An in-text citation is the brief information appears in the text of the paper. It normally includes the author's surname, the year of publication and page(s) (if applicable). It is usually presented as a parenthetical or narrative citation.
| Description | Parenthetical citation | Narrative citation | |
| One author | Provide the author’s surname and the year of publication. | (Smith, 2024) | Smith (2024) |
| Two authors | Use "&" between the names of two authors inside the parentheses and use and outside the parentheses. | … for the mental health care provider (Woods & Ryan, 2023). | Woods and Ryan (2023) found that … |
| Three or more authors | Provide the first author’s surname followed by "et al.". | Marketing is the key functional area of any business (Smith, et al. 2009). | Smith et al. (2009) proved that marketing … |
| Group author | Provide the group name in full. | … (World Health Organization, 2022). | World Health Organization (2022) mentioned … |
| If the group author has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations. | First citation: … (World Health Organization [WHO], 2022). Subsequent citation: … (WHO, 2022). |
First citation: World Health Organization (WHO, 2022) mentioned … Subsequent citation: WHO (2022) mentioned … |
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| No author | Place the title of the article in place of the author. Capitalise the title using title case. If the title is long, shorten it for the in-text citation. | Book with no author: … (Interpersonal Skills, 2019). Magazine article with no author: … (“Understanding Sensory Memory,” 2018). |
Book with no author: Magazine article with no author: |
| No date | Use "n.d." in place of the date. | … (Hong Leong Bank Berhad, n.d.). | Hong Leong Bank Berhad (n.d.) stated … |
| If there is more than one reference by the same author and they both have no date, use a hyphen and then a suffix after n.d. |
… (Pew Research Center, n,d.-a). … (Pew Research Center, n.d.-b). |
Pew Research Center (n.d.-b) points out … … … later in the text … … … (Pew Research Center, n,d.-a). | |
| Direct quote | Direct quotes with less than 40 words are to be enclosed in “double quotation marks” and include the page number after the publication year. | Sampling is defined as a "process of selecting the right individuals as representatives for the entire population" (Sekaran & Bougie, 2009, p. 240). | As defined by Sekaran and Bougie (2009), sampling is a "process of selecting the right individuals as representatives for the entire population" (p. 240). |
| When quoting material that contains embedded citations, include the citations within the quotation. | ... "similar technologies implemented in the past did not result in the same significant improvements (Winner, 2009) as ChatGPT has brought" (Elbanna & Armstrong, 2024, p. 17). |
Elbanna and Armstrong (2024) points out, "similar technologies implemented in the past did not result in the same significant improvements (Winner, 2009) as ChatGPT has brought" (p. 17). |
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| Secondary source | It refers to sources that you have not actually seen (the original source) but are cited in another work (the secondary source). Use the secondary source only when it is impossible to obtain the original source. In the text, identify the original source and write “as cited in” followed by the secondary source that you have used. In the references, provide an entry for the secondary source that you used. For example, if you read a work by Brunskill and Hanneke (2021) in which McCarthy (1994) was cited, and you were unable to read McCarthy’s work yourself, cite McCarthy’s work as the original source, followed by Brunskill and Hanneke’s work as the secondary source. Only Brunskill and Hanneke’s work appears in the references. |
Research indicates ... (McCarthy, 1994, as cited in Brunskill & Hanneke, 2021). | As defined by McCarthy (1994, as cited in Brunskill & Hanneke, 2021), … |
| Personal communication | This includes private letters, e-mails, and conversations. As personal communications are not accessible to others, no reference list is required. However, an in-text citation is needed. Give the initial(s) and surname of the communicator and provide as exact a date as possible. |
... (T. Nguyen, personal communication, February 24, 2020). | T. Nguyen (personal communication, February 24, 2020) points out ... |
| Multiple sources | Multiple sources with the same author and year Use a lower-case letter after the publication date, e.g. 2013a, 2013b, to differentiate between works written in the same year by the same author, and list them alphabetically by title. Each citation should have a matching reference in the reference list. Sachs, J. D. (2013a, December 23). The age of sustainable development. Project Syndicate. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/jeffrey-d--sachs-proposes-a-new-curriculum-for-a-new-era Sachs, J. D. (2013b, March 31). On the economy, think long-term. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/opinion/on-the-economy-think-long-term.html |
... (Sachs, 2013a, 2013b). | Tied up with the long-term prospects of the economy (Sachs, 2013b) is the role of universities in sustainable development (Sachs, 2013a) ... |
| Multiple sources with the same author in one citation If two or more works from the same author/s are cited at one point in the text, arrange the sources chronologically, starting with the earliest date and delimited by a comma. |
(Sachs, 2013, 2020, 2022) | Sachs (2013, 2020, 2022) | |
| Multiple sources with different authors in one citation When two or more works from different authors are included in one citation, they should be arranged alphabetically and delimited by a semicolon. |
(Peter, 2022; Sachs, 2013, 2020; Smith, 2019) | Peter (2022), Sachs (2013, 2020) and Smith (2019) | |
| Multiple sources by different authors with the same surname If you are citing multiple authors with the same surname, who published in the same year, include the authors’ initials in in-text citations. Initial(s) are included even if the year of publication differs. |
(J. M. Taylor & Neimeyer, 2015; T. Taylor, 2014) | J. M. Taylor and Neimeyer, (2015) and T. Taylor (2014) | |
| Multiple sources by different authors with the same surname and initial If the authors of multiple sources share the same surname and the same initial, cite the source in the standard author-date format. |
(Williams, 2020a, 2020b) | Williams (2020b) stated ..., whereas Williams (2020a) stated ... | |
| Different authors with the same surname from the same source If multiple authors within a single source share the same surname, the initials are not needed in the in-text citation. |
(Chen & Chen, 2022) | Chen and Chen (2022) |