In-text citations in APA 7 Style

Before writing a citation

In academic work built on sources, citations are not optional. They credit the ideas, words, data, and images you used, show the evidence behind your explanation, and allow readers to find where the information came from.

Citations also help prevent plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when someone else's words, ideas, or images are presented as your own, even when this happens unintentionally. A clear citation distinguishes your contribution from earlier work and lets readers trace each idea. The guide to plagiarism and self-plagiarism also explains what happens when you reuse your own earlier work.

The goal is not to fill every sentence with names and years. Rigorous writing uses enough citations to support its claims and makes each change of source clear.

What you need to cite

Include a citation when you:

• summarize or paraphrase someone else's idea;
• copy the exact words from a source;
• use a theory, definition, method, or result developed by someone else;
• present data, figures, or facts that are not common knowledge;
• reproduce or adapt a table, figure, or image.

Cite only works that you actually read and used. Whenever possible, consult and cite the original source instead of relying on another work's description of it.

Common knowledge usually does not need a citation. You also do not cite your own original conclusion as though it came from an outside source. If you are unsure whether a claim is common knowledge, finding and citing a reliable source allows readers to verify it.

The guide to paraphrasing correctly develops these cases and shows how to decide whether an idea needs attribution.

What an in-text citation is

An in-text citation briefly identifies a source within a paragraph. APA Style normally uses the author's surname and publication year. These details lead readers to the full reference, where they can find the title and the information needed to retrieve the work.

(Perez, 2024)

The citation and reference serve different purposes:

• The citation shows which idea or passage came from a source.
• The reference identifies the complete work.
• The reference list brings together all recoverable works cited in the paper.

As a general rule, every cited work must appear in the reference list, and every entry in that list must be cited in the text. Personal communications are an exception because readers cannot retrieve them.

General mentions of websites and software

When you only mention an entire website and do not use information from a specific page, give the website name and URL in the text. No citation or reference is needed. For common software or an app, the name and version are normally sufficient. If you use specific content from the website or software, cite the corresponding source.

What information a citation needs

The required information depends on how you use the source:

How you use the source	Required information	Example
Paraphrase or summary	Author and year	(Perez, 2024)
Paraphrase of a long or difficult-to-locate passage	Author, year, and an optional locator	(Perez, 2024, pp. 45–47)
Direct quotation	Author, year, and a page or other locator	(Perez, 2024, p. 18)

Even when a reference includes a month and day, the citation uses only the year. Do not add initials, professional titles, or suffixes such as Jr. unless an initial is needed to distinguish authors with the same surname.

All names and details in this guide's examples are illustrative.

Parenthetical and narrative citations

You can integrate the same source in two ways. Choose the form that fits what you want the sentence to emphasize.

Parenthetical citation:The source is identified in parentheses, normally with the author and year: (Perez, 2024). place the author and year in parentheses, normally at the end of the idea and before the period.

Frequent feedback helps writers recognize which part of their process needs more attention (Perez, 2024).

This form keeps the focus on the information.

Narrative citation:The author is part of the sentence and the year appears in parentheses: Perez (2024). include the surname in the sentence and place the year in parentheses immediately after it.

Perez (2024) explains that frequent feedback helps writers recognize which part of their process needs more attention.

This form is useful when the author matters to your argument or when you want to compare what several sources say.

Do not write the author twice. When the author is already part of the sentence, do not repeat the name inside the parentheses.

How to cite a paraphrase

A paraphrase explains someone else's idea with your own wording and sentence structure. Replacing a few words with synonyms is not enough. You need to understand the idea, reconstruct it clearly, and preserve its meaning.

A paraphrase includes the author and year. A page number is not required, but it can help when the idea appears in a long or complex work.

Parenthetical citation:The source is identified in parentheses, normally with the author and year: (Perez, 2024).

Keeping your own observations separate from source notes reduces confusion during drafting (Santos, 2023).

Narrative citation:The author is part of the sentence and the year appears in parentheses: Perez (2024).

Santos (2023) recommends separating personal observations from information taken from each source from the beginning.

Paraphrases that continue for several sentences

A paraphrase may continue across several sentences. Cite the source when the paraphrase begins, and do not repeat the same parenthetical citation after every sentence while it remains clear that the same source is being discussed. Cite again when you change sources, introduce another idea, or begin a new paragraph.

Santos (2023) recommends recording each source while reading. This practice separates personal notes from copied passages and makes it easier to prepare references. At the start of a new section, identify the source again if its role is no longer clear.

When you mention the same work narratively again within that paragraph, you may omit the year after the first citation as long as no confusion can result. Keep the year in every parenthetical citation.

See the complete process and the distinction from direct quotation in how to paraphrase in APA Style.

How the number of authors changes a citation

The number of authors changes the in-text citation, not the number of names included in the full reference.

Work's author	Parenthetical citation	Narrative citation
One person	(Luna, 2024)	Luna (2024)
Two people	(Luna & Rojas, 2024)	Luna and Rojas (2024)
Three or more people	(Luna et al., 2024)	Luna et al. (2024)
An organization	(University Writing Center, 2024)	University Writing Center (2024)

For three or more authors, use the first surname followed by et al. from the first citation. Do not italicize the expression, and include a period after al..

If two works with three or more authors would shorten to the same citation, include enough additional surnames before et al. to distinguish them.

When an organization's name is long and its abbreviation is familiar or will be used several times, introduce the abbreviation in the first citation:

• First parenthetical citation: (National Reading Center [NRC], 2024)
• Later citations: (NRC, 2024)
• First narrative citation: National Reading Center (NRC, 2024)
• Later narrative citations: NRC (2024)

Do not abbreviate an organization when the abbreviation will not help readers or the name appears only once.

What to do when information is missing

Before deciding that a source has no author, check whether an organization is responsible for its content. When information is genuinely missing, adapt the citation:

Situation	What to do	Example
No author	Use the title or a shortened title	(*Learning to Research*, 2022)
No date	Replace the year with n.d.	(Perez, n.d.)
Same author and year	Add a, b, and any further required letters	(Perez, 2024a, 2024b)
Different authors share a surname	Include initials to distinguish them	(L. Perez, 2022; M. Perez, 2024)

Italicize a title in the citation when it is also italicized in the reference, as with a book or report. When the reference does not italicize the title, as with an article or chapter, place the title in quotation marks.

Letters added to the year must match those used in the reference list.

How to cite several sources for one idea

When several works support the same claim, you can combine them inside one set of parentheses. Arrange them alphabetically, as in the reference list, and separate them with semicolons.

Planning and revising serve different purposes in the writing process (Alvarez, 2021; Medina & Rojas, 2023; Torres et al., 2024).

Include only the sources that support that specific claim. A long string of citations can be difficult to read and does not replace an explanation of the evidence.

How to use a secondary source

A secondary source reports what another work said. Try to locate, read, and cite the original work first. If you cannot access it, identify the original source and use as cited in before the work you actually read.

Ramirez (1998, as cited in Castillo, 2023) proposed that...

(Ramirez, 1998, as cited in Castillo, 2023)

Include only Castillo (2023) in the reference list because that is the work you consulted. Do not present the original source as though you had read it.

The guide to primary and secondary sources explains how to recognize each kind of source, when a secondary citation is justified, and which work belongs in the reference list.

How to cite a personal communication

Emails, private messages, phone calls, personal interviews, and other unrecoverable communications are cited only in the text. Include the person's initials and surname, the words personal communication, and the most exact date available.

P. R. Gomez (personal communication, March 12, 2024) confirmed that...

(P. R. Gomez, personal communication, March 12, 2024)

Do not add a personal communication to the reference list. When an interview, lecture, or message is published and readers can retrieve it, cite the published source instead.

See how to cite interviews and personal communications to distinguish published interviews, research participants, and classroom or intranet materials.

How to quote exact words

When you copy a source's exact words, include an author, year, and locator. Quotations of fewer than 40 words are integrated into the sentence inside quotation marks. Quotations of 40 words or more appear in a separate block without quotation marks.

Navarro (2023) noted that “a well-integrated source allows an argument to move forward without hiding where the idea began” (p. 18).

The guide to direct quotations in APA Style provides complete examples showing where to place the page number, how to format a block quotation, and which locators to use when a source has no page numbers.

Example paragraph with several citations

The following example shows how narrative, parenthetical, and multiple-source citations can work together without interrupting the explanation:

Morales (2022) argues that planning before drafting helps writers maintain a clear line of reasoning. Planning also reveals which claims need evidence and which statements represent the writer's own analysis (Perez, 2023). During revision, writers should check both the clarity of their ideas and the evidence behind them because both affect readers' understanding (Luna & Rojas, 2021; Torres et al., 2024).

Each citation supports the sentence where it appears. The sources are not collected at the end of the paragraph without showing which idea belongs to each one.

Checklist

Before submitting your paper, check that:

• you cited every idea, fact, image, or passage taken from another source;
• each paraphrase is genuinely written in your own words;
• every direct quotation includes a page or other locator;
• each citation identifies one reference-list entry;
• surnames and years match between citations and references;
• et al. appears only for works with three or more authors;
• sources grouped inside parentheses are separated with semicolons;
• you did not repeat a citation after every sentence when the source remained clear.