Both name and year are given in brackets:

The academic library is described as having a vital role in the community (Garofalo, 2013)

With a quote:

"The academic library is described as having a vital role in the community" (Garofalo, 2013, p.3)

Only the year of publication is given in brackets:

Garofalo (2013) describes the role played by the academic library within the community

With a quote:

Garofalo (2013) states that "the academic library is described as having a vital role in the community" (p.3)

or

Garofalo states that "the academic library is described as having a vital role in the community" (2013, p.3)

Citation information is not added in brackets:

In 2013, Garofalo described the role played by the academic library within the community

With a quote:

In their 2013 work, Garofalo states that "the academic library is described as having a vital role in the community" (p.3)

⁠If the first authors of multiple references share the same surname but have *different initials*, include the first authors’ initials in all in-text citations, even if the year of publication differs. This is to help avoid confusion.

(J. M. Abrams & Neimeyer, 2015)

(W. Abrams, 2014)

(P. Abrams et al.,)

If the first authors of multiple references share the same surname and the same initials, cite the works in the standard author–date format.

(Abrams, 2021)

(Abrams, 1999)

If multiple authors within a single reference share the same surname, the initials are not needed in the in-text citation; cite the work in the standard author–date format

(Abrams & Abrams, 2021)

These are distinguished by adding lower case letters (a,b,c, etc.) after the date and within the brackets, this will determine the order in your  reference list e.g. ‘Garofalo (2013a)’ would be listed before ‘Garofalo (2013b)’. Further guidance on this can be found on the APA Blog Here

Garofalo (2013a, 2013b) discussed the subject…

For a work with one or two authors, include the author name(s) in every citation.

For a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus “et al.” in every citation (even the first citation) *(see exception below)

2 authors

The surnames of both authors should be given every time the reference occurs in the text:

Parenthetical Citation - use an ampersand (&) between names 

The academic library has an important role (Brundrett & Rhodes, 2011)

Narrative Citation - always spell out 'and'

Brundrett and Rhodes (2011) have proposed that…

3 or more authors

Include the name of only the first author plus “et al.” in every citation (even the first citation).

Parenthetical Citation 

(Green et al., 2006)

Narrative Citation 

Green et al. states that the academic library has an important role (2006, p.5)
 

*Please note that the exception to this is when two papers with the same publication date would both abbreviate to the same “et al.” form, in which case spell out as many surnames as needed to make your citations unique and avoid confusion.

Parenthetical Citation 

(Green, Brown, & Bonne, et al., 2017)

(Green, Yellow, et al., 2017)

Narrative Citation 

Green, Brown and Bonne et al. states that the academic library has an important role (2017, p.5)

Green and Yellow et al. state.... (2017, p.5)

Parenthetical Citations are listed in alphabetical order separated by a semi colon:

 (Green, 2006;  Jones, 2001; Turner, 2011)

Narrative Citations can be listed in any order

 Turner (2011), Green(2006) and Jones, (2001) argue that....

If citing 2 works by the same author, write the author once and the dates in chronological order separated by a comma (earliest first):

(Garofalo, n.d., 2009, 2013, in press)

If citing 2 works by the same author published in the same year, use lower case a,b,c etc after the date:

(Garofalo, 2013a, 2013b)

To highlight one source as being the most relevant you can list them first regardless of alphabetical order and then list the remaining sources alphabetically by using 'see also' after a semi colon.

(Turner, 2011; see also Green, 2006;  Jones, 2001)

The first time you refer to an organisation or a group, define the abbreviation by writing the name in full, and include the abbreviated form in brackets. Thereafter, use the abbreviated form for all subsequent citations.

First citation

Parenthetical Citation 

(Department for Education [DfE], 2011)

Narrative Citation 

Department for Education (DfE, 2011)

Subsequent citations

Parenthetical Citation 

(DfE, 2011)

Narrative Citation 

DfE (2011)

Reference list guidance

Do not abbreviate names in your reference list, group names need to be spelt out as they appear in the body of your work. 

Further details about abbreviating group authors can be found on the APA Blog 

*Please note that the abbreviation “ibid.” is not used in APA Style*

It is considered over citation to repeat the same citation in every sentence when the source and topic have not changed. Instead, when paraphrasing a key point in more than one sentence within a paragraph, or using multiple quotes from the same source, cite the source in full within the first sentence and do not repeat the full citation in subsequent sentences as long as the source remains clear and unchanged.

If you cite multiple works by the same author(s), regardless of the publication years, you must include the date for every in-text citation to prevent confusion. 

For each new paragraph you will need to include the full citation in the first instance.

*If in doubt and you think there could be confusion as to the source repeat the citation information in full.*

Appropriate level of citation is covered in section 8.1 of the APA Manual and also on the APA Blog

Parenthetical Citations:

Include the author(s) and year and page number if you are using a quote, for the first instance then provide the just the year or page number for further instances, as long as no other sources have been quoted in between.

First quote (Hargreaves & Rolls, 2020, p. 34). Second quote within the same paragraph, with no other sources cited in between (p. 12).

Narrative Citations:

Do not repeat the year for narrative in-text citations, where they appear in a single paragraph however any page numbers for quotes will need to be added.

For each new paragraph you will need to include the year in the first instance.

To cite quotes from an online source where there are no visible page numbers, use paragraph numbers, where available, with the abbreviation para and include the section heading where available, for example (project introduction, para. 3).

Where the section heading is unmanageable to cite in full, use a shortened version enclosed in quotation marks, for example, use ("Mandatory Labelling," para. 4) for the heading Mandatory labelling has targeted information gaps and social objectives.

**DO NOT use the page numbers from material that you have printed out from an online source as different printers may reflect different pagination**