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Comparing APA and AMA Style: In-Text Citations

APA In-Text Citations

  • There are two ways to create in-text citations in APA.  Both utilize the author name and the date
  • After your quoted or paraphrased content, you can put both elements into parenthesis.  Example: (Smith, 2017)
  • You can use the author's name in the sentence as a signal phrase (alerting the reader that there is quoted or paraphrased content to follow), and place the publication date in parenthesis at the end of the sentence.  Example: Smith (2017) argued that.....
  • To cite multiple sources, list them all in parenthesis in alphabetical order separated by semi-colons.  Example:  Several recent studies have shown......(Allen & Miller, 2017; Hernandez 2021; Smith, 2022)

AMA In-Text Citations

  • AMA uses a superscript numbering system for in-text citations.  The source's number is assigned based on the order it was first introduced in the text of your paper.  For example, your first in-text citation source will appear in your references list as number 1.  Additional citations of this source will still show a superscript number 1.
  • When citing multiple sources, separate each superscript number with a comma.  You can also cite several consecutive items from the references list using a dash.  Example: Several recent studies1, 5, 7-9 have shown that....