LibAnswers: APA FAQs

The APA style manual does not provide examples for this, but the University of Wellington Library has given the following recommendation:

• List the name of the organization that commissioned or placed the sign/plaque and the date of installation if possible.
• Provide the title of the sign or plaque and a short descriptor in square brackets.
• Provide the location details, including a full address.

Although in many cases very little information is available, list as many of these details as possible.

According to the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, there are typically four elements to a reference list entry: author, date, title, and source. The manual recommends that you can use this formula to cite anything, evening if you don't have a direct example of the item that you're trying to cite(American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 283). With the guidelines and the below example, the author is whoever commissioned the piece, the date is whenever the sign was installed, the title is given from the sign, and the location is treated as the source.

Example

Greater London Council. (1969). Katherine Mansfield… [Ceramic plaque]. 7 East Heath Road, Camden, NW3, London, United Kingdom.

25 Infantry Battalion 2 N.Z.E.F. [Bronze plaque] (n.d.). Wellington Waterfront, Wellington, New Zealand.

References

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

University of Wellington Library. (2018, August 22). Reference list: Public signs and plaques. http://libguides.victoria.ac.nz/c.php?g=191254&p=4659362