If the name of the author appears as part of the sentence, as in the first example below, cite only the year of publication in parentheses. Otherwise, place both the name and the year separated by a comma in parentheses, as in the second example below.
ONE AUTHOR
Northouse (2003) defines leadership as a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.
Process implies that a leader affects and is affected by followers (Northouse, 2003).
MULTIPLE AUTHORS
Kouzes and Posner (2007) found that what people most look for in a leader has been constant over time.
People are willing to follow someone who is honest, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent (Kouzes & Posner, 2007).
TWO AUTHORS
Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...
(Wegener & Petty, 1994)
List only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, even the first, unless doing so would create ambiguity between different sources.
In et al., et should not be followed by a period. Only "al" should be followed by a period.
If you’re citing multiple works with similar groups of authors, and the shortened “et al” citation form of each source would be the same, you’ll need to avoid ambiguity by writing out more names. If you cited works with these authors:
They would be cited in-text as follows to avoid ambiguity:
Since et al. is plural, it should always be a substitute for more than one name. In the case that et al. would stand in for just one author, write the author’s name instead.
NO AUTHOR IDENTIFIED/UNKNOWN AUTHOR
If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are italicized; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks. APA style calls for capitalizing important words in titles when they are written in the text (but not when they are written in reference lists).
Note: In the rare case that "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.
For Example: "Empirical studies have found mixed results on the efficacy of labels in educating consumers and changing consumption behavior" ("Mandatory Labeling," 2007).
Full title was "Mandatory Labeling Has Targeted Information Gaps and Social Objectives."
If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source, just as you would an individual person.
If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, you may include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations. However, if you cite work from multiple organizations whose abbreviations are the same, do not use abbreviations (to avoid ambiguity).
