In-Text Citations in APA Style
The main recommendations for appropriate citing of sources within the text in APA style help to indicate the source correctly and avoid confusion. All the citations should exactly match complete entries in the Reference List at the end of the paper.
All in-text citations in APA should include the last name of the author and year of publication. When you use the quote from a distinguished part of a source, use the numbers of pages, for instance:
(Lendy, 2019, p. 182)
(Roberts, 2009, pp. 204-219).
Types of Citations: Parenthetical and Narrative
There are two types of in-text citations - you may place the source information in parentheses or integrate it naturally in the text.
- Parenthetical - “Adult language users have at their disposal an enormous vocabulary of, on average, an estimated 60,000 words” (Wiley, 2012).
- Narrative - Willey (2012) argues that the vocabulary of an adult language user consists of approximately 60,000 words.
In the narrative format, the year of publication comes immediately after the author’s name, while in the parenthetical citation the information is located at the end of the quote before the period.
How to Cite Multiple Authors in APA
Use an ampersand (&) if you cite a work by two authors in a parenthetical format and the word ‘and’ in a narrative format. If there are three and more authors, indicate the last name of the first author and then use ‘et al’ (Latin for ‘and others’). If there is a group of authors usually mentioned as a team with the help of abbreviation, it is cited fully while you mention them for the first time and in abbreviation for all the subsequent citations.
- one author: parenthetical - (Robertson, 2019); narrative - Robertson (2019)
- two authors: parenthetical - (Hengeveld & Mackenzie, 2008); narrative - Hengeveld and Mackenzie (2008)
- three or more authors: parenthetical - (Chen et al., 2022); narrative - Chen et al. (2022)
- group authors: parenthetical - (Solar Energy Research Group, 2018); narrative - Solar Energy Research Group (2018)
- groups known by abbreviations - parenthetical - (Oxford University Press [OUP], 2021); narrative - Oxford University Press (OUP, 2021) for the first citation, and parenthetical - (OUP, 2021); narrative - OUP (2021) for all subsequent citations.
What to Do If Some Information Is Missing
There are several rules for citations if some information, such as an author, date, or numbers of pages, is missing. In general, if there is no author, use the title of the source - (Source Title, 2007). If there is no publication date, insert ‘n.d.’ meaning ‘no date’ - (Robertson, n.d.). If the page numbers are not available, use some alternatives for defining the location or omit the pages entirely - (Robertson, 2007, 05:11) or (Robertson, 2007).
Now, let’s regard these cases in detail.
A Source Without an Author’s Name
If there is no author’s name, find out which organization or agency has contributed to its creation. You need to insert the name of this organization in your in-text citation and reference list entry.
Language is truly a trait of the species (Perennial Publishers, 2011).
As an alternative, you can use the title of the source instead of its author. You need to italicize the title if it is italicized in the Reference List. Remember that court cases use the italicized in-text format but no italics in the reference entry. If the title is not italicized, use the double quotation marks. Long titles should be shortened, and you have to use the title case capitalization according to APA. Look thoroughly whether you have included the first word of the title because you do not want your readers to be confused.
- (“US Report on Unemployment”, 2019)
- (Functional Discourse Grammar, 2020)
A Source Without a Publication Date
You simply use ‘n.d.’ (standing for ‘no date’) if you don’t see the date of publication, for example, (Weely, n.d.).
A Source Without Page Numbers
In this case, you need to use alternative locators. Remember that you should indicate the page numbers only for direct quotes. Though, if you deal with videos or web pages, use supporting locators.
- (Stevens, 2018, 05:24)
- (Heley, 1998, Chapter 8)
- (Thompson, 2015, para. 3)
- (Laudy, 2019, Slide 18)
- (Whisper, 2021, Table 7)
- (Griffith, 2022, “No page number” section)
When you cite verses from the Bible, you have to use chapters and numbers of verses, no matter you can see page numbers as well, for instance: (Bible, 2009, Mat. 3:18).
Indicating Several Sources in One Parenthesis
If you provide a certain idea and support it with several sources, insert them in one parenthesis by ordering them alphabetically and separating them by a semicolon. When you need to cite different works by one author, include their years of publication and divide them by commas, for instance:
These results are available from several studies (Linsey, 2010; Howards, 2012; Downey, 2011, 2013, 2014).
How to Avoid Ambiguity
Sometimes, in-text references may be rather ambiguous because they refer to different entries.
Consider the following cases:
- Several works belong to the same author and are written in the same year. Here, you need to insert a lowercase letter after the year, for example, (Peterson, 2020a), (Peterson, 2020b), etc.
- There are several authors in your list with the same last name. This issue can be solved by including the initials of these authors, for example, (G. Stanley, 2010), (J.M. Stanley, 2017).
- If your sources have three or more authors, but when shortened, the first author’s name is the same, or the dates coincide, you have to indicate as many names, as it is available for differentiating the sources, for example, (Roberts, Chan, et al., 2018), (Roberts, Chan, Holly, et al., 2015).
How to Cite Indirect Sources
Use ‘as cited in’ if you want to cite the source that you have taken from another direct source. The best solution here, of course, could be accessing the original source and citing it directly. However, if it is not available, cite it as a secondary source by using the phrase ‘as cited in’ for making things clear, for example, (Johnson, 1991, as cited in Chan et al., 2014).
If you do not know the date of publication for the original source, use only the publication date of the secondary source, for example, Harris (as cited in Peterson, 2013) argues that… Do not include the original source in your Reference List. Only the secondary source is acceptable here.
How to Cite Personal Communication
You may sometimes need to cite some kinds of personal communication, such as emails, interviews, business discussions, or phone calls. Never include them in the Reference List. Your readers will not be able to access these sources. The in-text citations for these sources are a bit different from the common ones. You need to place the initials and last names of people you have communicated with. Also, include the words ‘personal communication’ and the clear date when you had it in parentheses. Let’s have a look at the example: This project may bring a lot of revenue (I. J. Thompson, personal communication, March 20, 2020).
Mentioning Software or Websites in General
Do not make special entries in the Reference List or in-text citations if you just mention some online platform or website. You can provide all the necessary information in the running text.
ExampleThe website of OUP (www.oup.com) contains a lot of useful information about the latest research.
Final Thoughts
You can see now how many rules and nuances in-text citation in APA should consider. Actually, they are not so complicated, but you should be very attentive with punctuation so that your academic paper is perfect.
If you feel that in-text citation can take you a lot of time and effort, you can as well use an online citation generator. It is sure to make your work easier.