how to reference from a case study

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

• Exhibitions
• Visit and Contact
• UCD Library
• Current Students
• News & Opinion
• Staff Directory
• UCD Connect

Harvard Style Guide: Case studies

• Introduction
• Harvard Tutorial
• In-text citations
• Book with one author
• Book with two or three authors
• Book with four or more authors
• Book with a corporate author
• Book with editor
• Chapter in an edited book
• Translated book
• Translated ancient texts
• Print journal article, one author
• Print journal article, two or three authors
• Print journal article, four or more authors
• eJournal article
• Journal article ePublication (ahead of print)
• Secondary sources
• Generative AI
• Images or photographs
• Lectures/ presentations
• Film/ television
• YouTube Film or Talk
• Music/ audio
• Encyclopaedia and dictionaries
• Email communication
• Conferences
• Official publications
• Book reviews

Case studies

• Group or individual assignments
• Legal Cases (Law Reports)
• No date of publication
• Personal communications
• Repository item
• Citing same author, multiple works, same year

Back to Academic Integrity guide

Reference : Author/editor Last name, Initials. (Year) 'Title of case study' [Case Study], Journal Title, Volume (Issue), pp. page numbers. Available at: URL [Accessed Day Month Year].

Ofek, E., Avery, J., Rudolph, S., Martins Gomes, V., Saadat, N., Tsui, A., & Shroff, Y. (2014) 'Case study second thoughts about a strategy shift' [Case Study], Harvard Business Review , 92(12), pp. 125-129. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=99621003&site=ehost-live [Accessed 10 December 2014].

In-Text-Citation :

• (Author last name, Year)
• Author last name (Year)...
• In their case study Ofek et al. (2014) describe how marketing to the young generation...

Still unsure what in-text citation and referencing mean? Check here . 

Still unsure why you need to reference all this information? Check here . 

• << Previous: Book reviews
• Next: Datasets >>
• Last Updated: Mar 22, 2024 9:51 AM
• URL: https://libguides.ucd.ie/harvardstyle

Harvard Referencing Style: Case Studies & Standards

• Introduction to In-text Citations
• Introduction to Referencing
• Internet Sources
• Dissertations & Theses
• Legal Sources & Government Publications
• Study Guides
• Reference Material
• Corporate Bodies
• Audio-visual Materials
• E-Mail & Personal Communication
• Powerpoint Presentations
• Case Studies & Standards
• Images or Diagrams

Referencing Case Studies

IN-TEXT CITATION

Spar and Burns (2000) ...

.... (Spar & Burns, 2000)

"....." (Spar & Burns, 2000:8)

FORMAT OF A REFERENCE TO A CASE STUDY

Author’s surname, Initials. Year. ‘Title.’ Case number. Place: Publisher or Institution.

Note that the title is not italicised.

EXAMPLE OF A REFERENCE TO A PRINTED CASE STUDY

Spar, D. and Burns, J. 2000. ‘Hitting the wall: Nike and International Labor Practices.’ HBS 700047.  Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

EXAMPLE OF A REFERENCE TO AN ELECTRONIC CASE STUDY FROM A DATABASE

Mathu, K.M. and Scheepers, C . 2016.  'L eading change towards sustainable green coal mining'. Available from: Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, < https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/ EEMCS-01-2016-0007> [Accessed on: 7 June 2017].

Referencing Standards

South African Bureau of Standards (2013) ...

... (South African Bureau of Standards, 2013).

"....." (South African Bureau of Standards, 2013: 3).

FORMAT OF A REFERENCE  TO A STANDARD

Name of the Authorizing Body. Year.  Number and Title of Standard.  Place of Publication: Publisher.

 EXAMPLE OF A REFERENCE TO A PRINT STANDARD

British Standards Institute.2015.  ​BS ISO 14001:Environmental management systems. Requirements with guidance for use.  ​London: British Standards Institute.

EXAMPLE OF A REFERENCE  TO AN ELECTRONIC STANDARD TAKEN FROM A DATABASE

South African Bureau of Standards. 2013.  SANS 1300​: Quality management — Customer satisfaction — Guidelines for monitoring and measuring ​. [online]. Pretoria: South African Bureau of Standards. Available from:<https://www.sabs.co.za/Standardss/index.asp> [ Accessed on: 17 March 2014].

• << Previous: Powerpoint Presentations
• Next: Images or Diagrams >>
• Last Updated: Feb 12, 2024 11:44 AM
• URL: https://wsu-ac.libguides.com/harvardstyle

• For educators

Citing a case study

Create a new citation.

• Film/Online Video
• Online Database
• Advertisement
• Digital File
• Digital Image
• Dissertation
• Government Publication
• Introduction
• Miscellaneous
• Musical Recording
• Press Release
• Scholarly Project

Published February 4, 2021. Updated August 9, 2021.

To create a reference or citation for a case study, you will need to know basic information including the name of the author, title of the case study, journal or book title, and publication year.

The templates and examples below will show you how to cite a case study in MLA style, APA style, Chicago style, and Harvard referencing style.

Easily cite a case study in the style of your choice using the  Chegg Writing citation generator .

Help protect your paper against accidental plagiarism with the Chegg Writing  plagiarism checker  and  citation generator .

Citing a case study in MLA style

In-text citation template and example:

(Author Surname Page number)

(Rapp and Caramazza 373)

Works cited entry template and example:

Surname, First M. “Title of the Case Study.”  Name of Publication , Volume number, Issue number, Publication Day Month Year, Page number. Case study.

Rapp, Brenda, and Alfonso Caramazza. “Selective Difficulties with Spoken Nouns and Written Verbs: A Single Case Study.”  Journal of Neurolinguistics , vol. 15, no. 3, 2002, pp. 373–402. Case Study.

Citing a case study in APA style

(Author Surname, Year)

(Rapp & Caramazza, 2002)

Reference list entry template and example:

Surname, F. M. (Publication Year). Title of the case study [Case study].  Name of Publication , Volume(Issue), Page number.

Rapp, B., & Caramazza, A. (2002). Selective difficulties with spoken nouns and written verbs: A single case study [Case study].  Journal of Neurolinguistics,  15(3), 373–402.

Citing a case study in Chicago style, notes-bibliography

Footnote template and example:

Author Full Name, “Title of the Case Study,”

Name of Publication

Volume number, Issue number (Publication Month Day, Year): Page number.

Brenda Rapp and Alfonso Caramazza, “Selective Difficulties with Spoken Nouns and Written Verbs: A Single Case Study,”

Journal of Neurolinguistics

15, no. 3 (2002): 373.

Shortened Note

Author Surname, “Shortened Title of the Case Study,” Page number.

Rapp and Caramazza, “Selective Difficulties,” 402.

Bibliography entry template and example:

Author Surname, First M. “Title of the Case Study.”  Name of Publication  Volume number, Issue number (Publication Month Day, Year): Page number.

Rapp, Brenda, and Alfonso Caramazza. “Selective Difficulties with Spoken Nouns and Written Verbs: A Single Case Study.”  Journal of Neurolinguistics  15, no. 3 (2002): 373–402.

Citing a case study in Chicago style, author-date

(Author Surname Publication year)

(Rapp and Caramazza 2002)

Author Surname, First M. Publication year. “Title of the Case Study.”  Name of Publication  Volume number, Issue number: Page number.

Rapp, Brenda, and Alfonso Caramazza. 2002. “Selective Difficulties with Spoken Nouns and Written Verbs: A Single Case Study.”  Journal of Neurolinguistics  15, no. 3: 373–402.

How to cite a case study in Harvard referencing style

(Author Surname, Publication Year)

(Rapp and Caramazza, 2002)

Author Surname, F.M. (Publication Year) ‘Title of case study’,  Name of Journal , Volume(Issue), pp. #-#.

Rapp, B. and Caramazza, A. (2002) ‘Selective difficulties with spoken nouns and written verbs: A single case study’,  Journal of Neurolinguistics , 15(3-5), pp. 373–402.

Writing a paper ? Don’t forget to include a  bibliography .

Citation Examples

Digital media, personal communication, government documents, additional sources.

Unlock more help for your courses

Nail down everything from main ideas to small edits: real expert proofreading, plagiarism scans, and instant grammar checks 24/7

Writing Help

Get the most out of chegg writing.

Chegg Writing  »  Citations  » Citing a case study

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition)

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

In-Text Citations

Resources on using in-text citations in APA style

Reference List

Resources on writing an APA style reference list, including citation formats

Other APA Resources

MLA Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition): Case Studies

• Advertisements
• Artificial Intelligence
• Audio Materials
• Books, eBooks & Course Packs
• Business Reports from Library Databases

Case Studies

• Class Materials (including lecture presentation slides & recordings)
• Creative Commons Licensed Works
• Digital Assignments: Citing Your Sources This link opens in a new window
• Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
• Games & Objects
• Government Documents
• Images, Infographics, Maps, Charts, & Tables
• Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers (Oral Communication)
• Journal Articles
• Legal Resources
• Magazine Articles
• Newspaper Articles
• Personal Communications (including emails and interviews)
• Religious Works
• Social Media
• Theses & Dissertations
• Websites (including documents/PDFs posted on websites)
• When Information Is Missing
• Works in Another Language / Translations
• Works Quoted in Another Source
• Quoting vs. Paraphrasing
• MLA Citation FAQs
• Plagiarism This link opens in a new window
• MLA for Faculty This link opens in a new window
• Case Study from a Library Database
• Case Study from a Website
• Case Study from a Book or eBook

• << Previous: Business Reports from Library Databases
• Next: Class Materials (including lecture presentation slides & recordings) >>
• Last Updated: Jun 19, 2024 12:36 PM
• URL: https://library.senecapolytechnic.ca/mla

• Walsh University

Q. How do I cite a case study in Harvard Business Review?

• 103 About the Library
• 59 About Walsh University
• 12 Archives
• 30 Business Resources
• 25 Checking out Items
• 204 Citing Sources
• 49 Copyright
• 53 Finding articles
• 34 Microsoft Office
• 10 Miscellaneous
• 3 Nurse Theorists
• 3 Nursing Theory
• 3 Practice Tests
• 184 Research
• 42 Tech Questions
• 32 Technology Tools
• 10 Textbooks
• 93 Using Databases
• Share on Facebook

Was this helpful? Yes 42 No 228

Answered By: Katie Hutchison Last Updated: Oct 26, 2016     Views: 352890

Harvard Business Review - Case Studies

This format would apply to any business case including Harvard Business Review, Ivey and MIT Sloane cases:

Author(s). Name of the case. Business Case. City. Publisher. Date. Format (Print or Web) If your format is Web include the date it was accessed. EXAMPLE: Yoffe, David B. and Renee Kim. Apple Inc in 2010. Case Study. Boston. Harvard Business Publishing, 2010. Web. 28 October 2010.

  APA Format

Harvard Business School Case Study

Citation elements required and general format:

Author(s). (Year). Title of case study . HBS No. number of case study. City, State abbreviation or Country of publication: Publisher. EXAMPLES:

One Author:

Smith, S. (2003). Leadership. HBS No. 7-806-122. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Two Authors:

Eisenmann, T., & Herman, K. (2006). Google, Inc. HBS No. 9-806-105. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

  In-text citation examples – Harvard Business School Case Study

APA in-text citations include the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page number (for quotes), either as part of the text of your paper or in parentheses.

…as the case study concluded (Smith, 2003, p. 6).

Smith reported (2003, p. 6) that the data was flawed.

Eisenmann and Herman did agree on the research findings (2006, p. 11).

… as both researchers agreed (Eisenmann & Herman, 2006, p. 11).

Chicago Manual of Style ( PDF selections copied from Grove City College Henry Buhl Library)

CASES (PRINTED)   

Footnote   

Mikołaj  Jan  Piskorski  and David Chen, “Twitter,” HBS No. 710-455 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2010), p. 8.   

Bibliography   

Piskorski ,  Mikołaj  Jan, and David Chen. “Twitter.” HBS No. 710-455. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2010.   

CASES (ONLINE)   

On the Web   

Amy C. Edmondson and Laura R. Feldman, “Group Process in the Challenger Launch Decision (A),” HBS No. 603-068 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2002), http://hbsp.harvard.edu, accessed October 2012.   

Edmondson, Amy C., and Laura R. Feldman. “Group Process in the Challenger Launch Decision (A).” HBS No. 603-068. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2002. http://hbsp. harvard.edu, accessed September 2007.   

Michael J. Enright et al., “Daewoo and the Korean Chaebol,” University of Hong Kong case no. HKU143 (University of Hong Kong, August 2001), via Harvard Business Publishing, http://hbsp.harvard.edu/, accessed March 2007.   

Bibliography   

Enright, Michael J., et al. “Daewoo and the Korean Chaebol.” University of Hong Kong case no. HKU143 (University of Hong Kong, August 2001). Harvard Business Publishing. http://hbsp.harvard.edu/, accessed March 2007.   

Links & Files

• Writing and Citing

Comments (0)

Contact us.

Questions? Ask Us!

Related topics.

• Citing Sources

• Case studies

General format

There is no specific way to reference a case study in APA style. Case studies are typically published as an article or report, or within a book. Format the reference list entry according to the type of publication. Following are some examples of case studies in business.

Business case study

Author(s). (Year).   Title of case study . Number of case study. URL

Harvard business school case study

Dey, A. (2022). Corporate governance: A three pillar framework. HBS No. 491-009.  https://hbsp.harvard.edu/cases/

Ivey business school case study

Dunbar, C., & Southam, C. (2005). London youth symphony. Ivey ID: 9B05009.  http://iveycases.com

Style notes

• If the case study is not numbered, leave it out of the reference entry.
• If the source is a book, format the reference according to the rules for books.
• If the source is a journal, format the reference according to the rules for journal articles.
• << Previous: Book and chapter
• Next: Dictionary or encyclopaedia entry >>
• Indigenous authors
• In-text citations
• Artificial intelligence tools
• Book and chapter
• Dictionary or encyclopaedia entry
• Health information sources
• Journal article
• Newspaper or magazine article
• Thesis or dissertation
• Webpage or website
• Writing style resources & sample papers

•   [email protected]
• Shapiro Library
• SNHU Library Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ: How do I cite a Harvard Business Review case study in APA Style?

• 7 Academic Integrity & Plagiarism
• 64 Academic Support, Writing Help, & Presentation Help
• 28 Access/Remote Access
• 7 Accessibility
• 9 Building/Facilities
• 7 Career/Job Information
• 26 Catalog/Print Books
• 25 Circulation
• 129 Citing Sources
• 14 Copyright
• 310 Databases
• 24 Directions/Location
• 18 Faculty Resources/Needs
• 7 Hours/Contacts
• 2 Innovation Lab & Makerspace/3D Printing
• 25 Interlibrary Loan
• 43 IT/Computer/Printing Support
• 3 Library Instruction
• 38 Library Technology Help
• 6 Multimedia
• 17 Online Programs
• 19 Periodicals
• 24 Policies
• 8 RefWorks/Citation Managers
• 4 Research Guides (LibGuides)
• 216 Research Help
• 23 University Services

Last Updated: Jun 22, 2023 Views: 74986

When citing case studies in APA style you'll want to include the typical citation elements and apply general formatting guidelines. The following are examples of how case studies could be cited in APA style, but be sure to check with your professor about how they'd like you to cite case studies in your work.

In-Text Citations

Kotter (1990) explains the steps British Airways took to reverse a horrible customer service atmosphere and financial crisis.

… as the case study concluded (Bisell & Tram, 2007) .

Groysberg and Connolly (2015) concluded in their case study that….

Reference List

Example (don't forget to indent the second and subsequent lines):

Author(s). (Year). Title of case study . HBS No. number of case study. Publisher.

Example, one author:

Kotter, J. (1990). Changing the culture at British Airways . HBS No. 491-009. Harvard Business School Publishing.

Example, two authors:

Groysberg, B., & Connolly, K. (2015). BlackRock: Diversity as a driver for success . HBS No. 415-047. Harvard Business School Publishing.

More Information

• APA Guide  (Shapiro Library)
• APA Style Blog This link opens in a new window (APA)

Further Help

This information is intended to be a guideline, not expert advice. Please be sure to speak to your professor about the appropriate way to cite sources in your class assignments and projects.

Campus Students

To access Academic Support, visit your Brightspace course and select “Tutoring and Mentoring” from the Academic Support pulldown menu.

Online Students

To access help with citations and more, visit the Academic Support via modules in Brightspace:

• Academic Support Overview: Getting Help with your Schoolwork This link opens in a new window
• Share on Facebook

Was this helpful? Yes 21 No 54

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are a self-serve option for users to search and find answers to their questions. 

Use the search box above to type your question to search for an answer or browse existing FAQs by group, topic, etc.

Tell Me More

Link to Question Form

More assistance.

Submit a Question

Related FAQs

• EXPLORE Random Article

How to Cite a Case Study

Last Updated: March 6, 2024

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Jennifer Mueller is a wikiHow Content Creator. She specializes in reviewing, fact-checking, and evaluating wikiHow's content to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. Jennifer holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006. This article has been viewed 37,500 times.

Particularly in research for business studies or papers in the social sciences, you may want to cite a case study completed by a university or other organization. While case studies have titles and publication information like other articles, they often have a unique case study number that is typically included in your citation. While Chicago citation style is most frequently used in business schools, you may also use the American Psychological Association (APA) or Modern Language Association (MLA) style.

Sample Citations

• Example: Lee, Stan.
• If there is more than one author, list the additional authors' names in first-middle initial-last format. Separate author's names with commas, with the word "and" before the last author's name.

• Example: Lee, Stan. "DC Comics in 2016." HBS No. 999-111.

• Example: Lee, Stan. "DC Comics in 2016." HBS No. 999-111. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017.

• Example: Lee, Stan. "DC Comics in 2016." HBS No. 999-111. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017. http://hbsp.harvard.edu, accessed July 2018.

• Print example: Stan Lee, "DC Comics in 2016," HBS No. 999-111 (Boston, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017), p. 14.
• Online example: Stan Lee, "DC Comics in 2016," HBS No. 999-111 (Boston, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017), http://hbsp.harvard.edu, accessed July 2018.

• Example: Lee, S.
• Separate the names of multiple authors with commas, placing an ampersand before the last author's name.

• Example: Lee, S. (2017).
• If there is no year of publication listed, use the abbreviation "n.d." in the parentheses.

• Example: Lee, S. (2017). DC Comics in 2016 .

• Example: Lee, S. (2017). DC Comics in 2016 . HBS No. 999-111.

• Example: Lee, S. (2017). DC Comics in 2016 . HBS No. 999-111. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

• Example: (Lee, 2017).

• If there are 2 authors, place the word "and" between their names. For 3 or more, use commas with the word "and" before the final author. After the first author, list subsequent authors with their first name followed by their last name. For example: Lee, Stan and Clark Kent.

• Example: Lee, Stan. DC Comics in 2016. Case Study.

• Example: Lee, Stan. DC Comics in 2016. Case Study. Boston. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017.
• Note that unlike many other citation styles, the unique case study number is not necessarily included for MLA citations. Ask your instructor or supervisor if they want this information included in your citation.

• Print example: Lee, Stan. DC Comics in 2016. Case Study. Boston. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017. Print.
• Web example: Lee, Stan. DC Comics in 2016. Case Study. Boston. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017. Web. 17 July 2018.
• If you accessed the case study online, you may put the URL of the case study. However, this isn't required by MLA style. Ask your instructor or supervisor for their preference.

• Example: (Lee 27).

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://guides.library.ualberta.ca/apa-citation-style/case-studies
• ↑ http://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/128490
• ↑ http://libanswers.walsh.edu/faq/147917
• ↑ http://maag.guides.ysu.edu/businesscitations/mla

About this article

Did this article help you?

• About wikiHow
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

CEMS Harvard Referencing Style: Case studies

• Introduction to Referencing and Plagiarism
• Introduction to In-text Citations
• Reference Management Tools
• Journal Articles
• Dissertations and Theses
• Publications and Reports of Corporate Bodies and International Organisations
• Conference Proceedings and Papers
• Government Publications
• Statutes and Acts
• Court Cases
• Newspaper Articles
• Unisa Study Guides and Lecture Notes
• Company Reports
• Case studies
• Internet Sources
• Personal Communications
• Powerpoint Presentations
• Images or Diagrams
• Standards and Patents
• Software Programs
• Secondary Referencing

Case Studies

• Printed Case Study
• Electronic Case Study

Author’s surname, initials. Year. Title (in italics) . Case number. Place: Publisher or institution.

Spar, D. & Burns, J. 2017. Hitting the wall: Nike and International Labor Practices . HBS 700047. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Author’s surname, initials. Year. Title (in italics). Case number. Place: Publisher or Institution.

Mathu, K.M. & Scheepers, C. 2016. Leading change towards sustainable green coal mining. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies. Available at: https ://www.e mer aldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/EEMCS-01-2016-0007 [Accessed: 7 June 2017].

• << Previous: Company Reports
• Next: Internet Sources >>
• Last Updated: May 6, 2024 1:17 PM
• URL: https://libguides.unisa.ac.za/CEMSHarvard

How to Cite a Case Study in APA: A Comprehensive Guide

If you’re writing an academic paper, you may need to cite a case study. But how do you do that? This guide will explain everything you need to know about citing a case study in APA format.

Table of Contents

What is APA?

APA stands for American Psychological Association. It is a style guide used by many academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and business. The purpose of the APA style is to provide a consistent format for academic writing, making it easier for readers to understand and follow the author’s argument.

Why is it important to cite a case study?

Citing a case study is important for several reasons. First, it gives credit to the original author for their work. Second, it allows readers to find the source if they want to learn more. Finally, it adds credibility to your work by demonstrating that you have researched and referenced other relevant studies.

How to cite a case study in APA format

Here are the steps you need to follow to cite a case study in APA format:

Step 1: Start with the author’s last name and first initial.

The first step in citing a case study is to list the author’s last name and first initial. For example Smith, J.

Step 2: Include the year of publication in parentheses.

Next, you need to include the year of publication in parentheses. For example: (2018).

Step 3: Provide the title of the case study in italics.

After the year of publication, you need to provide the title of the case study in italics. For example The impact of social media on adolescent mental health.

Step 4: Add the name of the publisher.

The next step is to add the name of the publisher. For example Harvard Business Review Press.

Step 5: Include the DOI or URL.

Finally, you need to include the DOI or URL where the case study can be found. For example https://doi.org/10.1145/1234567.1234567

Here’s what the final citation should look like:

Smith, J. (2018). The impact of social media on adolescent mental health. Harvard Business Review Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/1234567.1234567

What to do if there is no DOI or URL

If you cannot find a DOI or URL for the case study, you can omit it from the citation. In that case, you should include the name of the database where you found the case study instead. For example:

Smith, J. (2018). The impact of social media on adolescent mental health. Harvard Business Review Press. Academic Search Complete.

Tips for citing a case study in APA format

• Always check the specific requirements of your instructor or publisher to ensure that you are following their guidelines correctly.
• Double-check your citations to make sure that you have included all the necessary information.
• If you are citing multiple case studies from the same author or publisher, you can use a shortened version of the citation after the first one. For example Smith (2018, p. 25).

Citing a case study in APA format may seem daunting at first, but it is quite simple once you know the steps. By following the guidelines in this article, you can ensure that your citations are accurate and complete and that you are giving credit to the original authors for their work.

Related Posts

Learning Revolution: Are We Preparing Students for the Jobs of Tomorrow?

• Bessie Oliver
• May 16, 2024

The world of work is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Automation, artificial intelligence, and the rise […]

Beyond Textbooks: How Technology Can Enhance Learning in the Classroom

• April 23, 2024

Technology has fundamentally reshaped nearly every aspect of our lives, and education is no exception. […]

How to Archive Google Classroom

• March 30, 2023

Google Classroom is a popular learning management system that simplifies communication and organization between teachers […]

• TutorHome |
• IntranetHome |
• Contact the OU Contact the OU Contact the OU |
• Accessibility hub Accessibility hub
• StudentHome
• Help Centre

You are here

Help and support.

• Referencing and plagiarism

Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right)

• Accessibility statement: Library

Print this page

There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style. This guide is a quick introduction to the commonly-used Cite Them Right version. You will find further guidance available through the OU Library on the Cite Them Right Database .

For help and support with referencing and the full Cite Them Right guide, have a look at the Library’s page on referencing and plagiarism . If you need guidance referencing OU module material you can check out which sections of Cite Them Right are recommended when referencing physical and online module material .

This guide does not apply to OU Law undergraduate students . If you are studying a module beginning with W1xx, W2xx or W3xx, you should refer to the Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules .

Table of contents

In-text citations and full references.

• Secondary referencing
• Page numbers
• Citing multiple sources published in the same year by the same author

Full reference examples

Referencing consists of two elements:

• in-text citations, which are inserted in the body of your text and are included in the word count. An in-text citation gives the author(s) and publication date of a source you are referring to. If the publication date is not given, the phrase 'no date' is used instead of a date. If using direct quotations or you refer to a specific section in the source you also need the page number/s if available, or paragraph number for web pages.
• full references, which are given in alphabetical order in reference list at the end of your work and are not included in the word count. Full references give full bibliographical information for all the sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

To see a reference list and intext citations check out this example assignment on Cite Them Right .

Difference between reference list and bibliography

a reference list only includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text

a bibliography includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text AND sources that were part of your background reading that you did not use in your assignment

Back to top

Examples of in-text citations

You need to include an in-text citation wherever you quote or paraphrase from a source. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author(s), the year of publication, and a page number if relevant. There are a number of ways of incorporating in-text citations into your work - some examples are provided below. Alternatively you can see examples of setting out in-text citations in Cite Them Right .

Note: When referencing a chapter of an edited book, your in-text citation should give the author(s) of the chapter.

Online module materials

(Includes written online module activities, audio-visual material such as online tutorials, recordings or videos).

When referencing material from module websites, the date of publication is the year you started studying the module.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

OR, if there is no named author:

The Open University (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Rietdorf, K. and Bootman, M. (2022) 'Topic 3: Rare diseases'. S290: Investigating human health and disease . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1967195 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

The Open University (2022) ‘3.1 The purposes of childhood and youth research’. EK313: Issues in research with children and young people . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1949633&section=1.3 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

You can also use this template to reference videos and audio that are hosted on your module website:

The Open University (2022) ‘Video 2.7 An example of a Frith-Happé animation’. SK298: Brain, mind and mental health . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2013014&section=4.9.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

The Open University (2022) ‘Audio 2 Interview with Richard Sorabji (Part 2)’. A113: Revolutions . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1960941&section=5.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

Note: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to a module website, or if you have seen an article referred to on the website and then accessed the original version, reference the original journal article, and do not mention the module materials. If only an extract from an article is included in your module materials that you want to reference, you should use secondary referencing, with the module materials as the 'cited in' source, as described above.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of message', Title of discussion board , in Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Fitzpatrick, M. (2022) ‘A215 - presentation of TMAs', Tutor group discussion & Workbook activities , in A215: Creative writing . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=4209566 (Accessed: 24 January 2022).

Note: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, reference as a printed book.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

For ebooks that do not contain print publication details

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title of book . Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Example with one author:

Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project . Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy . Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Accessed: 23 June 2021).

Example with two or three authors:

Goddard, J. and Barrett, S. (2015) The health needs of young people leaving care . Norwich: University of East Anglia, School of Social Work and Psychosocial Studies.

Example with four or more authors:

Young, H.D. et al. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics . San Francisco, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Note: You can choose one or other method to reference four or more authors (unless your School requires you to name all authors in your reference list) and your approach should be consistent.

Note: Books that have an editor, or editors, where each chapter is written by a different author or authors.

Surname of chapter author, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of chapter or section', in Initial. Surname of book editor (ed.) Title of book . Place of publication: publisher, Page reference.

Franklin, A.W. (2012) 'Management of the problem', in S.M. Smith (ed.) The maltreatment of children . Lancaster: MTP, pp. 83–95.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference.

If accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Available at: DOI or URL (if required) (Accessed: date).

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326.

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326. Available at: https://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log... (Accessed: 27 January 2023).

Barke, M. and Mowl, G. (2016) 'Málaga – a failed resort of the early twentieth century?', Journal of Tourism History , 2(3), pp. 187–212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2010.523145

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Mansell, W. and Bloom, A. (2012) ‘£10,000 carrot to tempt physics experts’, The Guardian , 20 June, p. 5.

Roberts, D. and Ackerman, S. (2013) 'US draft resolution allows Obama 90 days for military action against Syria', The Guardian , 4 September. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/04/syria-strikes-draft-resolut... (Accessed: 9 September 2015).

Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Robinson, J. (2007) Social variation across the UK . Available at: https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation... (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

The British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct . Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct (Accessed: 22 March 2019).

Note: Cite Them Right Online offers guidance for referencing webpages that do not include authors' names and dates. However, be extra vigilant about the suitability of such webpages.

Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of photograph . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Kitton, J. (2013) Golden sunset . Available at: https://www.jameskittophotography.co.uk/photo_8692150.html (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

stanitsa_dance (2021) Cossack dance ensemble . Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2023).

Note: If no title can be found then replace it with a short description.

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Getting started with the online library
• Disabled user support
• Finding resources for your assignment
• Finding ejournals and articles
• Access eresources using Google Scholar
• Help with online resources
• Finding and using books and theses
• Finding information on your research topic
• Canllaw Cyflym i Gyfeirnodi Harvard (Cite Them Right)
• Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules
• The Classical Studies guide to referencing
• Bibliographic management
• What if I cannot find the reference type I need in my referencing guide?
• I have found a web page with no author, date or publisher - how do I reference it?
• Identifying a source
• Training and skills
• Study materials
• Using other libraries and SCONUL Access
• Borrowing at the Walton Hall Library
• OU Glossary
• Contacting the helpdesk

Smarter searching with library databases

Wednesday, 24 July, 2024 - 19:30

Learn how to access library databases, take advantage of the functionality they offer, and devise a proper search technique.

Library Helpdesk

Chat to a Librarian  - Available 24/7

Other ways to contact the Library Helpdesk

The Open University

• Study with us
• Work with us
• Supported distance learning
• Funding your studies
• International students
• Global reputation
• Sustainability
• Apprenticeships
• Develop your workforce
• News & media
• Contact the OU

Undergraduate

• Arts and Humanities
• Art History
• Business and Management
• Combined Studies
• Computing and IT
• Counselling
• Creative Arts
• Creative Writing
• Criminology
• Early Years
• Electronic Engineering
• Engineering
• Environment
• Film and Media
• Health and Social Care
• Health and Wellbeing
• Health Sciences
• International Studies
• Mathematics
• Mental Health
• Nursing and Healthcare
• Religious Studies
• Social Sciences
• Social Work
• Software Engineering
• Sport and Fitness

Postgraduate

• Postgraduate study
• Research degrees
• Masters in Social Work (MA)
• Masters in Economics (MSc)
• Masters in Creative Writing (MA)
• Masters in Education (MA/MEd)
• Masters in Engineering (MSc)
• Masters in English Literature (MA)
• Masters in History (MA)
• Masters in International Relations (MA)
• Masters in Finance (MSc)
• Masters in Cyber Security (MSc)
• Masters in Psychology (MSc)
• A to Z of Masters degrees
• OU Accessibility statement
• Conditions of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookie policy
• Manage cookie preferences
• Modern slavery act (pdf 149kb)

Follow us on Social media

• Student Policies and Regulations
• Student Charter
• System Status
• Contact the OU Contact the OU
• Modern Slavery Act (pdf 149kb)

© . . .

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

A case study research paper examines a person, place, event, condition, phenomenon, or other type of subject of analysis in order to extrapolate  key themes and results that help predict future trends, illuminate previously hidden issues that can be applied to practice, and/or provide a means for understanding an important research problem with greater clarity. A case study research paper usually examines a single subject of analysis, but case study papers can also be designed as a comparative investigation that shows relationships between two or more subjects. The methods used to study a case can rest within a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method investigative paradigm.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010 ; “What is a Case Study?” In Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London: SAGE, 2010.

How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper

General information about how to choose a topic to investigate can be found under the " Choosing a Research Problem " tab in the Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper writing guide. Review this page because it may help you identify a subject of analysis that can be investigated using a case study design.

However, identifying a case to investigate involves more than choosing the research problem . A case study encompasses a problem contextualized around the application of in-depth analysis, interpretation, and discussion, often resulting in specific recommendations for action or for improving existing conditions. As Seawright and Gerring note, practical considerations such as time and access to information can influence case selection, but these issues should not be the sole factors used in describing the methodological justification for identifying a particular case to study. Given this, selecting a case includes considering the following:

• The case represents an unusual or atypical example of a research problem that requires more in-depth analysis? Cases often represent a topic that rests on the fringes of prior investigations because the case may provide new ways of understanding the research problem. For example, if the research problem is to identify strategies to improve policies that support girl's access to secondary education in predominantly Muslim nations, you could consider using Azerbaijan as a case study rather than selecting a more obvious nation in the Middle East. Doing so may reveal important new insights into recommending how governments in other predominantly Muslim nations can formulate policies that support improved access to education for girls.
• The case provides important insight or illuminate a previously hidden problem? In-depth analysis of a case can be based on the hypothesis that the case study will reveal trends or issues that have not been exposed in prior research or will reveal new and important implications for practice. For example, anecdotal evidence may suggest drug use among homeless veterans is related to their patterns of travel throughout the day. Assuming prior studies have not looked at individual travel choices as a way to study access to illicit drug use, a case study that observes a homeless veteran could reveal how issues of personal mobility choices facilitate regular access to illicit drugs. Note that it is important to conduct a thorough literature review to ensure that your assumption about the need to reveal new insights or previously hidden problems is valid and evidence-based.
• The case challenges and offers a counter-point to prevailing assumptions? Over time, research on any given topic can fall into a trap of developing assumptions based on outdated studies that are still applied to new or changing conditions or the idea that something should simply be accepted as "common sense," even though the issue has not been thoroughly tested in current practice. A case study analysis may offer an opportunity to gather evidence that challenges prevailing assumptions about a research problem and provide a new set of recommendations applied to practice that have not been tested previously. For example, perhaps there has been a long practice among scholars to apply a particular theory in explaining the relationship between two subjects of analysis. Your case could challenge this assumption by applying an innovative theoretical framework [perhaps borrowed from another discipline] to explore whether this approach offers new ways of understanding the research problem. Taking a contrarian stance is one of the most important ways that new knowledge and understanding develops from existing literature.
• The case provides an opportunity to pursue action leading to the resolution of a problem? Another way to think about choosing a case to study is to consider how the results from investigating a particular case may result in findings that reveal ways in which to resolve an existing or emerging problem. For example, studying the case of an unforeseen incident, such as a fatal accident at a railroad crossing, can reveal hidden issues that could be applied to preventative measures that contribute to reducing the chance of accidents in the future. In this example, a case study investigating the accident could lead to a better understanding of where to strategically locate additional signals at other railroad crossings so as to better warn drivers of an approaching train, particularly when visibility is hindered by heavy rain, fog, or at night.
• The case offers a new direction in future research? A case study can be used as a tool for an exploratory investigation that highlights the need for further research about the problem. A case can be used when there are few studies that help predict an outcome or that establish a clear understanding about how best to proceed in addressing a problem. For example, after conducting a thorough literature review [very important!], you discover that little research exists showing the ways in which women contribute to promoting water conservation in rural communities of east central Africa. A case study of how women contribute to saving water in a rural village of Uganda can lay the foundation for understanding the need for more thorough research that documents how women in their roles as cooks and family caregivers think about water as a valuable resource within their community. This example of a case study could also point to the need for scholars to build new theoretical frameworks around the topic [e.g., applying feminist theories of work and family to the issue of water conservation].

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. “Building Theories from Case Study Research.” Academy of Management Review 14 (October 1989): 532-550; Emmel, Nick. Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research: A Realist Approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013; Gerring, John. “What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?” American Political Science Review 98 (May 2004): 341-354; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Seawright, Jason and John Gerring. "Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research." Political Research Quarterly 61 (June 2008): 294-308.

Structure and Writing Style

The purpose of a paper in the social sciences designed around a case study is to thoroughly investigate a subject of analysis in order to reveal a new understanding about the research problem and, in so doing, contributing new knowledge to what is already known from previous studies. In applied social sciences disciplines [e.g., education, social work, public administration, etc.], case studies may also be used to reveal best practices, highlight key programs, or investigate interesting aspects of professional work.

In general, the structure of a case study research paper is not all that different from a standard college-level research paper. However, there are subtle differences you should be aware of. Here are the key elements to organizing and writing a case study research paper.

I.  Introduction

As with any research paper, your introduction should serve as a roadmap for your readers to ascertain the scope and purpose of your study . The introduction to a case study research paper, however, should not only describe the research problem and its significance, but you should also succinctly describe why the case is being used and how it relates to addressing the problem. The two elements should be linked. With this in mind, a good introduction answers these four questions:

• What is being studied? Describe the research problem and describe the subject of analysis [the case] you have chosen to address the problem. Explain how they are linked and what elements of the case will help to expand knowledge and understanding about the problem.
• Why is this topic important to investigate? Describe the significance of the research problem and state why a case study design and the subject of analysis that the paper is designed around is appropriate in addressing the problem.
• What did we know about this topic before I did this study? Provide background that helps lead the reader into the more in-depth literature review to follow. If applicable, summarize prior case study research applied to the research problem and why it fails to adequately address the problem. Describe why your case will be useful. If no prior case studies have been used to address the research problem, explain why you have selected this subject of analysis.
• How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of understanding? Explain why your case study will be suitable in helping to expand knowledge and understanding about the research problem.

Each of these questions should be addressed in no more than a few paragraphs. Exceptions to this can be when you are addressing a complex research problem or subject of analysis that requires more in-depth background information.

II.  Literature Review

The literature review for a case study research paper is generally structured the same as it is for any college-level research paper. The difference, however, is that the literature review is focused on providing background information and  enabling historical interpretation of the subject of analysis in relation to the research problem the case is intended to address . This includes synthesizing studies that help to:

• Place relevant works in the context of their contribution to understanding the case study being investigated . This would involve summarizing studies that have used a similar subject of analysis to investigate the research problem. If there is literature using the same or a very similar case to study, you need to explain why duplicating past research is important [e.g., conditions have changed; prior studies were conducted long ago, etc.].
• Describe the relationship each work has to the others under consideration that informs the reader why this case is applicable . Your literature review should include a description of any works that support using the case to investigate the research problem and the underlying research questions.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research using the case study . If applicable, review any research that has examined the research problem using a different research design. Explain how your use of a case study design may reveal new knowledge or a new perspective or that can redirect research in an important new direction.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies . This refers to synthesizing any literature that points to unresolved issues of concern about the research problem and describing how the subject of analysis that forms the case study can help resolve these existing contradictions.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research . Your review should examine any literature that lays a foundation for understanding why your case study design and the subject of analysis around which you have designed your study may reveal a new way of approaching the research problem or offer a perspective that points to the need for additional research.
• Expose any gaps that exist in the literature that the case study could help to fill . Summarize any literature that not only shows how your subject of analysis contributes to understanding the research problem, but how your case contributes to a new way of understanding the problem that prior research has failed to do.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important!] . Collectively, your literature review should always place your case study within the larger domain of prior research about the problem. The overarching purpose of reviewing pertinent literature in a case study paper is to demonstrate that you have thoroughly identified and synthesized prior studies in relation to explaining the relevance of the case in addressing the research problem.

III.  Method

In this section, you explain why you selected a particular case [i.e., subject of analysis] and the strategy you used to identify and ultimately decide that your case was appropriate in addressing the research problem. The way you describe the methods used varies depending on the type of subject of analysis that constitutes your case study.

If your subject of analysis is an incident or event . In the social and behavioral sciences, the event or incident that represents the case to be studied is usually bounded by time and place, with a clear beginning and end and with an identifiable location or position relative to its surroundings. The subject of analysis can be a rare or critical event or it can focus on a typical or regular event. The purpose of studying a rare event is to illuminate new ways of thinking about the broader research problem or to test a hypothesis. Critical incident case studies must describe the method by which you identified the event and explain the process by which you determined the validity of this case to inform broader perspectives about the research problem or to reveal new findings. However, the event does not have to be a rare or uniquely significant to support new thinking about the research problem or to challenge an existing hypothesis. For example, Walo, Bull, and Breen conducted a case study to identify and evaluate the direct and indirect economic benefits and costs of a local sports event in the City of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of their study was to provide new insights from measuring the impact of a typical local sports event that prior studies could not measure well because they focused on large "mega-events." Whether the event is rare or not, the methods section should include an explanation of the following characteristics of the event: a) when did it take place; b) what were the underlying circumstances leading to the event; and, c) what were the consequences of the event in relation to the research problem.

If your subject of analysis is a person. Explain why you selected this particular individual to be studied and describe what experiences they have had that provide an opportunity to advance new understandings about the research problem. Mention any background about this person which might help the reader understand the significance of their experiences that make them worthy of study. This includes describing the relationships this person has had with other people, institutions, and/or events that support using them as the subject for a case study research paper. It is particularly important to differentiate the person as the subject of analysis from others and to succinctly explain how the person relates to examining the research problem [e.g., why is one politician in a particular local election used to show an increase in voter turnout from any other candidate running in the election]. Note that these issues apply to a specific group of people used as a case study unit of analysis [e.g., a classroom of students].

If your subject of analysis is a place. In general, a case study that investigates a place suggests a subject of analysis that is unique or special in some way and that this uniqueness can be used to build new understanding or knowledge about the research problem. A case study of a place must not only describe its various attributes relevant to the research problem [e.g., physical, social, historical, cultural, economic, political], but you must state the method by which you determined that this place will illuminate new understandings about the research problem. It is also important to articulate why a particular place as the case for study is being used if similar places also exist [i.e., if you are studying patterns of homeless encampments of veterans in open spaces, explain why you are studying Echo Park in Los Angeles rather than Griffith Park?]. If applicable, describe what type of human activity involving this place makes it a good choice to study [e.g., prior research suggests Echo Park has more homeless veterans].

If your subject of analysis is a phenomenon. A phenomenon refers to a fact, occurrence, or circumstance that can be studied or observed but with the cause or explanation to be in question. In this sense, a phenomenon that forms your subject of analysis can encompass anything that can be observed or presumed to exist but is not fully understood. In the social and behavioral sciences, the case usually focuses on human interaction within a complex physical, social, economic, cultural, or political system. For example, the phenomenon could be the observation that many vehicles used by ISIS fighters are small trucks with English language advertisements on them. The research problem could be that ISIS fighters are difficult to combat because they are highly mobile. The research questions could be how and by what means are these vehicles used by ISIS being supplied to the militants and how might supply lines to these vehicles be cut off? How might knowing the suppliers of these trucks reveal larger networks of collaborators and financial support? A case study of a phenomenon most often encompasses an in-depth analysis of a cause and effect that is grounded in an interactive relationship between people and their environment in some way.

NOTE:   The choice of the case or set of cases to study cannot appear random. Evidence that supports the method by which you identified and chose your subject of analysis should clearly support investigation of the research problem and linked to key findings from your literature review. Be sure to cite any studies that helped you determine that the case you chose was appropriate for examining the problem.

IV.  Discussion

The main elements of your discussion section are generally the same as any research paper, but centered around interpreting and drawing conclusions about the key findings from your analysis of the case study. Note that a general social sciences research paper may contain a separate section to report findings. However, in a paper designed around a case study, it is common to combine a description of the results with the discussion about their implications. The objectives of your discussion section should include the following:

Reiterate the Research Problem/State the Major Findings Briefly reiterate the research problem you are investigating and explain why the subject of analysis around which you designed the case study were used. You should then describe the findings revealed from your study of the case using direct, declarative, and succinct proclamation of the study results. Highlight any findings that were unexpected or especially profound.

Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why They are Important Systematically explain the meaning of your case study findings and why you believe they are important. Begin this part of the section by repeating what you consider to be your most important or surprising finding first, then systematically review each finding. Be sure to thoroughly extrapolate what your analysis of the case can tell the reader about situations or conditions beyond the actual case that was studied while, at the same time, being careful not to misconstrue or conflate a finding that undermines the external validity of your conclusions.

Relate the Findings to Similar Studies No study in the social sciences is so novel or possesses such a restricted focus that it has absolutely no relation to previously published research. The discussion section should relate your case study results to those found in other studies, particularly if questions raised from prior studies served as the motivation for choosing your subject of analysis. This is important because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your case study design and the subject of analysis differs from prior research about the topic.

Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings Remember that the purpose of social science research is to discover and not to prove. When writing the discussion section, you should carefully consider all possible explanations revealed by the case study results, rather than just those that fit your hypothesis or prior assumptions and biases. Be alert to what the in-depth analysis of the case may reveal about the research problem, including offering a contrarian perspective to what scholars have stated in prior research if that is how the findings can be interpreted from your case.

Acknowledge the Study's Limitations You can state the study's limitations in the conclusion section of your paper but describing the limitations of your subject of analysis in the discussion section provides an opportunity to identify the limitations and explain why they are not significant. This part of the discussion section should also note any unanswered questions or issues your case study could not address. More detailed information about how to document any limitations to your research can be found here .

Suggest Areas for Further Research Although your case study may offer important insights about the research problem, there are likely additional questions related to the problem that remain unanswered or findings that unexpectedly revealed themselves as a result of your in-depth analysis of the case. Be sure that the recommendations for further research are linked to the research problem and that you explain why your recommendations are valid in other contexts and based on the original assumptions of your study.

V.  Conclusion

As with any research paper, you should summarize your conclusion in clear, simple language; emphasize how the findings from your case study differs from or supports prior research and why. Do not simply reiterate the discussion section. Provide a synthesis of key findings presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem. If you haven't already done so in the discussion section, be sure to document the limitations of your case study and any need for further research.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to: 1) reiterate the main argument supported by the findings from your case study; 2) state clearly the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem using a case study design in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found from reviewing the literature; and, 3) provide a place to persuasively and succinctly restate the significance of your research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with in-depth information about the topic.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize these points for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the conclusion of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration of the case study's findings that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from your case study findings.

Note that, depending on the discipline you are writing in or the preferences of your professor, the concluding paragraph may contain your final reflections on the evidence presented as it applies to practice or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the subject of analysis you have investigated will depend on whether you are explicitly asked to express your observations in this way.

Problems to Avoid

Overgeneralization One of the goals of a case study is to lay a foundation for understanding broader trends and issues applied to similar circumstances. However, be careful when drawing conclusions from your case study. They must be evidence-based and grounded in the results of the study; otherwise, it is merely speculation. Looking at a prior example, it would be incorrect to state that a factor in improving girls access to education in Azerbaijan and the policy implications this may have for improving access in other Muslim nations is due to girls access to social media if there is no documentary evidence from your case study to indicate this. There may be anecdotal evidence that retention rates were better for girls who were engaged with social media, but this observation would only point to the need for further research and would not be a definitive finding if this was not a part of your original research agenda.

Failure to Document Limitations No case is going to reveal all that needs to be understood about a research problem. Therefore, just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study , you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis. For example, the case of studying how women conceptualize the need for water conservation in a village in Uganda could have limited application in other cultural contexts or in areas where fresh water from rivers or lakes is plentiful and, therefore, conservation is understood more in terms of managing access rather than preserving access to a scarce resource.

Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings. If you do not, your reader may question the validity of your analysis, particularly if you failed to document an obvious outcome from your case study research. For example, in the case of studying the accident at the railroad crossing to evaluate where and what types of warning signals should be located, you failed to take into consideration speed limit signage as well as warning signals. When designing your case study, be sure you have thoroughly addressed all aspects of the problem and do not leave gaps in your analysis that leave the reader questioning the results.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Gerring, John. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Merriam, Sharan B. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education . Rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998; Miller, Lisa L. “The Use of Case Studies in Law and Social Science Research.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14 (2018): TBD; Mills, Albert J., Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Putney, LeAnn Grogan. "Case Study." In Encyclopedia of Research Design , Neil J. Salkind, editor. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010), pp. 116-120; Simons, Helen. Case Study Research in Practice . London: SAGE Publications, 2009;  Kratochwill,  Thomas R. and Joel R. Levin, editors. Single-Case Research Design and Analysis: New Development for Psychology and Education .  Hilldsale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992; Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London : SAGE, 2010; Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . 6th edition. Los Angeles, CA, SAGE Publications, 2014; Walo, Maree, Adrian Bull, and Helen Breen. “Achieving Economic Benefits at Local Events: A Case Study of a Local Sports Event.” Festival Management and Event Tourism 4 (1996): 95-106.

Writing Tip

At Least Five Misconceptions about Case Study Research

Social science case studies are often perceived as limited in their ability to create new knowledge because they are not randomly selected and findings cannot be generalized to larger populations. Flyvbjerg examines five misunderstandings about case study research and systematically "corrects" each one. To quote, these are:

Misunderstanding 1 :  General, theoretical [context-independent] knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical [context-dependent] knowledge. Misunderstanding 2 :  One cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case; therefore, the case study cannot contribute to scientific development. Misunderstanding 3 :  The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses; that is, in the first stage of a total research process, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building. Misunderstanding 4 :  The case study contains a bias toward verification, that is, a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions. Misunderstanding 5 :  It is often difficult to summarize and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of specific case studies [p. 221].

While writing your paper, think introspectively about how you addressed these misconceptions because to do so can help you strengthen the validity and reliability of your research by clarifying issues of case selection, the testing and challenging of existing assumptions, the interpretation of key findings, and the summation of case outcomes. Think of a case study research paper as a complete, in-depth narrative about the specific properties and key characteristics of your subject of analysis applied to the research problem.

Flyvbjerg, Bent. “Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12 (April 2006): 219-245.

• << Previous: Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Next: Writing a Field Report >>
• Last Updated: Jun 3, 2024 9:44 AM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/assignments

References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text .

Check each reference carefully against the original publication to ensure information is accurate and complete. Accurately prepared references help establish your credibility as a careful researcher and writer.

Consistency in reference formatting allows readers to focus on the content of your reference list, discerning both the types of works you consulted and the important reference elements (who, when, what, and where) with ease. When you present each reference in a consistent fashion, readers do not need to spend time determining how you organized the information. And when searching the literature yourself, you also save time and effort when reading reference lists in the works of others that are written in APA Style.

Academic Writer ®

Master academic writing with APA’s essential teaching and learning resource

Course Adoption

Teaching APA Style? Become a course adopter of the 7th edition Publication Manual

Instructional Aids

Guides, checklists, webinars, tutorials, and sample papers for anyone looking to improve their knowledge of APA Style

How do I cite a case study that is in my textbook both in-text and for my reference page - APA format?

To see how to cite a textbook (and a case study from it), visit the  APA Help  guide:

• Click on References and In-text Citation Examples
• See the drop down arrow by Books  for one that matches your textbook.

Books: General Format

Author Last Name, First & Middle Initials. (Year).  Title of book: Subtitle of book.  City, ST: Publisher.

In-text : Paraphrase : (Last Name, Year).  Quotation : (Last Name, Year, p. Page Number).

Thank you for using ASK US.  For further help, contact your Campus Library/ARC .

• Last Updated Jan 30, 2018
• Views 22940
• Answered By Baker Librarians

FAQ Actions

• Share on Facebook

Comments (0)

We'll answer you within 3 hours m - f 8:00 am - 4:00 pm..

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources

How to Cite Sources

Here is a complete list for how to cite sources. Most of these guides present citation guidance and examples in MLA, APA, and Chicago.

If you’re looking for general information on MLA or APA citations , the EasyBib Writing Center was designed for you! It has articles on what’s needed in an MLA in-text citation , how to format an APA paper, what an MLA annotated bibliography is, making an MLA works cited page, and much more!

MLA Format Citation Examples

The Modern Language Association created the MLA Style, currently in its 9th edition, to provide researchers with guidelines for writing and documenting scholarly borrowings.  Most often used in the humanities, MLA style (or MLA format ) has been adopted and used by numerous other disciplines, in multiple parts of the world.

MLA provides standard rules to follow so that most research papers are formatted in a similar manner. This makes it easier for readers to comprehend the information. The MLA in-text citation guidelines, MLA works cited standards, and MLA annotated bibliography instructions provide scholars with the information they need to properly cite sources in their research papers, articles, and assignments.

• Book Chapter
• Conference Paper
• Documentary
• Encyclopedia
• Google Images
• Kindle Book
• Memorial Inscription
• Museum Exhibit
• Painting or Artwork
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Sheet Music
• Thesis or Dissertation
• YouTube Video

APA Format Citation Examples

The American Psychological Association created the APA citation style in 1929 as a way to help psychologists, anthropologists, and even business managers establish one common way to cite sources and present content.

APA is used when citing sources for academic articles such as journals, and is intended to help readers better comprehend content, and to avoid language bias wherever possible. The APA style (or APA format ) is now in its 7th edition, and provides citation style guides for virtually any type of resource.

Chicago Style Citation Examples

The Chicago/Turabian style of citing sources is generally used when citing sources for humanities papers, and is best known for its requirement that writers place bibliographic citations at the bottom of a page (in Chicago-format footnotes ) or at the end of a paper (endnotes).

The Turabian and Chicago citation styles are almost identical, but the Turabian style is geared towards student published papers such as theses and dissertations, while the Chicago style provides guidelines for all types of publications. This is why you’ll commonly see Chicago style and Turabian style presented together. The Chicago Manual of Style is currently in its 17th edition, and Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is in its 8th edition.

Citing Specific Sources or Events

• Declaration of Independence
• Gettysburg Address
• Martin Luther King Jr. Speech
• President Obama’s Farewell Address
• President Trump’s Inauguration Speech
• White House Press Briefing

Additional FAQs

• Citing Archived Contributors
• Citing a Blog
• Citing a Book Chapter
• Citing a Source in a Foreign Language
• Citing an Image
• Citing a Song
• Citing Special Contributors
• Citing a Translated Article
• Citing a Tweet

6 Interesting Citation Facts

The world of citations may seem cut and dry, but there’s more to them than just specific capitalization rules, MLA in-text citations , and other formatting specifications. Citations have been helping researches document their sources for hundreds of years, and are a great way to learn more about a particular subject area.

Ever wonder what sets all the different styles apart, or how they came to be in the first place? Read on for some interesting facts about citations!

1. There are Over 7,000 Different Citation Styles

You may be familiar with MLA and APA citation styles, but there are actually thousands of citation styles used for all different academic disciplines all across the world. Deciding which one to use can be difficult, so be sure to ask you instructor which one you should be using for your next paper.

2. Some Citation Styles are Named After People

While a majority of citation styles are named for the specific organizations that publish them (i.e. APA is published by the American Psychological Association, and MLA format is named for the Modern Language Association), some are actually named after individuals. The most well-known example of this is perhaps Turabian style, named for Kate L. Turabian, an American educator and writer. She developed this style as a condensed version of the Chicago Manual of Style in order to present a more concise set of rules to students.

3. There are Some Really Specific and Uniquely Named Citation Styles

How specific can citation styles get? The answer is very. For example, the “Flavour and Fragrance Journal” style is based on a bimonthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 1985 by John Wiley & Sons. It publishes original research articles, reviews and special reports on all aspects of flavor and fragrance. Another example is “Nordic Pulp and Paper Research,” a style used by an international scientific magazine covering science and technology for the areas of wood or bio-mass constituents.

4. More citations were created on  EasyBib.com  in the first quarter of 2018 than there are people in California.

The US Census Bureau estimates that approximately 39.5 million people live in the state of California. Meanwhile, about 43 million citations were made on EasyBib from January to March of 2018. That’s a lot of citations.

5. “Citations” is a Word With a Long History

The word “citations” can be traced back literally thousands of years to the Latin word “citare” meaning “to summon, urge, call; put in sudden motion, call forward; rouse, excite.” The word then took on its more modern meaning and relevance to writing papers in the 1600s, where it became known as the “act of citing or quoting a passage from a book, etc.”

6. Citation Styles are Always Changing

The concept of citations always stays the same. It is a means of preventing plagiarism and demonstrating where you relied on outside sources. The specific style rules, however, can and do change regularly. For example, in 2018 alone, 46 new citation styles were introduced , and 106 updates were made to exiting styles. At EasyBib, we are always on the lookout for ways to improve our styles and opportunities to add new ones to our list.

Why Citations Matter

Here are the ways accurate citations can help your students achieve academic success, and how you can answer the dreaded question, “why should I cite my sources?”

They Give Credit to the Right People

Citing their sources makes sure that the reader can differentiate the student’s original thoughts from those of other researchers. Not only does this make sure that the sources they use receive proper credit for their work, it ensures that the student receives deserved recognition for their unique contributions to the topic. Whether the student is citing in MLA format , APA format , or any other style, citations serve as a natural way to place a student’s work in the broader context of the subject area, and serve as an easy way to gauge their commitment to the project.

They Provide Hard Evidence of Ideas

Having many citations from a wide variety of sources related to their idea means that the student is working on a well-researched and respected subject. Citing sources that back up their claim creates room for fact-checking and further research . And, if they can cite a few sources that have the converse opinion or idea, and then demonstrate to the reader why they believe that that viewpoint is wrong by again citing credible sources, the student is well on their way to winning over the reader and cementing their point of view.

They Promote Originality and Prevent Plagiarism

The point of research projects is not to regurgitate information that can already be found elsewhere. We have Google for that! What the student’s project should aim to do is promote an original idea or a spin on an existing idea, and use reliable sources to promote that idea. Copying or directly referencing a source without proper citation can lead to not only a poor grade, but accusations of academic dishonesty. By citing their sources regularly and accurately, students can easily avoid the trap of plagiarism , and promote further research on their topic.

They Create Better Researchers

By researching sources to back up and promote their ideas, students are becoming better researchers without even knowing it! Each time a new source is read or researched, the student is becoming more engaged with the project and is developing a deeper understanding of the subject area. Proper citations demonstrate a breadth of the student’s reading and dedication to the project itself. By creating citations, students are compelled to make connections between their sources and discern research patterns. Each time they complete this process, they are helping themselves become better researchers and writers overall.

When is the Right Time to Start Making Citations?

Make in-text/parenthetical citations as you need them.

As you are writing your paper, be sure to include references within the text that correspond with references in a works cited or bibliography. These are usually called in-text citations or parenthetical citations in MLA and APA formats. The most effective time to complete these is directly after you have made your reference to another source. For instance, after writing the line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities : “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…,” you would include a citation like this (depending on your chosen citation style):

(Dickens 11).

This signals to the reader that you have referenced an outside source. What’s great about this system is that the in-text citations serve as a natural list for all of the citations you have made in your paper, which will make completing the works cited page a whole lot easier. After you are done writing, all that will be left for you to do is scan your paper for these references, and then build a works cited page that includes a citation for each one.

Need help creating an MLA works cited page ? Try the MLA format generator on EasyBib.com! We also have a guide on how to format an APA reference page .

2. Understand the General Formatting Rules of Your Citation Style Before You Start Writing

While reading up on paper formatting may not sound exciting, being aware of how your paper should look early on in the paper writing process is super important. Citation styles can dictate more than just the appearance of the citations themselves, but rather can impact the layout of your paper as a whole, with specific guidelines concerning margin width, title treatment, and even font size and spacing. Knowing how to organize your paper before you start writing will ensure that you do not receive a low grade for something as trivial as forgetting a hanging indent.

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a formatting guide on APA format .

3. Double-check All of Your Outside Sources for Relevance and Trustworthiness First

Collecting outside sources that support your research and specific topic is a critical step in writing an effective paper. But before you run to the library and grab the first 20 books you can lay your hands on, keep in mind that selecting a source to include in your paper should not be taken lightly. Before you proceed with using it to backup your ideas, run a quick Internet search for it and see if other scholars in your field have written about it as well. Check to see if there are book reviews about it or peer accolades. If you spot something that seems off to you, you may want to consider leaving it out of your work. Doing this before your start making citations can save you a ton of time in the long run.

Finished with your paper? It may be time to run it through a grammar and plagiarism checker , like the one offered by EasyBib Plus. If you’re just looking to brush up on the basics, our grammar guides  are ready anytime you are.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Citation Basics

Harvard Referencing

Plagiarism Basics

Plagiarism Checker

Upload a paper to check for plagiarism against billions of sources and get advanced writing suggestions for clarity and style.

Get Started

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Citing sources
• How to Cite a Journal Article | APA, MLA, & Chicago Examples

How to Cite a Journal Article | APA, MLA, & Chicago Examples

Published on March 9, 2021 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on January 17, 2024.

To cite an article from an academic journal, you need an in-text citation and a corresponding reference listing the name(s) of the author(s), the publication date, the article title and journal name, the volume and issue numbers, the page range, and the URL or DOI .

Different citation styles present this information differently. The main citation styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago style .

You can use the interactive example generator to explore the format for APA and MLA journal article citations.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Table of contents

Citing an article in apa style, citing an article in mla style, citing an article in chicago style, frequently asked questions about citations.

In an APA Style journal article reference , the article title is in plain text and sentence case, while the journal name appears in italics, in title case.

The in-text citation lists up to two authors; for three or more, use “ et al. ”

When citing a journal article in print or from a database, don’t include a URL. You can still include the DOI if available.

You can also cite a journal article using our free APA Citation Generator . Search by title or DOI to automatically generate a correct citation.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

Don't submit your assignments before you do this.

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students. Free citation check included.

Try for free

In an MLA Works Cited entry for a journal article , the article title appears in quotation marks, the name of the journal in italics—both in title case.

List up to two authors in both the in-text citation and the Works Cited entry. For three or more, use “et al.”

A DOI is always included when available; a URL appears if no DOI is available but the article was accessed online . If you accessed the article in print and no DOI is available, you can omit this part.

You can also use our free MLA Citation Generator to create your journal article citations.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

In Chicago notes and bibliography style, you include a bibliography entry for each source, and cite them in the text using footnotes .

A bibliography entry for a journal article lists the title of the article in quotation marks and the journal name in italics—both in title case. List up to 10 authors in full; use “et al.” for 11 or more.

In the footnote, use “et al.” for four or more authors.

A DOI or URL (preferably a DOI) is included for articles consulted online; for articles consulted in print, omit this part.

Chicago also offers an alternative author-date style of citation. Examples of how to cite journal articles in this style can be found here .

The elements included in journal article citations across APA , MLA , and Chicago style are the name(s) of the author(s), the title of the article, the year of publication, the name of the journal, the volume and issue numbers, the page range of the article, and, when accessed online, the DOI or URL.

In MLA and Chicago style, you also include the specific month or season of publication alongside the year, when this information is available.

The DOI is usually clearly visible when you open a journal article on an academic database. It is often listed near the publication date, and includes “doi.org” or “DOI:”. If the database has a “cite this article” button, this should also produce a citation with the DOI included.

If you can’t find the DOI, you can search on Crossref using information like the author, the article title, and the journal name.

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (Latin for “and others”) is used to shorten citations of sources with multiple authors.

“Et al.” is used in APA in-text citations of sources with 3+ authors, e.g. (Smith et al., 2019). It is not used in APA reference entries .

Use “et al.” for 3+ authors in MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries.

Use “et al.” for 4+ authors in a Chicago in-text citation , and for 10+ authors in a Chicago bibliography entry.

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2024, January 17). How to Cite a Journal Article | APA, MLA, & Chicago Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved June 18, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/cite-a-journal-article/

Is this article helpful?

Jack Caulfield

Other students also liked, how to cite a book | apa, mla, & chicago examples, how to cite a website | mla, apa & chicago examples, how to cite a wikipedia article | apa, mla & chicago, scribbr apa citation checker.

An innovative new tool that checks your APA citations with AI software. Say goodbye to inaccurate citations!

Spatial distribution of pesticide use based on crop rotation data in La Plata River basin: a case study from an agricultural region of Uruguay

• Published: 20 June 2024
• Volume 196 , article number  633 , ( 2024 )

Cite this article

• Camila Fernández Nion   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1984-5455 1 &
• Ismael Díaz Isasa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3176-1753 1  

The intensive global use of pesticides presents an escalating threat to human health, ecosystems, and water quality. To develop national and local environmental management strategies for mitigating pollution caused by pesticides, it is essential to understand the quantities, timing, and location of their application. This study aims to estimate the spatial distribution of pesticide use in an agricultural region of La Plata River basin in Uruguay. Estimates of pesticide use were made by surveying doses applied to each crop. This information was spatialized through identifying agricultural rotations using remote sensing techniques. The study identified the 60 major agricultural rotations in the region and mapped the use and application amount of the nine most significant active ingredients (glyphosate, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, flumioxazin, S-metolachlor, clethodim, flumetsulam, triflumuron, chlorantraniliprole, and fipronil). The results reveal that glyphosate is the most extensively used pesticide (53.5% of the area) and highest amount of use (> 1.44 kg/ha). Moreover, in 19% of the area, at least seven active ingredients are applied in crop rotations. This study marks the initial step in identifying rotations and estimating pesticide applications with high spatial resolution at a regional scale in agricultural regions of La Plata River basin. The results improve the understanding of pesticide spatial distribution based on data obtained from agronomists, technicians, and producers and provide a replicable methodological approach for other geographic and productive contexts. Generating baseline information is key to environmental management and decision making, towards the design of more robust monitoring systems and human exposure assessment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

National Directorate for Environmental Quality and Assessment (DINACEA, in Spanish), Ministry of Environment, provides land use/land cover information with characteristics mentioned above ( https://www.ambiente.gub.uy/geoservicios/ ).

In this research, the term “Users” comprises agronomists, technicians, and producers who manage pesticide usage in the study area.

Summer crops that were not preceded by a winter crop during the previous season, but by pastures or natural grassland. These other uses do not control target species as frequently as crop production, and consequently plantations that come right after them require greater pre-sowing pesticide application.

Summer crops that were preceded by a winter crop during the previous season.

Pesticide users interviewees were selected considering diversity in terms of geographical distribution within the study region and were not individual producers. Users had a minimum of 5 years of work experience in the study area and met one or more of the following criteria: (a) work for companies that manage at least 5000 ha for production, (b) work for companies that provide assistance for several producers, or (c) manage more than two individual properties in the study area which account for at least 2000 ha.

Consultation of phytosanitary products, General Directorate of Agricultural Services, Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fishery. URL: https://www.mgap.gub.uy/profit/productosweb.aspx

These 60 rotations are a simplification of the total amount of possible rotations in the study region. This simplification was made by considering rotation sequences with the same land uses as one, without considering in which agricultural season each was detected. Total amount of possible rotations ( n  = 245) refers to the maximum number of unique land use combinations.

Abida, K., Barbouchi, M., Boudabbous, K., Toukabri, W., Saad, K., Bousnina, H., & Sahli Chahed, T. (2022). Sentinel-2 data for land use mapping: Comparing different supervised classifications in semi-arid areas. Agriculture, 12 (9), 1429. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12091429

Article   Google Scholar  

Achkar, M., Domínguez, A., Díaz, I., & Pesce, F. (2011). La intensificación del uso agrícola del suelo en el litoral oeste del Uruguay en la última década. PAMPA , 1 (7), 143–157. https://doi.org/10.14409/pampa.v1i7_sup.3207

Ajadi, O. A., Barr, J., Liang, S.-Z., Ferreira, R., Kumpatla, S. P., Patel, R., & Swatantran, A. (2021). Large-scale crop type and crop area mapping across Brazil using synthetic aperture radar and optical imagery. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 97 , 102294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2020.102294

Arriaga, M. E. (2021). Cartografía forestal de bosques plantados 2021. In OPYPA (Ed.), Análisis sectorial y cadenas productivas (pp. 471–484). Montevideo: Oficina de Planeamiento y Política Agropecuaria, Ministerio de Ganadería Agricultura y Pesca.

Asam, S., Gessner, U., Almengor González, R., Wenzl, M., Kriese, J., & Kuenzer, C. (2022). Mapping crop types of Germany by combining temporal statistical metrics of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 time series with LPIS data. Remote Sensing, 14 (13), 2981. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14132981

Belgiu, M., & Csillik, O. (2018). Sentinel-2 cropland mapping using pixel-based and object-based time-weighted dynamic time warping analysis. Remote Sensing of Environment, 204 , 509–523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.10.005

Bellón, B., Bégué, A., Lo Seen, D., de Almeida, C., & Simões, M. (2017). A remote sensing approach for regional-scale mapping of agricultural land-use systems based on NDVI time series. Remote Sensing, 9 (6), 600. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9060600

Beriaux, E., Jago, A., Lucau-Danila, C., Planchon, V., & Defourny, P. (2021). Sentinel-1 time series for crop identification in the framework of the future CAP monitoring. Remote Sensing, 13 (14), 2785. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142785

Bianco, M., Díaz, I., Chiappe, M., Figueredo, S., Narbondo, I., & Russi, E. (2021). Dinámicas de la expansión agrícola en territorios uruguayos. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Rurales , 6 (12). Retrieved August 20, 2023, from https://ojs.ceil-conicet.gov.ar/index.php/revistaalasru/article/view/791

Borsani, O., Castiglioni, E., Chiappe, M., Ferenczi, A., García, F., Pritsch, C., & Speranza, P. (2010). Biotecnología moderna, cultivares transgénicos y proceso de adopción en Uruguay. Intensificación Agrícola: Oportunidades y amenazas para un país productivo y natural (pp. 29–66). CSIC, Universidad de la República.

Google Scholar  

Breiman, L. (2001). Random forests. Machine Learning, 45 (1), 5–32. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010933404324

Calistro, E. (2015). Meses en los cuales se realizan operativas de siembra y cosecha de Cultivos y Forrajeras en Uruguay, precipitaciones y temperaturas históricas mensual y estacional. La Estanzuela, Colonia, Uruguay: INIA. Retrieved September 20, 2023, from http://www.ainfo.inia.uy/digital/bitstream/item/7115/1/Siembras.pdf

Carabio, M. (2017). Mapa predictivo de fuentes de contaminación difusa de fitosanitarios y caracterización del impacto sobre las comunidades de anfibios, en una microcuenca del río Santa Lucía (Tesis de Maestría) . Universidad de la República.

Colditz, R. R., Schmidt, M., Conrad, C., Hansen, M. C., & Dech, S. (2011). Land cover classification with coarse spatial resolution data to derive continuous and discrete maps for complex regions. Remote Sensing of Environment, 115 (12), 3264–3275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.07.010

MGAP. (1994). Unidades de suelos CONEAT . Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca. Montevideo. Retrieved July 15, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/politicas-y-gestion/coneat

DGRN. (2021). Grupos de suelos CONEAT de prioridad forestal . Retrieved August 31, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/politicas-y-gestion/suelos-prioridad-forestal .

DGSA. (2023). Importaciones de productos fitosanitarios 2022 . Montevideo. Retrieved August 20, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/datos-y-estadisticas/datos/importaciones-productos-fitosanitarios

Díaz, I., Ceroni, M., López, G., & Achkar, M. (2018). Análisis espacio-temporal de la intensificación agraria y su incidencia en la productividad primaria neta: propuesta metodológica para Uruguay 2000–2011. M+A Revista Electrónic@ de Medio Ambiente , 19 (1), 24–40.

DIEA. (2015). Regiones agropecuarias del Uruguay . Montevideo. Retrieved August 15, 2023, from http://www.mgap.gub.uy/dieaanterior/regiones/regiones2015.pdf

DIEA. (2021). Encuesta agrícola. Invierno 2021 . Montevideo. Retrieved August 15, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/tematica/diea?page=14

DIEA. (2022). Encuesta agrícola. Primavera 2021 . Montevideo. Retrieved August 15, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/tematica/diea?page=14

DIEA. (2022). Encuesta agrícola. Invierno 2022 . Montevideo. Retrieved August 15, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/tematica/diea?page=14

DIEA. (2023). Encuesta agrícola . Primavera 2022 . Montevideo. Retrieved August 15, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/tematica/diea?page=14

DIEA. (2023). Encuesta agrícola. Invierno 2023 . Retrieved August 15, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/tematica/diea?page=14

DINACEA. (2021). Plaguicidas prioritarios para la gestión ambiental . Montevideo. Retrieved August 15, 2023, from https://www.ambiente.gub.uy/oan/datos-abiertos/

El-Nahhal, I., & El-Nahhal, Y. (2021). Pesticide residues in drinking water, their potential risk to human health and removal options. Journal of Environmental Management, 299 , 113611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113611

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

FAO. (2018). Fortalecimiento de las capacidades para la gestión ambientalmente adecuada de plaguicidas incluyendo COPs (MSP). Retrieved September 1, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ambiente/politicas-y-gestion/proyecto-gcpuru031gff-fortalecimiento-capacidades-para-gestion-ambientalmente

FAO. (2021). FAOSTAT. Food and agriculture data. Crops and livestock products. Retrieved July 15, 2023, from https://www.fao.org/faostat

FAO. (2023). Pesticides use and trade 1990–2021 . Rome. Retrieved July 15, 2023, from https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c216ab58-8d09-4528-a37d-3291f1f5ed1e/content

Fassio, A., Ibáñez, W., Rodríguez, M., Ceretta, S., Pérez, O., & Rabaza, C., et al. (2015). Predicción de estados fenológicos para Soja, Girasol, Maíz, Sorgo granífero, forrajero, dulce y silero. Retrieved July 18, 2023, from http://www.inia.uy/gras/Alertas-y-herramientas/Utilidades

FSC. (2017). FSC List of “highly hazardous” pesticides . Retrieved July 15, 2023, from https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre/documents/resource/315

Gaboardi, S. C., Panis, C., & Candiotto, L. Z. P. (2023). Agribusiness in Brazil and its dependence on the use of pesticides. Hygiene and Environmental Health Advances , 8 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heha.2023.100080

Gazzano, I., Achkar, M., & Díaz, I. (2019). Agricultural transformations in the Southern Cone of Latin America: Agricultural intensification and decrease of the aboveground net primary production, Uruguay’s case. Sustainability , 11 (24). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11247011

Gelós, M. (2020). Modelación SWAT. Evaluación del destino ambiental de plaguicidas . Ministerio de Ambiente, Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca, Ministerio de Salud Pública, FAO. Montevideo. Retrieved August 1, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ambiente/sites/ministerio-ambiente/files/documentos/publicaciones/SWAT_FINAL_Informe%20sobre%20la%20modelacion%20de%20plaguicidas%20en%20la%20Subcuenca%2060%20del%20Arroyo%20Santa%20Luc%C3%ADa%20con%20SWAT.pdf

Gorelick, N., Hancher, M., Dixon, M., Ilyushchenko, S., Thau, D., & Moore, R. (2017). Google Earth Engine: Planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone. Remote Sensing of Environment, 202 , 18–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.06.031

Handford, C. E., Elliott, C. T., & Campbell, K. (2015). A review of the global pesticide legislation and the scale of challenge in reaching the global harmonization of food safety standards. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 11 (4), 525–536. https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.1635

Hartigan, J. A., & Wong, M. A. (1979). Algorithm AS 136: A K-means clustering algorithm. Applied Statistics, 28 (1), 100. https://doi.org/10.2307/2346830

Hassaan, M. A., & El Nemr, A. (2020). Pesticides pollution: Classifications, human health impact, extraction and treatment techniques. The Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research, 46 (3), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejar.2020.08.007

Hildebrandt, A., Guillamón, M., Lacorte, S., Tauler, R., & Barceló, D. (2008). Impact of pesticides used in agriculture and vineyards to surface and groundwater quality (North Spain). Water Research, 42 (13), 3315–3326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2008.04.009

Hill, M., & Clérici, C. (2008). FPTA 171: Residualidad de agroquímicos en arroz. Revista Arroz, 54 , 22–28.

INUMET. (2022). Boletín anual de precipitaciones. 2022 . Retrieved May 15, 2023, from https://www.inumet.gub.uy/

INUMET. (2023). Sequía meteorológica en Uruguay 2020–2023 . Retrieved February 15, 2024, from https://www.inumet.gub.uy/

INUMET. (2023). Boletín anual de precipitaciones. 2023 . Retrieved February 15, 2024, from https://www.inumet.gub.uy/

Ippolito, A., Carolli, M., Varolo, E., Villa, S., & Vighi, M. (2012). Evaluating pesticide effects on freshwater invertebrate communities in alpine environment: A model ecosystem experiment. Ecotoxicology, 21 (7), 2051–2067. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-012-0957-5

Joshi, N., Baumann, M., Ehammer, A., Fensholt, R., Grogan, K., Hostert, P., et al. (2016). A review of the application of optical and radar remote sensing data fusion to land use mapping and monitoring. Remote Sensing, 8 (1), 70. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8010070

Kalia, A., & Gosal, S. K. (2011). Effect of pesticide application on soil microorganisms. Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science, 57 (6), 569–596. https://doi.org/10.1080/03650341003787582

Kalyabina, V. P., Esimbekova, E. N., Kopylova, K. V., & Kratasyuk, V. A. (2021). Pesticides: Formulants, distribution pathways and effects on human health – a review. Toxicology Reports, 8 , 1179–1192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.06.004

Kang, Y., Meng, Q., Liu, M., Zou, Y., & Wang, X. (2021). Crop classification based on red edge features analysis of GF-6 WFV data. Sensors, 21 (13), 4328. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21134328

Kobayashi, N., Tani, H., Wang, X., & Sonobe, R. (2020). Crop classification using spectral indices derived from Sentinel-2A imagery. Journal of Information and Telecommunication, 4 (1), 67–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/24751839.2019.1694765

Kordi, F., & Yousefi, H. (2022). Crop classification based on phenology information by using time series of optical and synthetic-aperture radar images. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 27 , 100812. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2022.100812

Kruk, C., Gascue, A., Bortolotto, N., Rodríguez Lezica, L., Delbene, L. & González, S. (2022). Problemáticas socioambientales en el territorio hidrosocial de la Laguna Merín: aportes desde la interdisciplina. Antropología y Etnografía , 7 (2). https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v7i2.1690

Lamquin, N., Woolliams, E., Bruniquel, V., Gascon, F., Gorroño, J., Govaerts, Y., et al. (2019). An inter-comparison exercise of Sentinel-2 radiometric validations assessed by independent expert groups. Remote Sensing of Environment, 233 , 111369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111369

Larsen, K., Black, P., Rydz, E., Nicol, A.-M., & Peters, C. E. (2020). Using geographic information systems to estimate potential pesticide exposure at the population level in Canada. Environmental Research, 191 , 110100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.110100

Lewis, K. A., Tzilivakis, J., Warner, D. J., & Green, A. (2016). An international database for pesticide risk assessments and management. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 22 (4), 1050–1064. https://doi.org/10.1080/10807039.2015.1133242

Li, Y., Bai, J., Zhang, L., & Yang, Z. (2022). Mapping and spatial variation of seagrasses in Xincun, Hainan Province, China, based on satellite images. Remote Sensing, 14 (10), 2373. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14102373

Liang, S., & Wang, J. (2019). Advanced remote sensing: Terrestrial information extraction and Applications . Elsevier.

Liu, N., Zhao, Q., Williams, R., & Barrett, B. (2023). Enhanced crop classification through integrated optical and SAR data: A deep learning approach for multi-source image fusion. International Journal of Remote Sensing , 1–29. Informa UK Limited. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2023.2232552

Löw, F., Michel, U., Dech, S., & Conrad, C. (2013). Impact of feature selection on the accuracy and spatial uncertainty of per-field crop classification using Support Vector Machines. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 85 , 102–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2013.08.007

Mahdianpari, M., Jafarzadeh, H., Granger, J. E., Mohammadimanesh, F., Brisco, B., Salehi, B., et al. (2020). A large-scale change monitoring of wetlands using time series Landsat imagery on Google Earth Engine: A case study in Newfoundland. Giscience & Remote Sensing, 57 (8), 1102–1124. https://doi.org/10.1080/15481603.2020.1846948

Malaj, E., Liber, K., & Morrissey, C. A. (2020). Spatial distribution of agricultural pesticide use and predicted wetland exposure in the Canadian Prairie Pothole Region. Science of The Total Environment, 718 , 134765. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134765

Menze, B. H., Kelm, B. M., Masuch, R., Himmelreich, U., Bachert, P., Petrich, W., & Hamprecht, F. A. (2009). A comparison of random forest and its Gini importance with standard chemometric methods for the feature selection and classification of spectral data. BMC Bioinformatics, 10 (1), 213. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-10-213

MGAP. (2013). Resolución N° 74/013 de DGRN. Montevideo: Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca (MGAP). Retrieved August 15, 2023, from https://www.impo.com.uy/bases/decretos-originales/74-2013

MGAP. (2022). Resolución s/n. Declaración de emergencia agropecuaria de los rubros ganadería, lechería, horticultura, fruticultura y agricultura, por el plazo que se determina. Montevideo: Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca (MGAP). Retrieved February 15, 2024, from https://www.impo.com.uy/bases/resoluciones-mgap/SN20221027001-2022

Nguyen, H., Thompson, A., & Costello, C. (2023). Impacts of historical droughts on maize and soybean production in the southeastern United States. Agricultural Water Management, 281 , 108237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108237

OAN. (2023). Plaguicidas prioritarios para la gestión ambiental. Ministerio de Ambiente (MA) . Retrieved August 20, 2023, from https://www.ambiente.gub.uy/oan/datos-abiertos/

OPYPA. (2022). Análisis sectorial y cadenas productivas. Temas de política. Estudios. Oficina de Planeamiento y Política Agropecuaria, Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca. Retrieved August 20, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ganaderia-agricultura-pesca/comunicacion/publicaciones/anuario-opypa-2022/anuario-opypa-2022

Orynbaikyzy, A., Gessner, U., & Conrad, C. (2019). Crop type classification using a combination of optical and radar remote sensing data: A review. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 40 (17), 6553–6595. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2019.1569791

Ozdogan, M., Yang, Y., Allez, G., & Cervantes, C. (2010). Remote sensing of irrigated agriculture: Opportunities and challenges. Remote Sensing, 2 (9), 2274–2304. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs2092274

Paolino, C., Pittaluga, L., & Mondelli, M. (2014). Cambios en la dinámica agropecuaria y agroindustrial del Uruguay y las políticas públicas . CEPAL. Retrieved July 18, 2023, from Montevideo. https://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/36780

Pareja, L., Heinzen, H., Cesio, M. V., Colazzo, M., & Pérez-Parada, A. (2021). Determination of pesticide residues in fish. Sustainable Agriculture Reviews , 1–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54712-7_1

Pelletier, C., Valero, S., Inglada, J., Champion, N., & Dedieu, G. (2016). Assessing the robustness of Random Forests to map land cover with high resolution satellite image time series over large areas. Remote Sensing of Environment, 187 , 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.10.010

Peña-Barragán, J. M., Ngugi, M. K., Plant, R. E., & Six, J. (2011). Object-based crop identification using multiple vegetation indices, textural features and crop phenology. Remote Sensing of Environment, 115 (6), 1301–1316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.01.009

Pérez Parada, A. (2021). Residuos de plaguicidas en compartimentos ambientales. Serie FPTA-INIA 90. Proyecto FPTA 324. Montevideo.

R Core Team. (2022). R-Studio: Integrated Development for R. RStudio, PBC, Boston, MA.

Rahman, Md. S., Di, L., Yu, E., Zhang, C., & Mohiuddin, H. (2019). In-season major crop-type identification for US cropland from Landsat images using crop-rotation pattern and progressive data classification. Agriculture, 9 (1), 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture9010017

Rani, L., Thapa, K., Kanojia, N., Sharma, N., Singh, S., Grewal, A. S., et al. (2021). An extensive review on the consequences of chemical pesticides on human health and environment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 283 , 124657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124657

Rasool, S., Rasool, T., & Gani, K. M. (2022). A review of interactions of pesticides within various interfaces of intrinsic and organic residue amended soil environment. Chemical Engineering Journal Advances, 11 , 100301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceja.2022.100301

Ríos, M. (2012). Evaluación participativa de impactos de los plaguicidas utilizados en soja y forestación en un área protegida y su cuenca (Tesis de Maestría) . Universidad de la República.

Rodríguez-Bolaña, C., Pérez-Parada, A., Tesitore, G., Goyenola, G., Kröger, A., Pacheco, M., et al. (2023). Multicompartmental monitoring of legacy and currently used pesticides in a subtropical lake used as a drinking water source (Laguna del Cisne, Uruguay). Science of the Total Environment, 874 , 162310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162310

Sanchez-Bayo, F. A. H., & Gok, K. (2013). Impact of systemic insecticides on organisms and ecosystems. In Insecticides - Development of safer and more effective technologies . InTech. https://doi.org/10.5772/52831

Shelestov, A., Lavreniuk, M., Kussul, N., Novikov, A., & Skakun, S. (2017). Exploring Google Earth Engine platform for big data processing: Classification of multi-temporal satellite imagery for crop mapping. Frontiers in Earth Science , 5 . Frontiers Media SA. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2017.00017

Shetty, S. (2019). Analysis of machine learning classifiers for LULC classification on Google Earth Engine (Master of Science in Geo-information Science and Earth). Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente, Enschede.

Soutullo, A., Ríos, M., Zaldúa, N., & Teixeira-de-Mello, F. (2020). Soybean expansion and the challenge of the coexistence of agribusiness with local production and conservation initiatives: Pesticides in a Ramsar site in Uruguay. Environmental Conservation, 47 (2), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892920000089

Stasolla, M., & Neyt, X. (2018). An operational tool for the automatic detection and removal of border noise in Sentinel-1 GRD products. Sensors, 18 (10), 3454. https://doi.org/10.3390/s18103454

Stehle, S., & Schulz, R. (2015). Agricultural insecticides threaten surface waters at the global scale. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (18), 5750–5755. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1500232112

Sun, J., Pan, L., Tsang, D. C. W., Zhan, Y., Zhu, L., & Li, X. (2018). Organic contamination and remediation in the agricultural soils of China: A critical review. Science of the Total Environment, 615 , 724–740. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.271

Suzuki, R., & Shimodaira, H. (2006). Pvclust: An R package for assessing the uncertainty in hierarchical clustering. Bioinformatics, 22 (12), 1540–1542. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btl117

Szöcs, E., Brinke, M., Karaoglan, B., & Schäfer, R. B. (2017). Large scale risks from agricultural pesticides in small streams. Environmental Science & Technology, 51 (13), 7378–7385. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b00933

Taran, L., Ortega, C., Laborde, A., Mallet, J., González, R., Pose, D., et al. (2012). Intoxicaciones por plaguicidas agrícolas y veterinarios en el Uruguay . Retrieved July 18, 2023, from https://www.toxicologia.hc.edu.uy/images/stories/estadisticas/Intoxicacion-por-Plaguicidas-en-el-Uruguay.pdf

TEEB. (2015). TEEB para la agricultura y la alimentación informe provisional . Ginebra. Retrieved July 18, 2023, from https://www.teebweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TEEBAgriFood_InformeProvisional.pdf

Teixeira de Mello, F., Rodríguez, C., Tesitore, G., Pacheco, M. , Barrios, M., Fontes, E., Heber, E., Gutierrez, J., Kroger, A., Soñez, D., Perez Parada, A., Salvarrey, S., Arbulo, N., Suarez, E., Ramos, Y., Burla, J., Remedios, M., Bentancur, G., Juri, P., ... Hill, M. (2023). Producto 4. Programa de monitoreo de plaguicidas en la cuenca del Río San Salvador (Soriano) . Montevideo. Retrieved November 15, 2023, from https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-ambiente/comunicacion/noticias/se-dieron-conocer-resultados-del-monitoreo-plaguicidas-cuenca-del-rio-san

Ting, K. M. (2017). Confusion matrix. In Encyclopedia of machine learning and data mining (pp. 260–260). Boston, MA: Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7687-1_50

Tucker, C. J., & Sellers, P. J. (1986). Satellite remote sensing of primary production. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 7 (11), 1395–1416. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431168608948944

Tudi, M., Daniel Ruan, H., Wang, L., Lyu, J., Sadler, R., Connell, D., et al. (2021). Agriculture development, pesticide application and its impact on the environment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (3), 1112. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031112

Vanonckelen, S., Lhermitte, S., & Van Rompaey, A. (2015). The effect of atmospheric and topographic correction on pixel-based image composites: Improved forest cover detection in mountain environments. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 35 , 320–328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2014.10.006

VoPham, T., Wilson, J. P., Ruddell, D., Rashed, T., Brooks, M. M., Yuan, J. M., et al. (2015). Linking pesticides and human health: A geographic information system (GIS) and Landsat remote sensing method to estimate agricultural pesticide exposure. Applied Geography, 62 , 171–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.04.009

Wan, N. (2015). Pesticides exposure modeling based on GIS and remote sensing land use data. Applied Geography, 56 , 99–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.11.012

Wang, H., Lin, H., Munroe, D. K., Zhang, X., & Liu, P. (2016). Reconstructing rice phenology curves with frequency-based analysis and multi-temporal NDVI in double-cropping area in Jiangsu. China. Frontiers of Earth Science, 10 (2), 292–302. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-016-0552-9

Weiss, M., Jacob, F., & Duveiller, G. (2020). Remote sensing for agricultural applications: A meta-review. Remote Sensing of Environment, 236 , 111402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111402

Whitcraft, A., Becker-Reshef, I., & Justice, C. (2015). A framework for defining spatially explicit Earth observation requirements for a global agricultural monitoring initiative (GEOGLAM). Remote Sensing, 7 (2), 1461–1481. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs70201461

Woźniak, E., Rybicki, M., Kofman, W., Aleksandrowicz, S., Wojtkowski, C., Lewiński, S., et al. (2022). Multi-temporal phenological indices derived from time series Sentinel-1 images to country-wide crop classification. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 107 , 102683. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2022.102683

Yi, Z., Jia, L., & Chen, Q. (2020). Crop classification using multi-temporal Sentinel-2 data in the Shiyang River basin of China. Remote Sensing, 12 (24), 4052. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12244052

You, N., Dong, J., Huang, J., Du, G., Zhang, G., He, Y., et al. (2021). The 10-m crop type maps in Northeast China during 2017–2019. Scientific Data, 8 (1), 41. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00827-9

Zhang, H., Yuan, H., Du, W., & Lyu, X. (2022). Crop Identification Based on Multi-Temporal Active and Passive Remote Sensing Images. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information , 11 (7), 388. MDPI AG. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi11070388

Zhao, W., Wu, J., Shen, Q., Liu, L., Lin, J., & Yang, J. (2022). Estimation of the net primary productivity of winter wheat based on the near-infrared radiance of vegetation. Science of the Total Environment, 838 , 156090. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2022.156090

Zhu, K. wen, Yang, Z., Huang, L., Chen, Y., Zhang, S., Xiong, H. & Lei, B. (2021). Coupling ITO3dE model and GIS for spatiotemporal evolution analysis of agricultural non-point source pollution risks in Chongqing in China. Scientific Reports , 11 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-84075-2

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank our colleague Agronomist Juan Marcos Olivera for his assistance with remote sensing, and the agronomists and technicians consulted who contributed with their knowledge and work in the study area.

Camila Fernández Nion has received research support from the Uruguayan National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII). Ismael Díaz Isasa was supported by the National Researchers System (SNI-ANII) and PEDECIBA-Geociencias.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Geografía, Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, 11400, Montevideo, Uruguay

Camila Fernández Nion & Ismael Díaz Isasa

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Camila Fernández Nion and Ismael Díaz Isasa conceived and designed the analysis, collected the data and performed the analysis. Camila Fernández Nion wrote the main manuscript text and prepared the figures. Both authors reviewed and made contributions to the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Camila Fernández Nion .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (PDF 123 KB)

Supplementary file2 (pdf 188 kb), rights and permissions.

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Fernández Nion, C., Díaz Isasa, I. Spatial distribution of pesticide use based on crop rotation data in La Plata River basin: a case study from an agricultural region of Uruguay. Environ Monit Assess 196 , 633 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12759-z

Download citation

Received : 21 November 2023

Accepted : 25 May 2024

Published : 20 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12759-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Pesticide pollution
• Non-point source pollution
• Environmental monitoring
• Remote sensing
• Land use planning
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Help | Advanced Search

Computer Science > Computation and Language

Title: iterative length-regularized direct preference optimization: a case study on improving 7b language models to gpt-4 level.

Abstract: Direct Preference Optimization (DPO), a standard method for aligning language models with human preferences, is traditionally applied to offline preferences. Recent studies show that DPO benefits from iterative training with online preferences labeled by a trained reward model. In this work, we identify a pitfall of vanilla iterative DPO - improved response quality can lead to increased verbosity. To address this, we introduce iterative length-regularized DPO (iLR-DPO) to penalize response length. Our empirical results show that iLR-DPO can enhance a 7B model to perform on par with GPT-4 without increasing verbosity. Specifically, our 7B model achieves a $50.5\%$ length-controlled win rate against $\texttt{GPT-4 Preview}$ on AlpacaEval 2.0, and excels across standard benchmarks including MT-Bench, Arena-Hard and OpenLLM Leaderboard. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of iterative DPO in aligning language models with human feedback.

Submission history

Access paper:.

• HTML (experimental)
• Other Formats

References & Citations

• Google Scholar
• Semantic Scholar

BibTeX formatted citation

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Code, data and media associated with this article, recommenders and search tools.

• Institution

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs .