Research Guides: Citing Guide for Business (APA 7th ed.): Citation Basics

In-text citations are brief references within the body of your paper that point to the source of the information, ideas, or quotes you've used. They help your reader understand which sources support your arguments and give credit to the original authors.

Quoting a Source

In-text citations usually include the author's last name, the publication year, and, if you use a quote in your paper, the page number(s) where the quote can be found. For example:

(Author's last name, Publication year, p. Page number).

A 2020 study found that "organizational leaders who do not show empathy and compassion are a source of workplace stress for the employees they manage" (Zak, 2020, p. 163).

Paraphrasing a Source

If you're paraphrasing a source without directly quoting, you can leave out the page number:

(Author's last name, Publication year).

Employees experience negative outcomes such as stress and disengagement when their organizational leaders lack emotional and social skills (Zak, 2020).

The reference list is a list of all the sources cited in your paper. It appears at the end of your work and provides detailed information about each source so that readers can locate the original material.

A reference entry typically includes the author(s), publication date, title, source, and, if applicable, the DOI or URL. The format for each reference entry may vary depending on the type of source (e.g., journal article, book, website, etc.). These are the elements of a reference list entry for a journal article:

Author's last name, First initials. (Publication year). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, volume(issue), page range. DOI or URL

Here is an example of a reference list entry for a journal article:

Zak, P. (2020). Empathy enhancing antidotes for interpersonally toxic leaders. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 72(2), 119–133. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000164

Want more information? Visit APA's webpages on in-text citations and reference list citations.

Important Terms

In-text citations: In-text citations appear within the body of the paper and briefly identify the cited work by its author and date of publication. Learn more about in-text citations.

Reference list: A reference list appears at the end of the paper and provides more information on the cited works. The citations in a reference list usually include a work's author, date of publication, title, and link. Learn more about reference list citations.