APA DOCUMENTATION

7 EDITION
TH

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

AUTHOR–DATE CITATION SYSTEM

• Use the author–date citation system to cite references in the text

in APA Style.
• In this system, each work used in a paper has two parts: an in-
text citation and a corresponding reference list entry.
 APA in-text citations require three pieces of information: the
author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page number.
There are two ways to format this information: with a signal
phrase and without a signal phrase.

APA IN-TEXT
CITATIONS APA recommends using a signal phrase more often to provide
clarity.

A “signal phrase” introduces a quotation in order to help the

reader understand why it is important and how it fits into the rest
of the paper. In the first example below, “Villarreal maintains
that…” is the signal phrase.
 SIGNAL PHRASES

Villarreal (2004) maintains that “sociological research on the structural origins of

criminal violence has focused almost exclusively on urban settings” (p. 313).
In-text citations may be parenthetical or narrative.

 In parenthetical citations, use an ampersand (&) between names for a

work with two authors or before the last author when all names must
be included to avoid ambiguity.
 In narrative citations, always spell out the word “and.”
USING IN-TEXT CITATION

APA in-text citation style uses the

author's last name and the year of
Include an in-text citation when you
publication, for example: (Field, 2005).
refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or
For direct quotations, include the page
quote from another source. For every in-
number as well, for example: (Field,
text citation in your paper, there must be
2005, p. 14). For sources such as
a corresponding entry in your reference
websites and e-books that have no
list.
page numbers, use a paragraph number,
for example: (Field, 2005, para. 1).
USING A secondary citation means citing research mentioned in
SECONDARY one of the sources you are using.

CITATIONS This means you only read one or more ideas of that
source, not the full original work.
Forms:
Parenthetical:
(Clarks, 2017, as cited in Smith, 2019)
Narrative:
Clarks (2017, as cited in Smith, 2019) points out that…
 • A few researchers in the linguistics field have developed
EXAMPLE training programs designed to improve native speakers'
ability to understand accented speech (Derwing et al.,
PARAGRAPH 2002; Thomas, 2004). Their training techniques are based

WITH IN-TEXT on the research described above indicating that

comprehension improves with exposure to non-native
CITATION speech. Derwing et al. (2002) conducted their training
with students preparing to be social workers but note that
other professionals who work with non-native speakers
could benefit from a similar program.
 QUOTATION, PARAPHRASE, SUMMARY, &
ANALYSIS

The distinction between

Quotation allows the writer to Paraphrase enables the writer to
paraphrase, summary, and
fully use the original author’s comprehend the content of a Example: The professor
analysis is central to academic Example: The professor said,
words using quotation marks in source by putting the original explained that the weather would
writing, especially for “The sun is shining.”
order to make a point or to words into the writer’s own be sunny all day today.
assignments that require critical
provide support for an idea. words.
responses to sources.

Summary is used to provide a Analysis relies on the writer’s Example: When the professor
brief understanding of the main own observations and ideas & mentioned the sunny day in
Example: Today in class, we
points of a source. In this case, shows how the components class, he meant to establish a
talked about the sunny day
only the most important or most function as parts of a whole. In personable relationship with the
outside.
essential information from a analysis, a new idea is born from students so they may be more
source is used. the original source. open to his forthcoming lecture.
Direct quote:
• Include page number and place quotation marks around the direct
quote
• Use ellipsis (. . .) to signal deleted words & [ ] square brackets for
necessary changes within the quoted material

Examples:
One study found that “the listener's familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly
facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 85).

Gass and Varonis (1984) found that “the listener’s familiarity with the topic of
discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (p. 85).
 If the author is named while introducing the quotation, then the year will
follow the author’s name in parentheses, and only a page number is necessary
in the citation at the end of the sentence.

Remember that in APA, every time an author’s name is mentioned, the year of

IF THE AUTHOR
publication is mentioned as well. Put “p.” before the page number.

Quotation:
IS NAMED IN Villarreal (2004) maintains that “sociological research on the structural origins

SIGNAL PHRASE: of criminal violence has focused almost exclusively on urban settings” (p. 313).

Paraphrase:

According to Stark (1998), sociologists use samples when studying larger

populations; they cannot only use techniques from field research (p.91).

Note that the above source is paraphrased and not quoted. When paraphrasing
specific information from a source, that source still must be cited within the paper
and in the works cited list.
If the signal phrase does not mention the author, or if the IF THE
sentence does not have a signal phrase, all three components
will come at the end of the sentence in parentheses.
AUTHOR IS
Put commas between the parts and put “p.” before the page
NOT NAMED
number. IN SIGNAL
Quotation: PHRASE
It may be true that “humans will retain that culture which they
believe is rewarding” (Stark, 1998, p. 240).

Paraphrase:
One hypothesis is that disputed property rights cause conflict
and violence in agrarian communities (Villarreal, 2004, p. 318).
Note: For direct quotations of more than 40 words, display the
quote as an indented block of text without quotation marks and
include the authors’ names, year, and page number in
parentheses at the end of the quote. For example:

This suggests that familiarity with nonnative speech in general,

although it is clearly not as important a variable as topic
familiarity, may indeed have some effect. That is, prior
experience with nonnative speech, such as that gained by
listening to the reading, facilitates comprehension. (Gass &
Varonis, 1984, p. 77)
 The format of the author element of the in-text
citation changes depending on the number of
authors and is abbreviated in some cases.

NUMBER OF
AUTHORS TO For a work with one or two authors, include the
author name(s) in every citation.
INCLUDE IN IN-
TEXT CITATIONS
For a work with three or more authors, include the
name of only the first author plus “et al.” in every
citation (even the first citation).
The following table shows the basic in-text citation styles:

Author type Parenthetical citation Narrative citation

One author (Luna, 2020) Luna (2020)

Two authors (Salas & D’Agostino, 2020) Salas and D’Agostino (2020)

Three or more authors (Martin et al., 2020) Martin et al. (2020)

Group author with abbreviation

First citation a (National Institute of Mental Health National Institute of Mental

[NIMH], 2020) Health (NIMH, 2020)

Subsequent citations (NIMH, 2020) NIMH (2020)

Group author without abbreviation (Stanford University, 2020) Stanford University (2020)
EXCEPTIONS TO THE BASIC IN-TEXT
CITATION STYLES

• when two works in a paper would both abbreviate to the

same “et al.” form
 (spell out as many surnames as needed to disambiguate)
• when multiple works in a paper have an identical author
(or authors) and publication year
  (append letters to the years)
• when the first authors of multiple references in a paper s
hare the same surname but have different initials
 (use initials in the in-text citations)
DATES IN A CITATION

Use only the year in the in-

The year in the in-text text citation, even if the For works that have been
For works with no date,
citation should match the reference list entry accepted for publication
use “n.d.” in the in-text
year in the reference list contains a more specific but have not yet been
citation.
entry. date (e.g., year, month, and published, use “in press.”
day).
 • When repeating a citation, show the entire citation; do not, for example, include only a
page number.

• Instead, use the following guidelines:

• Include the author(s) and year for every parenthetical in-text citation.

REPEATING A • Do not repeat the year for narrative in-text citations the second and
subsequent times they appear in a single paragraph. Follow this guideline
CITATION with each new paragraph (i.e., include the year in the first narrative citation in a
new paragraph).

• However, if you cite multiple works by the same author or authors, regardless of
the publication years, include the date in every in-text citation to prevent
ambiguity. For example, if you cite Mohammed and Mahfouz (2017) and
Mohammed and Mahfouz (2019), include the year with every citation, even
when one of the references is cited multiple times in a single paragraph.
 Correspond
Each in-text citation must correspond to
only one reference list entry.

FURTHER
GUIDELINES Do not
include
Do not include suffixes such as “Jr.” in the
in-text citation.
FOR IN-TEXT
CITATIONS
For works with an unknown author, include
Include the title and year of publication in the in-
text citation.