How to Cite
There are two main forms of in-text citations: parenthetical and narrative. A parenthetical citation is the most common form and is used when the citation is entirely at the end of the sentence in parenthesis.
There are dangers of falsely balanced news coverage (Koehler, 2016).
A narrative citation, however, is used when the author is mentioned within the sentence itself. For example:
Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.
In rare cases, the year may also be mentioned in the sentence. In such cases, do not use any parentheses. For example:
In 2016, Koehler noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.
For a work with one or two authors, include the author name(s) in every citation. For a work with three or more authors, include only the first author's name plus “et al." This applies to every citation, even the first time the source is cited.
For group authors with an abbreviation, include both the name of the organization and the abbreviation in the first occurrence of the citation. In all subsequent citations, only use the abbreviation. For group authors without an abbreviation, simply write the name of the organization in each occurrence.
The table below provides examples of how to write citations for various author types.
| Author type | Parenthetical citation | Narrative citation |
| One author | (Nguyen, 2019) | Nguyen (2019) |
| Two authors | (Nguyen & Martin, 2020) | Nguyen and Martin (2020) |
| Three or more authors | (Salas et al., 2018) | Salas et al. (2018) |
Group author with abbreviation
First citation
Subsequent citations |
(World Health Organization [WHO], 2020)
(WHO, 2020) |
World Health Organization (WHO, 2020)
WHO (2020) |
| Group author without abbreviation | (Harvard University, 2019) | Harvard University (2019) |
The APA manual also outlines the six steps to creating a citation in the image below, as in Figure 1.
Figure 1
APA's Six Steps to Proper Citation
Citing Multiple Works
When citing multiple works within a parenthetical citation, list each citation in alphabetical order separated by semicolons. For example:
(Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017)
When there are multiple works by the same author, order citations by the year of publication. Citations with no date go first, followed by works with dates presented in chronological order (ealiest to latest). For entries with the same year and same author, designate a letter that corresponds with the reference entry. For example:
(Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d., 2017a, 2017b, 2019)
Citing Specific Parts of a Source
When citing specific sections of a source, provide the author and date followed by the information on the specific section. The reference list should include an entry for the entire source. Citing specific sections of a source may be done when paraphrasing or when directly quoting. See Sections 8.13 and 8.23–8.27 of the APA Manual (7th ed.) for more information.
The specific section may be a page number, paragraph, chapter, etc. For example:
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, p. 10)
(Shimamura, 2017, Chapter 3)
(Armstrong, 2015, pp. 3–17)
(Shadid, 2020, paras. 2–3)
Unknown or Anonymous Authors
An author is
unknown when no author is listed. For example, religious works such as the Bible contain unknown authors.
Anonymous authors are specifically listed and identified as “anonymous" within the work.
When an author is
unknown, use the title of the work as the author in in-text citations.
Italicize the title if it is italicized in the reference entry. Use quotation marks if it is not italicized in the reference entry. For example:- Book with no author: (Interpersonal Skills, 2019)
- Magazine article with no author: (“Understanding Sensory Memory," 2018)
For anonymous authors, replace the author with “Anonymous" such as: (Anonymous, 2017).
Translated, Reprinted, Republished, and Reissued Dates
In works where the source has been translated, reprinted, republished, or reissued, the in-text citation must contain both the original publication date and the publication of the update/adaptation. The years are to be separated by a slash with the earliest year first. For example:
Freud (1900/1953)
(Piaget, 1966/2000)
Omitting the Year in Repeated Narrative Citations
As a general rule, include the author and year in every occurrence. However, when referencing the same work in a narrative citation within one paragraph, the date may be omitted after the first occurrence. However, if the reference is interrupted by another source or citation, it must be cited again. The source must also be cited again at the start of a new paragraph. For more information, see Section 8.16 of the APA Manual (7th ed.).
When to Cite
Citations serve a couple purposes, to support your point or argument and give credit to the work of others. Knowing how to format citations as described in the sections above is important, but do not forget to keep in mind when to include citations and what the purpose of the citation is.
Basic Tips
- Grey literature (not peer-reviewed) is best utilized in the introduction to frame your point. This souce type could buse used to support broad statements on the topic (that might appear on a non-profit, government, or organization website) as well as statistics.
- Diversify. You can rely on one primary source for broader statements and weave in alternate sources for more specific statements. It is best to find a variety of sources and not to rely on a single source for one whole section. Remember, your sources help support your discussion, so from a practical standpoint, your argument has less strength if it is only supported by one or two sources. This, of course, is subject to change depending on the purpose of the writing.
Declarative Statements
Declarative statements occur when you are 1) making statements of fact, 2) drawing on established knowledge (specific theories, modalities, historical knowledge), 3) making an association that has been studied in the literature, and 4) making references to “the literature", “researchers", “studies." In addition, common field-specific content still requires citations. For instance, you may have worked in a particular field for a long time and some knowledge may seem “general" to you, but it likely still needs to be cited for individuals outside of your field of expertise. However, if the general public is familiar with the concept (even outside the field) citations may not be needed. For example, "Facebook is a social media platform" would not require a citation because this is common knowledge to a large majority of people in different fields. However, the sentence "Using social media platforms like Facebook increases the liklihood that an individual will experience depression" would require a citation.
Examples
- Studies show that individuals with depression have benefited from vitamin D supplementation (Smith, 2001).
- Rationale: In this case, you may cite one or two specific studies.
- Addressing wealth inequality in the United States has been a difficult task, for which multiple solutions have been proposed from across various disciplines (Jones, 2002).
- Rationale: In this case, you would likely be citing a source that broadly discusses this topic.
- While Freud (1920) was responsible for opening discussion into an unconscious influence on human behavior, many of his specific ideas have been challenged (Bob, 2020).
- Rationale: In this case, you may also cite Freud's work that touches on the unconscious, but you would cite a separate source for illustrating the debate on his ideas. This might be a textbook or article that directly challenges Freud's ideas.
- Recent surveys suggest that up to 1 in 4 people experience some level of seasonal depression each winter (Organization for Seasonal Depression, 2017).
- Rationale: In this case we are using an organization, but you may draw from a government site, a research organization, polling organization, non-profit, etc.
Interpretive Statements
Interpretice statements do not need to be cited. They represent how you are connecting the cited literature to your overall discussion. Sometimes, depending on the requirements of the assignment, these may be your own personal thoughts. Other times you may use interpretice statements to convey the connection between a cited source and your point. Interpretive statements may also offer critique, perhaps explaining how a cited study cannot be adequately generalized because its sample included only males, or mostly white participants. These critiques also represent interpretive statements that come from you and do not need to be cited.
Examples
- Studies have repeatedly indicated that client factors account for a large proportion of therapeutic outcomes (Smith, 2016; Todd, 2018). This illustrates the continued importance of responsive care that incorporates and acknowledges the individual uniqueness of clients in therapy, rather than relying on a single modality to be utilized broadly.
- Rationale: We cite the studies that help to bolster our point, then we follow up with a statement that extrapolates on that to tie it into a broader narrative.
- Recent surveys suggest that up to 1 in 4 people experience some level of seasonal depression each winter (Organization for Seasonal Depression, 2017). Given this high proportion, which may not fully account for severity in areas particularly affected by severe winter weather, seasonal depression represents an important area of focus for intervention. For instance, a study of residents in Alaska found much higher instances of seasonal depression when compared to a sample in the central United States (Smith, 2013).
- Rationale: Again, we provide the information, then follow up with how it is important to our discussion. Further, in this example, we critique the information by including that broad statistics sometimes do not capture the full picture. The implication being made is that certain areas may be affected more than others due to fluctuations in winter weather. We may follow this sentence with a specific citation that supports this interpretation, thus continuing the dialogue.
- A recent meta-analysis indicated that cognitive behavioral therapy was more effective than alternate therapies to treat symptoms of severe bulimia (Jones, 2017); however, limitations persist in the lack of diversity in study samples, as well as the ethnic demographics of samples, which leaves questions as to the ability to apply these results across populations.
- Rationale: The first portion of this sentence is declarative and, therefore, requires a citation. In the second portion of the sentence, however, we provide the reader with our own analysis of the limitations of the study. If the authors identified these limitations, this would need to be cited as well.
More Information
For more information on in-text citations, check out Chapter 8 of the APA Manual (2020) or check out the APA Style webpage on in-text citations. You can also use the following resources.