APA Citation Examples : In-Text Citations

There are times when you will refer to a work but not use a quote. When you refer to another source's work, you have to cite the author and year the work came from.

Example:

Plagiarism is generally treated as a serious academic offense at most universities (Johnson, 2003).

or:

Johnson in his work points out that plagiarism is treated as a serious academic offense at most universities (2003).

Other times, you may decide that using a quote from your source will be useful for your paper. In this case, besides the author and year of publication, if applicable you will need to add the page number.

Example:

According to Johnson (2003), "Universities treat plagiarism very seriously and may expel students as a result" (p. 32).

If the author is not mentioned before the quote, use this format:

As this plagiarism expert states, "Universities treat plagiarism very seriously and may expel students as a result" (Johnson, 2003, p. 32).

For sources that do not use page numbers, cite the paragraph the quote came from.

Example:

According to Anderson (2012), "Research begins by first brainstroming what you want to write your paper on" (para. 3).

For citing longer quotations (40 words or more), you will want to omit quotation marks and create a freestanding block. In this case, start the quotation on a new line, indent 1/2 inch from left margin and keep double spaced.

Example:

In Johnson’s (2003) book on plagiarism, he states:

                Universities treat plagiarism as a very serious offense

                and may expel students as a result. As such, it is important

                for librarians and professors alike to make sure students

                learn how to cite sources properly and credit the authors

                of the works they use. (p. 32)

Unknown Author/Date: Sometimes sources will not provide an author or date. When citing, include the title of the work or shorter version of it, and n.d. for no date.

Example:

In a study of how students researched, it was found those who started their projects early ended up creating higher quality papers ("Research Habits," n.d.).

Two Authors: Within the sentence use the word "and" in between the authors and in the citation use "&".

Examples:

James and Jones (2001) found that college students who did not sleep enough had lower grades

(James & Jones, 2001)

Three to Five Authors: In the first reference, use all authors when citing. For later references to the same work, just use the first author followed by "et al."

Examples:

First Citation: (Donalds, Wilson, Brown, Smith, & Alexander, 1998)

Citations after first: (Donalds et al., 1998)

Six or more authors:

Use the first author and "et al." for all references

Example:

(Miller et al., 2013)

Work Discussed in Secondary Source:

When discussing a work found in a secondary source, first mention the work discussed and in parentheses mention the secondary work "as cited in"

Example:

According to Lewis's study (as cited in Wilson, 2001), business students were more likely to use the APA format in writing papers.