2006
hey! where are you going?
maura @ 4:58 pm
Because I am a supernerd and because I love creating bibliographies and because recently I’ve been formatting the bibliography for a group project required for one of my classes this semester, today you get to read about:
Why I Don’t Like APA Citation Style
In my past life as an archaeologist I had to use the SAA (Society for American Archaeology) citation style. I am nothing if not an obsessive rulesnik when it comes to things like citations, so of course I follow the guidelines religiously. I don’t really remember feeling any particular way about the SAA style, it was just what I used.
But in library science the preferred citation style is APA (American Psychological Association), and for some reason there are several rules that stick in my craw:
1. Continuous Pagination of Journals:
APA requires that a citation specify the volume of a journal but not the number, EXCEPT in the case of non-continuous pagination of the journal, in which the number IS required. So, for example, a journal in which each volume starts with page 1 requires the number in the citation, as opposed to a journal in which volume 1 is pgs. 1-30, volume 2 is pgs. 31-60, etc. This bugs me because it requires that you know whether the journal is continuously paginated which, in this age of electronic resources, can be difficult. I am usually not looking at the entire issue of a journal but rather have downloaded the individual article from a database. (In fact, the one time I’ve tried to get my hands on a print copy of a journal recently it was out for binding. So there you go.)
2. Title Case in Article/Book Titles (or, more accurately, the Lack Thereof):
APA rules dictate that article and book titles have only initial caps, plus an additional capital for a word after a semicolon. There’s no real reason for my dislike of this: I just think it looks dumb. Take a look:
My Incredibly Boring Dissertation: A New Study of Lack of Readership
vs.
My incredibly boring dissertation: A new study of lack of readership
Is it not obvious that the first one is vastly more pleasing to the eyes?
3. Dates:
In an APA citation, the date appears within parentheses followed by a period. Again, I think this looks silly. Plus, it wastes valuable keystrokes! See:
(2006).
vs.
2006.
Two keystrokes saved if I don’t add the parens! Just THINK of what I could do with all that extra time!
4. Author Names:
I have to admit that there is one thing I need to ding SAA for: like APA, their style guide requires that only initials are used for an author’s name. This can make it really hard to track down an article if you’re just reading the bibliography. For people with weird names (like M. A. Smale, for example), that level of specificity might be okay. But how many J. D. Miller’s are there in the world? A ton, that’s how many! It’s an impediment to scholarship, I tell ya!
Phew. Thanks for listening, I’m glad I got that out of my system. Tomorrow we can return to our regularly scheduled slightly-less-nerdy posts. Maybe.
