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Citation Guide: Citing point of care databases

Help with citing your sources for a research paper.

Point of Care Databases

How to Create APA 7th edition References for a StatPearls, UpToDate, or Dynamedex resource
Author Date Title (SOURCE) Point of Care Tool (SOURCE) RETRIEVAL DATE, URL

Author, A. A.

Author, A., & Author, B.

DynaMedex.

(2020).
(n.d.).

Title of article

NOTE: (The title would only be in italics for this type of example if the site name, such as Dynamedex is the AUTHOR as well as the source). 

Site Name.

(If site name is used as author, do not repeat in this section.)

Retrieved December 22, 2020 from https://xxx.xxxx

 

Tips for citing point of care tools & databases in APA 7th edition (Chapter 10.1, p. 319). 

  • Authors: OFTEN individual authors are NOT included on point-of-care tools. When that's the case, use the point-of-care tool as the name of the "author." Editors should not be listed in the area of "authors" unless you are referencing a book. 
  • Year/Date: To create the "date" for the reference, use the date that the page or reference article was last updated. 
  • Retrieval dates: remember it's important to use a retrieval date in the source information for point-of-care tools BECAUSE they are constantly updated and the old information IS NOT archived (or easily able to locate again). 
  • Information that is constantly updated without an archive. Articles contained in point of care tools are ONLY available in the database in which they came from AND the information is constantly updated over time. Because of this, it's often important to include a retrieval date. 
 
Examples:
StatPearls article: 

Important Notes on StatPearls: 

  • "StatPearls material is always a challenging reference type because people come across StatPearls materials in the National Library of Medicine database (and APA references USUALLY do not cite databases), but the material is usually also available on the StatPearls website (APA Style Expert, personal communication, April 4, 2023, para 1)."
  • "(Additionally,) StatPearls is often the developer and original publisher of the material, which makes the UpToDate reference example the closest exemplar from the Publication Manual (APA Style Expert, personal communication, April 4, 2023)."
  • "Further, the StatPearls website clarifies the roles of the people listed in the byline on PubMed, and there's usually at least one editor among them, even though editors would not be included in the author element of reference with named authors (APA Style Expert, personal communication, April 4, 2023, para 1)."
  • "Therefore, although it is admittedly not necessarily the most intuitive way to format the reference, here is what APA style would prefer for your example (APA Style Expert, personal communication, April 4, 2023, para 1)."
  • "However, given that (some) StatPearls articles are also only available through the National Library of Medicine, the reference format should follow the example on page 337/example number 73, for the informally published work from PubMed Central (APA Style Expert, personal communication, April 4, 2023, para 1)."
  • In the first reference StatPearls is in italics, since APA recognizes it from this website as a formal publisher and therefore as a proper noun. In the second reference, the name of the article is in italics, since on most websites the reference title is placed in italics. 

Reference, if located from the StatPearls website:

Tariq, R. A., Vashisht, R., & Sinha, A. (2023). Medication dispensing errors and prevention. StatPearls. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://www.statpearls.com/point-of-care/24883

In-text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Tariq et al., 2023).

Reference, if located from the NNLM website:

Tariq, R. A., Vashist, R., Sinha, A., & Scherbak, Y. (2023). Medication dispensing errors and prevention (PMID 30085607). National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519065/

In-text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Tariq et al., 2023).

 

UpToDate article: 

Reference:

Graber, E. (2022). Patient education: Acne (Beyond the basics). UpToDate. Retrieved May 31, 2023, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/acne-beyond-the-basics

In-text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Graber, 2022).

 

Information provided by Carrie Forbes of East Carolina University

Helpful Tips

Retrieval dates are only needed in citations for webpages that contain information that is likely to change over time. For example, an article from a news site that receives continuous coverage. Please refer to page 290 or 350 in APA 7th edition.