Research Guides: APA Citation Style 7th Edition: Citing Business Databases

The following examples are meant to be used as a template for creating citations. Please be sure to provide the correct year of publication and any other information specific to the source you are citing.

IBISWorld Industry Report

The industry report database IBISWorld usually identifies the individual analyst who prepared a report, and therefore when using APA format, your entry in the Reference List should resemble the following:

Alvarez, A. (2017, October). Coffee and Snack Shops in the US. IBISWorld Industry Report 72221b. Retrieved February 23, 2018 from IBISWorld database.

D'Costa, V. (2017, October). Commercial Banking in the US. IBISWorld Industry Report 52211. Retrieved February 23, 2018 from IBISWorld database.

If no author name is given, you can use the following example:

IBISWorld. (2014, August). Single Location Full-Service Restaurants in the US. IBISWorld Industry Risk Rating Report 72211b. Retrieved February 23, 2018 from IBISWorld database.

NOTE: Add a retrieval date as content changes over time and pages are not archived.

In-Text Citations:

Author:

(Alvarez, 2017)

(D'Costa, 2017)

No Author:

(Single Location, 2014) OR

"as stated in the report Single Location Full-Service Restaurants" (2014).

MarketLine Report

Reference List Example:

MarketLine. (2019, July 1). Starbucks corporation: Company profile. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429057793-12

In-Text Citation:

(MarketLine, 2019).

APA references are always put together with the same pieces of information, and in a certain order:

Author. Date. Title. Access Information.

However, much of the information found on Mergent Online is difficult to cite because it falls into a gray area; for example, in Mergent, it can be difficult to determine an author, date of publication, and even the title of what you're looking at.
Reports or forms (like a 10-K form or Annual Report, and all SEC documents in the Mergent Reports and Filings pages/tabs) filed by the company, are fairly simple to cite. Use the examples from the Annual Report or 10-K Form tab in this box.
For other information, not created or written by the company, you can typically assume that Mergent is the author (unless another individual author or organization is listed). Mergent creates and compiles custom, ever-changing content.

A standard citation for information and data found in Mergent Online will look like this:

Mergent, Inc. (date, or n.d. for no date). Title. Retrieved Month date, year from www.mergentonline.com

Note that the title will change, depending upon what part of the Mergent site you're looking at. Also, the retrieval date is necessary and will change depending on the date you accessed the information (because the information is often refreshing). Here are two citation examples with screenshots under each one, showing what the information looks like within the database -- note that the titles are outlined in red, to show how to "build" a title:

Citation Example 1:

Mergent. (n.d.). Apple company details: synopsis. Retrieved March 19, 2015 from Mergent database.

Citation Example 2:

Mergent. (n.d.). Apple ownership: Institutional holdings. Retrieved March 19, 2015 from Mergent database.

In-Text Citation:

The in-text citation should include author, date, and possibly page or paragraph number for a direct quotation; for example, (Mergent, n.d.) OR (Mergent, 2013).

APA references always have the same pieces of information:

Author. Date. Title. Access Information.

Author: The author of the report is likely to be the company itself. However, look around for the name of an individual author or editor; if you do not see one, you should likely use the company name.
Date: The date of publication is likely to be the year or year after the date of the annual report or report filing (a 2012 annual report might have been published in 2013, for instance).
Title: The title of the report might simply be Annual Report or 10-K Form, but do look closely at the report to see if there is a more specific title.
Access information: Access information will vary depending on the medium/type/location of the report. Your most likely scenario is that you found the report on the company's website. If so, you would use that URL. It is also possible you found it in the Mergent Database: if so, you will insert "Retrieved from Mergent database."

Example Annual Report reference from company's website:

Harely-Davidson Motor Company. (2013). 2012 annual report. Retrieved from

http://ar.harley-davidson.com/home.php

Example 10k reference from Mergent Online Database:

Harley-Davidson Motor Company. (2013). 2012 10-K form. Retrieved from Mergent database.

Example matching in-text citation:

In 2012, Harley contributed more than $4.5 million to charities in its communities (Harley-Davidson Motor Company, 2013).

FASB & GAAP

FASB
GAAP

Reference List Examples:

Citing the Codification:

FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board). (n.d.). Accounting Standards Codification (ASC). Retrieved January 16, 2013, from CCH Accounting Research database.

Citing a section of the Codification:

FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board). (n.d.). ASC 605-50-45-1. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from CCH Accounting Research database.

Citing an Accounting Standards Update, Exposure Document or Other Source from the Codification:

FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board). (2012, October 24). Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2012-07. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from CCH Accounting Research database.

In-Text Citation Examples:

(FASB, ASC 605-50-45-1)

(FASB, ASU 2012-07)

Reference List Examples:

Georgiades, G. (2021). 2021-2022 GAAP Financial Statement Disclosures Manual. Wolters Kluwer. Retrieved October 27, 2021 from CCH Accounting Research database.

In-Text Citation:

Paraphrase: (Georgiades, 2021)

Quotation: (Georgiades, 2021, ASC Topic 210: Balance Sheet)

NOTE: Page numbers are not provided in the CCH Accounting Research database. When using a direct quote, provide the section of the manual for in-text citations.