Skip to Main Content

APA7 Guide

Secondary sources

A secondary source is where you wish to cite information from one author – the primary source – that has been cited in another author’s work – the secondary source that you have access to. Effectively, this is when you wish to cite information that you have found in someone else’s citations.

It is best to try and track down the primary source yourself and cite it directly; however, this is often not possible. In these cases you need to cite it as a secondary source.

  • In the in-text citation, include both the original author and year and the author and year of the work where the quote/idea was found.
  • Add "as cited in" before the author in the in-text citation. For example: (Harris, 2009, as cited in Lewis, 2019).
  • In the reference list, provide the details of the work in which you found the quotation or idea – this is the secondary source. This should be cited according to whatever format the secondary source is in – as a book, a journal article, and so on. You can find specific guidance on formatting these citations in this guide

Paraphrase

Secondary sources should be formatted as below, with page number used where necessary.

Template:

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

OR

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

Example:

While the ZPD is often positioned as central to Vygotskyian thought, Vygotsky’s own writing devoted minimal attention to the concept (Smagorinsky, 2007, as cited in Howard & Walton, 2015).

OR

Smagorinsky (2007, as cited in Howard & Walton, 2015) noted that Vygotsky devoted minimal attention to the ZPD.

Direct Quote

Template:

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

OR

Original author (Year, as cited in Current Author, Year) – page number normally follows quote
Example:

While the ZPD is often positioned as central to Vygotskyian thought, Vygotsky’s own writing devoted just “a few sentences … on only a handful of pages” (Smagorinsky, 2007, as cited in Howard & Walton, 2015, p. 64) to the concept.

OR

Smagorinsky (2007, as cited in Howard & Walton, 2015) noted that Vygotsky devoted minimal attention to the ZPD, being restricted to “a few sentences … on only a handful of pages” (p. 64).

Reference List

  • In the Reference List you only need to record the book that you cited (see resources on books or journals for template)

Example:

Howard, S., & Walton, R. (2015). Educational psychology: Foundations of learning and development. David Barlow.