APA - American Psychological Association

The APA's in-text citation system follows a parenthetical format, much like the MLA's, however; it emphasizes authors and dates of publication. The reason for this is that authors and dates of research are important benchmarks denoting relevancy and validity in both the social and the natural sciences.

The format is more complex than the MLA. Each citation includes the last name of the author and the year of publication. In some cases, chapters, paragraphs and page numbers are required. Placed inside parentheses, the citation appears just before the period at the end of the sentence. In the case of quoted material, the citation is placed between the final quotation mark and the period at the end of the sentence.

APA in-text formatting rules are as follows:

• A comma should be placed between the author's name and the year of publication.
• Page numbers are included only when part of a source or a direct quotation is cited and must include abbreviations ("p." or "pp.").
• Footnotes and endnotes are used only when there is a need to provide further information about a particular idea or when specific copyright permission needs to be documented.
• APA also requires cited material to be introduced in the past or present perfect tense. For example: Socrates taught or has taught…

Specific rules depend on whether part or all of a source is being cited as well as whether or not the author's name is mentioned in the sentence where the citation occurs.

Specific rules depend on whether or not an author's name is mentioned in the sentence where the citation occurs. Go to "Examples of APA In-Text Formatting Rules" to view examples of how to apply the basic formatting rules in each of these situations. Go to "Examples of APA Variations to In-Text Formatting Rule" to view specific variations to these rules.

• Examples of APA In-Text Formatting Rules
• Examples of APA Variations to In-Text Formatting Rule