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Citing and referencing: In-text citations

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APA Contents In-text citing: General notes

Introduction to Insert an in-text citation when your work has been influenced by

APA style someone else's work, for example:

when you directly quote someone else's work or
In-Text
when you paraphrase someone else's work
Citations
The in-text citation consists of author surname(s)/family
Abbreviations
name(s), in the order that they appear on the actual publication,
Audio and
followed by the year of publication of the source that you are
Visual media
citing.
Books For direct quotes, make sure to include page or paragraph
Conferences number. eg. (Weston, 1988, p. 45). Page numbers are

Data files not normally included when paraphrasing but may be

included if desired.
Dictionaries/Encyclopedias/Guides
The in-text citation is placed immediately after the information
Government
being cited.
and other
If your citation is at the end of a sentence, ensure the full stop is
reports
placed after the reference.
Company and
If quoting or citing a source which has been cited within another
Industry reports document, mention the original source together with the
Journals/periodicals secondary reference details; for example: (Smith, 2008, as cited
Legal sources in Jones, 2010). In this case, only the secondary reference (i.e.

Newspapers/Magazines Jones, 2010) should be included in the reference list.

PLEASE NOTE, HOWEVER you should use secondary
Patents and
sources ONLY where you are unable to obtain a copy of
Standards
the original, or the original is not available in English.
Tables and
In-text citations are usually included in the word count of your
figures
document.
Theses/Dissertations For citations in parentheses with two authors the ‘&’ symbol is
University used. If the author citation forms part of your sentence the word
course ‘and’ must be used, e.g. (Brown & Black, 2010) OR “Brown and
materials Black (2010) indicate that…”

Websites and Placement of citations can be important depending on the

social media emphasis you wish to apply
Sample
If you wish to quote or paraphrase an author and want to
reference list
emphasise the author, then your citation becomes 'author
prominent'. The citation will look something like this:
Jones (2012) has concluded that...
If you wish to emphasise the information you have
paraphrased or quoted from an author, then your citation
becomes 'information prominent'. The citation will look
something like this:
... as evidenced from a recent Australian study (Jones,
2012).
Examples of in-text citations

One author
Rule Surname of author, no initials or suffixes such
as Jr. The year of publication is also included

Citation ..This was seen in an Australian study (Conger,

examples 1979).
OR
Conger (1979) has argued that...
OR
In 1979, Conger conducted a study which showed
that...

Two authors
Rule Cite both surnames every time the reference
occurs in the text

Citation ...(Davidson & Harrington, 2002)

examples OR
Davidson and Harrington (2002)...

Three to five authors

Rule Cite all surnames and publication year the first
time, thereafter only the first surname followed
by et al. Note: There is a full-stop (.) after al (see
below).

Citation The first time cited: ...(Brown, Soo, & Jones, 1990).
examples Brown, Soo, and Jones (1990)...
thereafter:
...(Brown et al., 1990).
Brown et al. (1990)...

Si th
Six or more authors
Rule Cite only the surname of the first author
followed by et al. and the year from the first
citation. Note: There is a full-stop (.) after al (see
below). Include all authors, up to seven, in the
reference list. Please see instruction for eight or
more authors on the introductory page of this
guide.

Citation .... (Girad-Perregaux et al., 2003).

examples Girad-Perregaux et al. (2003)...

Different authors : same surname

Rule Add the initials of the author's first or given
name/s to their surname to distinguish them.

Citation P. R. Smith (1923) to distinguish from S. Smith

examples (1945) ...
(S. A. Brown & Jones, 1961) to distinguish from (W.
O. Brown & Smith, 1985).

Multiple authors: ambiguous citations

Rule If a multiple (3+) author citation abbreviated
with et al. looks the same as another in text
citation similarly shortened, add enough
surnames to make a distinction, followed by a
comma and et al.

Citation ...(Brown, Shimamura, et al., 1998) to distinguish

examples from (Brown, Taylor, et al., 1998).

Multiple works: by same author

Rule When cited together give the author's surname
once followed by the years of each publication,
 which are separated by a comma.

Citation ... (Stairs, 1992, 1993).

examples Stairs (1992, 1993)...

Multiple works: by same author AND same year

Rule If there is more than one reference by an author
in the same year, suffixes (a, b, c, etc.) are
added to the year. Allocation of the suffixes is
determined by the order of the references in the
reference list, not by the order in which they are
cited. Suffixes are also included in the
reference list, and these references are listed
alphabetically by title. If cited together, list by
suffix as shown below.

Citation Stairs (1992b)... later in the text ... (Stairs, 1992a).

examples ...(Stairs, 1992a, 1992b).

If the author is identified as 'anonymous'

Rule Use Anonymous in place of the author's
surname.

Citation ... (Anonymous, 1997)

examples

Unknown author
Rule Give the first few words of the title. If the title is
from an article or a chapter use double
quotation marks. If the title is from a periodical,
book brochure or report then use italics.

Citation ...the worst election loss in the party's history ("This

examples is the end," 1968).
Corporate or group of authors
Rule If organization is recognized by abbreviation,
cite the first time as follows:

Citation ... (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

examples [AIHW], 2005)

Note: [AIHW] is in square brackets for the initial in-

text citation and thereafter as
... (AIHW, 2005).
However, if abbreviation not widely known, give the
name in full every time:
... (Australian Research Council, 1996)

Multiple references
Rule List the citations in alphabetical order and
separate with semicolons

Citation ... (Burst, 1995; Nguyen, 1976; Turner & Hooch,

examples 1982).

Citing specific parts of a source

Rule For a direct quote the page number(s) must be
given. Indicate page, chapter, figure, table, etc.
as specifically as possible. Use accepted
abbreviations, i.e. p. for page, para. for
paragraph..

Citation As one writer put it "the darkest days were still

examples ahead" (Weston, 1988, p. 45).
Weston (1988) argued that "the darkest days were
still ahead" (p. 45).
This theory was put forward by Smith (2005,
chap.7)
Quote from an electronic source
Rule Where page numbers are not provided use
paragraph numbers.

Citation ...(Chang, 2001, para. 2)

examples

Personal communications
Rule These include private letters, e-mail, and
conversations. As personal communications
are not accessible to others, they are not
included in the reference list.
However, an in-text citation is required.

Citation ... (R. Smith, personal communication, January 28,

examples 2002).
R. Smith (personal communication, January 28,
2002)...

Citation of a secondary source: (i.e a source

referred to in another publication)
Rule Note: APA 6th specifies that secondary citations
should ONLY be used where the original is
unavailable (for example, out-of-print).
Wherever possible, read and cite the original
source.

If the original source is not available, ONLY

include the details of the source you actually
read. In the example below, the original source
would be Farrow (1968), which you saw cited in
a paper by Ward and Decan (1988).

Citation ... (Farrow, 1968, as cited in Ward & Decan, 1988).

examples Farrow (1968, as cited in Ward & Decan, 1988) ...
Ward and Decan (1988) cited Farrow (1968) as
finding...

Citing legislation or legal cases

The way you cite legislation or legal cases depends on whether
you read the actual legislation or read about it in another source.
If it is the latter, the legislation/case should be treated as a
secondary source.

Rule - The title of the leglslation and the year

Legislation (jurisdiction). Note: include the jurisdiction the
first time the act is cited. The jurisdiction can be
dropped with subsequent citations

Citation The Medical Treatment Act 1988 (Vic) states......

examples
by virtue of s. 25.1 of the Aged Care Act 1997
(Cth).....

..."A restrictive intervention may only be used on a

person....." (Mental Health Act 2014 (Vic), s. 105)

as a secondary source

....Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic)

(as cited in Creighton & Rozen, 2007)

Rule - The title of the case (year). Note: Include the

Cases year with the first citation. The year can be
dropped in subsequent citations.

Citation According to the case of Rogers v

examples Whitaker (1992).....

as a secondary source

.....Chappel v Hart (1988) (as cited in Forrester &

Griffiths, 2010)
Websites (but not a specific document on that
site)
Rule When citing an entire website it is
sufficient to give the address of the site
in the text. No reference list entry
required.

Citation Apple is one of the most visited consumer

examples technology websites in the world
(http://www.apple.com).

Web page, author

Rule Family name and year of publication.

Citation In a recent article on the role of quantitative

examples analysts Loeper (2019) states…

Or

The role of quantitative analysts has been

recently reviewed (Loeper, 2019)

Web page with corporate author

Rule Organisation name and year of
publication.

Citation A webpage regarding educational programs

examples and discounts offered by Samsung (2019)
states…

Or

Extensive information on education

programs and discounts are offered by one
of the world’s largest telecommunications
companies (Samsung, 2019)
Web page, unknown author
Rule Give the first few words of the title. If the
title is from an article use double
quotation marks. Also include the year of
publication.

Citation An Australian government agency

examples recommend checking rainwater tanks in
Queensland (“Unsealed rainwater tanks”,
2019).

Web page, no date

Rule Use the letters n.d. - an abbreviation of
the words ‘no date’.

Citation In a self-published autobiographical article

examples audiovisual organisation Bose (n.d)
mention…

Or

The company’s history is outlined in a self-

published autobiography (Bose, n.d.)

Market Reports/Industry databases, no individual

author
Rule Cite the database or Market Report
publisher as author.

Citation An industry report on infrastructure

examples construction in China by IBISWorld (2019)
asserts…

Or

Infrastructure construction in China was

 summarised in a recent industry report
(IBISWorld, 2019).

Market Reports/Industry databases, author

Rule Family name and year of publication.

Citation In an industry report on Australian

examples accommodation Smith (2019) states…

Or

Australian accommodation options were

recently reviewed (Smith, 2019).

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