Source citation with the 6th edition of APA

Currently, most educational institutions follow the APA 7th edition guidelines. Are you looking for the APA 6th edition instead? Then you're in the right place. In this article, we will discuss exactly how to cite your sources in the 6th APA edition, where in the text should you cite the source, and how you format the citation correctly.

In both the 6th and 7th editions of APA style, you must cite the source you use in two places in your thesis or essay:

1. You include a reference in the running text immediately before or after you cite the information from the source.
2. You list the source in the bibliography at the end of your thesis.

It is important that you properly apply both forms of the source citation. This prevents plagiarism and allows others (in theory) to check whether you quote sources correctly.

Source references in the text

Every time you paraphrase or quote information from a source, you must include a citation with that source. This citation is abbreviated; you only include the author(s)’ last name and the year of publication. Is it a quote? Then, you must also include the quote’s page number.

For example, an in-text source citation in the 6th edition of APA looks like this:

• Previous research has shown that... (Lennink, 2015).
• The definition of Alzheimer's is as follows: "[a quote here]" (Berten, 2020, p. 15).
• Pieters found out in 2019 that...
• Willems (2021) has a different opinion on this, stating that...

Are you referring to two or more authors? Then put an ‘&’ sign between their names if the reference is in brackets. If the reference is in the running text, then use the word "and" between the authors names.

For three to five authors, put a comma between the first few authors, and a comma and & sign between the second-to-last and last author. If you refer to the source again later, you may cite it as "[name author 1] et al." (followed by the year and possibly a page number.

For example, it looks like this:

• This has been previously researched by De Jong, Vrient and Wessels (2018).
• Research shows that... (Aarts, Berendsen, & Franks, 2003).
• An extensive meta-research suggests that... (Janzen, Witser, Van Willigen, & Van Elzen, 2014). [...] The same research by Janzen et al. (2014) also shows that....

For six or more authors, in the APA 6th edition, always use only the name of the first author followed by "et al." For example, that would look like this:

A click between the psychotherapist and the client is essential for treatment success, according to recent research (Van Kooten et al., 2022).

Did you derive information from more than one source? Then, put those sources consecutively in one entry in parentheses. Separate the sources from each other with a semicolon. For example, this looks like this:

Extensive research has already been conducted on the relationship between obesity and the number of minutes people exercise in a day (Van Langenhuizen, De Wit, Bakker, & Dam, 2015; Van Straaten, Hopman, Meijer, Rosmalen, & Linden, 2018; Nieuwdijk et al., 2019).

The source citation in the bibliography is largely the same in 6th edition APAas it is in the 7th edition. However, there are some aspects that differ..

The main changes are as follows:

• You no longer need to add the place of the publisher for books in the APA 7th edition.
  • 7th ed. Scherder, E. (2020). Getting older, staying young. Athenaeum.
  • 6th edition: Scherder, E. (2020). Getting older, staying young. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Athenaeum.
• In 7th edition, you have to write out the names of up to 20 authors in the bibliography; in APA 6th edition, you only put down up to seven names: the names of the first six and the last author. For example:
  • 7th edition: Vermoor, P.A., Weurts, L.E., Linden, P.K., Karelsen, K., Bakkers, B.E.W., De Vries, E.S., Van Straaten, S.L., Bridges, W., Iddink, I.L., Tuinen, S.A., Aartsman, V.N., Jikkema, O.D., Van Dijken, W.A., Ysema, Q., Schasfoort, O.N., Noorden, S.V., Van Herken, M.N., Prins, V.L., Edijk, R.I.V., (...) 't Veld, J.W. (2019). ...
  • 6th edition: Vermoor, P.A., Weurts, L.E., Linden, P.K., Karelsen, K., Bakkers, B.E.W., De Vries, E.S., (...) 't Veld, J.W. (2019). ...
• In the 6th edition, you add the label "doi:" and put the DOI number after it. In the 7th edition you add the entire URL of the DOI, without the label "doi:" in front of it.

Stating a source correctly is not always child's play.But, it can be! We can make it easier for you with our free APA generator. With it, you can instantly create the correct source citation for any source. This way, you run less risk of accidental errors or plagiarism.