This overview of the APA guidelines focuses on in-text citations. Remember, whenever you reference or quote a source, you must include an in-text citation.
APA In-Text Citations Cheat Sheet – 7th Edition
(To maximize quantity, all examples are single spaced; in practice, use double spacing!)
Source author named in a signal phrase (narrative citation):
Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author’s name followed by the publication date in parentheses. If there is a page number, place it at the end of the sentence inside the period.
- According to Farouk Bodi (2019), “The value of nurses cannot be overstated” (p. 28).
Source author named in parentheses (parenthetical citation):
Include the author’s last name, publication year, and the page number inside parentheses. These can appear within or at the end of sentences, depending on the source material.
- Nurses provide life-saving care, and the value of their role in the medical field “cannot be overstated” (Bodi, 2019, p. 28).
Organization as author:
If an organization has a widely known abbreviation, list the abbreviation in square brackets in the first citation. In subsequent citations, use only the abbreviation without brackets.
First citation:
- Residential treatment can be effective in treating opioid abuse (American Psychological Association [APA], 2017).
Subsequent citations:
- Within a decade, clinics “became a permanent fixture in every major city” (APA, 2017).
No author:
Cite the source by its full title (in title case) using a signal phrase:
- The article “Forget Everything You Know About Mindfulness” (2023) dispels several common myths about how to be mindful.
Cite the first few words of the title (in title case) in parentheses:
- Contrary to popular belief, mindfulness is not the same as meditation (“Forget Everything,” 2023).
Indirect sources:
Name the original source in the signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list, and include the secondary source in parentheses beginning with “as cited in.”
- Yang (2015) argued that test scores alone were not a reliable predictor of academic success (as cited in Manballa, 2018, pp. 123-125).
Citing multiple sources at one time:
Place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons.
- (Abdi, 2020; Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Tran, 2022)
Citing the same source multiple times:
If you refer to the same source more than once in the same paragraph, start with a narrative citation near the beginning. In subsequent mentions, omit the year. However, the year is always included in parenthetical citations. Close with a parenthetical citation to signal the end of the source material.
- Koehler (2016) examined how journalistic coverage influences public perception of the level of agreement among experts. After providing participants with reviews for movies that critics either loved or loathed, he found that participants better appreciated the level of expert consensus for highly rated movies when only positive reviews were provided rather than when both positive and negative views were provided. These findings demonstrate that providing evidence for both sides when most experts agree may lead to a false sense of balance (Koehler, 2016).
Two authors:
List both authors’ names separated by either “and” (narrative citation) or “&” (parenthetical citation) • Mahlangu and Tildiz (2018) announced. . .
- (Mahlangu & Tildiz, 2018).
Three or more authors:
List only the first author’s name followed by “et al.”
- (Patel et al., 2022).
- Patel et al. (2022) argue. . .
Helpful Tips:
- With parenthetical citations at the end of a sentence, the period goes after the closing parenthesis. • For narrative citations, the page number always appears at the end of the sentence. • If you are referencing only one page, use “p.” If you are referencing multiple pages, use “pp.”
- If there are no page numbers, consult the instructor. They may ask you to use paragraph numbers, chapters, etc., or they may tell you to omit the page number.
- When using a signal phrase to introduce an article, book, or report in the text, use title case capitalization. This differs from the reference list.
- For in-text citations, provide only the year (even if there is a month/day in the references list) • If the source doesn’t have a date, use “n.d.” in place of the year.
Information borrowed from Concise guide to APA Style (7th ed.) by the American Psychological Association.