Citation – 6th Edition APA Format

Parenthetical documentation or in-text citations tells the reader where you got any and all information that did not
come from inside your own head. This is more obvious when you are directly quoting from a source, but it is also
needed when you have summarized or paraphrased from a source and even if you got an idea from somewhere
else.

In order to avoid plagiarism, it is extremely important that you cite all words and ideas that you got from somewhere
else.

Put the information about the source in parentheses in the text of your paper as opposed to a footnote where the
source information is at the bottom of the page or an endnote where it goes at the end of your paper. There are
slight differences depending on which style you are using.

 Give the author’s last name and the publication year.

 Only use page numbers for a direct quote.
 Make sure the source information in parentheses matches with your works cited.
 The punctuation for the sentence goes AFTER the parenthesis.
 If your quote is forty words or more, set it off in a block text by beginning a new line, indenting one inch,
and do not add quotation marks. At the end of the quote put the period after the last word of the sentence
followed by the parentheses.
 In-Text and Parenthetical Citation Examples
Quote with author’s name in text Smith (2019) states that, “...” (p. 112).
Quote with author’s name in reference This is quoted as, “…” (Smith, 2019, pp. 112-4).
Paraphrasing with author’s name in text Smith (2019) stated these facts, too.
Paraphrasing author’s name in reference This fact has been stated (Smith, 2019).
No author – give title of work abbreviated to first major word This book is true (Long, 2019).
Italics for books & journals, “quotation marks” for articles & web pages This article is true (“Long,” 2019).
Citing entire website – put URL This has evidence (www.pubmed.gov).
Quote from website – use paragraph number According to, “…” (Smith, 2019, para. 4).
More than one author with same last name P. L. Smith (2018) and J. M. Smith (2019)
Source has more than one author in text Smith and Lee agree that (2019)
Source has more than one author in reference This is agreed upon (Smith & Long, 2019).
Citing more than one work We all agree (Smith, 2019; Lee, 2018).
Citing more than one work by same author published in the same year We all agree (Smith, 2019a, 2019b, 2019c)
Smith (2019a) believes .....
It has been reported ... (Smith, 2019c)
In-Text and Parenthetical Citation Styles
One Author:
First In-Text Citation Johnson (2019)
Subsequent In-Text Citations Johnson (2019)
First Parenthetical Citation (Johnson, 2019)
Subsequent Parenthetical Citations (Johnson, 2019)
Two Authors:
First In-Text Citation Smith and Jones (2019)
Subsequent In-Text Citations Smith and Jones (2019)
First Parenthetical Citation (Smith & Jones, 2019)
Subsequent Parenthetical Citations (Smith & Jones, 2019)
Three to Five Authors:
First In-Text Citation Carlson, Rodriguez, and Inez (2019)
Subsequent In-Text Citations Carlson et al. (2019)
First Parenthetical Citation (Carlson, Rodriguez, & Inez, 2019)
Subsequent Parenthetical Citations (Carlson et al., 2019)

Six + Authors: First In-Text Citation Walsh et al. (2019)

Subsequent In-Text Citations Walsh et al. (2019)
First Parenthetical Citation (Walsh et al., 2019)
Subsequent Parenthetical Citations (Walsh et al., 2019)
Group Authors with Identifiable Abbreviations:
First In-Text Citation The College of St. Scholastica (CSS, 2019)
Subsequent In-Text Citations CSS (2019)
(The College of St. Scholastica [CSS],
First Parenthetical Citation
2019)
 Subsequent Parenthetical Citations (CSS, 2019)
Group Authors without Identifiable
Abbreviations:
First In-Text Citation University of Wisconsin (2019)
Subsequent In-Text Citations University of Wisconsin (2019)
First Parenthetical Citation (University of Wisconsin, 2019)
Subsequent Parenthetical Citations (University of Wisconsin, 2019)
What is a secondary source?
A secondary source is a citation or reference you discovered in a book, article, or other item that discusses
information found in an orginal source.
Example:
Jacobson describes nursing theories .... (as cited in Nihart, 1999).
Explanation:
Use sparingly!! Secondary sources should only be used when the original source (or primary source) cannot be
located. The original work should be named in the body of your paper. In parentheses begin with "as cited in". Then,
add the last name of the author of the secondary source followed by the year of publication. Be sure to include a
comma between the author's name and the publication date. End with a period if at the end of a sentence.

A reference list lists only the sources you refer to in your writing.
The purpose of the reference list is to allow your sources to be be found by your reader. It also gives
credit to authors you have consulted for their ideas. All references cited in the text must appear in
the reference list, except for personal communications (such as conversations or emails) which
cannot be retrieved.
A bibliography is different from a reference list as it lists all the sources used during your research
and background reading, not just the ones you refer to in your writing.
Reference formatting guide

Title Include the title 'References' (one word, beginning with a capital letter, centred, and not in
italics

Indent Hanging indent your references (space bar in 5 - 7 spaces for the second and subsequent lines
of each reference)

Space between In general double-space between references

references

Ampersand Use for 2 - 6 authors, use "&" before the final author

One author, two Order by year of publication, the earlier one first. Same year of publication for both - add 'a'
publications and 'b' after the year, inside the brackets. Include this in the in text citation. example: Baheti,
J. R. (2001a).

URLs Remove the underlines from URLs so that any underscores ( _ ) can be seen

Same first author, Order alphabetically by second or subsequent authors

different second
author

Upper case letters Journal title - use headline style; i.e. capitalise all the words, except articles and prepositions
(capital letters)
Book title or article title (in a journal, magazine or newspaper) - use sentence style;
i.e. capitalise the first word of the title, and subtitle (after the colon), and any proper names
 Place of USA publishers give the city in full and the abbreviation for the state.
publication New York, NY
Springfield, MA

Publishers outside the USA: Give the city in full and the country in full
London, England
Auckland, New Zealand

Page range Use an en dash, NOT a hyphen, for page ranges: e.g. 21–27. No gaps between the page
numbers and the en dash.

How to add an en dash in Microsoft Word, if using a full PC keyboard: Hold the Control
key and type the minus sign on the small numeric keypad.

NB: If your keyboard will not produce an en dash, it is acceptable to use a hyphen instead.
See the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (2010, p. 97) for more
detail on the use of hyphens and dashes in APA style.

Use of square If format, medium or description information is important for a resource to be retrieved or
brackets identified, use square brackets after the title to include this detail:

Scorsese, M. (Producer), & Lonergan, K. (Writer/Director). (2000). You can count on

me [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Reference examples

One author (a book chapter)

Easton, B. (2008). Does poverty affect health? In K. Dew & A. Matheson (Eds.), Understanding health inequalities
in Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. 97–106). Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press.

One author, multiple works published in the same year

Rush, E., McLennan, S., Obolonkin, V., Cooper, R., & Hamlin, M. (2015a). Beyond the randomised controlled trial and
BMI--evaluation of effectiveness of through-school nutrition and physical activity programmes. Public Health
Nutrition, 18(9), 1578–1581. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980014003322

Rush, E. C., Obolonkin, V., Battin, M., Wouldes, T., & Rowan, J. (2015b). Body composition in offspring of New
Zealand women: Ethnic and gender differences at age 1–3 years in 2005–2009. Annals Of Human Biology, 42(5),
492–497.

Two authors (a journal article with doi)

Li, S., & Seale, C. (2007). Learning to do qualitative data analysis: An observational study of doctoral
work. Qualitative Health Research, 17(10), 1442-1452. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307306924

Three authors

Barnard, R., de Luca, R., & Li, J. (2015). First-year undergraduate students’ perceptions of lecturer and peer
feedback: A New Zealand action research project. Studies In Higher Education, 40(5), 933–944.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2014.881343

 Use "&" before the final author.

Four to seven authors

Szcz Ę Sna, A., Nowak, A., Grabiec, P., Paszkuta, M., Tajstra, M., & Wojciechowska, M. (2017). Survey of wearable
multi-modal vital parameters measurement systems. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing,
526. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47154-9_37

 List all authors in the reference entry

More than seven authors

Kasabov, N., Scott, N. M., Tu, E., Marks, S., Sengupta, N., Capecci, E., . . . Yang, J. (2016). Evolving spatio-temporal data
machines based on the NeuCube neuromorphic framework: Design methodology and selected applications. Neural
Networks, 78, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2015.09.011

 First 6 authors ... last author. and follow by date and other information.