APA in-text citations - Documenting sources in APA style - Writing Papers in APA Style

Rules for writers, Tenth edition - Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers 2021

APA in-text citations
Documenting sources in APA style
Writing Papers in APA Style

In most social science classes, you will be asked to use the APA system for documenting sources, which is set forth in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed. (2020).

APA recommends in-text citations that refer readers to a list of references. An in-text citation gives the author of the source (often in a signal phrase), the year of publication, and often a page number in parentheses. At the end of the paper, a list of references provides publication information for each cited source; the list is alphabetized by authors’ last names (or by titles for works with no authors). The direct link between the in-text citation and the entry in the reference list is highlighted in the following example.

IN-TEXT CITATION

Bell (2010) reported that students engaged in this kind of learning performed better on both project-based assessments and standardized tests (pp. 39—40).

ENTRY IN THE LIST OF REFERENCES

✵ Bell, S. (2010). Project-based learning for the 21st century: Skills for the future. The Clearing House, 83(2), 39—43.

For a reference list that includes this entry, see 63b.

List of APA in-text citation models

1. Basic format for a quotation

2. Basic format for a summary or a paraphrase

3. Quotation from a source without page numbers

4. Work with two authors

5. Work with three or more authors

6. Work with an unknown or anonymous author

7. Organization as author

8. Authors with the same last name

9. Two or more works by the same author in the same year

10. Two or more works in the same parentheses

11. Multiple citations to the same work in one paragraph

12. Part of a source (section, figure)

13. Indirect source (source quoted in another source)

14. Web source

15. An entire website

16. Personal communication

17. Course materials

18. Work available in multiple versions

19. Sacred or classical text

List of APA reference list models

GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR LISTING AUTHORS

o 1. Single author

o 2. Two to twenty authors

o 3. Twenty-one or more authors

o 4. Organization as author

o 5. Unknown author

o 6. Author using a screen name, pen name, or stage name

o 7. Two or more works by the same author

o 8. Two or more works by the same author in the same year

o 9. Editor

o 10. Author and editor

o 11. Translator

ARTICLES AND OTHER SHORT WORKS

o 12. Article in a journal

§ a. Print

§ b. Web

§ c. Database

o 13. Article in a magazine

§ a. Print

§ b. Web

§ c. Database

o 14. Article in a newspaper

§ a. Print

§ b. Web

o 15. Comment on an online article

o 16. Supplemental material

o 17. Letter to the editor

o 18. Editorial or other unsigned article

o 19. Newsletter article

o 20. Review

o 21. Published interview

o 22. Article in a reference work (encyclopedia, dictionary, wiki)

o 23. Paper or poster presented at a conference or meeting (unpublished)

BOOKS AND OTHER LONG WORKS

o 24. Basic format for a book

§ a. Print

§ b. Web (or online library)

§ c. E-book

§ d. Database

o 25. Edition other than the first

o 26. Selection in an anthology or a collection

§ a. Entire anthology

§ b. Selection in an anthology

o 27. Multivolume work

§ a. All volumes

§ b. One volume, with title

o 28. Dictionary or other reference work

o 29. Republished book

o 30. Book in a language other than English

o 31. Dissertation

o 32. Conference proceedings

o 33. Government document

o 34. Report from a private organization

o 35. Legal source

o 36. Sacred or classical text

WEBSITES AND PARTS OF WEBSITES

o 37. Entire website

o 38. Page from a website

o 39. Document on a website

o 40. Blog post

AUDIO, VISUAL, AND MULTIMEDIA SOURCES

o 41. Podcast

§ a. Series

§ b. Episode

o 42. Video or audio on the web (YouTube, TED Talk)

o 43. Transcript of an audio or video file

o 44. Film

o 45. TV or radio series or episode

o 46. Music recording

o 47. Lecture, speech, address, or recorded interview

o 48. Data set or graphic representation of data (chart, table)

o 49. Mobile app

o 50. Video game

o 51. Map

o 52. Advertisement

o 53. Work of art or photograph

o 54. Brochure or fact sheet

o 55. Press release

o 56. Lecture notes or other course materials

PERSONAL COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA

o 57. Email

o 58. Social media post (Twitter, Instagram)

o 59. Social media profile or highlight

VIDEO

Watch "APA documentation style" for more information on how the APA system works.

62a APA in-text citations

APA’s in-text citations provide the author’s last name and the year of publication, usually before the cited material, and a page number in parentheses directly after the cited material. In the models in this section, certain elements of the citation are underlined.

NOTE: APA style requires the use of the past tense or the present perfect tense in signal phrases introducing cited material: Smith (2020) reported; Smith (2020) has argued.

1. Basic format for a quotation

Ordinarily, introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author’s last name followed by the year of publication in parentheses. Put the page number (preceded by “p.,” or “pp.” for more than one page) in parentheses after the quotation. For sources from the web without page numbers, see item 3 in this section.

Çubukçu (2012) argued that for a student-centered approach to work, students must maintain “ownership for their goals and activities” (p. 64).

If the author is not named in the signal phrase, place the author’s name, the year, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation: (Çubukçu, 2012, p. 64). (See items 6 and 14 for citing sources that lack authors.)

NOTE: Do not include a month in an in-text citation, even if the entry in the reference list includes the month.

2. Basic format for a summary or a paraphrase

As for a quotation (see item 1), include the author’s last name and the year either in a signal phrase introducing the material or in parentheses following it. A page number or other locator is not required for a summary or a paraphrase, but include one if it would help readers find the information or if your instructor requires it.

Watson (2008) offered a case study of the Cincinnati Public Schools Virtual High School, in which students were able to engage in highly individualized instruction according to their own needs, strengths, and learning styles, using 10 teachers as support (p. 7).

The Cincinnati Public Schools Virtual High School brought students together to engage in highly individualized instruction according to their own needs, strengths, and learning styles, using 10 teachers as support (Watson, 2008, p. 7).

3. Quotation from a source without page numbers

If your source does not include page numbers, include another locator — information from the source such as a section heading, paragraph number, figure or table number, slide number, or time stamp — to help readers find the cited passage:

✵ Lopez (2020) has noted that “. . .” (Symptoms section).

✵ Myers (2019) extolled the benefits of humility (para. 5).

✵ Brezinski and Zhang (2017) traced the increase . . . (Figure 3).

✵ The American Immigration Council has recommended that “. . .” (Slide 5).

✵ In a recent TED Talk, Gould (2019) argued that “. . .” (13:27).

If you shorten a long heading, place it in quotation marks: (“How to Apply” section).

4. Work with two authors

Name both authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses each time you cite the work. In the signal phrase, use “and” between the authors’ names; in the parentheses, use “&.”

According to Donitsa-Schmidt and Zuzovsky (2014), “demographic growth in the school population” can lead to teacher shortages (p. 426).

In the United States, most public school systems are struggling with teacher shortages, which are projected to worsen as the number of applicants to education schools decreases (Donitsa-Schmidt & Zuzovsky, 2014, p. 420).

5. Work with three or more authors

Use the first author’s name followed by “et al.” (Latin for “and others”) in either a signal phrase or a parenthetical citation.

In 2013, Harper et al. studied teachers’ perceptions of project-based learning (PBL) before and after participating in a PBL pilot program.

Researchers studied teachers’ perceptions of project-based learning (PBL) before and after participating in a PBL pilot program (Harper et al., 2013).

6. Work with an unknown or anonymous author

If the author is unknown, include the work’s title (shortened if more than a few words) in the in-text citation.

Collaboration increases significantly among students who own or have regular access to a laptop (“Tech Seeds,” 2015).

All titles in in-text citations are set in title case: Capitalize the first and last words of a title and subtitle, all significant words, and any words of four letters or more. For books and most stand-alone works (except websites), italicize the title; for most articles and other parts of larger works, set the title in quotation marks.

Only in rare cases when “Anonymous” is specified as the author, use the word “Anonymous” in the author position: (Anonymous, 2020). (Also use the word “Anonymous” at the start of the reference list entry.)

NOTE: Titles are treated differently in reference list entries. See 62b.

7. Organization as author

If the author is an organization or a government agency, name the organization in the signal phrase or in parentheses the first time you cite the source.

According to the International Society for Technology in Education (2016), “Student-centered learning moves students from passive receivers of information to active participants in their own discovery process” (What Is It? section).

For an organization with a long name, you may abbreviate the name of the organization in citations after the first.

FIRST CITATION

(Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board [THECB], 2019)

LATER CITATIONS

(THECB, 2019)

For a work by a government agency or large organization with multiple, nested departments, list the most specific agency or department as the author, as in the reference list (see item 33 in 62b).

8. Authors with the same last name

To avoid confusion, use first initials with the last names in your in-text citations. If authors share the same initials, spell out each author’s first name.

Research by E. Smith (2019) revealed that . . .

One 2018 study contradicted . . . (R. Smith, p. 234).

9. Two or more works by the same author in the same year

In your reference list, you will use lowercase letters (“a,” “b,” and so on) with the year to order the entries (see item 8 in 62b). Use those same letters with the year in the in-text citations.

Research by Durgin (2013b) has yielded new findings about the role of smartphones in the classroom.

10. Two or more works in the same parentheses

Put the works in the same order that they appear in the reference list, separated by semicolons: (Nazer, 2015; Serrao et al., 2014).

11. Multiple citations to the same work in one paragraph

If you give the author’s name in the text of your paper (not in parentheses) and you mention that source again in the text of the same paragraph, give only the author’s name, not the date, in the later citation. If any subsequent reference in the same paragraph is in parentheses, include both the author and the date in the parentheses.

Bell (2010) has argued that the chief benefit of student-centered learning is that it can connect students with “real-world tasks,” thus making learning more engaging as well as more comprehensive (p. 42). For example, Bell observed a group of middle-school students who wanted to build a social justice monument for their school. Students engaged in this kind of learning performed better on both project-based assessments and standardized tests (Bell, 2010).

12. Part of a source (section, figure)

To cite a specific part of a source, such as a section of a web page or a figure or table, identify the element in parentheses. Don’t abbreviate terms such as “Figure,” “Chapter,” or “Section”; “page” is abbreviated “p.” (or “pp.” for more than one page). Cite the source as a whole in your reference list.

The data support the finding that peer relationships are difficult to replicate in a completely online environment (Hanniman, 2010, Figure 8-3).

13. Indirect source (source quoted in another source)

When a published source is quoted in a source written by someone else, cite the original source first; include “as cited in” before the author and date of the source you read. In the following example, Chow is the author of the source in the reference list; that source contains a quotation by Brailsford.

Brailsford (1990) commended the writer and educator’s “sure understanding of the thoughts of young people” (as cited in Chow, 2019, para. 9).

14. Web source

Cite sources from the web as you would cite any other source, giving the author and the year when that information is available.

Atkinson (2011) found that children who spent at least four hours a day engaged in online activities in an academic environment were less likely to want to play video games or watch TV after school.

Usually a page number is not available; occasionally a web source will lack an author or a date (see 14a—14c).

a. No page numbers When quoting a web source that lacks stable numbered pages, include a paragraph number or a section heading, or both, to help readers locate the passage being cited.

Some sources have numbered paragraphs; if a source lacks both numbered paragraphs and headings, count the paragraphs manually. When quoting an audio or video source, use a time stamp to indicate the start of the quotation.

Crush and Jayasingh (2015) pointed out that several other school districts in low-income areas had “jump-started their distance learning initiatives with available grant funds” (Funding Change section, para. 6).

If a heading in a source is long, you may use a shortened version of the heading in quotation marks: (Gregor, 2017, “What Happens When” section).

b. Unknown author If no author is named in the source, mention the title of the source in a signal phrase or give the first word or two of the title in parentheses (see also item 6). (If an organization serves as the author, see item 7.)

A student’s IEP may, in fact, recommend the use of mobile technology (“Considerations,” 2012).

c. Unknown date When the source does not give a date, use the abbreviation “n.d.” (for “no date”).

Administrators believe 1-to-1 programs boost learner engagement (Magnus, n.d.).

15. An entire website

If you mention an entire website from which you did not pull specific information, give the URL in the text of your paper but do not include it in the reference list.

The Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning website (https://teaching.berkeley.edu/) shares ideas for using mobile technology in the classroom.

16. Personal communication

Interviews that you conduct, memos, letters, email messages, and similar communications that would be difficult for your readers to retrieve should be cited in the text only, not in the reference list. (Use the first initial with the last name either in your text sentence or in parentheses.)

One of Yim’s colleagues, who has studied the effect of social media on children’s academic progress, has contended that the benefits of this technology for children under 12 years old are few (F. Johnson, personal communication, October 20, 2020).

17. Course materials

Cite lecture notes from your instructor or your own class notes as personal communication (see item 16). If your instructor’s material contains publication information, cite as you would the appropriate source. See also item 56 in 62b.

18. Work available in multiple versions

If you consulted a reprinted, republished, or translated work, include both the date of original publication and the date of the version you used, and separate the dates with a slash: (Padura, 2009/2014).

19. Sacred or classical text

Identify the text (specifying the version or edition you used), the publication date(s), and the relevant part (book, chapter, verse).

Peace activists have long cited the biblical prophet’s vision of a world without war: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Holy Bible Revised Standard Edition, 1952/2004, Isaiah 2:4).