Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by To avoid plagiarism, provide appropriate credit to your sources by adding author–date in-text citations for direct quotations and paraphrasing of ideas. Furthermore, in-text citations have two formats: parenthetical and narrative.
See In-text formatting guidelines for authors, direct quotes, paraphrasing and citing from an indirect or secondary source.
In-text citations changes depending on the number of authors and may be abbreviated in some cases
Author type |
Parenthetical citation |
Narrative citation |
|---|---|---|
|
One author |
(Smith, 2023) |
Smith (2023) |
|
Two authors |
(Lennon & McCarthy, 2021) |
Lennon and McCarthy (2021) |
|
Three or more authors |
(Waters et al., 2020) |
Waters et al. (2020) |
|
Group author with abbreviation First citation Subsequent citations |
(National Library of Medicine [NLM], 2021) (NLM, 2021) |
National Library of Medicine (NLM, 2021) NLM (2021) |
|
Group author without abbreviation |
(Solano Community College, 2023) |
Solano Community College (2023) |
Element |
Recommendation |
Reference List |
In-Text |
|---|---|---|---|
|
No Author |
Provide the title, date, and source. |
Title. (Date). Source. |
(Title, year) Title (year) |
|
No Date |
Provide the author, write “n.d.” for “no date,” and then provide the title and source. |
Author. (n.d.). Title. Source. |
(Author, n.d.) Author (n.d.) |
| No Author and No Date | Provide the title, write “n.d.” for “no date,” and then provide the source. | Title. (n.d.). Source. |
(Title, n.d.) Title (n.d.) |
A direct quotation reproduces words verbatim from another work. Direct quotations should include a full citation (parenthetical or narrative) in the same sentence, and include the page number (or other location information, e.g., paragraph number). Here is an example.
| Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another” (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470). |
A paraphrase restates another’s idea in your own words. When you paraphrase, cite the original work using either the narrative or parenthetical citation format.
Parenthetical citations
Both the author and the date, separated by a comma, appear in parentheses for a parenthetical citation. A parenthetical citation can appear within or at the end of a sentence. Here is an example.
|
Falsely balanced news coverage can distort the public’s perception of expert consensus on an issue (Koehler, 2016). |
Narrative citations
The author’s surname appears in running text, and the date appears in parentheses immediately after the author’s name for a narrative citation. The author’s name can be included in the sentence in any place it makes sense. Here is an example.
|
Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage. |
It is recommended that you cite these types of sources sparingly. For example, when the original work is out of print or unavailable.
Follow these directions when citing a secondary source:
If the year of publication of the primary source is known, also include it in the text citation.
For example, if you read a work by Jones et al. (2020) in which Troy (2015) was cited, and you were unable to read Troy's work yourself, cite Troy's work as the original source, followed by Jones et al.’s work as the secondary source. Only Jones et al.’s work appears in the reference list.
| (Troy 2015, as cited in Jones et al., 2020) |
If the year of the primary source is unknown, omit it from the in-text citation.
| Troy's diary (as cited in Jones et. al., 2020) |
American Psychological Association. (2019). Basic principles of citation. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles
FAIRFIELD CAMPUSVACAVILLE CENTERVALLEJO CENTER