Home APA Style Guide Citing Resources in APA Style

Citing Materials in APA Style

This page will show how to cite resources in the APA style in the text of your document. The APA style requires two pieces of information to always be present for in-text citations; the author's last name, and the date of publication. If there is a direct quote from the materials you must also include a page number. Choose the number of authors your source has to view examples of in-text APA citations.

One Author | 2-5 Authors | More than 5 Authors | No Authors | Other Materials

Citing Materials in the Text - One Author

The following examples show how to cite materials in the text of your document. These examples are for materials with one author.

When referencing a source, the citation would look like this:

Students love using APA style (Smith, 2005), ...

When referencing a source material and you mention the name of the author in the text, it would look like this:

Smith (2005) showed evidence of students using APA style ...

When referenicng a source and you mention both the name of the author and the date of publication, you do not need to do anything else in the text:

In 2005, Smith showed evidence of students using APA style ...

When using a short quote (< 40 words) you add the page number to the citation:

He explained, "More people are now using APA style," (Smith, 2005, p. 145), and then showed several examples.

If you are using a short quote (< 40 words) and you use the name of the author in the text near the quote, you add the date by the author's name. If you mention both the author and the date, you would only need to include the page number after the quote:

According to Smith (2005), "APA Style is great once you get the hang of it" (p. 199).

If you are referencing another author cited within the work (secondary source) and you didn't read the work of that author, you would use the same principles as the other citations on this page, but add "as cited in" to the reference:

Brown's work on the APA style (Brown, 1995, as cited in Smith 2005) shows us that ...

NOTES: If you are using a quote with more than 40 words, check our our guide for long quotes.

Citing Materials in the Text - 2 - 5 Authors

The following examples show how to cite materials in the text of your document. These examples are shown with three authors, however the same formatting rules apply to materials with 2 to 5 authors. It is important to note that when you have multiple authors, after the first citation, all subsequent citations can simply have the first author's name and then "et al."

When referencing a source, the citation would look like this:

Students love using APA style (Smith, Brown & Jones, 2005), ...

When referencing a source material and you mention the name of the author in the text, it would look like this:

Smith, Brown, and Jones (2005) showed evidence of students using APA style ...

When referenicng a source and you mention both the name of the author and the date of publication, you do not need to do anything else in the text:

In 2005, Smith, Brown, and Jones showed evidence of students using APA style ...

When using a short quote (< 40 words) you add the page number to the citation:

He explained, "More people are now using APA style," (Smith, Brown, & Jones, 2005, p. 145), and then showed several examples.

If you are using a short quote (< 40 words) and you use the name of the author in the text near the quote, you add the date by the author's name. If you mention both the author and the date, you would only need to include the page number after the quote:

According to Smith, Brown, and Jones (2005), "APA Style is great once you get the hang of it" (p. 199).

If you are referencing another author cited within the work (secondary source) and you didn't read the work of that author, you would use the same principles as the other citations on this page, but add "as cited in" to the reference:

White's work on the APA style (White, 1995, as cited in Smith, Brown, & Jones, 2005) shows us that ...

NOTES: If you are using a quote with more than 40 words, check our our guide for long quotes. In subsequent citations of the same work in the same document you do not have to include the year (unless it would be confusing). If you have two authors with the same last name, you should always use their initials even if the dates of publication are different.

 

Citing Materials in the Text with More Than 5 Authors

The following examples show how to cite materials in the text of your document. These examples shown how to cite materials with more than 5 authors.

When referencing a source, the citation would look like this:

Students love using APA style (Smith et al., 2005), ...

When referencing a source material and you mention the name of the author in the text, it would look like this:

Smith et al.(2005) showed evidence of students using APA style ...

When referenicng a source and you mention both the name of the author and the date of publication, you do not need to do anything else in the text:

In 2005, Smith et al. showed evidence of students using APA style ...

When using a short quote (< 40 words) you add the page number to the citation:

He explained, "More people are now using APA style," (Smith et al., 2005, p. 145), and then showed several examples.

If you are using a short quote (< 40 words) and you use the name of the author in the text near the quote, you add the date by the author's name. If you mention both the author and the date, you would only need to include the page number after the quote:

According to Smith et al. (2005), "APA Style is great once you get the hang of it" (p. 199).

If you are referencing another author cited within the work (secondary source) and you didn't read the work of that author, you would use the same principles as the other citations on this page, but add "as cited in" to the reference:

White's work on the APA style (White, 1995, as cited in Smith et al., 2005) shows us that ...

NOTES: If you are using a quote with more than 40 words, check our our guide for long quotes. In subsequent citations of the same work in the same document you do not have to include the year (unless it would be confusing). If you have two authors with the same last name, you should always use their initials even if the dates of publication are different.

Citing Materials in the Text with No Authors

Many works do not have an author or have editors instead of a author. In these cases you use the same guidelines shown on this page, but you replace the author with the following...

NOTES: If you are using a quote with more than 40 words, check our our guide for long quotes. In subsequent citations of the same work in the same document you do not have to include the year (unless it would be confusing if you didn't).

Citing a Other Materials in the Text

If you are referencing a quote that someone said, it would look like this:

Students love using APA style (Smith, 2005), ...

If you are referencing a book, and you mention the name of the author in the text, it would look like this:

Smith (2005) showed evidence of students using APA style ...

If you are referenicng a book and you mention both the name of the author and the date of publication, you do not need to do anything else in the text:

In 2005, Smith showed evidence of students using APA style ...

If you are using a short quote (< 40 words) you would insert the citation after the quote:

He explained, "More people are now using APA style," (Smith, 2005, p. 145), and then showed several examples.

If you are using a short quote (< 40 words) and you use the name of the author in the text near the quote, you would put the date by the authors name and the page number after the quote:

According to Smith (2005), "APA Style is great once you get the hang of it" (p. 199).

NOTES: If you are using a quote with more than 40 words, check our our guide for long quotes. If you are citing print materials that do not have an author, see our guide for citing works without an author.

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