APA 7th referencing guide
Answers to citation questions
Citations are your way of acknowledging that the ideas you are writing about are not your own. You need to cite to avoid plagiarism. This means citing direct quotes from others' work as well as when you paraphrase other people's ideas in your own words. The citation will appear as a brief reference within the body of your text immediately after the quote or summary. This refers the reader to the reference list.
When using APA 7th format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998), and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication and not the page number in your in-text reference.
All sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
- Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: A. Smith.
- If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source: Language and Cognition. Exceptions apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs: Thinking, Fast and Slow (note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Thinking, fast and slow.)
- When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: "Influence: Science and Practice.
If you are referring to an author at the beginning of or in the middle of a sentence, give the author's surname (don't include forename, initials, or title of the resource in-text), followed by the date in brackets as follows:
Bloggs (1995) conducted research into …
The research conducted by Bloggs (1995) investigated …
Bloggs (1995) conducted research into …
The research conducted by Bloggs (1995) investigated …
Where there are two authors, include the both author names in every citation, e.g.:
(Bloggs & D'Agostino, 2020)
Bloggs and D'Agostino (2020)
Where there are three or more authors, include the name of only the first author, plus 'et al.' in every citation, including the first citation, unless it creates ambiguity (see more information below):
(Smith et al., 2020)
Smith et al. (2020)
Sometimes shortening to 'el al.' can cause ambiguity, e.g. in the below example, both citations would shorted to Smith et al. (1999):
Smith, Bloom, Mulcahy, Kravitz and Henry (1999)
Smith, Bloom, Kravitz, Martin, and Patel (1999)
To avoid ambiguity, when citing them both in your paper, cite them as follows:
Smith, Bloom, Mulcahy, et al. (1999)
Smith, Bloom, Kravitz, et al. (1999) …
(Bloggs & D'Agostino, 2020)
Bloggs and D'Agostino (2020)
Where there are three or more authors, include the name of only the first author, plus 'et al.' in every citation, including the first citation, unless it creates ambiguity (see more information below):
(Smith et al., 2020)
Smith et al. (2020)
Sometimes shortening to 'el al.' can cause ambiguity, e.g. in the below example, both citations would shorted to Smith et al. (1999):
Smith, Bloom, Mulcahy, Kravitz and Henry (1999)
Smith, Bloom, Kravitz, Martin, and Patel (1999)
To avoid ambiguity, when citing them both in your paper, cite them as follows:
Smith, Bloom, Mulcahy, et al. (1999)
Smith, Bloom, Kravitz, et al. (1999) …
When you give references at the end of a sentence the names and the dates appear inside the brackets as follows:
Some research suggests that cognitive and social developments are closely related to one another (Bell, 1970).
Note that the author's name is followed by a comma and that the full stop denoting the end of the sentence comes after the bracket. Where you cite more than one reference at the end of a sentence the references should appear in alphabetical order by the name of the first author as follows:
… are closely related to one another (Bell, 1990; Bower et al., 1988; Jones & Bloggs, 1989).
Note that each reference is separated by a semi-colon and that an ampersand '&' is used rather than the word 'and' only when the reference is given in brackets.
Some research suggests that cognitive and social developments are closely related to one another (Bell, 1970).
Note that the author's name is followed by a comma and that the full stop denoting the end of the sentence comes after the bracket. Where you cite more than one reference at the end of a sentence the references should appear in alphabetical order by the name of the first author as follows:
… are closely related to one another (Bell, 1990; Bower et al., 1988; Jones & Bloggs, 1989).
Note that each reference is separated by a semi-colon and that an ampersand '&' is used rather than the word 'and' only when the reference is given in brackets.
For short quotations (fewer than 40 words) you must incorporate it in to the text by putting the entire quotation in quotation marks and giving the page reference as follows, otherwise you are plagiarising their work:
Reicher (1991) concluded his review by looking at the failure of the services in prisons to "… grasp the nettle of accepting that it has many disturbed individuals to work with" (p.18).
Note that the page number appears in brackets before the full stop. Because the quotation begins part way through a sentence this is indicated by three dots.
Another way of writing this is as follows:
The review concluded by looking at the failure of the services in prisons to “… grasp the nettle of accepting that it has many disturbed individuals to work with" (Reicher, 1991, p.18).
For longer quotation (40 or more words), don’t use quotation marks, but start the quotation on a new line, indented by 0.5 inches if there are additional paragraphs within the quotation, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph by 0.5 inches. Double space the entire quotation, don’t put an additional space before or after it.
Try to avoid using lots of direct quotations. Using only one or two really pertinent ones is acceptable, but it is often better to avoid quotation altogether and use your own words. Normally you should summarise what other authors have said and just give their name(s) and the date of the publication you have used.
Reicher (1991) concluded his review by looking at the failure of the services in prisons to "… grasp the nettle of accepting that it has many disturbed individuals to work with" (p.18).
Note that the page number appears in brackets before the full stop. Because the quotation begins part way through a sentence this is indicated by three dots.
Another way of writing this is as follows:
The review concluded by looking at the failure of the services in prisons to “… grasp the nettle of accepting that it has many disturbed individuals to work with" (Reicher, 1991, p.18).
For longer quotation (40 or more words), don’t use quotation marks, but start the quotation on a new line, indented by 0.5 inches if there are additional paragraphs within the quotation, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph by 0.5 inches. Double space the entire quotation, don’t put an additional space before or after it.
Try to avoid using lots of direct quotations. Using only one or two really pertinent ones is acceptable, but it is often better to avoid quotation altogether and use your own words. Normally you should summarise what other authors have said and just give their name(s) and the date of the publication you have used.
When citing someone else’s work you should always attempt to consult the original. However, sometimes you may want to cite work that was itself cited in a secondary source (e.g. a text book). In this case you indicate that you have not seen the original by using the words “as cited in”:
“… obedience to authority (Patel, as cited in Drake, 2010).”
The reference list does not contain the original reference (Patel in this example), only the secondary source that you actually read (Drake). Anyone wanting to trace the original would have to look it up in that. Note that you should only do this if the primary source is unavailable. If you can get hold of the primary source, it’s more reliable to do so. You would then cite the primary source as usual.
“… obedience to authority (Patel, as cited in Drake, 2010).”
The reference list does not contain the original reference (Patel in this example), only the secondary source that you actually read (Drake). Anyone wanting to trace the original would have to look it up in that. Note that you should only do this if the primary source is unavailable. If you can get hold of the primary source, it’s more reliable to do so. You would then cite the primary source as usual.
In order to prevent confusion when citing two (or more) different authors with the same surname, use first initials with the last names, for example,
…are closely related to one another (R. T. Kumar, 2001; V. Kumar, 1998)
…are closely related to one another (R. T. Kumar, 2001; V. Kumar, 1998)
If a resource you wish to cite has an author as an organisation or a government agency, mention the organisation in your preceding text or in the citation the first time you cite the source, e.g.:
According to the British Psychological Society (2018),...
If the organisation has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations, for example:
First citation: (British Psychological Society [BPS], 2018) Second citation: (BPS, 2018)
According to the British Psychological Society (2018),...
If the organisation has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations, for example:
First citation: (British Psychological Society [BPS], 2018) Second citation: (BPS, 2018)
If the resource you wish to cite does not have an author, cite the source by its title in your preceding text or use the first word or two in the citation’s parentheses. Titles of books and reports should be italicised; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages should be in quotation marks. APA 7th style calls for capitalising important words in titles when they are written in the text (but not when they are written in reference lists), e.g.:
Quantitative psychology is often associated with the use of statistical models and psychological measurement research methods ("Quantitative Research in Psychology," 2017).
In the rare case that "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name, for example:
Quantitative psychology is often associated with the use of statistical models and psychological measurement research methods (Anonymous, 2015).
In the reference list, use the name ‘Anonymous’ as the author.
Quantitative psychology is often associated with the use of statistical models and psychological measurement research methods ("Quantitative Research in Psychology," 2017).
In the rare case that "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name, for example:
Quantitative psychology is often associated with the use of statistical models and psychological measurement research methods (Anonymous, 2015).
In the reference list, use the name ‘Anonymous’ as the author.
If the resource does not have a date, use the abbreviation ‘n.d.’ (standing for ‘no date’), e.g.:
Wallis stated that the students all responded as predicted to the stimulus (n.d.).
Wallis stated that the students all responded as predicted to the stimulus (n.d.).
It is not uncommon for researchers to have more than one paper published in the same year. If you are citing two or more papers by the same author(s) in the same year you should append an 'a' after the date of the one you cite first, and a 'b' after the second one, and so on, as follows:
Bloggs and Jones (1996a)...
Bloggs and Jones (1996b) …
Bloggs and Jones (1996a)...
Bloggs and Jones (1996b) …