How to use in-text citations to credit your sources

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Your written projects or oral presentations must be built on reliable, validated evidence from expert sources. Every paraphrase or direct quotation from your sources must be identified in your text by an in-text citation.

What is an APA style in-text citation?

An in-text citation identifies the source of a paraphrase or direct quotation using the author name and the date of publication.

In-text citations have two formats:

1. Parenthetical citations

In parenthetical citations, the author name and publication date appear in parentheses. The author name and publication date are separated by a comma “,”. Parenthetical citations can come in the middle or at the end of a sentence. In the text below, you can see four examples of parenthetical citations:

Innovations are identified as an important catalyst for economic survival and growth in the hospitality literature (e.g., Binder et al., 2013; Orfila-Sintes & Mattsson, 2009; […]). Their positive impact is well recognized. For instance, innovative hotels are reported to perform better in terms of occupancy rate (Mattsson & Orfila‐Sintes, 2014) and customer loyalty (Tsai, 2017).

Adapted from: Wikham, W. (2019). Innovation, sustainable HRM and customer satisfaction. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 76(part A), 102-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.04.009

2. Narrative citations

In narrative citations, the author name and publication date are included as part of the sentence, using an academic reporting verb to join the in-text citation to the paraphrase. In the text below, you can see two examples of narrative citations. The first narrative citation uses the academic reporting verb “show” and the second narrative citation uses the academic reporting verb “identify”:

Chadee and Mattsson (1996) show that innovative new products and services improve the financial performance and reputation of a hotel. Storey and Easingwood (1998) also identify a positive link between innovation behavior and hotel reputation.

Which is better: parenthetical or narrative citations?

You should use both parenthetical and narrative citations in order to vary your writing style. However, the narrative citation reads more smoothly since it is an integral part of the sentence. It also allows you to express your own attitude or stance towards the information in your paraphrase through your choice of academic reporting verbs. They also indicate your stance, your attitude (agree, disagree, etc) to the source you are using. This indication of your attitude is your original critical contribution to the subject.

For a full list of reporting verbs

What is the correspondence between my in-text citations and my end of text reference list?

There is an exact 1:1 correspondence between your in-text citations and your end of text reference list. This means that each in-text citation corresponds to an end of text reference list entry, so there are no in-text citations which do not appear in your reference list. Equally, each entry in your end of text reference list must be discussed somewhere in your text and be identified by an in-text citation. Every entry in your end of text reference list should be discussed in your text.

References

Binder, P., Mair, M., Stumer, K., & Kessler, A.. (2016). Organizational innovativeness and its results: A qualitative analysis of SME hotels in Vienna. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 40(3), 339-363.

Chadee, D. D., & Mattsson, J. (1996). An empirical assessment of customer satisfaction in tourism. Service Industries Journal, 16(3), 305-320.

Mattsson, J., & Orfila-Sintes, F. (2014). Hotel innovation and its effect on business performance. International Journal of Tourism Research, 16(4), 388-398.

Orfila-Sintres, F., & Mattsson, J. (2009). Innovation behavior in the hotel industry. Omega, 37(2), 380-394.

Storey, C., & Easingwood, C. J. (1998). The augmented service offering: a conceptualization and study of its impact on new service success. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 15(4), 353-351.

Tsai, S. P. (2017). Driving holistic innovation to heighten hotel customer loyalty. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(15), 1604-1619.

For more information about this topic, see

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7^th ed.), pp. 262-263, section 8.11 Parenthetical and narrative citations.

American Psychological Association. (n.d). Parenthetical versus narrative in-text citations. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/parenthetical-versus-narrative