The APA style is an author-date style used for citing and referencing information in assignments and publications. In addition to the specific information provided on the tabs above on how to reference particular sources there are some overall style rules you need to follow, which are detailed below.
The APA style is an author-date style used for citing and referencing information in assignments and publications. In addition to the specific information provided on the tabs above on how to reference particular sources there are some overall style rules you need to follow, which are detailed below.
Use and between the two author names within the narrative when referencing a work by two authors, while an ampersand–&–is used inside parentheses.
Use and within the sentence.
Use an ampersand in the parentheses.
According to the APA Publication Manual (2020):
When quoting material that contains embedded citations, include the citations within the quotation. Do not include these works in the reference list unless you cite them as primary sources elsewhere in your paper. (p. 276)
APA. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association (APA).
You may want to cite an author who is cited within the work you are reading, e.g. if Kemmis quotes Young in his journal article and you want to refer to the idea from Young. It is not necessary to find the original source, i.e. the book that Young wrote, to use as your reference. Put the source you read in your reference list and refer to the cited author in your in-text reference in the following way.
Example:
Example:
Kanner, the researcher who originally described classic autism, used the term "fragmentary processing" (Kanner, 1943, cited in Happe, 1994, p. 127).
Reference List
Happe, F. (1994). Autism: An introduction to psychological theory. Psychological Press.
Write the in-text citation immediately after the author's surname when writing the author's name in the sentence (narrative citation).
Example:
When not using the author's name in the sentence put the citation at the end of the sentence (parenthetical citation).
Example:
For quotations within the sentence structure, put the in-text citation with the page number immediately after the end of the quote (parenthetical citation).
Example:
Where the author name and citation has been used earlier in the sentence, use the page number only as the citation after the quote (narrative citation).
Example:
When there are multiple authors for one work, the number of authors determines the way that the work is cited in-text. "For a work with one or two authors, include the author name(s) in every citation ... For a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus 'et al.' in every citation, including the first citation" (APA, 2020, p. 266).
In-text reference
Two authors (narrative):
Three or more authors (narrative)--Use for all in-text citations, including the first citation:
Reference List Examples
The full reference for the above examples of citations with multiple authors is shown below.
For a text with two authors, list both author names with an ampersand [&] between, and a comma after each surname and before the ampersand.
For a text with three or more authors (up to 20), list all authors with an ampersand [&] before the last author name, and a comma after each surname and between authors.
Reference List for this Section
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).
References by the same author(s) with the same publication date are arranged alphabetically by title (excluding A or The). Place lowercase letters--a, b, c, and so forth--immediately after the year, within the parentheses.
Baheti, J. R. (2001a). Control ...
Baheti, J. R. (2001b). Roles of ...
Once you know the order of the reference list (by title) use the publication year with the lower-case letter for in-text citations, e.g. (Baheti, 2001b).
(American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 303-306)
There can be times in your research when you have read the same idea from different authors in different sources. When including multiple works in an in-text reference, order them alphabetically according to the first author's surname and separating each citation with a semi-colon.
Example:
When inserting more than one biblical and non-biblical references at the same point, use the same set of parentheses. List the Bible references first, in biblical order, and then the author references, in alphabetical order. Use a semi-colon to separate each reference.
There are two types of in-text citations, narrative and parenthetical. In a narrative citation, the author's (or authors') surname is written within the sentence structure, maintaining the sentence grammar. The publication year is written immediately after the author name.
In the example above, the author names are written within the sentence grammar and the publication year is written immediately after the name(s). In the example below, the author names are written in parentheses after the idea they refer to. Often, depending on the length and complexity of the the sentence, the most appropriate place is the end of the sentence.
See also Location of in-text citations
To paraphrase is to write about an author's idea in your own words. In APA, paraphrasing is preferred: direct quotations should be used sparingly. Provide the in-text citation for the work you are paraphrasing. Page numbers in in-text citations are optional when you paraphrase. (Note: Page numbers are required for direct quotations.)
Quotations are used sparingly. Paraphrasing is preferred: comprehensive referencing enables readers to check the sources for themselves. However, sometimes the meaning cannot be rendered through paraphrasing, as when reporting research participants' interview answers.
When using direct quotations in your assignment, include page numbers for every quotation.
Quotations are formatted in two ways, based on the length of the quotation. If the quote is under 40 words, place double quotation marks around the words, preserve the sentence grammar and punctuation, and include the in-text citation within the sentence punctuation.
Example:
If the quotation is 40 words or longer, the quote is formatted as an indented block paragraph. Start the quote indented on a new line, without double quotation marks. Place the in-text citation, including page numbers, at the end of the quotation and after the end of the sentence punctuation.
Parenthetical citation example:
Students explained that they read dystopian novels because the novels helped them to see what is necessary to create a better, fairer world. One student stated that:
Authors take a wrongness in the world and exaggerate it and show what could happen if things continued in that way – and it would be a disservice to the author if you don’t try to understand that problem and where it came from and what you could do about it. (Wilhelm, 2015, p. 18)
If the author name has been used in the text of the sentence (a narrative citation), the year appears immediately after the author name and the page number appears separately after the quotation.
Narrative citation example:
If there are no page numbers, such as on a website, replace page numbers with paragraph numbers, using the abbreviation 'para.'
Example:
The advice given in the APA Publication Manual on when to cite includes the following:
Cite the work of those individuals whose ideas, theories, or research have directly influenced your work. The works you cite provide key background information, support or dispute your thesis, or offer critical definitions and data. Cite only works that you have read and ideas that you have incorporated into your writing. (p. 253)
APA. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association (APA).
Abbreviating a title is particularly relevant when referring to the Bible frequently, using a version with a long title and sometimes a sub-title. In the examples below, check the copyright page of the version you are referring to and insert your Bible's details. For more information about referencing the Bible, see How to reference the Bible.
The Bible is cited as though it is a book with no author. The title is used in the place of the author.
The examples below demonstrate the abbreviation of an organisational name used as a group author.
After the use of the full name followed by the abbreviation in the first citation, the abbreviation "APA" can be used in following in-text citations. Use square brackets inside parentheses.
More information -- How to reference the Bible
More information -- Group author
Websites and some ebook formats do not have page numbers. If page numbers exist, use them in the same way as for a print book. If a page number is not given, use headings and paragraph numbers in place of the page number.
In this example, "Center on the Developing Child" is the group author of the website, the title of the web page is "InBrief: Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning" and the quotation is taken from the first paragraph.
In-text reference (Block quotation)
Being able to focus, hold, and work with information in mind, filter distractions, and switch gears is like having an air traffic control system at a busy airport to manage the arrivals and departures of dozens of planes on multiple runways. In the brain, this air traffic control mechanism is called executive functioning, a group of skills that helps us to focus on multiple streams of information at the same time, and revise plans as necessary. (Center on the Developing Child, InBrief: Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning, para. 1)
Reference list
Center on the Developing Child. (2018). A guide to executive function. Harvard University. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-executive-function-skills-for-life-and-learning/
In this example, the in-text and full reference together show that Gosbell is the chapter author, the book is an edited collection, and the section quoted is paragraph 3 of the third section of Chapter 23. The section heading is "Universal Design for Learning." In the full reference, the page numbers for Chapter 23 were taken from the book's Table of Contents.
In-text reference (Short quotation)
"It was the principles associated with Universal Design in the built environment that led to the development of UDL in education" (Gosbell, 2021, 23.3 Universal Design for Learning, para. 3).
Reference list
Gosbell, L. (2021). Universal Design for Learning in Christian higher education: Inclusive practices for students with and without disability. In J. M. Luetz & B. Green (Eds.), Innovating Christian education research: Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 423-443). Springer. http://search.ebscohost.com/
To reference a quotation taken from the introductory pages of a work before the first chapter (e.g., foreword, preface, acknowledgement, introduction) by the book authors, use the page numbering provided and cite as you would the body of the work. The page numbers are sometimes given as Roman numerals.
In-text citation
Reference list
If the foreword was written by a different author, include the author's name in the in-text citation when quoting the foreword. If the work is a new edition with a different foreword, include the original year of publication. (Do not include the foreword author in the citation when referring to the body of the book; cite the book authors only.)
In-text citation
In this example, the book author is Palmer; it is a new edition with a new foreword by Walsh; the original edition was published in 1998 and the new edition in 2017; and, Roman numerals have been used for the foreword page numbers to distinguish the front pages from the body of the book.
Reference list
More information
Example on the APA website (scroll down to section 4)
The APA publication manual describes a footnote as "a brief note that provides additional content or copyright attribution" (APA, 2020, p. 40).
In APA style, footnotes are not used for citations. This is in contrast to some referencing systems that use footnoted citations instead of in-text citations. All citations in APA referencing are included as in-text citations.
Footnotes in APA style should be used sparingly, only when the inclusion of the content in the main text is distracting or disruptive to the flow of the text, and then to convey just one supplemental piece of information concisely.