APA 7th Edition Guide: In-Text Citation

When you write for college, it's important to give credit to the people whose work you use. This is a key part of doing honest academic work. By carefully citing your sources, you show that you respect other people's ideas, strengthen your own arguments, and do your part as a member of the learning community. Always point out when you use someone else's exact words, ideas, or information.

For papers using APA style, you need to include brief citations right in the text. These short citations point to a full list of sources at the end of your paper. This 'References' list gives all the details for every source you mentioned. It's organized alphabetically and usually includes the author's name, the year it was published, the title, and where you found it. This helps readers find the original sources if they want to learn more.

Usually, when you mention a source in your paper, just including the author's last name and the year it came out is enough. But, if you copy someone's words exactly, you also need to add the page number to the citation in the text.

Author date citation system

• Every work cited in the text must appear in the reference list.

• Every work in the reference list must be cited in the text (unless it is a general mention of a work, or personal communications which are cited in-text only).

• Authors' names and publication dates should correspond exactly between the in-text citations and the reference list.

  • While the reference list may include the day, month, and year for some sources, the corresponding in-text citations should only include the year.

• Personal communications (sources that are not recoverable by the reader, such as emails, personal interviews, or unrecorded lectures) are cited in the text only and are not included in the reference list. This is because readers cannot retrieve them.
• Do not include authors' suffixes such as Jr.; only include the author's last name.
• The in-text citation publication year should match the publication year in the reference list.
• If a source has no date, use "n.d." (for "no date") to indicate this.

 ​Parenthetical and Narrative Citations

To allow the narrative of the paper to flow naturally, APA allows both parenthetical and narrative in-text citation styles.

Parenthetical In-Text Citation: The author's name and date of publication are placed within parentheses, separated by a comma. The parenthetical citation can appear within or at the end of a sentence. If it appears at the end of a sentence, the period should be placed after the closing parenthesis.

Examples: 

• (Author, 2020) [One author]
• (Author1 & Author2, n.d.) [Two authors; no date available]
• (Author et al., 2020) [Three or more authors]

Narrative In-Text Citation: The author's name appears as part of the sentence (the narrative), followed immediately by the date in parentheses.

The author appears in the text followed by the date in parenthesis. 

Example:

• Author (2020) found that... [One author]

• Author1 and Author2 (n.d.) discussed... [Two authors; no date available]

• Author et al. (2020) stated, "..." (p. 3) [Three or more authors, page numbers included for a direct quote].

Citing Group Authors

Sometimes, a group like an organization or a government agency writes something instead of a single person. When that happens, you use the group's name as the author.

When you mention a group that's usually known by its initials, it's best to spell out the full name the first time you use it. Right after the full name, put the initials in parentheses or brackets (see examples below). Then, after you've done that once, you can just use the groups initials for the rest of your paper. This way, you make sure everyone knows what the initials stand for at the beginning, but you can keep your writing smoother and more concise.

Examples

• Provide the full name of the group in the first mention, followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis or brackets if you intend to use it subsequently.

First in-text citation examples

First narrative in-text citation: Culinary Institute of America (CIA, 2025)

First parenthetical in-text citation: (Culinary Institute of America [CIA], 2025)​

Subsequent in-text citation examples

CIA (2025)  

(CIA, 2025) 

• Do not abbreviate the group author's name in the reference list; it should appear in full as it does in the first in-text citation.

Example: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2020, February 24). Katherine Johnson biography. https://www.nasa.gov/content/katherine-johnson-biography

• It is only necessary to introduce the abbreviation for a group author once, even when several references by the same group are used within the paper.

• Spell out the name of the group in full if two or more groups share the same acronym to avoid confusion.

Citing Multiple Works

Multiple works can be cited by placing the in-text citations within the same parentheses, alphabetized by the first author's last name, and separated by semicolons.

Example: (Jagger, 2020; Lamar & Frances, 2018; Prince, 2019; Trent, 2020)

Note: If several sources agree citing them together in one parenthetical set can demonstrate strong scholarly support and thereby strengthening your argument or claim.

Citing Multiple Works by the Same Author

When citing multiple works by the same author, organize the works by publication date, listing works with no date first (n.d.), followed by years in chronological order.  

Parenthetical Example: (Department of Education, n.d., 2018a, 2018b, 2020) [Works published within the same year should be differentiated with lowercase letters (a, b, c) after the year].

Narrative Example: Jagger (n.d., 2018, 2020)

Citing Works with the Same Author and Date of Publication

When citing more than one work with the exact same author(s) and the same publication year, add lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.) immediately after the year. These letters are assigned in the reference list by alphabetizing the titles of the works.

Examples:  

(Jagger & Janice, 2020a)

Jagger and Janice (2020b) found...

(Cohen, n.d.-a, n.d.-b)

Citing Authors with the Same Last Name

If the first authors of multiple different references share the same last name, include the first author's initials in all in-text citations to differentiate them, even if the publication years are different.

Example: (C. Taylor, 2020; R. Taylor, 2015)

Placing Emphasis on Works Within a Multiple Source In-Text Citation

If you want to highlight certain sources when you list several in parentheses, put those important ones at the beginning. Then, you can add a phrase like 'see also' before you list the rest of your sources in alphabetical order.

Parenthetical Example: (Jagger & Janice, 2020; see also Douglas et al., 2014; Gonzalez, 2017; Williams & Chung, 2016)

Narrative Example: Jagger and Janice (2020) presented key findings, and other studies (see also Douglas et al., 2014; Gonzalez, 2017; Williams & Chung, 2016) explored related themes.

Citing Unknown Authors

If a source doesn't have an author, just use its title and the year it was published in your in-text citation.

If the title of the source is in italics in your 'References' list (like for a book or a report), make sure to put the title in italics in your in-text citation too. For example: (Counseling Methods, 2019).

If the title isn't in italics in your 'References' list (like for a journal article or a chapter in a book), put double quotation marks around the title in your in-text citation and capitalize the main words. For example: ("Failing the Vulnerable," 2017).

Make sure the title looks the same in your in-text citation and in your 'References' list. In the 'References' list, when there's no author, the title is what you use to put it in the correct alphabetical order.

Translated, Reprinted, Republished, and Reissued Dates 

Include both the original publication date and the date of the translation, reprint, republication, or reissue in the in-text citation, separated by a slash, with the earlier year first.

Examples: ​

Aristotle (ca. 350 B.C.E./1994) 

(Shakespeare, 1623/2009)

Note: "ca." is an abbreviation for "circa" and is used to indicate an approximate publication date. "B.C.E." stands for "before the common era." It is not necessary to include "C.E." for common era dates.

Omitting the Year in Repeated Narrative Citations

If you mention the same source several times in a row within one paragraph, you don't have to keep repeating the year after the first time you mention it. You can just write the author's name. However, make sure it's clear which source you're writing about, especially if you mention other sources in between.

• Parenthetical in-text citations should include both the author and date.  
• The first citation of a work in each paragraph must include the author and date, even if the same source was cited in a previous paragraph.  
• If multiple works by the same author are cited within a paragraph (e.g., Smith, 2019; Smith, 2021), include the year in every citation to avoid confusion.

Personal Communication

Personal communications, like emails or private conversations, are sources that your reader can't look up themselves. You should only use them if you absolutely have to and there's no other source you can point to. When you mention a personal communication, you only cite it within the text of your paper; you don't include it in your 'References' list at the end because other people can't find it.

Common types of personal communication include:

• Emails
• Text messages
• Personal interviews
• Live speeches
• Classroom lectures (unrecorded)
• Personal letters

Example of Personal Communication In-Text Citation

• Narrative Citation: J. D. Romero (personal communication, February 4, 2020) discussed...
• Parenthetical Citation: (E. Brown, personal communication, February 4, 2020).

For more information see Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 7th edition - Chapter 8 Work Credited in the Text pages 253-278 (Available at the UNT Dallas Library)