Research Guides: APA Style 7th Edition Resource Guide: In-Text Citations

What is an In-Text Citation?

The in-text citation appears within the body of the paper and briefly identifies the cited work by its author and date of publication. This enables readers to locate the corresponding entry in the alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper. In-text citations have two formats:

A parenthetical citation puts the author and year in parentheses following the content being cited.
A narrative citation uses the author’s name in the body of the paper with the year in parentheses immediately following the author name (see examples in the box below).

The author and date in the in-text citation must match the author and date in the corresponding reference entry!

Creating In-Text Citations (from the APA Style Website)

In-Text Citations
Everything you need to know to create an in-text citation.
Parenthetical vs. Narrative In-Text Citations
The 2 forms of in-text citations.
In-Text Citation Checklist
Use this list to ensure that your formatting is correct.

Author	Parenthetical citation	Narrative citation
One author	(Puckett, 2017)	Puckett (2017)
Two authors	(Dvorak & Hernandez-Ruiz, 2019)	Dvorak and Hernandez-Ruiz (2019)
Three or more authors	(Locke et al., 2010)	Locke et al. (2010)
Group author with abbreviation First citation Subsequent citation	(National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2019) (NASW, 2019)	National Association of Social Workers (NASW, 2019) NASW (2019)
Group author without abbreviation	(St. Catherine University, 2020)	St. Catherine University (2020)

Other In-Text Situations

Personal Communications (Citing nonrecoverable sources)
Works that cannot be accessed by readers are cited in the text as personal communications. These include emails, letters, personal interviews, telephone conversations, live speeches, unrecorded presentations and classroom lectures, etc. These sources are only cited in the body of the paper and do not appear on a reference list.
Citing a Secondary Source
A secondary source refers to content first reported in another source. Cite secondary sources sparingly—for instance, when the original work is out of print, unavailable, or available only in a language that you do not understand. In some disciplines, citing a secondary source is discouraged.