APA Style Guide

Like in MLA style, APA Style uses two types of in-text citations: parenthetical and narrative. Each of these narrative citations should correspond to a citation listed on your Reference page, which is covered on its own section in this guide. Both of these types of in-text citations should use the author-date citation system.

1. Parenthetical: The author name and publication date appear in parentheses, separated by a comma.
2. Narrative: The author name is included in the text as part of the sentence, and the year follows in parentheses.

For direct quotes, be sure to include the page number or other relevant location information, such as the paragraph number if no page number is available.

Examples:

Narrative:

• Keshavarz (2021) noted that research shows a significant relationship between supportive librarians and the successful outcomes of the entrepreneurial frameworks of their libraries.

Parenthetical: 

• Many studies show that the success of entrepreneurial enterprises of libraries depends on the support of their librarians (Keshavarz, 2021).

Direct Quote:

• Many studies show "a positive significant relationship has been found between the supportive initiatives of the librarians to improve entrepreneurial frameworks of their libraries" (Keshavarz, 2021, p. 206).

Two Authors

When a work has two authors, separate the last names with "and" in a narrative citation and with an ampersand (&) in a parenthetical citation.

Narrative example: Salas and D'Agostino (2020).

Parenthetical example: (Salas & D'Agostino, 2020)

Three or More Authors

When citing a source with three or more authors, use the first author's last name, followed by the phrase "et al." to denote that there are additional names. In Latin, "et al" means "and others."

Narrative example: Martin et al. (2020)

Parenthetical example: (Martin et al., 2020)

Group Author with Abbreviation

When citing a group as an author, you can utilize that group's abbreviation, if they have one, as long as you define the abbreviation for the group for your reader. Subsequent citations from that source can utilize the abbreviation.

For instance, when citing the National Institute of Mental Health as an author:

Narrative example: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2020)

• Subsequent citations: NIMH (2020)

Parenthetical example: (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020)

• Subsequent citations: (NIMH, 2020)

Unknown Author

If you are citing a source with no known author, cite the source by using the first few words of the reference entry (usually the title) and the year.

Narrative example: According to the article "Climate Change Insights" (2021),...

Parenthetical example: ("Climate Change Insights," 2021)

Websites (including HTML articles)

Cite electronic resources the same way as any other document by using the author-date style.

Secondary Sources

When you are referencing information from a source used within another article, mention the original source in your text, but only include the source you accessed in your references.

Narrative Example: According to Smith in 2020...(Johnson, 2021)

Parenthetical Example: (Smith, 2020, as cited in Johnson, 2021)

Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year

If you happen to have two or more sources by the same author that were published within the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the entries in the reference list. Use the same lower-case letters in the in-text citation.

Example: According to Smith (2020a)...However, in a subsequent study, Smith noted (2020b)...