APA Citation Guide (7th Edition)

One Author:

Include the last name of the author every time you cite the source and the date separated by a comma. Add the page number(s) after the date separated by a comma if you are directly quoting a source.

(Bottomly, 1996).

(Bottomly, 1996, p. 7).

Two Authors:

Include the last names of the authors every time you cite the source and connect them with an ampersand &. Add the page number(s) after the date separated by a comma if you are directly quoting a source.

(Cunningham & Tocco, 1989).

(Cohen & Fried, 2007, p. 144).

Three or More Authors:

(Baider et al., 1994).

(Baider et al., 1994, pp. 347-348).

Include only the first author's last name followed by the abbreviation et al. ('and also' in Latin). Only include more authors names if you have two or more sources that would have the same citation. Then add as many authors as you need to distinguish the sources. Add the page number(s) after the date separated by a comma if you are directly quoting a source.

Group Authors:

First time: (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020).

Subsequent times: (APA, 2020).

Include the entire name of the group or organization in the citation. If there is an acronym, include it in brackets the first time you cite the source, then following citations use only the acronym. Add the page number(s) after the date separated by a comma if you are directly quoting a source.

No Author or No Date:

If the source has no author, use the first few words or phrase from the source title or the first few words of the reference entry. Put the words in double quotations.

("Book of the Dead", 1901).

If there is no date, use the abbreviation n.d. for no date.

(The Cornell Lab, n.d.)

You have three different options for citing sources in text.

1.)  Put all the information into the parenthesis at the end.

Happy students achieve higher grade point averages (Barker et al., 2016).

2.)  Name the author(s) in the sentence and put the date in parenthesis next to them.

Barker et al. (2016) found that happy students achieve higher grade point averages.

*When directly quoting a text, the page number is also necessary separated by a comma and with a p. in front of the page.

Barker et al. (2016) conclude, “These results more generally suggest that happy students’ academic success could be derived from their ability to adaptively manage motivational benefits of time-limited periods—or bouts—of heightened negative affect” (p. 2026).

3.)  Put all the information in the sentence so no parenthetical citation is necessary.

In 2016, Barker et al. found that happy students achieve higher grade point averages.

*Note this only works for a paraphrase or summary. Direct quotes will still need the page numbers in the parenthesis.