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Reference guide for APA 7th edition

Reference guide for APA 7th edition intended for students at the department of Biology and CEC, Lund University. NB! If you access the guide using a smartphone, the text will open below the menu.

Facebook and others

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The instructions in this section concern posts on social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and other similar sites. NB! You should only cite information from a social media post if it is the primary source for the said information. Do not cite a post on social media on information which is available in for example a research article. 

When citing posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and other similar sites, write your reference according to the template below. Some posts will have a group author, e.g. organization, company or authority, instead of a personal author. The group author may also have a username, in which case the username is given in brackets after the name of the group author. If a username only is available, state this name as the author.

Do not forget to consult the general instructions on how to write references according to APA (7th edition), including 

Template for how to format references to Facebook and others in the reference list

Author, A. A. (YYYY, Month DD). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Description of audiovisuals] [Type of content]. Site name. URL

Name of Group [Username]. (YYYY, Month DD). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Description of audiovisuals] [Type of content]. Site name. URL

Username. (YYYY, Month DD). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Description of audiovisuals] [Type of content]. Site name. URL

Examples of in-text references to Facebook and others

Parenthetical citation Narrative citation
(Lövin, 2019) Lövin (2019) posted on her Facebook page...
(News from Science, 2018) News from Science (2018) reports on their Facebook page that...

Examples of references to Facebook and others in the reference list

Lövin, I. (2019, December 20). Världen befinner sig i kris på så många plan. Att i det läget ge upp och sätta sig på läktaren [The world in in the middle of a crisis on so many levels. To give up and do nothing] [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://bit.ly/36Ea3BU

News from Science. (2018, June 26). These frogs walk instead of hophttps://scim.ag/2KlriwH [Video]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNOW/videos/10155508587605108/