Inserting access date for online sources in APA

Hello,

I’m using Endnote 7.7 for Mac and want to insert the access/retrieval date in my references for all sources I’ve taken from the Internet. I’m using APA 6th.  I understand that APA guidelines no longer require a retrieval data in all cases, but the institution I am writing for wants me to.

I searched the community and found some helpful instructions on how to edit the template for references. I went into “Edit Output Style” for APA 6th, and selected reference type “Electronic Article”. I positioned my cursor after “Retrieved from” and then clicked on “Date Accessed” from the “Insert Field” menu. I then saved this change as a new style, “APA 6th Copy”. I went back into my Word document to see whether this change was reflected in my references, updating the bibliography in the new style. What I got for my “Electronic Article” was a new reference with the words “Date Accessed” inserted - not the actual date I have entered in the Date Accessed field for that reference in my Endnote library, but the words “Date Accessed”. Can anyone suggest why that’s happened, and how I might be able to get Endnote to produce the reference that I need?

Many thanks

Ian Hosack

My recommendation is that you attach your edited output style, so we can look at it and tweak it.  If on a PC it would be in the user folder defined in your preferences, usually an Endnote/styles folder in your “my documents” folder. I am not sure where it lives on a mac, but you should be able to search for it.   Attach it in the choose file that appears at the bottom of the reply.   

Thank you very much, Leanne.

I think I’ve figured out what I need to do. 

Standard APA 6th Output Style bibliography settings for Electonic Articles are:

Author. (Year). Title|. [Reviewed Item]|. Periodical Title, Volume|(Issue)|, Pages|.| Retrieved from Website Title website: |URL| doi:DOI

I want my bibliography entry to read: Retrieved March 22, 2012 from…

Previously, when trying to edit the template, I had positioned the cursor for “insert field” between Retrieved and from, so the settings read Retrieved Date Accessed from Website Title website… which didn’t work as I wanted.

I realised that I need to close and re-open the quotation marks in order for the desired access-date field, and not the words “Date Accessed” to appear in the reference. I’ve done this now, and it seems to work fine. The Output Setting style now reads:

Author. (Year). Title|. [Reviewed Item]|. Periodical Title, Volume|(Issue)|, Pages|.| Retrieved Date Accessed from Website Title website: |URL| doi:DOI

Thank you very much again for responding!

Hi

I need to  Insert access date for online sources in Vancouver style. to my reference in my word document . Please let me know how did you procede.

@shigaman wrote:

Thank you very much, Leanne.

 

I think I’ve figured out what I need to do. 

Standard APA 6th Output Style bibliography settings for Electonic Articles are:

Author. (Year). Title|. [Reviewed Item]|. Periodical Title, Volume|(Issue)|, Pages|.| Retrieved from Website Title website: |URL| doi:DOI

 

I want my bibliography entry to read: Retrieved March 22, 2012 from…

 

Previously, when trying to edit the template, I had positioned the cursor for “insert field” between Retrieved and from, so the settings read Retrieved Date Accessed from Website Title website… which didn’t work as I wanted.

 

I realised that I need to close and re-open the quotation marks in order for the desired access-date field, and not the words “Date Accessed” to appear in the reference. I’ve done this now, and it seems to work fine. The Output Setting style now reads:

Author. (Year). Title|. [Reviewed Item]|. Periodical Title, Volume|(Issue)|, Pages|.| Retrieved Date Accessed from Website Title website: |URL| doi:DOI

 

Thank you very much again for responding!

 

How do i insert Access date  to my reference in my word document . Please let me know how did you procede…

thanks 

Gita

To answer, it is important to know which reference types and where the data is in your records for those reference types.  It appears that various templates for electronic resources (web page, electronic article, electronic book, blog, etc) have different fields it uses (combining "Year Cited " and “Date Cited” or "Date Accessed " or sometimes just “Year accessed” and they are used inconsistently in the various electronic types of templates as well.  So to start, you need to look at where you want to keep the info in your record, what you want to include and, for which templates, and then adjust the bibliography templates in the Vancouver output style accordingly. I think the date accessed is more sensible than the date cited though.  We know when it was cited, but if it no longer exists on that date, who cares. But perhaps the most recent Vancouver style manual might address this as well?  

Since electronic sources evolved during the genesis of Endnote, most historical output styles need to be tweaked and user’s records probably need to be cleaned up to make sure they use the same criteria.

Once you have figured all that out, then you could ask for help again here. 

With over 5000 existing styles, I don’t think they are reviewed or updated in any way by the developers, unless a specific request is made, and even then, I am not sure how it fits in their priorities.  Thus, learning how to edit output styles and the underlying reference types, are good skills to acquire.  

see these resources to learn how:
https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-Windows-and-Mac-Style-Editing-Guide?language=en_US

How do I insert Access date to my reference in my word document? Please let me know how did you proceed…