In-text citations are added throughout your text each time you refer to someone else's work in your writing. Each in-text citation provides the following details about the work referred to: author’s name, date of publication, and page number if quoting directly or paraphrasing from a specific page or section of the source.
For every in-text citation, there must be a corresponding entry in an alphabetical reference list at the end of your work. Each reference list entry provides the full details of the work, use the tabs for types of sources to see how to format reference list entries.
We use in-text citations because they enable us both to acknowledge and give credit to works briefly and easily as we write, and to give our readers enough information (author names and dates of publication) to find the matching reference list entry.
There are two types of in-text citation: parenthetical and narrative.
Parenthetical is where all the citation details appear in a set of brackets, and narrative is where the author appears in the body of the sentence and the other details are in brackets.
You need to include the author(s), date (year) the work was published, and a page number (if you are directly quoting, or paraphrasing from a specific page or section). If you are summarising information from a whole source you do not need to include a page number eg. a theory or model from a whole book chapter, the findings from a whole journal article.
If the author(s) are individuals you need to include the surname(s) only. Please see the multiple authors tab for guidance on how to format citations with 2 or more authors.
Sometimes authors are group/organisational authors, please see the Group/Organisational authors tab for guidance on how to format these.
Parenthetical Formatting Example
A parenthetical citation can appear within or at the end of a sentence. When appearing at the end of a sentence, put a full stop after the closing parenthesis.
Paraphrasing a work (i.e. restating another’s idea in your own words):
The importance of focusing on how experimental practices can contribute to theory-making in science is a key insight within the scholarship of feminist science and technology (Roy, 2018, p. 6).
Narrative Formatting Examples
If a source incorporated as a narrative citation requires a page number this needs to be included at the end of the sentence on its own, as per the direct quotation example.
Directly quoting a work:
Singer (1974), an advocate of extending the principle of equality to non-human animals, has argued “our practice of rearing and killing other animals in order to eat them is a clear instance of the sacrifice of the most important interests of other beings in order to satisfy trivial interests of our own” (p. 109).
Summarising a work (i.e. giving a short description of a work in your own words):
Criado-Perez (2019) argues that more representative data collection and decision-making are required to offset the gender data gap and systematic oversight of women across multiple areas of human life, including healthcare, design, the workplace, public life, and day-to-day experiences.
Please note - you can use either a parenthetical or narrative citation for quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. The examples above provide an example of each way of incorporating, but you do not only have to use parenthetical when quoting for example.
Consider how the citation appears in your sentence and the best use of your word count.
Example
King (2021) explains that . . .
Is a better use of your word count than:
Research shows that . . . . (King, 2021).
For two authors you use both surnames:
Walshe and Smith (2016)
OR
(Walshe & Smith, 2016)
For three or more authors you use the surname of the first author followed by et al.
Hong et al. (2018)
(Hong et al., 2018)
In the reference list entry you need to include all the authors.
Group Authors
Corporate authors (a company, society, or other kind of organisation) should be written in full in the reference list entry on the first in-text citation and can be abbreviated for any following citations.
Citation Examples
Parenthetical citation
First mention: (British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC], 2021)
Subsequent mentions: (BBC, 2021)
Narrative citation
First mention: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, 2021) stated that …
Subsequent mentions: The BBC (2021) …
In the reference list you would write out the full name of the organisation.
When citing multiple works in parenthesis, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons.
Example
Several authors have examined this aspect of racism in Britain (Akala, 2019; Boakye, 2019; Hirsch, 2018; Olusoga, 2017).
When citing multiple works within the narrative of a sentence, they can appear in any order.
Example
Bhopal (2017), Arday & Mirza (2018), and Ward (2017) explore …
There may be cases when you wish to cite a work that you haven’t read directly, but that is mentioned or quoted in a work you have read. This is called secondary referencing. It is recommended that you find and read the original source yourself, but there may be instances when the original work you wish to cite is unavailable.
For example, you learn about the findings of a study by an author called Walter in an article you read written by Habibzadeh, Jasemi and Hosseinzadegan. You wish to cite Walter's work in your writing, so your in-text citation must acknowledge that it is a secondary reference, i.e. a work you read about in another work. You need to cite Walter as cited in the source you read.
Example
In-text citation
Walter (2010, as cited in Habibzadeh et al., 2021) identifies ...
(Walter, 2010, as cited in Habibzadeh et al., 2021)
Reference list entry (only include the source you have actually read)
Habibzadeh, H., Jasemi, M., & Hosseinzadegan, F. (2021). Social justice in health system; a neglected component of academic nursing education: A qualitative study. BMC Nursing, 20(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00534-1
If you would like to reference a source not in this guide or have further questions you can:
Check the APA Style blog.
Have a look at the reading list of APA guides. These are physical copies you can borrow from the library.
Get in touch with the Library by emailing us at library@napier.ac.uk
We have also created the printable quick guide below which covers the basics of in-text citations and referencing.
This is most recent edition of APA. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, or APA 7th as it is normally called, is the most commonly used referencing standard at Edinburgh Napier University. In addition to providing guidance on referencing, this manual offers an authoratative voice on grammar, the mechanics of writing, and APA style, as well as the treatment of numbers, statistical and mathematical data, tables and figures
