APA’s in-text citations provide the author’s last name and the year of publication, usually before the cited material, and a page number in parentheses directly after the cited material.

Critser (2003) noted that despite growing numbers of overweight Americans, many health care providers still “remain either in ignorance or outright denial about the health danger to the poor and the young” (p. 5).

Note that APA style requires the use of the past tense or the present perfect tense in signal phrases introducing cited material: Smith (2012) reported, Smith (2012) has argued. See also Using signal phrases in APA papers.

The following sections provide details about citing various types of sources.

General guidelines for in-text citations

How to cite multiple works

How to cite Web sources

How to cite other sources