Guideline for APA In-Text Citation
Wat is In-Text Citation?
When writing a journal article, literature review, convention paper, or any other academic work, authors must add in-text citations whenever they refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. In addition, every time a work is acknowledged inside a document (in APA style, a parenthetical citation), a corresponding entry must be made in the reference list.

How to Cite a Research Paper
The argument behind citing other people’s papers in your own manuscript is that you want to avoid intellectual dishonesty by providing credit to whoever published a finding first or devised a specific technique. This is not simply an ethical matter, as being “sloppy” with your sources can easily be considered plagiarism (and even self-plagiarism, if you neglect to refer to your own work), which can have legal ramifications and damage your reputation.

General standards for what information should be supplied when referencing sources in a research paper differ across sectors and rely on the type of source (e.g., books, journal articles, patents, conference proceedings, websites, etc). (e.g., books, journal articles, patents, conference proceedings, websites, etc.). We are not going into such differences here but will focus on the correct way of referencing other people’s research in your own paper according to one of the most common styles used to cite sources within the social sciences and in several other academic disciplines, that is, APA (American Psychological Association) style.
In research papers, in-text citations are most typically utilized in the Introduction and Discussion Results sections. The following principles and examples are drawn from the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition, 2nd printing, which explains standards and use of APA style in research papers, including in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and references. For further information, check the APA Style Manual website.
This website gives specific instructions for citing sources in your article and includes examples of in-text citations for reference by research authors. Before submitting your article to a journal or publisher, be sure to use our free APA citation generator for your references and in-text citations.

APA Citation Rules: What You Need to Know
Structure and order of in-text citations

In-text citations in APA format should use the “author-date” technique. Place the last name of the author and the year of publication of the source in parentheses, and then separate them with a comma.
When citing an external source or a work in its whole without directly quoting from it, you should only include the author’s name and the year of publication in your citation, not the page number.
In the initial enzyme investigation (Crohn et al., 2003), a number of connections were discovered.

Including the year of publication in the citation is all that’s required if you mention the author of the work in the sentence or paragraph before it.
Several correlations were found in this study, which Chen (2014) highlights.
When making references to other works, use of the present tense is required
Use the past or present perfect tense (not the present tense) when signal phrases are used to refer to or reference prior research, according to APA style (have a look at this article for more details on the correct tenses for different parts of a research paper).

In-text citations: where to put them (no quotation)
Citation (publication date alone) should be included exactly below the name of the author of the study being referenced.

For the formation of performative gender roles, Klingon and Reuthers (2010) discovered that mirroring is essential.

The reference (author and publication date) should be placed at the conclusion of a phrase that reflects the results or implications of prior work.

Capitalization
In-text citations should always use capital letters for author names and initials.

Short Quotations and Their Citation in the Text
When citing straight from a work, make sure to mention the author’s last name, the year the work was published, and the page number of the citation.

Include the author’s last name in a signal sentence before introducing the quotation; the year of publication will appear in parentheses after the author’s last name. Quoted text must include the page number in parentheses. The parenthetical citation is not surrounded by quotation marks.

When it comes to the first two years of their PhD research, Krohn (2006) notes that “graduate students tend to utilize more diversified methodologies” (p. 145).

For research departments, this finding by Krohn (2006) has major ramifications: “graduate students tend to adopt more diversified methodologies during their first two years of work” (p.145).

Alternatively, if the author’s last name, publication year, and page number are all included in parentheses following the cited text, this is the second method.

The rules for in-text citations of lengthy quotations
At least 40 words of quoted material are considered a “long direct quotation” in the citation world. Rather than using quotation marks, long quotations should be written in a separate block of lines like a new paragraph. Indent the left margin by half an inch (1.27 centimeters) when beginning the quotation. Double-space the entire quotation to fit within these new margins. The parenthetical citation should follow the final punctuation point.

When conducting research in teams of three or fewer with no senior researchers present, graduate students tend to use a wider range of approaches than their undergraduate counterparts. An incorrect understanding of proper methodology or an unrestricted desire to experiment with new methods could explain this inclination. On page 145 of the book,

Using Other People’s Work as Inspiration for Your Own
You just need to acknowledge the author and year of publication when quoting another work’s concepts. There may be value in including the page number of the original text when paraphrasing information that can be found on a certain page. Although the APA recommends it, it is not a requirement.

For new researchers, a wide range of approaches are used, according to Ahmet (1976).
New researchers are more likely to employ a wide range of approaches (Althkan, 1976, p. 45).

External Work Initiation Signal Phrases

According to Jonathan’s (year of publication) account….
According to Johnson (year of publication)…
According to Johnson and Smith (year of publication),
According to Mutlu’s (2011) research, this is exactly what happens…

Citing several authors/editors in a single reference
Depending on how many authors are involved in a publication and how many times you credit the same works, there are specific requirements that must be followed when making an in-text citation.
In-text citation of multiple works
Using a semi-colon to separate multiple sources in the same in-text reference is the proper way to do so. List the sources alphabetically in the reference list (by last name of author or title if no author is specified).

(Ali in 1897; Janice in 2013)
(Raskolkinov, 2007) and “Criys,” (1986), respectively

Sharing the same year of publication for two or more works by the same author
Use lowercase letters after the year of publication (a, b, c) to indicate the order of the titles of several sources with the same author and year of publication. In-text citations will follow the same alphabetical order as your reference list.

Citing a Quoted Work in a Different Source
The term “secondary source” refers to a piece of writing that has been quoted or paraphrased elsewhere. Aside from the fact that the primary source must be referenced, you will use the phrase “as cited in” in your in-text citation to refer to a secondary source. As an illustration, the in-text citation for the following passage from Franklin’s review article might appear like this:
Some 25 percent of all US federal prisoners have been diagnosed with a social condition, according to a research by Can (as referenced in O’uz, 2007). “This number illustrates the dehumanizing conditions of most federal organizations,” says Adams (as reported in Franklin) (p. 76).

Citing Online Sources
Everything on this page
Unless you are citing a specific page or article, simply include the website’s name and URL in your report. The References section does not require a citation.
You can learn more about how to cite sources using the APA format at http://www.apa.org.
The author’s website (s)
The name of the author or authors should be listed first, followed by the year of publication, when citing a webpage with a specific author or authors.

Group-authored website
In-text citations should treat group authors as if they were individuals, but instead of using the author’s last name, use the group’s name.
An error has occurred on this page:
You can still cite a website as a source even if it lacks certain essential information (e.g., author, date, or webpage title). APA Style Blog post on Missing Pieces provides information on how to cite a website with missing material.
Using sources from the internet’s social media
Visit the APA Style Blog page on How to Cite Social Media in APA Style for a more detailed discussion of the citation standards for social media.
Academic editing and proofreading are essential when submitting your finished AP work to academic journals or for a class assignment. There are professional editors who are knowledgeable about APA, MLA and other common style guides who can ensure that your document’s citations and references are in accordance with the publication of your choosing.

Try our academic services today!