Q. What is an in-text citation in APA Style?

APA Style (7th ed.)

An APA Style in-text citation, together with a corresponding reference entry, identifies the source of quoted or paraphrased text (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020, p. 253). In-text citations in APA Style can include the following three parts:

• The author’s last name or the name of the organization that authored the resource
• The year the resource was published
• Page, paragraph number, or other information that will allow the reader to locate the specific information

All three elements are required for in-text citations for quoted text, and the author name and year are always required in citations for paraphrases. These three elements, the author, date, and page or paragraph number, are typically combined in the following two ways:

• Lee (2019) stated that “quoted text” (p. 1).
• Furthermore, it was found that “quotation” (Lee, 2019, p.1).

The first of these is called a narrative citation, since the author name is outside of parentheses, and the second is called a parenthetical citation, since the parentheses enclose the entire in-text citation. Note that when the author’s name is part of the sentence text, the year will follow the author’s name even though the page or paragraph number is placed after the quotation or at the end of the sentence (APA, 2020, p. 271). For more information, please see Where Should an In-text Citation be Placed (APA Style)?.

When citing a specific paragraph from a long and complex text without page numbers, include a heading (or an abbreviated heading—in quotation marks—if the heading is quite long) instead of paragraph numbers, or a heading for a section plus the paragraph number(s) in that section. For example: (Jones, 2006, "Recommendations", para. 4). If your quotation breaks over two pages, you can provide a page range in the citation: (Government of Canada, 1968, pp. 5-6). For more information, please see page 272 in the APA Style manual for a chart that compares the basic citation styles, as well as the information provided below. For information on how to create a citation when page or paragraph numbers are difficult to locate, please see How Do I Cite an Ebook without Page Numbers in APA Style? as well as Direct Quotation of Material Without Page Numbers, which is a resource by the APA. For general information on in-text citations, please see In-Text Citations and Basic Principles, both of which are APA resources, and RRU’s Quoting, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing.

When presenting information in a paragraph, you may find that you’re citing repeatedly from the same resource. While APA style doesn’t use ibid., it is not always necessary to repeat citations within paragraphs focusing on a specific resource. Please visit I'm Quoting/Paraphrasing Repeatedly From the Same Author in a Paragraph. Can I Put One Citation at the End of the Paragraph (APA)? for information and examples.

Reference

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000