Citing Business Sources: Citing Business Sources

A University of Lethbridge Library guide to common citation styles for Management and Business research.

Some business sources re quire ada ptations to APA guidelines. For example, IBISWorld offers their own template for how to cite their industry reports, but it is incomplete. A few principles used to create the examples on this page include:

If there is no title, put a description of the resource in square brackets.
Provide the name of the database and the URL you retrieved information from when it is necessary for readers to be able to retrieve the information from that database. For example, this is necessary for a data set from Simmons, but you do not need to name the database from which you retrieved a scholarly article (like Business Source Complete).
As with 'regular' articles, do not state 'Retrieved from' or the database name; instead, only list the home page of the source (not the proxied URL as it appears in your web browser)
Always arrange the references in your References list in alphabetical order, and format each entry with a hanging indent

Press Release

Towson University. (2019, June 5). TU’s new brand is named ‘Best Rebrand Campaign' [Press Release]. https://www.towson.edu/news/2019/ama_mxaward.html

IBISWorld (available Jan 2024 - end of Dec 2026)

Note: IBISWorld contains several different types of published information, each requiring slightly different citation details.

IBISWorld | Industry Reports

Note: Cite the entire report, even if only one particular chapter is used.

Reference list format:

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month). Title of industry report, Report number. [Type of resource]. Publisher. Publisher URL

Guiguis, J. (2023, October). Colleges & universities in Canada, 61131ACA. [Industry report]. IBISWorld. https://www.ibisworld.com/

In-text citation format: (Lastname, YYYY) (Guiguis, 2023)

If citing multiple reports by the same author in the same publication year, include the report number in your in-text citation:

(Guiguis, 61131ACA, 2023)

IBISWorld | Business Environment Report

Note: Business environment profiles are published without an author name. As with industry reports,cite the entire business environment profile, and not an individual chapter or chapters, even if only one chapter is used.

Reference list format:

Title of business environment profile, Report number. (Year, Month). [Type of resource]. Publisher. Publisher URL

Research and development expenditure , CA110. (2023, October). [Canada business environment profiles report]. IBISWorld. https://www.ibisworld.com/

In-text citation format: (Report Number, YYYY) (CA110, 2023)

IBISWorld | Graphic Data

Note: There are many charts that can be exported from IBISWorld as PNG or CSV files and used in papers and presentations. These must be cited independently.

Reference list format:

Title of graphic data. (Year, Month). In Title of industry report, Report number. [Type of resource]. Publisher. Publisher URL

Market share concentration: Combined market share of the four largest companies in this industry. (2023, Oct). In Colleges & universities in Canada, 61131ACA. [Graphic data]. IBISWorld. https://www.ibisworld.com/

In-text citation format: (Shortened title, YYYY) (Market share concentration, 2023)

Nexis Uni: Hoover's Company Records - In-depth Records

Hoover's Inc. (2020, January 1). T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.; Hoover's company records - in-depth records. http://www.hoovers.com

Statista

Conway, J. (2019, January). Net sales of McCormick & Company Inc. worldwide from 2011 to 2018. Statista. https://www.statista.com

Annual Reports:

Shell Canada Inc. (2015). Shell Canada Inc. 2014 Annual Report. http://www.shell.ca/en/about/Annual-Report.ca

(note that in most cases, the annual report is actually released in the new year; check filing dates on SEDAR+ or EDGAR)

Hudson's Bay Company. (2014). Hudson's Bay Company 2013 Annual Report. http://www.sedar.com

Income Tax Act:

Income Tax Act, RSC 1985, c 1 (5th Supp.) , s 18(1)(m)(iv).

(cite as a federal statute)

RSC = Revised Statutes of Canada

c = specific chapter number which statute has been assigned

s / ss = section/sections discussed ("pinpoint")

CICA Handbook (from Knotia):

International Accounting Standards Board. (2017). Leases: IAS 17. In International Financial Reporting Standards (2016). https://www.knotia.ca

Author: corporate author, found on copyright page of the work.
Date: of publication, found on copyright page, not the date included in the title.
Title: Standard title is not italicized, but title of larger work is italicized.
URL: publisher's URL, not database.

Tax/Budget Commentary (from Intelliconnect):