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APA

ACU Library guide to referencing in APA7 style

In-text & Reference list

Author layout: In-text

In-text examples for first and subsequent citations

From Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., p.266), Washington: American Psychological Association 2020.
Type of citation First citation in text Subsequent citations in text Parenthetical format, first citation in text Parenthetical format, subsequent citations in text
One work by one author Walker (2007) Walker (2007) (Walker, 2007) (Walker, 2007)
One work by two authors Walker and Allen (2004) Walker and Allen (2004) (Walker & Allen, 2004) (Walker & Allen, 2004)
One work by three or more  authors* Bradley et al. (1999) Bradley et al. (1999) (Bradley et al., 1999) (Bradley et al., 1999)
Groups (readily identified through abbreviation) as authors National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2003) NIMH (2003) (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2003) (NIMH, 2003)
Groups (no abbreviation) as authors University of Pittsburgh (2005) University of Pittsburgh (2005) (University of Pittsburgh, 2005) (University of Pittsburgh, 2005)

*To avoid ambiguity, write out as many names as required to differentiate citations with the same authors, and add 'et al.' for the remainder of the author's names. 

For example:

Kapoor, Bloom, Montez, Warner, and Hill (2017)

Kapoor, Bloom, Zucker, Tang, Koroglu, L'Enfant, Kim, and Daly (2017)

In shortened and disambiguated form, the citations become:

Kapoor, Bloom, Montez, et al. (2017)

Kapoor, Bloom, Zucfker, et al. (2017)

Notes

  • When citing two or more works by the same author at the same point, the format is (Duncan, 2015, 2017).
  • When citing two or more works by different authors at the same point, the format is (Duncan, 2017; Gibson, 2018).
  • For works by the same author and same year, include a lower case letter after the publication year, for example, Department of Health (2016a) or (Department of Health, 2016b).
  • For works by the same author with no year, include a lower case letter to the abbreviation n.d., for example, Department of Education (n.d.a) or Department of Education (n.d.b).
  • Omit the year from subsequent narrative citations after the first instance, within a single paragraph.
  • For each citation use either parenthetical citation format or in-text citation format but not both.

Author layout: Reference list

  • Provide the surname and initial (Author, A. A.) for up to 20 authors. When there are more than two authors, use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name. For example:

    Forero, R., McDonnell, G., Gallego, B., McCarthy, S., Mohsin, M., Shanley, C., & Hillman, K. (2012). A literature review on care at the end-of-life in the emergency department. Emergency Medicine International, 2012, 486516. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/486516

  • List all authors up to 20. If there are 21 or more authors list the first 19 followed by … (an ellipsis) then the last author. For example:

    Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White, G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Higgins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K. C., Ropelewski, C., Wang, J., Leetmaa, A. … Joseph, D. (1996). The NCEP/NCAR 40 year renalysis project. Bulletin of the American Meterological Society, 77(3), 437-471. https://doi.org/fg6rf9

  • Include the full name of groups or organisations, for example, Australian Catholic University.
  • If a work has no author, use the title in place of the author.
  • Do not include titles before a name, for example, Dr.
  • Use commas to separate suffixes, for example, Author, A. A., Jr.
  • If there are hyphenated names, retain the hyphen, for example, Zhang, S-L.
  • Captilise and spell names as they appear in the article or book you are citing. If the last name begins with a lower case letter, retain that form both in-text and in the reference list. For example:

van Mill, D. (2017) Free speech and the state: An unprincipled approach. Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51635-6

Secondary citation

Reference list

Follows the reference list style for the source you are using.

Woolley, G. (2014). Developing literacy in the primary classroom. SAGE Publications.

In-text

… future of literacy (Kress, 2003, as cited in Woolley, 2014).

Notes

  • Secondary citations are when the work of one author (the primary source) has been either summarised or directly quoted in another author’s work (the secondary source).
  • You must cite the source you have accessed.
  • Use the original source whenever possible.
  • Only reference where the quote has come from (the secondary reference) (for example, Woolley, 2014, should be included in the reference list for the above example.
  • For multiple authors consult the guidance provided by APA for reference lists and in-text citations.