These are formal, scholarly papers written by researchers, professors, or graduate students that have not been published as standalone articles in a recurring academic journal. This module covers conference proceedings, dissertations, master's theses, academic working papers, and technical whitepapers from university research centers.
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Video: Citing Conference Papers, Dissertations & Working Papers
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Examples in Your Field
Field
Papers you might cite
Human Development & Family Studies
Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Biennial Meeting conference proceedings; doctoral dissertations found on repositories like ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
Education
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting papers; research reports from the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA)
Computer Science & Design
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems proceedings; tech whitepapers hosted on institutional repositories like MIT DSpace
Where the Information Lives
These documents don't have a journal's tidy first page, so the citation pieces sit in different places for each type:
Document
Where to find the pieces
Conference paper
The paper's own first page or first slide gives authors and title. The conference program (or the session listing on the conference website) gives the official conference name, the full date range, and the city. Don't shorten the conference name; "CHI '25" on a badge is officially the "ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems."
Dissertation or thesis
The title page of the PDF gives author, title, year, and the degree-granting university. The database record (ProQuest, for example) confirms all of it and tells you the repository name for the end of the reference.
Working paper or report
The cover page gives authors, title, year, and usually a paper number ("Working Paper No. 24-03"). The research center's name is on the cover or the footer of every page.
Look for the "suggested citation" box. Reports, working papers, and dissertations often print one on the cover or copyright page. It hands you every piece, but check its format: suggested citations frequently follow the center's house style rather than APA, so reformat rather than copy.
Explore Two Samples
Click each dashed-underlined part in both samples to see what it becomes in your reference. Find all 11.
Found: 0 / 11
Sample 1: A working paper's cover page
✅ The research center. It takes the publisher position, near the end of the reference: Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis. If no individual authors were named, the center would move up into the author position instead.
✅ Paper number. Goes in parentheses right after the title, not italicized: (CEPA Working Paper No. 24-03).
✅ Title. Italicized and in sentence case: Teacher retention after pandemic-era hiring. Unlike a journal article title, report and paper titles are italicized.
✅ Authors. Inverted with initials: Reyes, H., & Coleman, J.
✅ Year. Working papers and reports cite the year only: (2024). The month stays behind. (Conference presentations are the exception; they take the meeting's full date range.)
⚠️ Suggested citation: helpful, but not APA! This box hands you every piece, but look at the format: full first names, year without parentheses in the APA position, quotation marks around the title, a city. That's the center's house style. Take the pieces, then build the APA version: Reyes, H., & Coleman, J. (2024). Teacher retention after pandemic-era hiring (CEPA Working Paper No. 24-03). Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis.
Sample 2: A dissertation's title page
by
✅ Title. Italicized, sentence case: First-generation student belonging at Hispanic-serving institutions. ("Hispanic-serving" keeps its capital H as a proper adjective.)
✅ The degree line. This tells you which bracket to use: "Doctor of Philosophy" means [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Davis]. A master's degree line would mean [Master's thesis, ...]. The line itself is never quoted in the reference.
✅ Author. Inverted with initials: Trần, L. M. Full reference: Trần, L. M. (2023). First-generation student belonging at Hispanic-serving institutions [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Davis]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
✅ University. It goes inside the brackets with the document type, not in the publisher position. The database (ProQuest) takes the source position at the end. Compare Sample 1, where the research center sat in the publisher spot.
✅ Year. The year the degree was conferred: (2023).
Building the Reference
Because these papers aren't journal articles, APA identifies what they are using a description in square brackets right after the title: [Paper presentation], [Doctoral dissertation, University Name], [Master's thesis, University Name]. The brackets tell your reader exactly what kind of document this is. Notice also that the title itself is italicized for these documents, unlike a journal article title.
Conference presentation
Pattern
Author, A. A. (Year, Month days). Title of the paper [Paper presentation]. Conference Name, City, State. URL
ExampleVasquez, R., & Osei, K. (2025, April 3–5). Co-regulation in toddler–grandparent play [Paper presentation]. Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.
The date is the full run of the conference, not just a year, and the location follows the conference name. If the paper was later published in official proceedings, cite the published version instead (it usually formats like a book chapter or journal article).
Dissertation or thesis
Pattern (from a database)
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the dissertation [Doctoral dissertation, University Name]. Database Name.
ExampleTrần, L. M. (2023). First-generation student belonging at Hispanic-serving institutions [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Davis]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Three pieces to place: the university goes inside the brackets, the database or repository (ProQuest, MIT DSpace) is the source at the end, and the bracket wording matches the degree: [Master's thesis, University Name] for a master's. If the thesis sits on the open web instead of a database, end with the URL.
Working paper, research report, or whitepaper
Pattern
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the report (Report No. XX). Publishing Center or Institution. URL
ExampleReyes, H., & Coleman, J. (2024). Teacher retention after pandemic-era hiring (CEPA Working Paper No. 24-03). Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis. https://cepa.stanford.edu/wp24-03
The paper number goes in parentheses after the title, not italicized. The research center takes the publisher position, and the URL closes the entry. If no individual authors are named, the center moves into the author position and is not repeated as publisher.
In-text
Nothing changes: (Trần, 2023) or Trần (2023). The bracketed description lives only in the reference list.
🦦A credibility note: dissertations and conference papers are scholarly but usually not peer reviewed the way journal articles are. They're strong sources for recent work; check your assignment guidelines for how they may be used.
Check Yourself
Question 1
What tells your reader that a source is a dissertation rather than a journal article?
Question 2
You cite a paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting. What date belongs in the reference?