In APA style, you use parenthetical citations within the text of your paper to credit your sources, to show how recently your sources were published, and to refer your reader to a more detailed citation of the source in the reference list at the end of your paper. You should use parenthetical citations when you paraphrase, quote, or make any reference to another author's work. A parenthetical citation in APA style includes the author's last name as well as the year in which the work was published, with a comma between them. If you are referring directly to a specific page in the source, you should also include the page number in your parenthetical citation. APA requires you to cite page numbers when you are quoting directly from the source. If you are paraphrasing, which is more common in the social sciences, you generally do not need to include a page number. If you have questions about whether you should include page numbers when citing in APA, you should consult your instructor.
If you mention the author's name and/or the year of publication in the sentence preceding the citation, you do not need to include them in the parenthetical citation. When you name the author in the sentence, you should include the publication year in parentheses right after the author’s name—do not wait until the end of the sentence to provide that information.
When you include a parenthetical citation at the end of a sentence, the punctuation for your sentence appears after the citation.
Examples
Citing author and date in a parenthetical citation
When you don’t mention either the author or the date of publication in your sentence, you should include both the author and the year, separated by a comma, in the parenthetical citation.
Colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students (Jack, 2019).
Citing when author’s name is mentioned in body of paper
When you mention the author’s name in your sentence, the year of publication should immediately follow the author’s name.
Anthony Jack’s (2019) study of low-income students on an elite college campus revealed that these schools are often unprepared to support the students they admit.
Jack (2019) studied the ways low-income students experience elite college campuses.
Citing page numbers
When you cite a direct quote from the source or paraphrase a specific point from the source, you should include the page number in the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. When you refer to a specific page or pages of the text, first list the year of publication and then list "p." followed by the page number or "pp." followed by the range of pages. If you refer to a specific chapter, indicate that chapter after the year.
The author contends that “higher education in America is highly unequal and disturbingly stratified” (Jack, 2019, p. 4).
Jack (2019) contends that “higher education in America is highly unequal and disturbingly stratified” (p. 4).
Citing sources with more than one author
When you cite a source that has two authors, you should separate their names with an ampersand in the parenthetical citation.
The authors designed a study to determine if social belonging can be encouraged among college students (Walton & Cohen, 2011).
If a work has three or more authors, you should only include the first author's name followed by et al. (Et al. is the shortened form of the Latin et alia, which means “and others.”)
The implementation of postpartum contraceptive programs is both costly and time consuming (Ling et al., 2020).
Attributing a point to more than one source
To attribute a point or idea to multiple sources, list them in one parenthetical citation, ordered alphabetically by author and separated by semicolons. Works by the same author should be ordered chronologically, from oldest to most recent, with the publication dates separated by commas.
Students who possess cultural capital, measured by proxies like involvement in literature, art, and classical music, tend to perform better in school (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977; Dumais, 2002; Orr, 2003).
Citing multiple works by the same author
If your reference list includes multiple works by the same author in the same year, identify them in your parenthetical citations and in your reference list by a lowercase letter after the year, assigning each letter in alphabetical order by the title of the work. When establishing the alphabetical order of works in your reference list, do not count the words "A" or "The" when they appear as the first word in a title.
One union-endorsed candidate publicly disagreed with the teachers' union on a number of issues (Borsuk, 1999a).
Citing multiple authors with the same last name
If your reference list includes sources by multiple authors with the same last name, list each author's initials before their last name, even when the works were published in different years.
The question of whether a computer can be considered an author has been asked for longer than we might expect (B. Sobel, 2017).
Citing when no author is listed
To refer to a work that is listed in your reference list by title rather than by author, cite the title or the first few words of the title.
The New York Times painted a bleak picture of the climate crisis (“Climate Change Is Not Negotiable,” 2022).
Citing when no date is listed
If the work you are citing has no date listed, you should put “n.d.” for “no date” in the parenthetical citation.
Writing research papers is challenging (Lam, n.d.).
Citing a specific part of a source that is not a page number
To refer to a specific part of a source other than page number, add that after the author-date part of your citation. If it is not clear whether you are referring to a chapter, a paragraph, a time stamp, or a slide number, or other labeled part of a source, you should indicate the part you are referring to (chapter, para., etc.).
In the Stranger Things official trailer, the audience knows that something unusual is going to happen from the moment the boys get on their bicycles to ride off into the night (Duffer & Duffer, 0:16).