Answered By: Theresa Bell (she/her/hers)
Last Updated: Nov 02, 2021     Views: 345

Different year of publication
 
According to the seventh edition APA style rules, if you have two or more resources by the same author from which you've quoted or paraphrased information, you can distinguish between the resources in your in-text citations and references by the year of publication: e.g., Lee (2016) versus Lee (2019). In the references, list the earliest text first (American Psychological Assocation [APA], 2020, p. 305):
 

Lee, A. (2016). An imaginary book title. Publisher Name. https://doi.org/xxxxxxxxxx

Lee, A. (2019). An imaginary book title. Publisher Name. https://doi.org/xxxxxxxxxx

Same year of publication

If you need to distinguish between works by the same author with the same publication date, use the suffixes a, b, c, etc. after the year in in-text citations (APA, 2020, p. 267). This format must also be used in the corresponding references (APA, 2020, p. 305). To determine which resource gets what suffix, check the publication dates of the resources; "references with only a year precede those with more specific dates, and specific dates are placed in chronological order" (APA, 2020, p. 305). For example:

Lee, A. (2016a). An imaginary book title. Publisher Name. https://doi.org/xxxxxxxxxx

  • In-text citation: (Lee, 2016a, p. X)

Lee, A. (2016b, September 16). An imaginary newspaper article. Newspaper Name. https://www.website.com

  • In-text citation: (Lee, 2016b, para. X)

Identical publication dates

If the resources have identical publication dates, order the resources alphabetically by the title of the article (excluding "a" or "the") (APA, 2020, p. 305). Using that order of the references, assign the first resource "a", the second resource "b", and so forth. For example:

Lee, A. (2016a). An imaginary resource. Website Name. https://www.website.com

  • In-text citation: (Lee, 2016a, para. X)

Lee, A. (2016b). Another imaginary resource. Website Name. https://www.website.com

  • In-text citation: (Lee, 2016b, para. X)

Lowercase letters can also be used to distinguish between resources without publication dates with a dash between "n.d." and the lowercase letter; for example:

Royal Roads University. (n.d.-a). Education & technology. https://www.royalroads.ca/prospective-students/programs/education-technology

  • In-text citation: (Royal Roads University, n.d.-a, para. X)

Royal Roads University. (n.d.-b). Humanitarian studies. https://www.royalroads.ca/prospective-students/programs/humanitarian-studies

  • In-text citation: (Royal Roads University, n.d.-b, para. X)

 

Reference

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

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