APA in-text citations (7th edition)
Everything you need to cite sources inside the text in APA 7, with a builder that formats your citation as you type and explains the rule it used.
(Walker & Stickgold, 2004, p. 122)
Two authors in parentheses: join with “&”.
The two forms
Every APA in-text citation contains the author and the year; that is what lets a reader find the full entry in your reference list, which is alphabetised by author. There are two ways to present them:
- Parenthetical: both elements in parentheses, separated by a comma:
Sleep strengthens new memories (Walker, 2017). - Narrative: the author is part of the sentence, and the year follows in parentheses:
Walker (2017) argued that sleep strengthens new memories.
By number of authors
| Authors | Parenthetical | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| One | (Walker, 2017) | Walker (2017) |
| Two | (Walker & Stickgold, 2004) | Walker and Stickgold (2004) |
| Three or more | (Carskadon et al., 2011) | Carskadon et al. (2011) |
| Group author | (World Health Organization [WHO], 2022), then (WHO, 2022) | World Health Organization (WHO, 2022) |
| No author | (“Sleep and Memory,” 2019) | “Sleep and Memory” (2019) |
Quotations and page numbers
Quoting directly? Add a locator. One page is p. 14, a range is pp. 14–15 with an en dash. For sources without pages, use para. 3, a section name, or a timestamp. Paraphrases do not require a page number, though APA encourages one when it would help the reader find the passage.
A quotation of 40 words or more becomes a block quotation: indented, no quotation marks, with the citation after the final period.
Common mistakes
- Using “&” in a narrative citation, or “and” in a parenthetical one.
- Leaving out the comma before the year:
(Walker 2017)is Chicago, not APA. - Writing “et al” without the period, or “et. al.” with an extra one.
- Putting the period before the citation instead of after it.
The APA format checker flags all of these in a pasted draft.
Questions
What is the format of an APA in-text citation?
Author surname and year of publication, separated by a comma, in parentheses: (Nguyen, 2021). For a direct quotation or a specific passage add the page: (Nguyen, 2021, p. 14). In a narrative citation the name is part of the sentence and only the year goes in parentheses: Nguyen (2021).
How do you cite three or more authors in APA 7?
Use the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” from the first citation onward: (Carskadon et al., 2011). This replaced the APA 6 rule of listing up to five authors the first time.
How do you cite a source with no author or no date?
With no author, use the first few words of the title: (“Sleep and Memory,” 2019) for an article or a web page, or italics for a book. With no date, use “n.d.”: (Walker, n.d.).
How do you cite a page with no page numbers?
Use a paragraph number (para. 4), a section heading with a paragraph number (Discussion section, para. 2), or a timestamp for audio and video (12:04).
How do you cite several sources at once?
Put them in one set of parentheses, in alphabetical order by first author, separated by semicolons: (Diekelmann & Born, 2010; Walker, 2017).
Where does the period go?
After the closing parenthesis, because the citation is part of the sentence: …memory (Walker, 2017). The only exception is a block quotation, where the citation follows the final punctuation.