APA In-text citations: How to cite sources as per American Psychological Association style
The American Psychological Association’s style manual is popular in fields like psychology, mental health, neuroscience, etc. You’ll also find this style used by other journals in the social sciences. Today, we’ll focus on a specific aspect of APA style that researchers find tricky: APA in-text citations.
Basic format of APA In-Text Citations
Author-date style
Comma before year
Semicolons to separate multiple citations
Ampersand (&) in parentheses, “and” in running text
Square brackets for parenthetical information within parenthetical citations
Page number (denoted by “p.”) needed for direct quotes
All citations must have a corresponding entry in the reference lis.
Examples of APA in-text citations
Single author
Watanabe (2035) shows …
… despite other evidence to the contrary (Watanabe, 2035).
Two authors
Dronacharya and Suleiman-Ahbaz (2052) argue that…
… as previously described (Dronacharya & Suleiman-Ahbaz, 2052)
Three or more authors
Mwangi et al. (2045) found that …
According to a recent meta-analysis (Mwangi et al., 2045)…
Corporate author
Data collected by the Center for Welfare of Dancing Pigeons (2023) shows that…
… much remains to be explored (Center for Welfare of Dancing Pigeons, 2023).
No author
When there’s no author, use the title of the source instead.
… as highlighted in a recent report (Survey on the Health Status of Flying Giraffes in Sockerland, 2034).
No date of publication
The ancient Indian philosopher Shubhamacharya (n.d.) posited that …
Works in press
… but this effect may be overestimated (Zhen et al., in press).
Multiple works by different authors
Recent research (Bingaling, 2015; Hospital & Otengi, 2012; Zebralewinksy, 2013) is in favor of…
Here, you list sources alphabetically, separated by semicolons
Two or more works by the same author
Arrange works with dates in chronological order (works with no date come first and in-press works come last)
… as shown by Fontainebleu et al. (n.d., 2018, 2020a, 2020b, 2024, in press)
Direct quotes
Albuquerque (2012, p. 13) described it as “a heterogeneous mass of probabilities.”
Acquiring balance is “difficult for most young tarantulas” (Jaxyn & Khokhoffsky, 1943).
