Guides: APA Style Guide: In-Text Citations

In- Text Citation Styles

Parenthetical citation (Luna, 2020)

Narrative citation Luna (2020)

For more information, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, pp. 262,263 and 266 .

Parenthetical citation (Sales & D'Agostino, 2020)

Narrative citation Sales and D'Agostino (2020)

For more information, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, p. 266

Parenthetical citation ( Martin et al., 2020)

Narrative citation Martin et al. (2020)

For more information, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, p. 266

Group author with abbreviation

First citations Parenthetical ( National Institute of Mental Health [ NIMH], 2020)

Narrative National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH,2020)

Subsequent citations

Parenthetical (NIMH,2020)

Narrative NIMH (2020)

Group author without abbreviation

Parenthetical (Stanford University, 2020)

Narrative Stanford University (2020)

For more information, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, p. 266

Citing References in the Text

The purpose of in-text, or parenthetical, citations (information within parentheses) is to show which information came from which source.

Start with the author's last name, or, if there isn't one, with the title. The in-text citation should lead directly to the citation in the Reference list.
The in-text citation immediately follows the idea (Abel, 2015) without waiting for the end of the sentence.
You might also use the author in your narrative, in which case you need not repeat it in the parentheses. You will still have the date if you are paraphrasing or summarizing (2005) or date and page number for a direct quote (2005, p. 12).
- The American Psychological Association examined anxiety and danger mitigation (2016).
You could have several citations within the same sentence.
- Zika virus prevention may include vaccination (Lowy, 2015), pesticide use (Pepin & Penn, 2017), or elimination of standing water (Likas, et al., 2016).
Or you might have several references within the same parentheses. They should be in alphabetical order as they appear on the Reference list.
- Scientists agree that prevention is the key to eliminating the Zika virus (Likas et al., 2016; Lowy, 2015; Pepin & Penn, 2017).
No author, use the first word or words in the citation (Bipolar, 2015, p. 17). If the title was in italics, use italics here as well (Merck, 2016, p. 342)
Personal communication such as an interview, email, or telephone conversation will have an in-text citation but will not appear in the References list (J. Bond, personal communication, April 1, 2010). Only items that can be retrieved appear in the list.

Other examples appear with the Reference Citations.

For more information, see the Publication Manual, pp. 261