Other Citation Rules

APA has a number of other rules regarding how to do in-text citations if certain elements are involved. Use the links right below to go to each rule for more detailed explanations and examples.

Multiple Works

Interviews

Personal Communications

Classroom & Intranet Sources

Secondary Sources

Multiple Works

Sometimes, you may be citing sources that share the same ideas or argue for the same viewpoint. In these cases, you may want to cite multiple works in a single in-text citation. Remember, while this is possible, readers may find long strings of citations confusing. Only include citations needed to support your immediate point. See pp. 263-264 of the manual for more about citing multiple works.

Citing Multiple Works

When citing multiple works parenthetically, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons.

Example:

(Barton & Bryant, 2015; Calhoun et al., 2018; Goodwin, 2019)

Arrange two or more works by the same authors by year of publication. Place citations with no date first, followed by works with dates in chronological order.

Example:

(Coffey et al., n.d., 2017a, 2017b, 2019)

To highlight the work(s) most relevant to your point in a given sentence, place those citations first within parentheses in alphabetical order. Then insert a semicolon and a phrase, such as "see also," before the remaining citations, which should also be in alphabetical order.

Example:

(Velasquez & Estrada, 2017; see also Carillo, 2016; Macias, 2015; Serrano et al., 2015)

If multiple sources are cited within the narrative of a sentence, they can appear in any order.

Example:

Beltran (2014), Randall (2016, 2017), and Holden and Daughtery (2015) examined...

Interviews

An interview is a dialogue or exchange of information between people.

There are three types of interviews as sources:

Published interviews
Personal interviews
Research participant interviews

Published interviews may appear in magazines, newspapers, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc.

Personal interviews are those you conduct as a means of obtaining information to support a point in your paper. These types of interviews cannot be recovered.

Research participant interviews are those you conducted as part of your methodology.

See p. 259 of the manual for more information.

How to Cite Published Interviews

To cite a published interview, follow the format for the reference type (e.g., magazine article, podcast episode).

In-text citation:

(Roberts & Lee, 2017)

How to Cite Personal Interviews

Readers cannot recover personal interviews. Because of this, cite a personal interview as a personal communication.

In-text citation:

(J. Vargas, personal communication, November 20, 2012)

How to Cite Research Participant Interviews

Research participant interviews do not require a citation in APA because your do not cite your own work in the paper in which it is first being reported.

Information gathered from participants can be presented in discussed in a paper according to these guidelines:

Present a quotation of fewer than 40 words in quotation marks within the text
Present a quotation of 40 words or more in block quotation
State in the text that the quotations are from participants
Abide by the ethical agreements regarding confidentiality and/or anonymity. Obtain consent from your participants to include their information in your report. You may need to assign participants a pseudonym, obscure identifying information, or present information in the aggregate. See p. 278 of the manual for more information and examples.

Personal Communications

Works that cannot be recovered by readers (i.e., works without a source element) are cited in the text as personal communications. To learn more about citing these types of sources, see pp. 260-261 in the manual.

Personal communications may include:

Emails
Text messages
Online chats or direct messages
Personal interviews
Telephone conversations
Live Speeches
Unrecorded classroom lectures
Memos
Letters
Messages from nonarchived discussion groups
or online bulletin boards

How to Cite Personal Communications

Personal communications are not included in the reference list; they are cited in the text only. Give the initial(s) and surname of the communicator, and provide as exact a date as possible.

In-text citation:

(A. Sutton, personal communication, January 14, 2019)

Citing Traditional Knowledge or Oral Traditions of Indigenous Peoples

If Traditional Knowledge or Oral Traditions of Indigenous Peoples can be recovered by readers (e.g., video, audio, interview transcript, book, article), cite it in the text and include a reference list entry in the correct format for that type of source.

In-text citation:

(King, 1971)

If these types of sources are not recoverable by readers, provide as much detail in the in-text citation as is necessary to describe the content and to contextualize the origin of the information. If you spoke with an Indigenous person directly, follow the personal communication in-text citation with the person's full name, the nation or specific Indigenous group to which they belong, as well as their location and other relevant information, followed by "personal communication" and the date. No reference entry is included.

In-text citation:

(Sarah Grant, Great Sioux Nation, lives in Yankton, SD, personal communication, May 8, 2004)

Classroom & Intranet Sources

Some works may only be available to certain audiences. For example, a student may use a work from the classroom website or learning management system (Moodle). Likewise, an employee might cite resources from the company intranet when writing an internal report. These types of sources are not available to the general public.

How to Cite a Classroom or Intranet Resource

When the audience you are writing for can retrieve the resources you used (for example, a student writing a paper for an instructor can access their learning management system), cite the works using the normal format.

If, however, the work is for professional publication or intended for a wider audience who will not have access to these sources, cite the sources as personal communications. See p. 259 in the manual for more information.

Example

For an audience that can access the sources

In-text citation:

(Newhall et al., 2017)

For professional publication or a wider audience that will not have access to the sources**

In-text citation:

(S. J. Greene, personal communication, March 3, 2015)

**Note: Personal communications do not have a reference entry and are only cited in the text of a paper.

Secondary Sources

A primary source reports original content.

A secondary source refers to content first reported in another source.

It is preferred to cite primary sources. You should cite secondary sources when:

The original work is out of print or unavailable
The original work is only available in a language you do not understand
You are not able to locate the original work

To learn more about citing secondary sources, see p. 258 of the manual.

How to Cite Secondary Sources

To cite a secondary source:

Provide a reference list entry for the secondary source you are citing.
In the text, identify the primary source and then write "as cited in" the secondary source that you used.
If the year of publication is known for the primary source, also include it in the text.

Example

Say you read an article by Knipe & Horowitz (2018) in which Truslow (2009) was cited. You are unable to read Truslow's work yourself. The reference list would only include the secondary source by Knipe & Horowitz (2018). The in-text citation would look as it does below:

In-text citation:

(Truslow, 2009, as cited in Knipe & Horowitz, 2018)

Unknown Year, Primary Source

If the year of the primary source is unknown, omit it from the in-text citation.

In-text citation:

Newton's diary (as cited in Hale, 1912)

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