf

Clinical Trials

Generic:  ​

Investigator, A. A. (Principal Investigator). (Year, Month Day). Title of clinical trial (Identifier No. XXXXXX). Publisher Name. Retrieved Month, Day, Year, from https://xxxxxxxxxxx
Example: 

​Reaven, J. (Principal Investigator). (2020, April 10). Facing your fears in schools: Implementing a CBT program for students with ASD or other special learning needs (Identifier No. NCT03685474). ClinicalTrials.gov. Retrieved September 23, 2020, from https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT03685474

 

Other Grey Literature

Generic:  ​

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of grey literature [Description of form]. Publisher Name. https://xxxxxxxxxxx
Example:  ​

Centers for Disease Control. (2018). HPV and men [Fact sheet]. https://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv-and-men.htm

Important Points for Citing Technical Reports & Grey Literature

Items of note:

  • When the publisher is the same entity as the author (which is often the case for grey literature) omit the Publisher element from the citation. 
  • If the organization that issued the publication assigned some a report number, include that number in parenthesis directly after the title.
    • Use the language of the report number (ex: Publication No. 1234, Issue Brief No. 1234, Project No. 1234)
  • A description of form should be included when it will assist the reader in understanding what the source is.
    • There is no pre-defined set of words or formats to use. Some examples might include: brochure, press release, or fact sheet
  • Grants and press releases use a different date format. Please refer to page 331 in the APA manual for further guidance. 

Dissertations & Theses

There are two types of dissertations and/or Theses - published and unpublished.

Published theses might be found in a library database (usually ProQuest), or in an online institutional archive. 

 

Unpublished Generic:  ​

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work [Unpublished doctoral dissertation; Unpublished master's thesis]. Name of Institution Awarding the Degree.
Unpublished Example:  ​

Jacobs, N. L. (2006). Bach to the future: Style galant in the Italian Concerto BWV 971 [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. St. Thomas Leipzig Universität.
Database Generic:   

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work (Publication No. if available) [Doctoral dissertation/Master's thesis, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree]. Publisher Name.
Database Example:  ​

D'Elia, P. (2009). Clementi's Bach: The “Well-Tempered Clavier”, “Gradus ad Parnassum,” and the prelude (Publication No. 1463926) [Master's Thesis, Tufts University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. 
Institutional Archive Generic:  ​

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work (Publication No. if available) [Doctoral dissertation/Master's thesis, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree]. Name of Archive. https://www.xxxxxxxx 
Institutional Archive Example:  ​

Grigsby, N. (2014). Bach’s creative journey: A study of source, circumstance, genre, interpretation and procedure in the earliest music of J. S. Bach (1685-1750) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Waikato]. University of Waikato Research Commons, Higher Degree Theses. https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/9625

Pre-print Articles

Pre-print articles are author manuscripts that have not yet been published in scholarly journals. They have NOT YET BEEN  peer reviewed and/or accepted into a journal. If you use a pre-print in a paper, you must acknowledge in the text that this is a preliminary study that has not yet been peer reviewed.

 

Pre-print Generic:  ​

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year) Title of the article: Subtitle if applicable. Name of preprint repository. https://doi.org/xxxxxxxx
Pre-print Example:  ​

Nyman, T. J., Antfolk, J., Lampinen, J., Tuomisto, M., Kaakinen, J. K., Korkman, J., & Santtila, P. (2018). A stab in the dark. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/7efpx

 

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