APA In-Text Citation Generator
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Paste a DOI, PubMed ID, arXiv ID or ISBN and get both APA 7 in-text forms: parenthetical (LeCun et al., 2015) and narrative LeCun et al. (2015). Add a page number for a quote and both update. The matching reference comes with them, so your text and reference list agree.
How to get an APA in-text citation
Step 1
Paste your sources
One DOI, PubMed ID, arXiv ID or ISBN per line, up to 50, or upload a .bib, RIS, EndNote or PubMed export.
Step 2
Convert
In-text citation is already selected. Each source gets a parenthetical and a narrative citation, each with its own Copy button.
Step 3
Add a page if you quote
Type the page or range in the page box: 440 gives (LeCun et al., 2015, p. 440), 255-257 gives pp. 255–257.
APA in-text citation rules, with examples
One author
(Shannon, 1948) or Shannon (1948)
Two authors
Both names every time. & inside parentheses, "and" in your sentence.
(Jordan & Mitchell, 2015) or Jordan and Mitchell (2015)
Three or more authors
First author and et al. from the first citation (APA 7).
(LeCun et al., 2015) or LeCun et al. (2015)
Direct quote
Page number after the year: p. for one page, pp. for a range.
(LeCun et al., 2015, p. 440) or (Jordan & Mitchell, 2015, pp. 255–257)
Same authors, same year
Letters a and b, in the same order as the reference list.
(Kahneman & Tversky, 1979a) or (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979b)
No date
n.d. in place of the year.
(Author, n.d.) or Author (n.d.)
Paste all the sources you cite in one go: the a and b letters can only be worked out when the tool sees both works together.
Parenthetical or narrative: which one to use
Use parenthetical when the source supports a statement: "Deep networks learn features from raw data (LeCun et al., 2015)." The citation goes before the full stop.
Use narrative when the author is part of the sentence: "LeCun et al. (2015) showed that deep networks learn features from raw data." The year follows the name straight away; for a quote, the page goes in parentheses after the quotation.
Both are correct APA. Switching between them keeps the writing from reading like a list of brackets.
Frequently asked questions
Name both every time: (Jordan & Mitchell, 2015) in parentheses, Jordan and Mitchell (2015) in a sentence. et al. only starts at three authors.
For three or more authors, from the very first citation: (LeCun et al., 2015). APA 6 listed up to five authors the first time; APA 7 dropped that rule.
For a direct quote, yes: (LeCun et al., 2015, p. 440). For a paraphrase it is optional, but APA encourages it when it helps a reader find the passage. Sources without page numbers can use a paragraph number, para. 4, typed into the page box.
No. The tool works from DOI, PubMed, arXiv and ISBN records; DOI, PubMed and arXiv links are read as the identifier inside them, but a website address has no record to look up, and the tool says so. Write website citations by hand.
Yes, change the Style menu. MLA uses the page instead of the year, (LeCun et al. 440); see the MLA in-text citation generator. Numbered styles such as IEEE give one form only, [1].
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