Page numbers are only required for direct quotations in the in-text citation. They follow the author and date in bracketed format separated by commas - e.g. (Cottrell, 2013, p.15).
Use the abbreviations p. for a single page and pp. for pages with a space before the number. List the page numbers completely, for example pp.176-179 instead of pp.176-9.
Do not include page numbers in the in-text citation when summarising or paraphrasing - only the author and the date are required.
Websites
If you are referring to an entire website and not citing specific content, then you do not need to provide an in-text citation or reference list entry. Instead, provide the name of the website in the text and the URL in brackets.
Similarly, common or well-known software or apps mentioned in text do not need to be referenced. Examples include Microsoft Office products, social media apps (e.g. Facebook), and survey or statistical software (e.g. SPSS). Instead give the name of the software or app in the text, along with the version number if applicable - e.g. IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 27). A reference list entry is not required.
Personal communication
As these are unrecoverable sources, they are cited in the text only - no reference list entry is required. Examples include personal interviews, emails, text messages, telephone conversations, online chats, unrecorded classroom lectures, etc. To cite them in text, provide the initial(s) and surname of the communicator and provide an exact date, e.g.:
C. Hill (personal communication, March 27, 2019)
(M. Zhang, personal communication, July 21, 2020)
The APA have produced a useful infographic which details the Six steps to proper citation.
All sources of information and data need to be cited in the text of your paper. These are called in-text citations and provide brief information about the source to enable readers to find complete information about the source in the alphabetical list of references that appears at the end of the document. Each work cited in the text must appear in the reference list and each work in the reference list must be cited in the text.
The APA style uses the author-date style in the text. Put the surname of the author followed by the year of publication at the appropriate point in brackets in the text, including page numbers for direct quotations. This is called a parenthetical citation as the author name and publication date appear in brackets - e.g.
Researchers need to skilfully disseminate their findings to enable continued progress for the replacement of questionable therapies (MacKillop et al., 2013).
If you use the author's name in the sentence, then you need only cite the year of publication in brackets (unless it is a direct quotation which also require page numbers) - e.g.
Kessler (2016) found that among epidemiological samples, early onset results in a more persistent and severe course.
This is called narrative citation and it is good academic practice to use both forms of in-text citation in your work
An in-text citation does not give full publication details, such as the title or publisher, this information should be in your reference list.
Use an ampersand (&) between authors in parenthetical citations, e.g. (Hatwal & Bernard, 2018). Use the word “and” between authors in narrative citations, e.g. Hatwal and Bernard (2018).
When a work has two authors, cite both names every time the reference occurs. When a work has three or more authors, cite the first author followed by the term et al. (Latin for ‘and others’) from the first citation. For example (Banner et al., 2017) or Banner et al. (2017). This is new to APA 7th.
Note: Use last names only unless there are different authors with the same last name; in this case, use the initials of the different authors in addition to the last name.
|
Author type |
Parenthetical citation |
Narrative citation |
|
One author |
(Joyce, 2020) |
Joyce (2020) |
|
Two authors |
(Flowers & Churchill, 2016) |
Flowers and Churchill (2016) |
|
Three or more authors |
(Rivers et al., 2018) |
Rivers et al. (2018) |
|
Group author with First citation
Subsequent citation |
(APA, 2017) |
APA (2017) |
|
Group author without abbreviation |
(University of Lincoln, 2015) |
University of Lincoln (2015) |
There are three ways to refer to the works of other authors:
• Paraphrasing
• Summarising
• Direct quotations
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing involves putting a short section of text into your own words. Although the words are you own, you are still using the ideas from the original text so you must acknowledge the source with an in-text citation. You do not need to include page numbers when paraphrasing - e.g.
Ogilvie et al. (2014) argue that security of attachment in offending populations decreases according to the severity and degree of psychopathology.
Summarising
Summarising gives a broad overview of an information source. It describes the main ideas in your own words. It is necessary to attribute summarised ideas to the original source with an in-text citation. You do not need to provide page numbers when summarising.
Direct quotations
Direct quotations should be used sparingly in academic writing. It is better to paraphrase or summarise what you have read.
If you do use a direct quotation, it must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author. For quotations of fewer than 40 words, use double quotation marks around the quotation. You must also include page numbers for the in-text citation for direct quotations.
For parenthetical citations, the in-text citation is placed immediately after the quotation - e.g.
"Piaget proposed that infants are born in a state of solipsism, meaning that they fail to distinguish between self and surroundings" (Mitchell & Ziegler, 2013, p. 52).
For narrative citations, include the author in the sentence with the date in brackets after the author. Put the page number in brackets immediately after the quotation - e.g.
Mitchell and Ziegler (2013) noted how "Piaget proposed that infants are born in a state of solipsism" (p. 52).
If a quotation is 40 words or more, do not use quotation marks. Instead, start the quotation on a new line and use a block format in which the quotation is indented 0.5 in from the left margin and double space the entire quotation. E.g.
Intimately linked with egocentrism is a profound inability to understand and apply principles to help understand the
world. The young child's grasp of things is intuitive and highly subjective, rather than logical and objective. Consequently,
the child's thinking is dominated by surface appearance and not by underlying principles. (Mitchell & Ziegler, 2013, p. 37).
This recording of a webinar by experts at APA Style discusses how to format in-text citations, appropriate level of citations and integrating source material into a paper.
