APA Style (7th ed.): Citation Guide

Citing Sources in APA

There are two parts to APA citations:

1. in-text citations or parenthetical citations
2. References page citations

In order to be correctly citing your sources, you have to make sure to include both parts in your project.

In-text Citations

• brief citations to get your reader to the References page where they can find out more
• appear within the body of your work directly following the information
• tell the reader what part of an article or book or website that you used (page numbers, video time stamps, etc) if you are directly quoting from a source

 

Basic In-text Citation

If paraphrasing, or putting it into your own words, you don't need to include the page numbers.

(Author, Date)

Example

 

 

Other variations:

	In-text Citation	Example
Author's name used in sentence in paper	Include the date in parentheses immediate following the author's name	According to John Smith (2021), cats are....
Two authors	(Author & Author, Date)	(Hopwood & Hoya, 2018).
Three or more authors - just include the first author's last name and "et al."	(Author et al., Date)	(Garfield et al., 2022).
Group author	(Group Author, Date)	(Stanford University, 2023).
Group author with abbreviation	In first citation, write out the name and put the abbreviation in brackets. For any additional citations, just use the abbreviation.	First Citation: (Center for Disease Control [CDC], 2020). Additional Citations: (CDC, 2020).
Unknown author - use title and shorten if long	("Title of article", Date). (Title of Book, Date).	("Ice cream enthusiasts," 2019). (Beowulf, 1999).
Unknown date	use the abbreviation n.d.	(Homer, n.d.)

 

Direct Quotations or Citing a Particular Part of a Work:

If quoting, or using something word for word from a source, you need to add the page numbers (or similar information about the part of the work used) to the in-text citation.

(Author, Date, pages)

For a single page, use the abbreviation p.

For more than one page, use the abbreviation pp.

Example- Direct Quote:

 

If the work doesn't have any page numbers, you can either cite the paragraph number or provide a heading or section name, whichever makes it easier for the reader to find the quotation.

Example- Direct Quote:

References List

• full citations for every work referenced in your paper
• cites the entire book, article, video, etc
• includes information about the source itself and where it can be located

For examples of all of the different types of Reference List entries, see APA Citation Examples

 

Elements of an APA Citation

APA uses four major elements or components that make up the citation.

Author, Date, Title, and Source

 

Author(s)

Who is responsible for the work?

In APA, never write out a first name. Instead, use the authors initials.

One Author	LastName, Initial.	Allende, I.
Two Authors	LastName, Initial, & Last Name, Initial	Pratchett, T., & Gaiman, N.
3 to 20 Authors	Use the ampersand before the last author's name. Include all authors up to 20 in reference entries. LastName, Initial, LastName, Initial, LastName, Initial, LastName, Initial, LastName, Initial, LastName, Initial, LastName, Initial, & LastName, Initial.	Lennon, J., McCartney, P., Harrison, G., & Starr, R.
21 or more Authors	Include the first 19 authors' names, insert an ellipsis (but no ampersand), and then add the final author's name.
Group Author	Group name.	National Institute of Mental Health.
No author	If there is no author, skip the author field and move the title before the date element.

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Date

When was the work published?

Immediately follows the author inside of parentheses, followed by a period.

Use more specific dates for works that are published more frequently.

Include the year first, then the month and day or season.

Examples:

(2021).

(2020, Spring).

(2005, May 25).

 

If the date is unknown, use the abbreviation n.d. to stand for "no date"

Example:

(n.d.)

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Title

What is the work called?

Titles fall into two categories: Works that stand alone (book, report, videos, journals, etc) and Works that are part of a greater whole (articles, edited book chapters, podcase episodes, etc).,

 

Works that are part of a greater whole

Do not italicize or use quotation marks around the title. Just write it out.

Use regular sentence case. (Only capitalize the first word and any proper nouns like you would in a standard sentence.)

Example: The ice cream tastes of today's academics.

Works that stand alone

Italicize the title.

Use regular sentence case. (Only capitalize the first word and any proper nouns like you would in a standard sentence.)

If additional information is given with the title to help retrieve it, include it in parentheses following the title.(ex- edition, volume number) but do not italicize it.

Example: Nursing: A concept based approach to learning (2nd ed., Vol. 1).

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Source

Where can I retrieve the work?

The information needed to describe the source varies by format and information type. See the APA Examples for more details.

Periodical Sources

Include the periodical title, volume number, issue number and page range for the article being cited.

Capitalize the title of the periodical using Title Case. (Example: Journal of Ice Cream Research)

Italicize the volume number.

Issue number is not italicized and goes in parentheses.

Use a DOI whenever available. If not, then use a url.

Database Sources

When citing works available and accessed through library databases, you don't need to include information about the database.