An essential component of a research paper, in-text citations are a way of acknowledging the ideas of the author(s) of a particular work.

Each source that appears as an in-text citation should have a corresponding detailed entry in the References list at the end of the paper. Including the required elements in every citation allows other researchers to easily track the references used in a paper and locate those resources themselves. Such referencing is a crucial element of joining the scholarly conversation on a topic; not only are you acknowledging by name the other interlocutors in your conversation, but your readers also need the option to be able to go straight to those other voices and assess their content and contexts for themselves. 

There are three pieces of information that should be included in a citation after quoting another writer’s work: the author’s last name, the year of publication, and, where appropriate, the page number(s) of the quoted material, all of which are separated by commas. The page number should follow a lower-case letter ‘p’ and a period.

• Basic structure: (Author, Year of Publication, p. 142)
  • Example: (Kutner, 2003, p. 451) [1]

If the quoted material was taken from more than one page, use two lower-case letter ‘p’ s.

• Basic structure: (Author, Year, of Publication, pp. 194-196)
  • Example: (Kutner, 2003, pp. 451-452) [1]

How should multiple authors of a single source be cited in parentheses?

If a work has two authors, separate their names with an ampersand (&) in a parenthetical citation; e.g., (Ryan & Gosling, 2023). Since the 7th edition was published in 2019, it has been conventional to shorten a citation with three or more authors to only include the first author’s name and “et al.,” meaning “and others.” A 2012 article by Niccolai, Jennes, Stoerig, and Van Leeuwen would be cited as (Niccolai et al., 2012). 

When should the word and be used?

The word and should only be used in a sentence or paragraph; do not use it in a parenthetical in-text citation. The last and second to last author of a cited work are separated by the word and.

• Example: Ryan and Gosling (2023) observed that “synesthesia appears quite stable over time, and synesthetes are typically surprised to discover that other people do not share their experiences” (p. 81). [1]

When should the term et al. be used?

When citing a single work with three or more authors, substitute all the authors’ names after the lead author with the term et al.  The term et al. should not be italicized in your paper, and a period should be placed after the word al as it is an abbreviated term. 

• (Krauss et al., 2003, p. 91)
• As Krauss et al. (2003) observed, …

Avoid using et al.:

• To cite a work that only has two authors.
  • Instead, always list the two authors’ names in every citation, separated by either an ampersand or the word and, depending on the location in your parenthesis or your sentence.