APA In-text citations: How to cite sources as per American Psychological Association style

The American Psychological Association’s style manual is popular in fields like psychology, mental health, neuroscience, etc. You’ll also find this style used by other journals in the social sciences. Today, we’ll focus on a specific aspect of APA style that researchers find tricky: APA in-text citations. 

Basic format of APA In-Text Citations 

• Author-date style 

• Comma before year 

• Semicolons to separate multiple citations 

• Ampersand (&) in parentheses, “and” in running text 

• Square brackets for parenthetical information within parenthetical citations 

• Page number (denoted by “p.”) needed for direct quotes 

• All citations must have a corresponding entry in the reference lis. 

Examples of APA in-text citations 

Single author 

• Watanabe (2035) shows … 

• … despite other evidence to the contrary (Watanabe, 2035). 

Two authors 

• Dronacharya and Suleiman-Ahbaz (2052) argue that… 

• … as previously described (Dronacharya & Suleiman-Ahbaz, 2052) 

Three or more authors 

• Mwangi et al. (2045) found that … 

• According to a recent meta-analysis (Mwangi et al., 2045)… 

Corporate author 

• Data collected by the Center for Welfare of Dancing Pigeons (2023) shows that… 

• … much remains to be explored (Center for Welfare of Dancing Pigeons, 2023). 

No author 

When there’s no author, use the title of the source instead. 

• … as highlighted in a recent report (Survey on the Health Status of Flying Giraffes in Sockerland, 2034). 

No date of publication 

• The ancient Indian philosopher Shubhamacharya (n.d.) posited that … 

Works in press 

• … but this effect may be overestimated (Zhen et al., in press). 

Multiple works by different authors 

• Recent research (Bingaling, 2015; Hospital & Otengi, 2012; Zebralewinksy, 2013) is in favor of… 

Here, you list sources alphabetically, separated by semicolons 

Two or more works by the same author 

Arrange works with dates in chronological order (works with no date come first and in-press works come last) 

• … as shown by Fontainebleu et al. (n.d., 2018, 2020a, 2020b, 2024, in press) 

Direct quotes 

• Albuquerque (2012, p. 13) described it as “a heterogeneous mass of probabilities.” 

• Acquiring balance is “difficult for most young tarantulas” (Jaxyn & Khokhoffsky, 1943).