What is an in-text citation?

When referring to information from a source in your own text, per APA guidelines, you will include the author, the year of publication, and sometimes the page number of the source. (The page number is required only with direct quotations.) This list of information is called an in-text citation. Any time you use information that is not originally your own, you will want to include an in-text citation.

An in-text citation points the reader to your reference list, often called a reference citation. For more tips on creating reference entries, see What information is included in a reference citation?.

Placement of Citations

Your citation should come directly after the information that it is referring to. Usually citations are found in one of two places:

• At the beginning of the sentence in an introductory phrase:

According to Johnson (2013), students enjoy using APA style.

• At the end of the sentence in parentheses:

One source discovered that students enjoy using APA style (Johnson, 2013).

However, if you are referring to multiple sources in one sentence, sometimes a citation may need to come in the middle of a sentence. For example,

One source claimed that APA was fun (Johnson, 2013), while another source disagreed (Smith, 2013).

Note that because the first part of the sentence has a different source than the second, the citation of Johnson is in the middle of the sentence, while the citation of Smith is at the end.

Additional Resources:  

• View more details on in-text citations.
• See tips on how and when to cite in your text.
• Test your own citation knowledge with the Writing Center's self-paced APA modules.
• View archived APA webinars on other citation-related topics.
• Looking for reference list assistance? Find reference entry examples on the Common Reference List Examples page.
• See What information is included in a reference citation?.

Further Questions?

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