APA style uses a parenthetical, author-date format for in-text citations. After a quotation or reference, add parentheses containing the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number of the work being cited. Use a single "p." for one-page, and a "pp." for multi-page quotations.
Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Seuss, 2007, p. 7).
If you use more than one work by the same author published in the same year, use the letters a, b, etc., after the year.
Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Seuss, 2007a, p. 7).
If a reference list includes more than one author with the same last name, add the first initials to in-text citations.
Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (D. Seuss, 2007, p. 7).
If two or more authors wrote the work, see the "Basic APA Citations" table below.
If using the author's name in your text, do not include it in the parentheses.
Example: In his scholarly study, Dr. Seuss (2007) observed that "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (pp. 7-8).
If no author name is available, use the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title) and the year. Use quotation marks around titles of articles or web pages and italicize titles of books, periodicals, or reports. Treat in-text citations to legal materials such as court cases, statutes, and legislation the same as works with no author.
Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Fox in Socks, 2007).
If no page numbers are available, as is the case with some electronic journals, paragraph numbers and/or headings should be referenced.
Example: Smith and Jackson (2012) found that no significant effects resulted from their planned intervention (Discussion section, para. 5).