Encountering a slideshow in your research and unsure how to translate those dynamic slides into a proper citation? The American Psychological Association (APA) style provides a clear framework for citing presentations, whether you accessed them through academic platforms, attended them live, or found them published online. Mastering this format is essential for maintaining academic integrity and allowing readers to verify your sources with precision. This guide walks through the specific rules, practical examples, and nuanced scenarios you will face when documenting a slideshow in your work.
Understanding the Core Elements of an APA Citation
Before diving into the specifics of a slideshow, it is helpful to understand the standard ingredients of an APA citation. At its heart, the format prioritizes the author, the date of creation, the title, and the location where the work was retrieved or presented. For a slideshow, these elements translate into the presenter’s name, the year the slides were made available, the title of the presentation in sentence case, the context that it was a presentation, and the URL if it is retrieved online. Grasping this structure allows you to adapt the template to variations such as conference posters, webinar recordings, or classroom lectures.
Citing an Online Slideshow with a Permanent URL
The most common scenario involves citing a slideshow that resides on a website, such as a SlideShare.net presentation or a university-hosted PDF. In this situation, you treat the work similarly to a standard webpage, emphasizing the author and the retrieval information. The citation in text appears as (AuthorLastName, Year) and the reference list entry follows a strict hierarchy. Ensure the title is italicized and only the first word of the title and subtitle, along with any proper nouns, are capitalized.
Example Reference Entry
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of slideshow: Capital letter only for first word . Site Name. URL
Specifically, the reference would look like: Johnson, M. L. (2023). Neural networks in modern diagnostics: A practical overview . Open Science Repository. https://doi.org/xxxxx
Citing Slideshow Slides in the Text of Your Work
Integrating a citation for a slideshow into your prose requires specific page or slide numbers to guide the reader to the exact information you are referencing. Unlike a book, slides rarely have numbered pages, so APA style allows you to use the slide number provided in the presentation viewer. This practice ensures that your quotation or paraphrase can be checked immediately, which is particularly important when the content is visual rather than narrative.
In-Text Citation Mechanics
When quoting directly, include the author’s last name, the year, and the slide number. The format is (AuthorLastName, Year, Slide #). If you are paraphrasing the general ideas of the slideshow without referring to a specific slide, the slide number is unnecessary, and the standard (AuthorLastName, Year) format suffices. This distinction keeps your writing precise and respects the effort the presenter put into organizing their material visually.
Citing a Slideshow Viewed in Person or via Lecture
What happens when the slideshow is not published online but was delivered live during a conference or a classroom session? In these instances, you are documenting a personal communication or an unpublished presentation. Because there is no retrievable source for others to find, the citation appears only in the text of your paper and is omitted from the reference list. This maintains academic rigor by distinguishing between formally published works and transient events.
