How to cite sources in APA

APA (American Psychological Association) style is a very popular academic writing style commonly used in social sciences.

It is essential to properly cite the sources you used in your paper to avoid plagiarism. There are some basic guidelines and rules that you should follow, and we are here to help you with them.

The citation guide we offer in this article is based on the latest APA version: The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual (2020).

There are four essential components to APA Format citation:

  • Author, Date, Title, Source

In this guideline, you’ll find out how to correctly place these components in your APA format citations. First, let’s find out how to do in-text citations and then move on to the essential components of APA format.

How to do in-text citations

In-text citations are a must in APA Style after using a quote or paraphrase from another person’s work. Basically, you must give a reference every time you paraphrase or quote another person’s ideas in your academic essay.

  • APA in-text citations must contain the author’s last name and the year of publication inside a parenthesis. For example: (Johnson, 2021).
  • When citing a particular part of a source, it is important to add a page number (if the source is written) and/or a timestamp (if the source is audiovisual). For example: (Johnson, 2021, p. 37).

There are two different forms of in-text citations:

Parenthetical citation Narrative citation
Arguments regarding the issue… (Johnson, 2021).
Johnson (2021) argues that…

Citing two authors

When in-text citing works with two authors, do the following for parenthetical citation:

Citing two authors parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (Johnson & Williams, 2021). Parenthetical citation

OR you should do the following for narrative citation:

Citing two authors narrative citation example

Johnson and Williams (2021) Narrative citation argue that…

As you probably noticed, we used an ampersand (&) in parenthetical citation while we used ‘and’ in narrative citation.

Citing three or more authors

When in-text citing works with three or more authors, do the following for parenthetical citation:

Citing three or more authors parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (Johnson et al., 2021). Parenthetical citation

OR you should do the following for narrative citation:

Citing three or more authors narrative citation example

Johnson et al. (2021) Narrative citation argue that…

Citing an unknown author

When in-text citing a work of an unknown author, use the source title. 

Citing an unknown author example

Arguments regarding the issue… (“How to Cite Sources in APA Format,” 2021). Unknown author citation

  • Your in-text citation should be in quotation marks if the work you are citing is an article, web page, or chapter.
  • Your in-text citation should be italicized if it is a title of a book or a report.

Citing organizations as authors

If the work you are citing has an organization as an author, write the full name of the organization. 

Citing organizations as authors narrative citation example

United Nations (2021) Narrative citation argue that…

Note that if the organization has an abbreviation, you should also add it to your in-text citation. You should do the following for parenthetical citation:

Citing organizations as authors parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (United Nations [UN], 2021). Parenthetical citation

You can only use the abbreviation of your source after your first citation. However, note that if there is another organization with the same abbreviation, do not use only the abbreviation as it can cause ambiguity.

Citing indirect sources

You should always try to find the primary source and cite it during the writing process. However, in case you fail to access the primary source, use the phrase “as cited in.”

Citing indirect sources parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (Garcia, 2019, as cited in Johnson, 2021). Parenthetical citation

Citing indirect sources narrative citation example

Garcia (as cited in Johnson, 2021) Narrative citation argue that…

Do not forget to identify the primary source in your citation.

Citing usernames

If you know the real name of a social media account, provide the surname and then add the year. Include their handle with @ symbol on the references page.

Citing usernames parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (Musk, 2023). Parenthetical citation

Citing different author roles

In case contributors have additional roles other than “author,” add a description of their additional roles in parentheses. After providing the author’s last name and their description as an author (A. A.), simply add:

  • (Ed.) abbreviation for editor
  • (Director) for a movie director
  • (Executive producer) for an executive producer of a tv series

Citing electronic sources

As electronic sources have started replacing printed sources each day, it is essential to know how to in-text cite electronic sources in the 7th edition of APA.

You should cite electronic sources the way you would other sources if the author and date are provided. Follow these instructions for in-text citing web pages:

Web page with author parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (Johnson, 2023). Parenthetical citation

Web page with organizational author parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (World Health Organization, 2023). Parenthetical citation

Web page with no date parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (American Psychological Association [APA], n.d.). Parenthetical citation

Web page without page numbers parenthetical citation example

Arguments regarding the issue… (Mayo Clinic, 2023, Complications section). Parenthetical citation

Writing the dates

If you’ve understood how to deal with the author(s) in your APA citation, let’s move on to the second part: Dates!

The date should come after the author in your citation, and it means different things for different works.

  • For books, take the copyright date.
  • For journals, find the publication date of volume and add it to your citation.
  • For web pages, find out when the page was last updated and use it.

  • What is a retrieval date and when to use it?

A retrieval date marks the date that you found out the information. It should be included in your citation after the title and before the URL.

Citing electronic sources retrieval date example

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.).

U.S. and world population clock." U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved June 5, 2020 from https://www.census.gov.popclock

You can use the retrieval date in your citation if the information you found may change over time.

  • Unknown publication dates

In case you don’t have access to the publication date, write “n.d” (no date) for the publication date.

  • Multiple works by the same author in the same year

In case you are unfortunate enough to deal with this complication, use lower-case letters to differentiate between the two works. To do so, just assign the works with different letters (a, b, c) in the order they are listed in your Reference List.

Multiple works by the same author in the same year citation example

According to Elkind (2007a), Work a youngsters are sometimes forced to grow up too fast.

It has been demonstrated that children who play freely and without excessive structure are happier (Elkind, 2007b). Work b

To assign letters in both your reference list and in-text citations, you should order the works by their titles without regarding “A,” “An,” and “The.”

Writing the titles

There is an important factor when writing titles: Determine whether your source is a work that is a part of a whole or not.

If it is part of a whole:

  • Write the title with no style.
  • Add the title of the whole italicized.

Writing the titles example

Bradley, C. (2021). Into the

Tone World: Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. In Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker (pp. 194–215). Duke University Press.

When to use brackets

When you need to identify your source, describe it in brackets after the title and before the period. Capitalize the first word but do not underline or italicize it.

  • You should not describe books, web pages, reports, journal articles, and newspaper articles.

When to use brackets example

Schostakowitsch: 7. Sinfonie

(»Leningrader«) ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Klaus Mäkelä. (2019, November 12). [Video]. YouTube.

  • When a source does not have a title, you may describe the work in brackets.

How to write the sources

The source is important in determining where you can retrieve the work. If possible, to identify a source, there are many elements you should add to your citations.

If the work you are citing is a whole work, try to follow this order in your citation:

  • Author(s) name(s)
  • Publication date
  • Title of the source
  • Name of the publisher
  • Platform, web page, database the source was retrieved
  • DOI number or URL

Citing a whole work example

Smith, J. Author name (2019). Publication date The History of Time: An Exploration of our Understanding of Time. Title of the source Oxford University Press. Name of the publisher

As explained in the above section, your source may be a part of a whole work. If so, try to follow this order in your citation:

  • Author(s) name(s)
  • Publication date
  • Title of the source
  • Title of the book/journal/website the source comes from
  • Volume and issue number
  • Page numbers (if provided)
  • Name of the publisher
  • DOI number or URL

Citing a part of a whole work example

Brown, T. Author name (2021). Publication date The Science of Time Travel. Title of the source In M. Johnson & L. Scott (Eds.), Editor Advances in Time and Space Title of the book/journal/website the source comes from (pp. 45-67). Page numbers Springer. Name of the publisher

Abbreviations and example references list

Below is an example of a Reference List. Since each source is from a different category (a journal article, a serial, a document, an image, a book, and a book chapter), you can observe the different ways to cite your sources.

references APA
abbreviation

Writing a reference list

A reference list must list every source you used in your academic paper. It must contain the author(s) name(s), date of publication, title, and, if found, more information regarding the source. An APA reference list must follow these rules:

  • Write it on a new page at the end of the document
  • Write Reference List in the center and at the top of the page. Write it in bold, but do not underline or italicize it!
  • Your reference list must be written in double spacing with 1-inch margins
  • Your reference list must be alphabetical by the name of first author (In case the author is unknown, the title must be used. However, in this case, “a,” “an,” and “the” of the title should be ignored)
  • Your reference list must be centered on the page

In case there are multiple works by the same author:

  • The works should be ordered by their dates. If the works are from the same year, they should be ordered alphabetically by their titles and should be assigned a letter (a, b, c, etc.) after their dates.

  • Important

Your reference list must include complete references for all in-text references used. This is particularly important since it counts as plagiarism if you don’t include all the sources when writing an essay or research paper.

Things to avoid

  • Do not insert extra line space between citations.
  • Do not choose fonts that are difficult to read. 12-Point Times New Roman font is commonly recommended.
It is vital to give credit to the original authors of ideas and quotes. If you follow these tips, it is not difficult to cite in your APA-styled paper. Now, it’s time to start citing those sources.
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Ibrahim Akturk
Content editor at Tamara Research. Translation major, huge coffee and baking nerd. Addicted to good music and great articles.

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