APA Style Documentation, 7th Edition: In-Text Documentation

Any citation used in-text must be included in the References list.

For each in-text citation, include the first author's last name and date.

For an in-text citation having more than two authors, use et al. (and others) after the first author's surname to designate the other authors followed by the year. (ex: Smith et al., 2018) 

There are 2 formats for in-text citations:

• parenthetical citations
• narrative citations

In parenthetical citations, the author's name and year appear inside parentheses either within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. Example: Bullying is widespread in our society with approximately 25% of children saying they have been bullied during the current school year (Kimball, 2003).

In narrative citations, the author's name(s) and date are incorporated within the sentence or the text.

Example: It has been observed by Kimball (2003) that 25% of students say they have been bullied during the current school year. 

Basic in-text examples:

One author

Parenthetical citation: (Santos, 2016, p. 472)

Narrative citation: Santos (2016)

Two authors

Parenthetical citation: (Humphrey & Stofflet, 2015)

Narrative citation: Humphrey and Stofflet (2015)

Three or more authors

Parenthetical citation: (Zeiner et al., 2013)

Narrative citation: Zeiner et al. (2013)

Group author

Parenthetical citation: (Fordham University, 2020)

Narrative citation: Fordham University (2020)

Secondary sources

In text, name the original work and give a citation for the secondary source. Example: If Allport's work is cited in Nicholson and you did not read Allport's work, list the Nicholson reference in the Reference list. For in-text, use the following:

Allport's diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003)

--For more examples of in-text citations, see Sections 8.10 - 8.22 of the 7th edition of the Publication Manual (pp. 261 - 269).