Mentioning the author in the text

If the author or publication date of a particular work is important to your discussion, add this information to the sentence.

In-text citation: citation-sequence or citation-name

Smith 11, studying three species of tree frogs in South Carolina, was the first to observe.…

This species was not listed in early floras of New York; however, in 1985 it was reported in a botanical survey of Chenango County 13.

In-text citation: name-year

This species was not listed in early floras of New York; however, it was reported in a botanical survey of Chenango County (Osiecki and Smith 1985) and has since been verified.

Smith (2003) observed seasonal behavior of three species of tree frogs in South Carolina.

Explain

  • In the name-year system, the author’s name and the date are given in parentheses in the text of the paper (first example).

  • Alternatively, the author’s name can be given in a signal phrase and the date in parentheses (second example).

  • For two authors, use “and” between the last names.

  • For three or more authors, give the first author’s name followed by “et al.” (for “and others”).

  • In the parenthetical citation, use no comma between the author’s name and the date.

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