Every source in your reference list needs at least one in-text citation, and every in-text citation needs a matching reference. APA uses the author–date system: the author’s surname and the year, with a page number when you quote.
Two ways to cite
| Example | When to use it | |
|---|---|---|
| Parenthetical | Mobile money reduced poverty (Suri & Jack, 2016). | The source supports your point. |
| Narrative | Suri and Jack (2016) found that mobile money reduced poverty. | The authors are part of your sentence. |
The only difference besides the brackets: parenthetical citations join authors with &, narrative citations with and.
Number of authors
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380. https://doi.org/10.1086/225469
In-text: (Granovetter, 1973)
Suri, T., & Jack, W. (2016). The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science, 354(6317), 1288–1292. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309
In-text: (Suri & Jack, 2016)
Banerjee, A., Duflo, E., Glennerster, R., & Kinnan, C. (2015). The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 7(1), 22–53. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20130533
In-text: (Banerjee et al., 2015)
- One author: (Granovetter, 1973) / Granovetter (1973)
- Two authors: (Suri & Jack, 2016) / Suri and Jack (2016), every time.
- Three or more: (Banerjee et al., 2015) / Banerjee et al. (2015), from the first citation.
Page numbers and quotations
Direct quotations always need a page number (or a paragraph number for web pages without pages):
- (Suri & Jack, 2016, p. 1290)
- (Creswell & Creswell, 2018, pp. 41–43) for a range
- (World Health Organization, 2023, para. 4) for a web page
For paraphrasing, a page number is optional, but adding one helps your reader find the passage in a long book.
Organisations as authors
Write the organisation’s name in full. If it has a familiar abbreviation and you cite it more than once, introduce the abbreviation the first time:
- First citation: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2023)
- After that: (WHO, 2023)
Several sources at once
List them in alphabetical order, separated by semicolons: (Aker & Mbiti, 2010; Suri & Jack, 2016). Several works by the same author go in date order: (Suri, 2016, 2021).
If an author published more than one work in the same year, add letters after the year, matching your reference list: (Suri, 2021a, 2021b).
No date, no author
- No date: (United Nations, n.d.)
- No author: use the first few words of the title. Titles of articles and chapters go in quotation marks, titles of books and reports in italics: (“Mobile Money in Kenya,” 2020).
Secondary sources
If you read about a study in another work and didn’t read the original yourself, cite both in the text but only list the source you read:
(Granovetter, 1973, as cited in Aker & Mbiti, 2010)
Use this sparingly. Where you can, find and read the original.
Personal communications
Interviews you conducted, emails and lectures that your reader can’t access are cited in the text only, with the initials, surname and exact date, and not in the reference list: (A. Okafor, personal communication, March 2, 2026).