APA citation style is a common method of citing sources in the fields of psychology, education, and social sciences. The guidelines for the APA citation style while writing a research project have been published by the APA in the APA handbook.
There are two main types of in-text citation in the APA format: parenthetical and narrative. The last name of the author and the year of publication are included in parentheses at the end of the sentence. It is vital to understand that the rate at which non-renewable sources are being depleted is more than the rate at which they are produced.
It will usually request vital details about a source -- like the authors, title, and publish date -- and will output these details with the correct punctuation and layout required by the official APA style guide.
Scribbr also offers free guides for the older APA 6th edition, MLA Style, and Chicago Style. In-text citations are brief references in the running text that direct readers to the reference entry at the end of the paper. You include them every time you quote or paraphrase someone else’s ideas or words.
APA Style provides guidelines to help writers determine the appropriate level of citation and how to avoid plagiarism and self-plagiarism.
In scholarly writing, it is essential to acknowledge how others contributed to your work. By following the principles of proper citation, writers ensure that readers understand their contribution in the context of the existing literature—how they are building on, critically examining, or otherwise engaging the work that has come before.
APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005). For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: (Field, 2005, p. 14). For sources such as websites and e-books that have no page numbers, use a paragraph number, for example: (Field, 2005, para. 1). More information on direct quotation of sources without pagination is given on the APA Style and Grammar Guidelines web page.
Include an in-text citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. For every in-text citation in your paper, there must be a corresponding entry in your reference list.
Gass and Varonis (1984) found that “the listener’s familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (p. 85).
Keep in mind that the author may be an organization rather than a person. For sources with no author, use the title in place of an author.
Note: When using multiple authors' names as part of your narrative, rather than in parentheses, always spell out the word and. For multiple authors' names within a parenthetic citation, use &.
One study found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic (Gass & Varonis, 1984).
When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998). One complete reference for each source should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
Regardless of how they are referenced, all sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
If you do not include the author’s name in the text of the sentence, place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation .
On the other hand, if you are directly quoting or borrowing from another work, you should include the page number at the end of the parenthetical citation. Use the abbreviation “p.” (for one page) or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing the page number (s). Use an en dash for page ranges. For example, you might write (Jones, 1998, p. 199) or (Jones, 1998, pp. 199–201). This information is reiterated below.
You can introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.
Note: On pages 117-118, the Publication Manual suggests that authors of research papers should use the past tense or present perfect tense for signal phrases that occur in the literature review and procedure descriptions (for example, Jones (1998) found or Jones (1998) has found ...). Contexts other than traditionally-structured research writing may permit the simple present tense (for example, Jones (1998) finds ).
Note: This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style can be found here.
APA Style is widely used by students, researchers, and professionals in the social and behavioral sciences. The Scribbr APA Citation Generator automatically generates accurate references and in-text citations for free. This citation guide outlines the most important citation guidelines from the 7th edition APA Publication Manual (2020).
The in-text citation can take two forms: parenthetical and narrative. Both types are generated automatically when citing a source with Scribbr’s APA Citation Generator.
Citation Checker: Upload your paper and have artificial intelligence check your citations for errors and inconsistencies.
APA references generally include information about the author, publication date, title, and source. Depending on the type of source, you may have to include extra information that helps your reader locate the source.
On the reference page, you list all the sources that you’ve cited throughout your paper. Place the page, right after the main body and before any appendices.
An in-text citation consists of the author’s last name and the year of publication (also known as the author-date system). If you’re citing a specific part of a source, you should also include a locator such as a page number or timestamp.
An APA citation generator is a software tool that will automatically format academic citations in the American Psychological Association (APA) style.
Before college, in middle and high school, MLA style is more likely to be used. In other parts of the world styles such as Harvard (UK and Australia) and DIN 1505 (Europe) are used more often.
Our APA generator was built with a focus on simplicity and speed. To generate a formatted reference list or bibliography just follow these steps: 1 Start by searching for the source you want to cite in the search box at the top of the page. 2 MyBib will automatically locate all the required information. If any is missing you can add it yourself. 3 Your citation will be generated correctly with the information provided and added to your bibliography. 4 Repeat for each citation, then download the formatted list and append it to the end of your paper. 5 Done!
In academia, bibliographies are graded on their accuracy against the official APA rulebook, so it is important for students to ensure their citations are formatted correctly.
Formatted citations created by a generator can be copied into the bibliography of an academic paper as a way to give credit to the sources referenced in the main body of the paper.
Like almost every other citation style, APA style can be cryptic and hard to understand when formatting citations. Citations can take an unreasonable amount of time to format manually, and it is easy to accidentally include errors.
APA in-text citations. APA in-text citations are included in the paper to provide details about the source included in the paper to the reader. APA stands for American Psychological Association. APA citation style is a common method of citing sources in the field of psychology, education, and social sciences.
If multiple sources are made by the same author, the format to be used for citation is: (Last name, Publication year of source 1) (Last name, Publication year of source 2)
In-text citations are included in the paper to provide details about the source included in the paper to the reader. It is vital that the readers are provided with the details of the source as it allows them to gain an insight into the source and also analyze the source if required.
Quotes can be included in the paper by citing the text, the name of the author, the year the statement was made or written, and the page or pages the statement is from.
On the other hand, the reference list is a detailed description of the sources included in the paper. It provides the reader with a sequential list of sources arranged alphabetically.
The source is written by two authors.
The citation of the sources can be included either at the end of the sentence or at the beginning of the sentence depending upon the type of in-text citation being used, i.e. narrative or parentheses.