APA Citations for Nontraditional Sources

Citation style guides, citation managers, and citation generators are built for peer reviewed sources and sources that are published (journal articles and books).

Nontraditional sources are often referred in academia as grey literature.

What is Grey Literature?

Grey literature refers to a wide range of records and materials that were not published or distributed in traditional and commercial ways. Examples include reports, statistics, policies, newsletters, speeches, design or marketing standards, and other types of information that is produced at the organization level. Typically, grey literature is current and locally relevant. The records and materials in the UW-Stout Archives typically fall under the definition of grey literature.

This guide will give you formats and information on citing these types of sources.

Citing Grey Literature with APA

For more information on the APA, American Psychological Association, style guide and considerations for citing grey literature and other archival materials visit the APA Style website. Below are examples and descriptions of APA guidelines for records from the UW-Stout Archives.

We are here to help! If you have any questions about specific collections, documents, or citations, please reach out to archives@uwstout.edu. 

Reference List Basic Format

Author last name, First Initial. (year month day). Title [Description of material]. Name of collection (Collection number or identifier, Box number, Folder number). Name of repository, Location of repository. Retrieved from URL if applicable.

In-Text Citation Format

(Author's Last Name(s) or Organization, Year)

Stout Examples of APA Citations

These examples are from highly used collections from the UW-Stout Archives. These examples can be applied to records from other institutional repositories.

Example 1: UW-Stout Thesis

This is an example of citing a thesis or dissertation from a university's repository. The thesis record below is from Stout's Digital Repository.

Reference List

Kagan, A. (2022). Flying Fox Conservation in an Anthropogenic World [Masters thesis, University of Wisconsin-Stout]. Minds@UW Stout Repository. https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/83571

In-Text Citation

(Kagan, 2022)

Example 2: Digitized Print Record

This is an example of citing a digitized print record in an online, open access repository. The commencement program is a physical document in the archives. There is a different citation for the physical commencement program. This example is specifically for citing the digitized, openly accessible version of the commencement program.

Reference List

Stout State University. (1966 June 4). Commencement Stout State University. Commencement Programs. UW-Stout Archives, Menomonie, WI. https://uwstout.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_5135d849-9ed7-41ce-89b7-63db565ed7f6/

In-Text Citation

(Stout State University, 1966)

Example 3: Student Newspaper Article

This is an example of citing newspapers and publications in Stout Digital Collections. For this type of record, the newspaper APA citation format is recommended.

Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Reference List

Manke, J. (1994). Blue Devils struggle against Eagles. Stoutonia, 85(6), 13. https://archive.org/details/StoutoniaVolume85/page/n99/mode/2up

In-Text Citation

(Manke, 1994)

Example 4: Image

Below is a citation for an image from Stout Digital Collections. Some images will have titles. If there is not a title, you will need to create a description for the image yourself representing what you see in the image.

Reference List

Welding. (1936). History of the University of Wisconsin-Stout Collection (y-63). UW-Stout Archives, Menomonie, WI. https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/ACQKJELLQQG7IU9C

In-Text Citation

(Welding, 1936)

Example 5: Physical Records from an Institutional Repository

Below is a citation for the following physical record located within Stout Series 293, Dwight Agnew Personal Papers. It is a brochure and is currently only located in the Archives, not in an online repository. For information on this collection and this record, a guide to the collection is located online: https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/82194

Reference List

The Menomonie Woman's Club. Mabel Tainter Memorial [brochure]. Dwight Agnew Personal Papers, 1948-1972 (Stout Series 293, Box 2, Folder 4). UW-Stout Archives, Menomonie, WI.

In-Text Citation

(The Menomonie Woman's Club, n.d.)