How to write Citation in APA Style?
APA Style is widely used by students, researchers, and professionals in the social and behavioral sciences.
This citation guide outlines the most important citation guidelines from the 7th edition APA Publication Manual (2020).
a) APA in-text citations
The basics
In-text citations are brief references in the running text that direct readers to the reference entry at the end of the paper. You include them every time you quote or paraphrase someone else’s ideas or words.
An APA in-text citation consists of the author’s last name and the year of publication (also known as the author-date system). If you’re citing a specific part of a source, you should also include a locator such as a page number or timestamp. For example: (Smith, 2020, p. 170).
b) Parenthetical vs. narrative citation
The in-text citation can take two forms: parenthetical and narrative. Both types are generated automatically when citing a source with Scribbr’s APA Citation Generator.
c) Parenthetical citation: According to new research … (Smith, 2020).
Narrative citation: Smith (2020) notes that …
Multiple authors and corporate authors
The in-text citation changes slightly when a source has multiple authors or an organization as an author. Pay attention to punctuation and the use of the ampersand (&) symbol.
Author type |
Parenthetical citation |
Narrative citation |
One author |
(Smith, 2020) |
Smith (2020) |
Two authors |
(Smith & Jones, 2020) |
Smith and Jones (2020) |
Three or more authors |
(Smith et al., 2020) |
Smith et al. (2020) |
Organization |
(Scribbr, 2020) |
Scribbr (2020) |