APA style for in-text citations

Generally, use the author’s name in a signal phrase to introduce the cited material, and place the date, in parentheses, immediately after the author’s name. The page number, preceded by p., appears in parentheses after the quotation.

Gitlin (2001) pointed out that “political critics, convinced that the media are rigged against them, are often blind to other substantial reasons why their causes are unpersuasive” (p. 141).

If the author is not named in a signal phrase, place the author’s name, the year, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation: (Gitlin, 2001, p. 141).

Include the author’s last name and the year as in model 1, but omit the page or paragraph number unless the reader will need it to find the material in a long work.

Gitlin (2001) has argued that critics sometimes overestimate the influence of the media on modern life.

Use both names in all citations. Use and in a signal phrase, but use an ampersand (&) in parentheses.

Babcock and Laschever (2003) have suggested that many women do not negotiate their salaries and pay raises as vigorously as their male counterparts do.

A recent study has suggested that many women do not negotiate their salaries and pay raises as vigorously as their male counterparts do (Babcock & Laschever, 2003).

List all the authors’ names for the first reference.

Safer, Voccola, Hurd, and Goodwin (2003) reached somewhat different conclusions by designing a study that was less dependent on subjective judgment than were previous studies.

In subsequent references, use just the first author’s name plus et al.

Based on the results, Safer et al. (2003) determined that the apes took signifi cant steps toward self-expression.

Use only the first author’s name and et al. in every citation.

As Soleim et al. (2002) demonstrated, advertising holds the potential for distorting and manipulating “free-willed” consumers.

If the name of the organization or corporation is long, spell it out the first time you use it, followed by an abbreviation in brackets. In later references, use the abbreviation only.

FIRST CITATION (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2006)

LATER CITATIONS (CDC, 2006)

Use the title or its first few words in a signal phrase or in parentheses. A book’s title is italicized, as in the following example; an article’s title is placed in quotation marks.

The employment profiles for this time period substantiated the trend (Federal Employment, 2001).

If your list of references includes works by different authors with the same last name, include the authors’ initials in each citation.

S. Bartolomeo (2000) conducted the groundbreaking study on teenage childbearing.

Assign lowercase letters (a, b, and so on) alphabetically by title, and include the letters after the year.

Gordon (2004b) examined this trend in more detail.

List sources by different authors in alphabetical order by authors’ last names, separated by semicolons: (Cardone, 1998; Lai, 2002). List works by the same author in chronological order, separated by commas: (Lai, 2000, 2002).

Use the phrase as cited in to indicate that you are reporting information from a secondary source. Name the original source in a signal phrase, but list the secondary source in your list of references.

Amartya Sen developed the infl uential concept that land reform was necessary for “promoting opportunity” among the poor (as cited in Driver, 2007, para. 2 ).

Cite any personal letters, email messages, electronic postings, telephone conversations, or interviews as shown. Do not include personal communications in the reference list.

R. Tobin (personal communication, November 4, 2006) supported his claims about music therapy with new evidence.

Cite a Web or electronic document as you would a print source, using the author’s name and date.

Link and Phelan (2005) argued for broader interventions in public health that would be accessible to anyone, regardless of individual wealth.

Number figures (graphs, charts, illustrations, and photographs) and tables separately.

For a table, place the label (Table 1) and an informative heading (Hartman’s Key Personality Traits) above the table; below, provide information about its source.

Table 1
Hartman's Key Personality Traits

Color

Note. Table is adapted from information found at The Hartman Personality Profile, by N. Hayden. Retrieved February 24, 2009, from http://students.cs.byu.edu/~nhayden/Code/index.php

For a figure, place the label (Figure 3) and a caption indicating the source below the image. If you do not cite the source of the table or figure elsewhere in your text, you do not need to include the source on your list of references.

The APA recommends the following for electronic sources without names, dates, or page numbers:

DATE UNKNOWN
Use the abbreviation n.d. (for “no date”) in place of the year: (Hopkins, n.d.).

NO PAGE NUMBERS
Many works found online or in electronic databases lack stable page numbers. (Use the page numbers for an electronic work in a format, such as PDF, that has stable pagination.) If paragraph numbers are included in such a source, use the symbol ¶ or the abbreviation para: (Giambetti, 2006, para. 7). If no paragraph numbers are included but the source includes headings, give the heading and identify the paragraph in the section:

Jacobs and Johnson (2007) have argued that “the South African media is still highly concentrated and not very diverse in terms of race and class” (South African Media after Apartheid, para. 3 ).