Names in APA: Cultural variations in author names
Last Updated: Jul 25, 2019 Views: 258

While, in Canada, we say our names with our given name followed by our family name, some Asian countries follow the practice of writing the family name before the given name. For example, Chiang Kai-shek's family name is Chiang and Mao Tse-tung's family name is Mao. To avoid confusion when citing author’s follow these guidelines: 

  • The format of the citation does not change. The citation in the reference list should still appear as the family name followed by the initials of the given name. The in-text citation should still use the family name.
  • Other citations are a good guide. To determine which name is the family name, look at how the author has been cited in other works and follow that presentation of the name.   
  • Authors usually use the name format for the language in which they are publishing. For example, Yi-Chun Chang may publish as Yi-Chun Chang in an English journal but as Chang Yi-Chun in a Chinese journal. 

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