In-Text Citations

In-text citations use the author’s or authors’ last name(s), the year, and, when possible, specific page numbers. As in the examples below, you may weave some of this information into your text. Any element not already introduced in your text should appear in a parenthetical.

Refer to the examples below for formatting. Note the placement of the parenthetical inside of final punctuation for shorter quotations, but after final punctuation for longer (40+ words) quotations.

General Rules

If author(s) are incorporated into the sentence, then the publication year follows in parentheses:

Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports …

If two authors are in parentheses, they are separated by an ampersand (&):

(Wegener & Petty, 1994).

For three or more authors, use just the first author followed by the phrase et al. (Latin abbreviation of et alii, meaning “and others”).

(Kernis et al., 1993)

Kernis et al. (1993) suggest...

Short Quotations

If you are quoting less than 40 words, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and page number for the in-text citation:

According to Jones (1998), “students can successfully use APA style” (p. 25).

Jones (1998) found “students can successfully use APA style” (p. 25).

She stated, “Students can successfully use APA style” (Jones, 1998, p. 25).

Long Quotations

Quotations that are 40+ words are set off in a double-spaced, indented block without quotation marks.

Introduce the source in an in-text citation before the quotation appears. Place the page number(s) in parentheses at the end of the block quotation:

Rausch et al. (2006) concluded the following:

A mere 20 min of these group interventions was effective in reducing anxiety to normal levels...merely 10 min of the interventions allowed [the high anxiety group] to recover from the stressor. Thus, brief interventions of meditation and progressive muscle relaxation may be effective for those with clinical levels of anxiety and for stress recovery when exposed to brief, transitory stressors. (p. 287)