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In-text citations

General

In general, there are two forms of in-text citation in the APA style of referencing.

  • The first includes the author's surname and year of publication in parentheses. If this method is used, precede the final name in a multiple author citation with an ampersand (&)
    e.g. Research on authoritative child-rearing practices indicates ... (Cole & Cole, 2000)
  • The second is to mention the author's surname in the text, followed by the year of publication in parentheses. If this method is used, precede the final name with the word and
    e.g. According to Cole and Cole (2000), authoritarian parents ...

For more examples of in-text citations for different information sources, see the links on the APA Style Page.

Quotations

If you use the exact words of the author, put the:

  • Quotation in quotation marks.
  • Author, date and page numbers in parentheses after the quotation.
  • If using EndNote, page numbers need to be inserted by editing the citation after the bibliography is formatted.

Examples
Cole and Cole (2000) state that "among white middle-class two-parent families, authoritative child-rearing practices are associated with children who are more self-reliant, self-controlled, and willing to explore than those raised by permissive or authoritarian parents" (p. 459).

It is argued that "among white middle-class two-parent families, authoritative child-rearing practices are associated with children who are more self-reliant, self-controlled, and willing to explore than those raised by permissive or authoritarian parents" (Cole & Cole, 2000, p. 459).

A quotation of 40 or more words should be formatted as a freestanding, indented block of text without quotation marks.

More than one source in-text

Many studies suggest (Davies, 1990; Humphries & Peters, 2005; Johnson, 1995, 2000, 2005; Robertson, 2000a, 2000b; Weber, 2004).

  • List your references alphabetically, separated with a semicolon.
  • List works by the same author in order of date of publication e.g. (Johnson, 1995, 2000, 2005)
  • For works by the same author published in the same year, the references are identified by the use of a, b etc. Give a to the reference whose title comes first alphabetically, b to the one whose title comes next etc. (Robertson, 2002a, 2002b) . See authors for more information.