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APA 7th Ed. Help: In-Text Citations

Library guide to support APA 7th edition.

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In-Text Citations

APA in-text citation essentials from the American Psychological Association. 

APA Style (7th ed.) In-Text Citation information from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) often referred to as Purdue OWL.

In-Text Citations: Summary Of Notable APA 7th ed. Changes

The number in parentheses indicates the corresponding chapter or section(s) in the APA Publication Manual. 

In-Text Citations

  • For a work with one or two authors, include the author's last name(s) in every citation. For a work with three or more authors, include the last name of only the first author plus "et al." in every citation  (including the first citation). (8.17)

Basic APA 7th ed. In-Text Citation Styles

Basic APA 7th ed. In-Text Citation Styles

Author Type

Parenthetical Citation

Narrative Citation

1 author

(Smith, 2020)

Smith (2020)

2 authors

(Perkins & Jackson, 2020)

Perkins and Jackson (2020)

3 or more authors

(Johnson et al., 2020)

Johnson et al. (2020)

Group author with abbreviation (First citation)

Subsequent citations

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020)

(CDC, 2020)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2020)

CDC (2020)

Group author without abbreviation

(Stanford University, 2020)

Stanford University (2020)

In-text citation and quotation details can be found in Chapter 8 of the APA Publication Manual 7th edition.

Adapted from content created by Rae Jeffers & Laura Haygood, University of Texas, Arlington

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