Professional organizations, government agencies, and corporations often host conferences in which researchers can present new material and ideas to their peers. Conferences tend to be large multi-day events while a symposium is a smaller gathering, usually conducted in one day. Learn how to format symposia citations correctly to add this material to your APA research paper.
Using Meeting Proceedings in Research
Important current research is often presented at meetings and symposia, which is then published in periodicals, such as journals or even published in a book. These proceedings can be a good source for researching your school paper. It’s not difficult to cite published proceedings in APA format as it follows the book citation. If they’ve been published, you may also cite poster presentations the same way.
Example
Witten, I. H., Boddie, S. J., Bainbridge, D., & McNab, R. J. (2000). Greenstone: a comprehensive open-source digital library software system. In Proceedings of the fifth ACM conference on Digital libraries (pp. 113-121). ACM.
Format for Symposia Citations
If the paper or presentation has not been published formally, use this format for your citation:
Contributor, A.A., Contributor, B.B., Contributor, C.C., & Contributor, D.D. (Year, Month). Title of contribution. In E.E. Chairperson (Chair). Title of symposium. Symposium conducted at the meeting of Organization Name, Location.
Example
Muelbauer, J. (2007, September). Housing, credit, and consumer expenditure. In S. C. Ludvigson (Chair), Housing and consumer behavior. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, WY.
Cite a Paper Presentation or Poster
As part of larger conference, which may be held over the course of several days, presenters may include poster presentations. Much like the science fair projects you created in school, these posters provide data in appealing, visual ways. What’s more, poster presentations also include a list of sources. This list may be handed out on a separate sheet or included on the poster itself, much like a slideshow citation list.
Follow this format when citing a paper or poster of this type:
Presenter, A.A. (Year, Month). Title of paper or poster. Paper or poster session presented at the meeting of Organization Name, Location.
Example
Herculano-Houszel, S., Collins, C.E. Wong, P., Kass, J.H., & Lent, R. (2008). The basic nonuniformity of the cerebal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105, 12593-12598. doi:10.1073pnas.0805417105
Current Research Ideas
It takes a little more work to find published and unpublished proceedings of symposia, meeting, poster and other presentations. However, including these sources adds depth to your research and provides current thought on ongoing research areas.