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APA Help (7th Edition) - Top Nav: In-Text Citations

What makes up a Citation?

Citations follow the author-date citation system.  Each citation has two parts (APA, 2020, p. 261-63):

  1. a brief in-text citation comprised of, at minimum, the author(s) names, and the year of publication, and
  2. a corresponding reference list entry.

In-text citations follow two basic formats:

  • Parenthetical - where the author's name and year of publication appear in parentheses, separated by a comma.  When a parenthetical citation is at the end of a sentence, the period or other punctuation appears outside the closing parenthesis.
  • Narrative - where the author's name and year of publication are included as part of the text
  • Please note that only the year appears in the in-text citation entry.  A page or paragraph number will always go at the end of the quotation or paraphrase in parentheses.

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

 

In-Text Citations Examples

In-text citations paraphrase
Basic format (Author’s Last Name, Year Published, Page or Paragraph Number)
Paraphrase citation at the end of text (parenthetical citation) Interventions in the community should encourage health and fitness within schools, organizations and churches (Courtenay, 2000, p. 174).
Paraphrase citation within the text (narrative citation) Courtenay (2000) stated that community intervention will promote physical activity (p. 174).
  • When paraphrasing or referring to an idea contained in another work, provide a paragraph or page number, especially when it would help an interested reader locate the relevant passage.
  • Use the abbreviation "p." for a quotation from a single page number, "pp." for a quotation from multiple pages, separating the numbers with an en dash (-) for a continuous page range, or a comma (,) for discontinuous pages, and "para." for quotations from a work that does not include page numbers (APA, 2020, p. 270).
  • When using a corporation or organization as the author, replace the author's last name with the name of the corporation/organization.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). 

https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

 

 

 

In-text citations quotations
Basic format (Author’s Last Name, Year Published, Paragraph or Page Number).
Quotation less than 40 words Americans are always taking nutrients to fulfill their diets but "food should provide all the nutrients people need to be healthy" (Courtenay, 2000, p. 171).
Quotation more than 40 words

Premises of the guidelines for Americans are that food should provide all of the nutrients that an individual needs to be healthy. Although dietary supplements and fortified foods may be useful sources for one or two nutrients, they cannot replace a healthy diet. The 2005 guidelines place greater emphasis on decrease calorie consumption (Courtenay, 2000, p. 171).

 

Organizational Author (Narrative)

 The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2019) notes that "Chicken can be a nutritious choice, but raw chicken is often contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria and sometimes with Salmonella and Clostridium perfringens bacteria" (para. 1).

 

Organizational Author (Parenthetical)

 "Chicken can be a nutritious choice, but raw chicken is often contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria and sometimes with Salmonella and Clostridium perfringens bacteria" (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019, para. 1).
  • If a quotation has fewer than 40 words enclose the quotation within double quotation marks.
  • If a quotation has more than 40 words, leave out quotation marks and indent the entire quotation 1/2 inches from the left margin as a new paragraph (block quotation). See section 8.27 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020) for more information on block quotations.
  • When quoting, always provide the author, year and page or paragraph number.
  • Use double quotation marks to identify the phrase you have borrowed from your source.
  • Use the abbreviation "p." for a quotation from a single page number, "pp." for a quotation from multiple pages, separating the numbers with an en dash (-) for a continuous page range, or a comma (,) for discontinuous pages, and "para." for quotations from a work that does not include page numbers (APA, 2020, p. 270).
  • When using a corporation or organization as the author, replace the author's last name with the name of the corporation/organization.
  • Spell out the full name of the organization the first time the organization is mentioned followed by the abbreviation
    • When the organization name is first used in a narrative citation, place the abbreviation before the year in parentheses separating the abbreviation and year of publication with a comma.
    • When the organization name is first used in a parenthetical citation, place the abbreviation in square brackets, before the year (APA, 2020, p. 268).
  • Use an ellipsis (...) to show you have removed words from within a quotation  Unless the original source being quoted begins or ends with an ellipsis, do not [emphasis added] use an ellipsis to begin or end any quotation. (APA, 2020, p. 275).

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). 

https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Type of citation First parenthetical in-text citation Subsequent parenthetical in-text citations
Basic format    (Author's last name, Year Published)  
One author (Courtenay, 2000) (Courtenay, 2000)
Two authors (Burhardt & Nathaniel, 2008) (Burhardt & Nathaniel, 2008)
Three or more authors (Pender et al., 2011) (Pender et al., 2011)
  • When a reference has two authors, cite both names every time the reference occurs in text. See section 8.17 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020) for more guidance.
  • If you are citing a work with three or more authors, use (First authors last name et al., Year of Publication) on every citation throughout your document.
    • To avoid confusion, when in-text citations of multiple works with three or more authors shorten to the same form, write out as many author's names as necessary to distinguish the citations, and abbreviate the remaining names to "et al." in every citation.
      • (Smith, Jones, Anderson, et al., 2012).
      • (Smith, Jones, Andrews, et al., 2012).
  • Use "et al." to shorten lists of authors' or editors' names to make referencing citations easier for works with three or more authors.
  • et al. is the Latin abbreviation for ‘and others', and should not be used in place of only one author's name.
  • When using a corporation or organization as the author, follow the format for one author.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). 

https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

 

Online material without pagination
Basic format (Author’s Last Name, Year Published, Paragraph Number)
Electronic source without page numbers Basu and Jones (2007) went so far as to suggest the need for a new "intellectual framework in which to consider the nature and form of regulation in cyberspace" (para. 4).
Electronic source without page or paragraph numbers Verbunt et al. (2008) found that "the level of perceived disability in patients with fibromyalgia seemed best explained by their mental health condition and less by their physical condition" (Discussion section, para. 1).
Electronic source with a long title no page or paragraph number "Overall, the evidence does not seem to support the conclusion that industry is unwilling or unable to supply the types of foods that consumers desire" (Kuchler & Golan, 2004, “Do Markets Supply,” para. 5).
  • Use a short title enclosed in quotation marks for the parenthetical citation. (In the example above, the full heading was “Do Markets Supply the Types of Foods Desired by Consumers?.”)
  • If the document includes a heading and no paragraph or page numbers, cite the heading and the number of the paragraph following the heading.
  • Use the abbreviation para. for paragraph.
  • Credit direct quotations of on-line material by giving author, year and page number in parentheses.
  • Use double quotation marks to identify the phrase you have borrowed from your source.
  • When using a corporation or organization as the author, replace the author's last name with the name of the corporation/organization.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). 

https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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Basic Citation Styles

A quick guide to citing reference sources.  This table is found on page 266 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition).

  • When citing a resource with one or two authors, the author's name(s) will be included in every citation.
  • In the parenthetical citation style, use an ampersand (&) between the author's names for works with two authors or prior to the last author's name in order to avoid confusion.
  • In the narrative citation style spell out the word "and" between the author's names for works with two authors or prior to the last author's name in order to avoid confusion.

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