APA 7 in a thesis: in-text citations and references with examples

In APA 7, you identify a source in two places: briefly beside the sentence and in full in the reference list. In the text, give the author’s surname and year. For a quotation, add the page number or another way to locate the passage. At the end of your thesis, provide the full publication details. Both entries must lead to the same work.

You open a journal article, copy its suggested citation and paste it into your thesis. The next source looks different: there is an ampersand, the year is missing or the title is in capital letters. Then your supervisor asks for APA 7, and it is hard to see what actually needs changing. Start with one publication. Once you follow the path from the passage you read to its reference list entry, the remaining sources become easier to organise.

The examples below use real publications. You will see how to cite one, two or several authors, reference an article with a DOI, distinguish a quotation from a paraphrase and check a citation generator’s output. I compare original APA 7 with the Polish adaptation by Skimina, Harasimczuk and Cieciuch. You do not need to know the terminology before you start. Have the source you are using and your programme’s guidelines to hand.

First, check which version of APA your programme requires

APA 7 is the seventh edition of the American Psychological Association’s style guidelines. It covers more than references, but this guide focuses on citing sources. A supervisor’s instruction to “use APA” may need clarification: does it mean the original English-language rules, their Polish adaptation or additional departmental requirements?

This matters when citing authors. The Polish examples follow the adaptation described in Podstawowe standardy edytorskie naukowych tekstów psychologicznych w języku polskim na podstawie reguł APA 7. That adaptation uses “i” and “i in.”. Original English APA uses “&” in parenthetical citations and “et al.” for three or more authors. Do not change your document simply because a generator produced a different version. Establish the required variant first.

Write a short note for yourself, such as: “I am writing in English, using original APA 7, and checking the document requirements against my department’s guidance.” If your thesis is in Polish and your programme requires the Polish adaptation, record that instead. One clear decision helps prevent a mixture of conventions across chapters.

How do you connect an in-text citation to a reference list entry?

The following example takes us from a sentence about literature reviews to the full reference for Hannah Snyder’s 2019 article. You could write:

Here, the author’s surname is part of the sentence. You can also cite the same article at the end of a statement:

Both citations lead to a single reference list entry:

You do not create another entry every time you use the article. The reference list identifies the publication, while the in-text citations show where you draw on it. The full text of Snyder’s article in a university PDF collection lets you check both its content and its publication details.

Before using a similar sentence in your own thesis, read the relevant part of the source. Correct punctuation does not establish that a publication supports your claim. The citation works here because the article addresses literature review methods. It would not, on its own, support an unrelated claim about students’ behaviour or the effectiveness of teaching.

One, two and three authors: APA 7 in-text citation examples

One author: surname and year

Snyder’s article has one author. The basic forms are Snyder (2019) and (Snyder, 2019). An ordinary citation to this article does not include the author’s first name, the article title or the journal name. Those details belong in the reference list. The surname and year should allow the reader to find the correct entry.

Choose the form that suits the sentence. When comparing authors’ positions, putting the surname in the sentence makes it easier to show who proposes what. When the subject itself is more important, a parenthetical citation usually interrupts the discussion less. You do not need to begin every paragraph with “According to the author” or give every sentence the same ending.

Two authors: keep both surnames

Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke’s article Using thematic analysis in psychology was published in 2006 and has two authors. In the Polish adaptation, the forms are Braun i Clarke (2006) or (Braun i Clarke, 2006). Both surnames remain in subsequent citations. Do not shorten this Polish form to “Braun i in.”.

In an English text using original APA, use Braun and Clarke (2006) as part of the sentence and (Braun & Clarke, 2006) in parentheses. This is a difference in citation format, not a different source. When transferring an English reference into a Polish thesis, check the required variant rather than mixing “and”, “i” and “&” mechanically.

Three or more authors: abbreviate from the first citation

The 2022 Polish standards were written by Ewa Skimina, Justyna Harasimczuk and Jan Cieciuch. The Polish in-text forms are Skimina i in. (2022) or (Skimina i in., 2022), including the first time you cite the work. You do not need to list all three surnames before introducing the shortened form. In original English APA, write Skimina et al. (2022).

Abbreviating an in-text citation does not mean removing authors from the reference list. The entry for this book still includes all three names in their original order. Do not alphabetise co-authors or choose whichever surname you know best for the citation. If an abbreviated citation could refer to two different works, include enough names to distinguish them.

Paraphrases and direct quotations: when do you add a page number?

A paraphrase expresses a source’s meaning in your own words. A quotation reproduces its wording. The distinction depends on how you use the content, not on the sentence’s length or the number of words you change. Rearranging words does not automatically turn a quotation into an independent explanation.

The earlier sentences about Snyder’s article are paraphrases. For a general citation, APA requires the author and year; a page number can also help readers find a specific passage. When discussing a precise definition or a long document, a locator can be useful even for a paraphrase. Check whether your department sets stricter requirements.

A direct quotation needs a page number or another location that lets the reader find the passage. The following sentence is quoted in its original Polish wording from page 20 of the Polish APA 7 guide:

Here, the quotation marks identify the words taken from the source, the citation identifies the publication, and the Polish “s. 20” points to the page. The full stop closes the sentence after the citation. This also shows why you must check the page in the original document rather than infer it from a catalogue record or a search result.

If a source has no page numbers, use another suitable locator, such as a paragraph number and section heading. A screen number in your browser is not a publication page number. APA also distinguishes a short quotation within a paragraph from a quotation of 40 words or more, which is presented as a separate block. See APA’s official guidance on quotations.

When reading, keep copied wording separate from your own notes. After a few weeks, it can be difficult to remember which sentence was a quotation. To practise rewriting source material, see How to paraphrase academic sources in a thesis: worked examples and citations. Here, the essential point is to preserve the connection between a specific idea, the correct publication and a clear indication of how you have used it.

How do you reference a journal article in APA 7?

First, identify the work in front of you. A journal article does not become a webpage because you downloaded it through a browser. PDF is a file format. Find the article’s publication details on its first page, the publisher’s website and its DOI record.

Look again at Snyder’s reference. The surname and initial are followed by the year, article title, journal name, volume, pages and DOI. The journal name and volume are italicised. The article title is not. In this case, 104 is the volume number; do not invent an issue number that the publication details do not provide.

The second example includes an issue number:

The number 3 identifies the volume, and (2) identifies the issue. The range 77-101 gives the pages of the whole article, not the location of the idea you use. If you quote a sentence on page 86, put 86 in the citation beside the quotation. Do not substitute it for the page range in the reference list. These details serve different purposes.

Not every journal uses traditional page ranges. Some publications have an article number. Check the publisher’s record and use the correct format rather than inventing pagination. The journal article examples in APA’s official guide help you compare these formats. Check the final entry against your actual source, not just a similar example.

Books in APA 7: what should you check on the title page?

For a book, check the authors, year, full title, edition and publisher. Use the title and copyright pages of the edition you actually consulted. A search result may refer to an earlier edition or a different book with a similar title. For an ebook, compare its details with the publisher’s record.

In English APA, the Polish guide used here is referenced as follows:

Italicise a book’s title. Do not add the publisher’s city just because it appears on the copyright page: APA 7 does not require the place of publication. Include an edition other than the first when applicable. Do not guess an edition number or add “1st ed.” or “2nd ed.” without checking.

If you use a chapter in an edited book, check whether it has its own author. You cannot simply replace the book title with the chapter title. The entry also needs the editors, book title and chapter page range. Choose the format according to the type of source, not how many pages you read. For the basic formats, consult APA’s guidance on books and ebooks.

Why are there more names in the reference list than in the citation?

Compare the two forms for the same book: “Skimina et al. (2022)” in the text and all three authors in the reference list. This difference is correct. The shortened citation keeps a long author list out of the paragraph, while the full reference identifies the work more precisely. Do not transfer “et al.” into the book’s reference entry.

An APA 7 reference lists all authors when there are up to 20. For 21 or more, list the first 19 names, an ellipsis and the final author’s name. The Polish adaptation places the omission inside square brackets, “[…]”; original English APA uses an ellipsis without brackets. This is less common, but it matters for large collaborative studies and extensive scientific guidelines.

You do not have to rebuild long references manually at the outset. Search your reference list for “i in.” and “et al.” to check whether a generator used an abbreviation intended for in-text citations. Then compare the complete author list with the publication. Remove an incorrect abbreviation only once you know which names must be restored and which variant you are following.

Same author, same year: where do a and b come from?

Now suppose your thesis genuinely draws on two American Psychological Association books published in 2020: Concise guide to APA Style: The official APA Style guide for students and Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, both in their seventh editions. “American Psychological Association, 2020” alone would not distinguish them.

In this pair, the title beginning with Concise comes before the one beginning with Publication. They therefore receive the labels 2020a and 2020b. The first book is cited as (American Psychological Association, 2020a) and the second as (American Psychological Association, 2020b). The same letters must appear in the reference list.

Do not assign letters according to the order in which you happen to mention the sources in a chapter. First, put these publications in the correct order in your reference list. If you use only one of them, do not add “a” in advance. For other source types, especially those with more precise dates, check the ordering rules before assigning letters.

Group author, no author and no date: three different situations

Not every publication has a person’s surname on the first page. The author may be the organisation responsible for the document, such as a research institution. That is still an author, not a missing author. Check the document’s authorship information: a website’s logo or domain owner does not automatically identify the author of every item it hosts.

If you will cite an organisation repeatedly, you can introduce a recognisable abbreviation using the required APA format. Keep the full name in the reference list. Do not abbreviate the first citation so much that the reader has to guess what the letters mean. For a single citation, the full name is often simpler.

An institutional webpage with a verified publication date

The official page Reference list setup has the American Psychological Association as its group author and gives “October 2024” as its creation date. You could write:

The full English APA reference for this page is:

The in-text citation uses only the year; the reference list includes the more precise date provided by the organisation. Do not add a day of the month that the page does not specify. “APA Style” is the website name, which differs from the author’s full name, so it remains in the entry. When the website name and author are identical, do not repeat the name. You can check the date at the bottom of the original APA guidance.

If a work genuinely has no identified author, move the title into the author position. Do not enter “Anonymous” unless the work is signed that way. If there is no date, do not substitute the date you downloaded it, the update date of a different page or the year in the website’s footer. English APA uses “n.d.”; the Polish adaptation uses “b.d.”.

It helps to record three separate things: who is responsible for the content, when it was published and when you read it. If you cannot establish the second, the publication date remains missing. The other two may still be known. Do not move one piece of information into another field just to make the entry look complete. An honestly identified gap is better than a precise but incorrect year.

For webpages, distinguish the publication date from the retrieval date. The Polish adaptation describes including a retrieval date for an undated webpage; original APA requires retrieval dates in specific circumstances, including unarchived content designed to change over time. Do not make blanket changes throughout your reference list based on the first example you find. Consult the official guidance on missing reference information alongside the rules adopted by your programme.

DOIs and web addresses: what goes at the end of the reference?

A DOI identifies a publication. In an APA 7 reference, present it as a URL beginning with https://doi.org/. When an article has a DOI, you do not need to add a long library-session URL or a link to search results alongside it. Do not construct a DOI from the title or journal number yourself.

Open the DOI link and compare the title, authors and year. Even a working link may lead to a different article if one part of the identifier was copied incorrectly. In the Braun and Clarke example, the DOI identifies the 2006 article, not a later book by the same authors.

A missing DOI does not show that a book is poor quality or mean that you should reject an article. The rest of the reference depends on the source type and how it is available. Add a regular webpage URL where the rules for that material require one. For details, see APA’s guidance on DOIs and URLs.

Does APA 7 use footnotes and “ibid.”?

APA primarily identifies literature through author-date citations, not footnote numbers leading to book details at the bottom of a page. A footnote can serve another purpose, such as providing a brief supplementary comment. That does not mean the full reference list should be moved into footnotes.

If you are used to traditional footnotes, you may instinctively write “ibid.” when citing the same source again, or “tamże” in Polish. These do not replace an author-date citation in APA. Nor do you need a sequence of footnote numbers for the same publications just because a document from another programme used that approach.

Do not combine systems without an explicit requirement. A chapter can contain both necessary explanatory footnotes and APA citations, but their functions should be clear. If your university requires bibliographic footnotes, see Footnotes and Oxford referencing in a thesis – examples and repeat citations. That is a separate approach. Do not switch it to APA halfway through a thesis without agreement.

APA 7 citation generators: how do you check the output?

A generator saves retyping, but you still need to understand what it produces. Check the source details first. If a record contains the wrong author from the start, the generator may simply format the error neatly. A style labelled “APA 7” does not establish that it follows the Polish adaptation or your department’s requirements.

Check a generated reference in this order:

1. Publication. Is this the exact article, book or chapter you used? Has the correct source type been selected?
2. Authors. Do the surnames, initials and order match the publication? Has an institution been incorrectly split into a first name and surname?
3. Date. Does the year identify the edition you used, rather than the date the file was downloaded?
4. Publication details. Do the volume, issue, pages or article number come from the correct record?
5. Citation. Do the author and year in the text match this entry? Do any a and b suffixes match too?

Only then adjust italics, commas and indentation. With several dozen sources, a reference manager can help maintain the connection between citations and the reference list, but it does not replace checking the data. Do not accidentally remove that connection by converting all citations to plain text before you have finished editing.

A final APA check: follow three sources, then review the whole thesis

Start with one article, one book and one more difficult item, such as an institutional webpage. Follow the complete path for each: the sentence you wrote, its citation, the correct publication and the reference list entry. Choose sources from different chapters to see whether the format remains consistent throughout the thesis.

Next, search your document for the first author’s surname. Compare every occurrence with the year in the reference list. Look for quotations without page numbers, outdated a/b labels, different spellings of the same surname and citations left behind after paragraphs were removed. Check in the other direction too: does every reference list entry have a justified use in the text? Do not add sources merely to make the list longer.

Finally, inspect the reference list visually. Are the entries laid out consistently? Has the journal title been confused with the article title? Is the full DOI readable? Do not create indents with repeated spaces. The appearance is easier to refine once the data and links between citations and references are correct. For wider problems with inconsistent sources, see Bibliography and footnotes – common formal errors that weaken a thesis.

How should the reference list be laid out?

In original English APA, the heading is References, while the Polish adaptation uses Bibliografia. Use the heading required for your chosen variant. Start the list on a new page. Arrange entries alphabetically by their first element, usually the first author’s surname, and do not number them. Works without an author are ordered by title.

Each entry should be a single paragraph. Select the reference list and, in the paragraph settings, choose a 0.5-inch (1.27 cm) hanging indent. The first line stays at the left margin, while subsequent lines are indented. This is a hanging indent, not a first-line indent. Original APA calls for double spacing with no additional space between entries; also compare your document’s requirements with your departmental guidance. Repeated spaces and manual line breaks are not a reliable way to create this layout.

References and sources used in the examples

The citation rules come from official APA materials and the Polish adaptation by Skimina, Harasimczuk and Cieciuch. The list below also gives the full references for the publications used in the examples. The labels 2020a and 2020b distinguish two APA books published in the same year.

• American Psychological Association. (2020a). Concise guide to APA Style: The official APA Style guide for students (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000173-000
• American Psychological Association. (2020b). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
• American Psychological Association. (2024, October). Reference list setup. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/reference-list
• Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
• Skimina, E., Harasimczuk, J., & Cieciuch, J. (2022). Podstawowe standardy edytorskie naukowych tekstów psychologicznych w języku polskim na podstawie reguł APA 7. Wydawnictwo Liberi Libri. https://doi.org/10.47943/lib.9788363487560
• Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333-339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039

Detailed guidance from APA Style: Author-Date Citation System, Quotations, Journal Article References, Book/Ebook References, Missing Reference Information and DOIs and URLs. Accessed: 30 October 2026.

The Polish adaptation is available as an open-access PDF hosted by the University of Gdańsk. Pages 20-27 cover in-text citations; pages 80-87 cover reference entries. Check the relevant sections alongside your department’s guidance.