APA 6 Format and Citation Guide Made Easy
APA 6 In-text citations
When citing references in a text using the APA format, focus on the author-date approach. This means that the author’s surname (without suffixes such as Dr. or Jr.) appears in the text, followed by the year of publication.
Direct quotations require the inclusion of the page number in addition to the authors’ names and years.
Example: (Leary, 2009, p. 137).
An author named in a signal phrase
APA format requires the use of the word and instead of the ampersand before the last author’s name when citing a work by multiple authors in the text.
Example: Greene and Kernis (2012) argued that every individual involved in the process of creation of software is responsible for its quality.
The author is not named in a signal phrase.
The APA Citation Style Guide (7th ed.) is a comprehensive manual for writers and researchers to follow when formatting and Read more
The MLA Format and Citation Style Guide 9th Edition is an authoritative resource provided by the Modern Language Association for Read more
The Chicago Citation Style Guide (17th ed.) - Notes-Bibliography is a referencing guide developed in accordance with The Chicago Manual Read more
The Chicago Citation Style Guide (17th ed.)-Author-Date is a referencing format developed in accordance with The Chicago Manual of Style, Read more
Example: The framework based on categorizing racial attributes does not consider numerous individual differences between ethnic groups (Holland, 2010).
A work by two authors
Example: The use of sterilization accounts for 3.2 percent of birth control methods in Christian communities (Purnell & Paulanka, 2016).
A work by three to five authors
List all authors the first time a work is cited in the text. However, in subsequent citations, only the first author’s name, followed by et al., along with the year of publication, should be placed.
Example: The limitations of the classification system preclude its use for the determination of specific health needs of ethnic minorities (Flatman, Flemming, & Drewett, 2009).
Example: Belonging to a racial group requires a differentiation between racial needs and those of the society at large (Flatman et al., 2009).
Six or more authors
Include only the name of the first author, followed by et al., along with the year of publication.
Example: Baxter et al. (2014) argued that statewide statistics do not reflect the real experiences of Muslims in the U.S.
Unknown author
When the source does not identify an author, cite it by the first few words of its title. The titles of books and periodicals have to be italicized, whereas titles of book chapters and articles must be placed inside quotation marks.
Example: Naturalism and the improvement of healthcare outcomes are the main principles of the provision of biomedicine in the U.S. (Biomedicine and Health Care, 2015).
Example: The healthcare services in Australia are based on the long-standing culture of nursing as well as national models of health and illness (“Health care approaches,” 2011).
Corporate Author
If the name of the group first appears in parentheses (as in the second example below), put the abbreviation in brackets after it, followed by a comma and the year for the citation:
Example: The American Psychological Association (APA, 2011) suggested that parents talk to their children about family finances in age-appropriate ways.
Example: Children should learn about family finances in age-appropriate ways (American Psychological Association [APA], 2011).
In the reference list entry, do not include the group author’s abbreviation. Instead, spell out the group’s full name.
Authors with the same last name
Include first initials followed by the last names in order to distinguish between authors with the same last name.
For example, The religious and spiritual beliefs of Arab American Muslims significantly influence their healthcare practices and health-seeking behaviors (M. Berndt, 2016; L. Berndt, 2016).
More than one work by the same author in the same year
Distinguish between works by the same author in the same year by including lowercase letters next to the year of publication in both in-text citations and reference list entries.
Example: Terminally ill patients find a source of strength in performing daily prayers and adhering to other religious duties described in their sacred texts such as the Bible and Quran (Robbins, 2011a).
Indirect sources
Provide the author of the original source in a signal phrase and include a citation of the secondary source in parentheses. Note that only the secondary source has to be included in the reference list.
Example: Smith argues that “personalistic systems provide the most accurate representation of a patient’s identity” (as cited in Wescot, 2014, p. 213).
Citing sources without page numbers
When an electronic document has numbered paragraphs, use the abbreviation “para.” followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001, para. 5). If the paragraphs are not numbered and the document includes
headings, provide the appropriate heading and specify the paragraph under that heading.
Example: Pinker and Smith (2013) went so far as to argue “that Chinese cultures condone the use of invasive health care procedures” (para. 11).
Example: According to Smith (1997),(Mind Over Matter section, 2018, para. 6)
The APA Citation Style Guide (7th ed.) is a comprehensive manual for writers and researchers to follow when formatting and Read more
The MLA Format and Citation Style Guide 9th Edition is an authoritative resource provided by the Modern Language Association for Read more
The Chicago Citation Style Guide (17th ed.) - Notes-Bibliography is a referencing guide developed in accordance with The Chicago Manual Read more
The Chicago Citation Style Guide (17th ed.)-Author-Date is a referencing format developed in accordance with The Chicago Manual of Style, Read more