You've poured countless hours, late nights, and gallons of coffee into your thesis or dissertation. It's a monumental achievement, and when it comes time to share your work or have it cited by others, getting the citation right is crucial. Especially when you're working within the widely used APA (American Psychological Association) style, knowing how to reference these significant academic works can feel a bit like navigating a maze. But don't worry, it's more straightforward than you might think.
Let's break down how to approach citing your thesis or dissertation, whether it's published or unpublished, drawing from the guidelines of the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual.
When Your Work Remains Unpublished
Often, an unpublished thesis or dissertation is primarily accessible through the university library in print form. In this scenario, the university's name steps in where you'd typically find a publisher. The structure looks like this:
Author’s last name, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case [Unpublished degree type thesis or dissertation]. Name of institution.
For instance, if you were citing a hypothetical bachelor's thesis from 1911, it might appear as:
Ames, J. H., & Doughty, L. H. (1911). The proposed plans for the Iowa State College athletic field including the design of a reinforced concrete grandstand and wall [Unpublished bachelor’s thesis]. Iowa State University.
And for an in-text citation, you'd use either a parenthetical (Ames & Doughty, 1911) or a narrative citation like Ames & Doughty (1911).
Citing a Published Dissertation or Thesis from a Database
Many theses and dissertations find their way into academic databases, making them accessible to a wider audience. When this happens, the citation format shifts slightly. You'll include the institution in brackets after the title and, importantly, the name of the database where you found it.
Here’s the structure:
Author’s last name, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case (Publication or Document No.) [Degree type thesis or dissertation, Name of institution]. Database name.
Consider this example for a doctoral dissertation found in ProQuest:
Knight, K. A. (2011). Media epidemics: Viral structures in literature and new media (Accession No. 2013420395) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Sometimes, you'll see a "Document Number" or "Publication Number." This is a unique identifier within the database's system, and you should include it in parentheses right after the title if it's provided. For in-text citations, it would be (Knight, 2011) or Knight (2011).
When Your Work is Published Online, But Not Through a Standard Database
What if your thesis or dissertation is available online, perhaps through an institutional repository or a specific archive, but not a commercial database? The format adapts again:
Author’s last name, F. M. (Year Published). Title in sentence case [Degree type thesis or dissertation, Name of institution]. Name of archive or collection. URL
An example might look like this:
Kim, O. (2019). Soviet tableau: cinema and history under late socialism [Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh]. Institutional Repository at the University of Pittsburgh. https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/37669/7/Olga%20Kim%20Final%20ETD.pdf
It's worth noting that not every online thesis will be linked to a specific archive. If it's on a private website, you'd simply provide the URL as the source. In-text citations would follow the familiar pattern: (Kim, 2019) or Kim (2019).
A Quick Reference Overview
To recap, the core elements you'll need are the author's name, publication year, the title of the work, the type of degree and institution, and where it was accessed (or if it was unpublished).
- Unpublished: Author, Year, Title [Unpublished degree type thesis]. Institution.
- Published (Database): Author, Year, Title (Doc. No.) [Degree type thesis, Institution]. Database.
- Published (Online): Author, Year, Title [Degree type thesis, Institution]. Archive/Collection. URL
Getting these details right ensures your work, or the work of others, is properly credited and easily discoverable. It’s a small but significant part of academic integrity, and with these guidelines, you can confidently cite your hard-earned research.
