APA in-text citations
What is an in-text citation?
An in-text citation is an acknowledgment of the source material you have used when you quote someone directly, or summarise someone else’s ideas. You must include an in-text citation every time you refer to someone else’s work.
What do I include in my in-text citation?
An in-text citation requires two or three pieces of information:
- Author’s surname(s)
- Publication date (or n.d. if no date is available)
- Page numbers (only if quoting directly)
APA uses two types of in-text citation, these are called Parenthetical and Narrative citations. Here are some examples of what these would look like:
Parenthetical citations
Parenthetical citations are when you include the name and date of the work being referenced in brackets, usually appearing at the end of a quotation.
J.B Watson and Raynor were not the first behaviourists to apply classical conditioning techniques to a child (Windholz & Lamal, 1986).
Narrative citations
Narrative citations are when the authors name appears as part of the body of the essay, with only the date in brackets. This is more commonly used when paraphrasing an idea into your own words.
Miller and Dollard (1941) initially alluded to social learning as a potential influence on individuals’ behaviour but did not make social learning a major concept in their subsequent work
In-text citation examples
How to cite when there is just one author:
- (Gross, 2020) is used when referring to the whole resource or an idea from it.
- (Gross, 2020, p.45) is used when you using a direct quote.
- (Gross, 2020, pp. 106-107) is used if the quotes goes across more than one page.
How to cite two authors:
- (Martin & Torok-Gerard, 2019)
How to cite three or more authors:
(Pretus et al., 2023)
How to cite a corporate author:
- First citation: (British Psychological Society [BPS], 2024)
- Following citations: (BPS, 2024)
How to cite multiple works by the same author:
If you wish to cite multiple works by the same author, these can usually be differentiated by date; however, if you have multiple works published in the same year use a, b, and c to distinguish between them.
- Berndt (1981a)
- Berndt (1981b)