APA 7 In-Text Citations: Rules, Examples, and Exceptions

# APA 7 In-Text Citations: Rules, Examples, and Exceptions

APA 7 in-text citations use an author–date system: whenever you quote or paraphrase a source, you give the author's surname and the year of publication, either in parentheses, as in (Okafor, 2020), or as part of your sentence with the year in parentheses, as in Okafor (2020). A work with one or two authors gets every name in every citation. A work with three or more authors gets only the first author plus "et al.," starting with the first citation. Direct quotations also need a page number, and every in-text citation must point to a matching entry in your reference list (American Psychological Association [APA], 2019, 2022a, 2022d).

All names in the examples below are made up for illustration. They are not APA's own examples.

The two forms: parenthetical and narrative

APA uses a short in-text citation that points the reader to the full entry in the reference list. Paraphrases need a citation just as quotations do (APA, 2022a).

• Parenthetical citation: the author and the year both go in parentheses, separated by a comma.Peer tutoring improved first-year retention (Okafor, 2020).
• Narrative citation: the author's name is part of your sentence, and the year follows in parentheses.Okafor (2020) found that peer tutoring improved first-year retention.

Some details from the same page (APA, 2022e):

• If other text sits inside the parentheses with the citation, put commas around the year: (see Okafor, 2020, for a review).
• If you combine text and a citation in one set of parentheses, separate them with a semicolon, and never put parentheses inside parentheses: (e.g., peer tutoring; Okafor, 2020).
• If both the author and the year are in your sentence, drop the parentheses: In 2020, Okafor argued that tutoring matters.

Use only the year in the citation, even when the reference list entry has a fuller date. Use "in press" for work that has been accepted but not yet published (APA, 2019).

How many author names to write

The basic rule depends on how many authors the work has (APA, 2019):

Use an ampersand (&) inside parentheses and spell out "and" in narrative citations. With three or more authors, "et al." applies in every citation, including the first one. Leave suffixes such as "Jr." out of in-text citations (APA, 2019).

Exceptions

Two works shorten to the same "et al." form. Imagine two 2021 articles, one by Brandt, Ochoa, Reyes, Lin, and Park and the other by Brandt, Ochoa, Sato, Lin, and Park. Both would become "Brandt et al. (2021)." In that case, write out as many names as you need to tell them apart, and shorten the rest to "et al." in every citation (APA, 2020b): Brandt, Ochoa, Reyes, et al. (2021) and Brandt, Ochoa, Sato, et al. (2021).

Only the last author differs. "Et al." is plural ("and others"), so it can't stand for just one person (APA, 2020b). If the works are Hale, Mori, and Quint (2019) and Hale, Mori, and Ruiz (2019), spell out all the names in every citation: (Hale, Mori, & Quint, 2019). When all the names have to appear in a parenthetical citation, the ampersand goes before the last one (APA, 2019).

First authors share a surname. If the first authors of different references have the same surname but different initials, add their initials in every in-text citation, even if the years differ (APA, 2020a): (A. Novak & Field, 2016; R. Novak, 2020).

Group authors and abbreviations

An organization can be the author. If you plan to abbreviate its name, write the full name the first time and introduce the abbreviation, then use only the abbreviation after that (APA, 2019):

• First citation: (Northern Coast Water Authority [NCWA], 2023) or Northern Coast Water Authority (NCWA, 2023)
• Later citations: (NCWA, 2023) or NCWA (2023)

Define the abbreviation only once, in either the parenthetical or the narrative form, and use it for every later mention. A group without an abbreviation is written in full every time: (Riverside College, 2021).

No date: n.d.

If a work has no date, write "n.d." where the year would go: (Halvorsen, n.d.) or Halvorsen (n.d.) (APA, 2019).

Same author, same year: 2018a, 2018b

If several references have the same author or authors and the same year, add a lowercase letter after the year. You assign the letters when you put those references in order in the reference list, alphabetically by title. Use the same year–letter combination in the in-text citation and in the reference list entry (APA, 2020c):

• (Petrov & Hale, 2018a) and Petrov and Hale (2018b)
• Undated works get letters too: (Halvorsen, n.d.-a, n.d.-b)

Several works in one set of parentheses

When you cite several works in one set of parentheses, put them in alphabetical order and separate them with semicolons (APA, 2022b): (Dunmore, 2017; Farrow & Ito, 2021; Kessler et al., 2019)

For several works by the same author, write the name once and then list only the dates: undated works first, then dated works from oldest to newest, with in-press works last: (Varga, n.d., 2015, 2020a, 2020b, in press)

To put the most relevant work first, cite it, add a semicolon and a phrase such as "see also," and then list the rest in alphabetical order: (Pryce, 2022; see also Abbott, 2016; Lowe et al., 2019)

When you name several sources in your sentence (narrative citations), they can go in any order (APA, 2022b).

Page numbers for quotations

For a direct quotation, always give the author, the year, and the page number, in both parenthetical and narrative citations (APA, 2022d):

• One page: "p." (e.g., p. 112)
• A range: "pp." with an en dash (e.g., pp. 112–114)
• Pages that aren't consecutive: separate them with a comma (e.g., pp. 67, 72)

The page information goes after the author and year, separated by a comma (APA, 2022c): The archive was described as "a record of what went unsaid" (Ndiaye, 2019, p. 112).

If the source has no page numbers, give the reader another way to find the quotation. For example, give a paragraph number (count the paragraphs yourself if they aren't numbered), or a time stamp for audiovisual work, as in (Ferreira, 2021, 3:45). Don't use Kindle location numbers (APA, 2020d). When you cite a specific part of a work, cite the whole work in the reference list, not the part (APA, 2022c).

APA Style doesn't use "ibid." (APA, 2019).

Secondary sources

APA says to cite secondary sources "sparingly," for example when the original is out of print, unavailable, or in a language you can't read. Good practice is to find the primary source, read it, and cite it directly (APA, 2022f). If you can't, name the original work and add "as cited in" with the source you actually read. Include the original's year if you know it: (Marchetti, 1968, as cited in Osei & Brandt, 2021)

Only the source you read (Osei & Brandt, 2021) goes in the reference list (APA, 2022f).

Every citation must match the reference list

Every work you cite must appear in the reference list, and every entry in the list must be cited in the text (or in a table, figure, footnote, or appendix). Author names must be spelled the same way in both places, and the dates must match (APA, 2019, 2022a).

The in-text side is up to you, but the reference list can be checked against scholarly databases. In PerfectRefs, you paste your reference list. The Existence check looks up each reference in Crossref, OpenAlex, and other scholarly databases and flags any it can't find. It comes with a free daily allowance. The Style check compares authors, title, journal, year, volume/issue/pages, and DOI field by field with the database record. It shows the record's values with a link to the source, lets you accept a fix with one click, and outputs the list in APA 7. It uses premium credits (2 per reference), and new accounts get 10 premium credits. PerfectRefs checks the reference list only. It doesn't check in-text citations, so make sure the names and years in your text match the corrected list.

FAQ

How do I cite two authors in APA 7?

Give both names every time. Use "&" in parentheses, (Lindqvist & Moreau, 2021), and "and" in narrative citations, Lindqvist and Moreau (2021) (APA, 2019).

How do I cite a source with no date?

Use "n.d." in place of the year: (Halvorsen, n.d.). If the same author has several undated works, add letters: n.d.-a, n.d.-b (APA, 2019, 2020c).

How do I cite something I found quoted in another book or article?

Use "as cited in": (Marchetti, 1968, as cited in Osei & Brandt, 2021). List only the work you actually read in your reference list (APA, 2022f).