Citations Guide: APA Citation

APA in-text citations

For a primer on APA in-text citations (the citations within your paper), check out OWL Purdue's page on Citation Basics and then explore their page on Author/Authors.

One of the main quirks of APA style concerns how you format in-text citations based on the number of authors for that resource (journal, book, website, etc.). The table below provides a quick summary of the main formatting variations.

In-text citations:

Reference Examples

Note: References should be in alphabetical order by author and have hanging indents. 

1. Book with One Author

Youdin, R. (2016). Psychology of aging 101. Springer Publishing Company.

2. Journal Article from Database with doi

Banzhaf, S., Ma, L., & Timmins, C. (2019). Environmental justice: The economics of race, place, and pollution. The Journal of Economic      Perspectives, 33(1), 185-208. https⁚//doi.org/10.1257/jep.33.1.185

3. Journal Article from Database without doi

Pascual-Leone, A., Brasil-Neto, J., Valls-Solé, J., Cohen, L. G., & Hallett, M. (1992). Simple reaction time to focal transcranial magnetic stimulation. Comparison with reaction time to acoustic, visual and somatosensory stimuli. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 115(1), 109-122. 

4. Article from Online Magazine or Newspaper

Merrick, A. (2014, April 1). Marketing “real” bodies. The New Yorker.  https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/marketing-real-bodies.

5. Work from a Website with Author

Adams, J. & Clemens, L. (2017, August). Stopping the cycle of dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. The Nature Conservancy. https:// global.nature.org/ content/stopping-the-cycle-of-dead-zones-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-and-beyond?intc=nature.hp.sp1

6. Work from a Website No Author

Big ideas for better schools: Ten ways to improve education. (2005, August 11). Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/big-ideas

• If a work on a website has no author, consider first if it is a source worthy of using in your research.
• Put the title first, followed by a period and alphabetize by the first significant word of the title (i.e., ignore A, An, or The at the beginning of the title). Alphabetize numbers as if they were spelled out (e.g., 200 would come after Tuchman, B.)

In-Text Citations

1. Book with One Author

(Youdin, 2016, p. 56)

2. Journal Article with Two Authors

(Banzhaf & Timmins, 2019, p. 190) 

• For works with one or two authors, include the author name(s) in every citation.
• In parenthetical citations, use an ampersand (&) between the names, but in a narrative citation spell ou the word "and."

3. Journal Article with Three or More Authors

(Pascual-Leone, et al.,1992, p. 120)

• For a work with three or more authors, include the name for the first author followed by et al. in every citation, including the first.

4. Work from a Website with No Author

("Big Ideas for Better Schools," 2005)

• If a work on a website has no author, consider first if it is a source worthy of using in your research.
• Use a shortened from of the title if it is long. 
• Use title capitalization in the in-text citation, even if you use sentence case in the reference list entry. 
• Use italics for book titles and quotation marks for article titles. 

Adapted from guides by Loras College and USC Aiken Gregg-Graniteville Library

APA papers can be tricky to format.

Are you new to APA paper formatting and love videos? Check out Owl Purdue's video on formatting papers here.
*Note: not all college papers require an abstract page. Consult with your professor regarding their preference. 

The core authority on APA paper formatting is the APA Style Manual. You can find a sample paper on page 41 of the Manual. 

If you don't have immediate access to the Manual, check out the sample paper online here via APA Style.

OWL Purdue, also has a great sample paper with clear explanations. It can be found here. 

Headings

Within the body of the paper, it is also important to pay attention to heading levels. Owl Purdue has a great page that talks about headings within your paper. You can check it out here.