How do I reference… a conference paper in the APA7 style?
29/08/2023

Many of you will be using conference papers in your work. Some of these will also have been published as articles in the traditional way – but others are not. So, how do you go about referencing a conference paper in your work?
First of all, you need to collect together the following ‘elements’ to build your reference:
- Author or authors – in the format Surname, Initials.
- Date(s) of conference in full – in the format (Year, Month Day(s)).
- Title of conference paper [followed by type of paper],
- Title of conference, Location of conference.
- URL or DOI (if available online)
Each element of the reference needs to be separated from the next by a full-stop and a space.

Conference paper image taken from https://naplesforumonservice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Razmdoost.pdf
So, if we were using this conference paper in an assignment or an article, its bibliographic reference would look like this:
Razmdoost, K., Alinaghian, L. & Kutsch, E. (2021, September 6-9). Practice disruption in service ecosystems: the case of K2 2008 disaster [Conference paper]. 7th Naples forum on service, Naples, Italy.
Remember that APA7 references should all be formatted with a hanging indent.
Your in-text citations (where you refer to the work within your own text) would simply include the authors’ surnames and the year of publication so they would be…
Razmdoost, Alinaghian & Kutsch (2021) or, where you were quoting directly, Razmdoost, Alinaghian & Kutsch (2021, p3).
Any questions about referencing? Consult our Referencing and Plagiarism pages or drop us an email here.
Please note: Cranfield supports two different referencing styles – APA7 (Author-date) and Numbered (NLM). Please make sure you use the style preferred by your supervisor or lecturer. The advice above relates only to the APA7 style. If you have any questions about referencing, please contact the Library.
Feature image from Pixabay. Available at: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/06/01/06/26/open-book-1428428_960_720.jpg
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
From Sri Lanka to Cranfield: How a Commonwealth Scholarship transformed my environmental engineering journey
Hi, I’m Kavithanjali Uthayashangar and I’m here to tell you about my journey into environmental engineering. It began with a simple but powerful motivation: a desire to understand how engineering can ...
Inside the Air Transport Management MSc: Classes, assignments, and group project work
What’s it really like to study Air Transport Management at Cranfield? Adit walks us through a typical day, assignment expectations, and the excitement of hands-on group projects. This is the second of three blog ...
Using Factiva to research a company
If you’re tasked with researching a company, your first port of call might be to search Fame or EBSCO Business Source Complete. Your immediate reaction might not be to look at Factiva. However, for larger ...
How do I write a secondary reference … in the NLM style?
Secondary referencing is used when you’re reading a work which includes a quotation from another author, and you – the researcher – can’t obtain the original source. We always advise, where possible, to try to ...
Reaching new heights: How a Global Excellence Scholarship fuelled my aerospace dreams
Leaving my home in India to pursue an MSc in Aerospace Dynamics at Cranfield University was a leap of faith. Hi, I’m Oliza Kachroo and as an international student, the transition ...
How do I reference…when delivering a presentation?
Just as you cite and reference sources in written work, you should also acknowledge the sources you use or quote in oral presentations. Citing your sources in presentations provides your audience with information about the ...
