Subject and Research Guides: APA 7th Referencing: In-text citations

Acknowledgement

This guide is based on the University of Queensland's APA7th Referencing style guide and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

In-text citations

A brief in-text citation is generally all that is needed: the family name of the author(s) and the year of publication.
- Parenthetical in-text citations include the author's family name and year of publication within parenthesis (Thompson, 2018).
- Narrative in-text citations include the author's family name in the sentence and the year of publication follows in parenthesis "Thompson (2018) has argued that ......."
The in-text citation appears within the body of the paper where the information has been referred to – whether that is within the main body of the text or a table, figure, footnote or appendix. This allows readers to find the corresponding entry in the alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper that will contain the full details of the source.
Each source cited in-text must appear in the reference list, and each source in the reference list must appear in-text (or in a table, figure, footnote, or appendix).

Please refer to Author information for detailed advice.

If you have two or more works by different authors

List works alphabetically (as they appear in the reference list)
Separate references with a semicolon ; e.g. (Noble et al., 2015; Walker, 2011) OR Noble et al. (2015) and Walker (2011) stated that ...

If you have two or more works by same author(s)

Order references by year of publication
Put n.d. (no date) references first
Put "in press" references last
Only use the author family name or groups name once then list the years
e.g. (Lewis, n.d., 2012, 2015, 2016, in press) OR (Education Queensland, 2011, 2013) OR (Education Queensland, 2011; Lewis, 2012, 2015, 2016, in press)

The publication year is all that is required. The year appears after the author's family name.
- E.g. (Cleary, 2019) or "Thompson (2018) argues that ..."
If the month is provided in the publication details do not include it.
If there is no date, the abbreviation n.d. may be used.
- E.g. (Harris, n.d.)
If the author(s) have published several works with no date, use the letter corresponding to the entry in the reference list
- E.g. (Harris, n.d.-a)
If work is not yet published, use in press.
- E.g. (Taylor, in press).

It is sometimes helpful to your reader to be specific about what part of the work contains the relevant information, e.g. page numbers (Cleary, 2019, p.16) or (Cleary, 2019, pp.16-18).
When including quotes in-text you should include the specific part of the source that the quote comes from.
Tables, chapters, paragraphs or figures can also be helpful, e.g. (Cleary, 2019, Table 3).

For works without a page number, you can add:

paragraph number (manually count if not listed), e.g. (Kennedy, 2019, para.8)
heading or section name, e.g. (Harris, 2018, Behaviour Therapy section)
act, scene and line(s) for plays, e.g. (Wilde, 1895/1997, 1.1.6-8) (means Act 1.Scene 1.Line(s) 6-8)
canonically numbered sections for religious or classical works, e.g. (Genesis 15:6) (include book, chapter, verse, line or canto in place of page number)

For a fuller list of examples see APA Style Citing Specific Parts of a Source

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Quotes

A direct quotation reproduces word-for-word material taken directly from another author’s work, or from your own previously published work.
If the quotation is fewer than 40 words, incorporate it into your sentences and paragraphs, and enclose it in double quotation marks ("...").
Include the author, year, and specific page number for that quotation. Place a comma after the year and use p. for single page, pp. for multiple pages
Place the citation directly after the quotation.
For material without page numbers, give the paragraph number or a time stamp.
Include a complete reference in the reference list.

Examples

David Copperfield starts with "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show" (Dickens, 1869, p. 1/1998, p. 1).

(Smith, 2003, p. 105) OR Smith (2003) has argued that "......" (p. 105)

(Brown, 1999, pp. 49-50) OR As Brown (1999) found "......" (pp. 49-50)

If the quotation comprises 40 or more words, include it in an indented, freestanding block of text, without quotation marks. Make it double spaced. For example:

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously. (Dickens, 1896, p. 1/1998, p. 1)

Note that a page number is required. Place a comma after the year and use p. for single page, pp. for multiple pages.

Add a time stamp in place of a page number when quoting from audiovisual works such as videos, songs, TV shows.

Example

(Yates, 2019, 1:14)

(Henderson, 2017, 2:30:14)

(Anderson, 2019, 2:17) OR Anderson (2019) noted that "...." (2:17)