Referencing

In-text citation information | APA 7

NOTE: For full details about in-text citations refer to chapter 8 of the APA 7^th edition.

 

In-text citations are required for quotations and paraphrases:

 

Quotations:

The information required for an in-text citation to support a quotation is the author, the year of publication and the page number/s from which the quotation has been taken.This information can be presented in the parenthetical or narrative format (see below).

 

Paraphrases:

The information required for an in-text citation to support a paraphrase is the author and the year of publication.  Page numbers are not required, but can be included to assist the reader to locate the information in a long or complex work, such as a book. The information can be presented in the parenthetical or narrative format (see below).

In-text citations can take one of two forms:

 

Parenthetical citation: (Author, year, p. x)

For single or two authors, always cite all authors

(Zepke, 2017, p. 55)

(Fredricks & McCloskey, 2012, p. 779)

For three or more authors, use the first name followed by et al. for all citations

(Carpenter et al., 2015, p. 290)

 

Narrative citations: Author (year, p. x)

For single or two authors, always cite all authors

Zepke (2017, p. 55)

Fredricks and McCloskey (2012, p. 764)

For three or more authors, use the first name followed by et al. for all citations

Carpenter et al. (2015, p. 290)

 

Multiple authors and the use of 'et al.':

For single or two authors, always cite all authors, for example:

Zepke (2017, p. 55)

(Marland & Dearlove, 2015)

 

For three or more authors, use the first name followed by et al. for all citations

Carpenter et al. (2015, p. 290)

(Carpenter et al., 2015, p. 290)

 

Secondary sources:

(Original author, year, as cited in Current Author, year, p. x) OR

Original author (year, as cited in Current Author, year, p. x)

(Bushe, 2013, as cited in Zepke, 2017, p. 39) OR

Bushe (2013, as cited in Zepke, 2017, p. 39)

 

Multiple sources:

List in alphabetical order

(Adam et al., 2018; Carpenter et al., 2015; Zepke, 2017)

If you want to give emphasis to some authors over other authors, separate the sources so that the emphasised source/s appear first and the remainder follow the words ‘see also’.

(Giddens, 1991; see also Archer, 2003, 2007)

 

Multiple works by the same author published in different years:

(Archer, 2003, 2007, 2012)

 

Multiple works by the same author published in the same year:

For multiple works by the same author published in the same year, use letters in the in-text citations and in the reference list entries to indicate the different sources eg

Hammond, 2020a

Hammond, 2020b

Hammond, 2020c

 

Unknown or anonymous authors:

Authors are sometimes not identified or they are identified as 'Anonymous'.

When the author is identified as 'Anonymous', Anonymous takes the place of the author's name in the in-text citation and in the reference list for example:

(Anonymous, 2020)

When the author is not identified at all, include the title and the year of publication in the in-text citation.  If the title is long, shorten it for the in-text citation. If the title is italicised in the reference list, italicise it in the in-text citation, for example:

(Interpersonal Skills, 2020)

If the title is not italicised in the reference list, use quotation marks in the in-text citation, for example:

("Interpersonal Skills," 2020) 

 

 

A company, organisation or government body as author:

Government bodies (such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics or the Department of Education and Training) are often the official "author" of the works they publish.  Companies and organisations are usually the authors of their own web pages.

 

Provide the company's name in full for the first mention and provide an acronym immediately following this in parentheses or square brackets (see examples below for usage).  All subsequent mentions can use the acronym. 

 

For example, the first mention:

The American Psychological Association (APA)  (2012) noted that...

The consumer price index is collated by using around a million pricing structures (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2018).

 

For example, subsequent mentions:

As noted by the APA (2012)...

New weights were used to maximise transaction data (ABS, 2018).

 

NOTE: the reference list entry  requires the organisation's or company's name in full, unless the acronym is generally known as the organisation of company's title eg  CSIRO.  The safest option is to provide the name in full.

Cases or court decisions:

(Name v. Name, year)  OR Name v. Name (year)

Note: The title or names are italicised in the in-text citation, but not in the reference list

 

Audiovisual media:

Media Type	Include as Author
Film	Director
TV Series	Executive producer(s)
TV Series episode	Writer and director of episode
Podcast	Host or executive producer
Podcast episode	Host of episode
Webinar	Instructor
Classical music album or song	Composer
Modern music album or song	Recording artist
Artwork	Artist
Online streaming video	Person or group who uploaded the video
Photograph	Photographer