Guide written by the AI for Research editorial team · Last reviewed
An in-text citation is the short pointer in your sentence, such as (Smith & Jones, 2020) or Smith et al. (2020), that leads the reader to the full entry in your reference list. Each style sets how many author names to show before switching to "et al.", whether to join two names with "&" or "and", and how to write a missing date or a page. The generator above applies those rules for APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, Harvard (Cite Them Right) and a numeric style, so you can copy both the parenthetical and the narrative form.
What is the difference between parenthetical and narrative citations?
A parenthetical citation puts the author and date in brackets; a narrative citation names the author in your sentence. Both point to the same reference list entry, and most styles let you use either.
- Parenthetical (APA): Most published findings in some fields may be false (Ioannidis, 2005).
- Narrative (APA): Ioannidis (2005) argued that most published findings in some fields may be false.
Use the narrative form when the author matters to your point, for example when you compare two researchers. Use the parenthetical form when the finding matters more than who found it. The example cites Ioannidis's essay in PLoS Medicine (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124) [6].
How many authors before "et al."?
APA 7 and MLA 9 switch to "et al." at three authors; Chicago author-date and Cite Them Right Harvard switch at four. The table shows the same sources in each style.
| Authors | APA 7 [1] | MLA 9 [2] | Chicago author-date [3] | Harvard (Cite Them Right) [4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (Smith, 2020) | (Smith 12) | (Smith 2020, 12) | (Smith, 2020) |
| 2 | (Smith & Jones, 2020) | (Smith and Jones 12) | (Smith and Jones 2020) | (Smith and Jones, 2020) |
| 3 | (Smith et al., 2020) | (Smith et al. 12) | (Smith, Jones, and Lee 2020) | (Smith, Jones and Lee, 2020) |
| 4 or more | (Smith et al., 2020) | (Smith et al. 12) | (Smith et al. 2020) | (Smith et al., 2020) |
| No date | (Smith, n.d.) | (Smith 12) | (Smith, n.d.) | (Smith, no date) |
Two rules people often mix up:
- APA uses "et al." from the first citation for three or more authors. The older APA 6 rule (list up to five names the first time) no longer applies [1].
- Chicago author-date lists up to three names in the text, with a comma before "and", and shortens four or more to the first name and "et al." [3].
"&" or "and"?
Only APA uses "&", and only inside parentheses. In a narrative APA citation you write "and".
| Correct | Incorrect | |
|---|---|---|
| APA parenthetical | (Smith & Jones, 2020) | (Smith and Jones, 2020) |
| APA narrative | Smith and Jones (2020) found... | Smith & Jones (2020) found... |
| MLA | (Smith and Jones 12) | (Smith & Jones 12) |
| Harvard | (Smith and Jones, 2020) | (Smith & Jones, 2020) |
How do you cite a page or paragraph?
Add the page after the year: "p." for one page and "pp." for a range in APA and Harvard; MLA and Chicago use the number alone. Give a page whenever you quote, and when you point to a specific passage.
- APA: (Smith, 2020, p. 12) or (Smith, 2020, pp. 12–15)
- APA, no page numbers: (Smith, 2020, para. 4)
- MLA: (Smith 12), and for a source with numbered paragraphs (Smith, par. 4)
- Chicago author-date: (Smith 2020, 12)
- Harvard: (Smith, 2020, p. 12)
In an APA narrative citation with a quotation, the page goes after the quotation: Smith (2020) wrote that "..." (p. 12) [1]. The tool shows this with "…" where your quotation goes.
What if a work has no date?
Write "n.d." in APA and Chicago, and "no date" in Cite Them Right Harvard. MLA in-text citations do not include a year, so a missing date changes nothing in the text, only in the works-cited entry [2].
Check first that the date really is missing. Web pages often show a date at the bottom, in the page source, or in the "last updated" line. A conference paper or report usually has a year on its cover.
Two works by the same author in the same year
Add a lower-case letter after the year (2020a, 2020b) in APA, Chicago and Harvard, and add the same letters in the reference list. In APA the letters follow the alphabetical order of the titles in the reference list [1]. With no date, APA writes n.d.-a and n.d.-b.
Worked example (illustrative): you cite two 2021 reports by the same research group.
- (Okafor, 2021a) points to "Okafor, A. (2021a). Clean water access in..."
- (Okafor, 2021b) points to "Okafor, A. (2021b). Rural clinic staffing..."
MLA does not use letters. Add a short title instead: (Okafor, Clean Water 7) and (Okafor, Rural Clinic 3) [2]. Fill in the "Short title" box in the tool to see this.
Group authors
Use the organization's full name as the author; in APA you may define an abbreviation the first time and use it after that. Turn on "The author is an organisation" so the tool uses the name exactly as typed rather than looking for a surname.
- First APA citation: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2021)
- Later APA citations: (WHO, 2021)
- Narrative, first time: World Health Organization (WHO, 2021)
Only abbreviate when the abbreviation is well known and you cite the group several times [1]. Do not abbreviate in the reference list.
Numeric styles
Numeric styles such as IEEE replace the author and date with a number in square brackets, [1], that matches a numbered reference list. Number sources in the order you first cite them and reuse the same number each time [5]. When you name authors in the sentence, list one or two and use "et al." for three or more: Smith et al. [4] showed... Add a page inside the brackets: [4, p. 12].
Vancouver and AMA, common in medicine, also number sources but may use round brackets or superscripts. Check your journal's guide before you choose a format.
Common mistakes
- Listing every author in APA for three or more. (Smith, Jones, & Lee, 2020) is APA 6. In APA 7 write (Smith et al., 2020).
- Putting a comma before the page in MLA. Write (Smith 12), not (Smith, 12).
- Using "&" in a sentence. "Smith & Jones (2020) found" should be "Smith and Jones (2020) found".
- Adding a year in MLA. MLA in-text citations use the author and page, not the year.
- Letters that do not match the reference list. If you cite 2020a in the text, the reference list must show 2020a for the same work.
- Initials in the citation. In-text citations use family names only, unless two first authors share a family name.
- Typing particles as given names. For "van der Berg", type "van der Berg, Anna" so the tool keeps the full family name.
How to write in-text citations with AI for Research
The generator on this page is free and runs in your browser with no account. If you need the full reference as well, use the citation generator, which formats both the reference and the in-text citation from a DOI or title in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard and over 10,000 other styles. To convert a whole list at once, paste it into the citation formatter, and to turn a BibTeX file into APA, use BibTeX to APA.
Inside the editor, the citation checker flags claims your sources do not support, retracted papers and wrong DOIs. Citations never use credits, on any plan; the Free plan also gives 45 credits a month for AI features.
Next steps
- Read the et al. guide for the full rules and edge cases.
- See how to cite two or three authors in APA.
- Build the list your citations point to: APA reference list or MLA works cited.
Sources
- American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000. See also APA Style, "In-text citations": https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations
- Modern Language Association of America. (2021). MLA handbook (9th ed.). See also https://style.mla.org
- University of Chicago Press. (2017). The Chicago manual of style (17th ed.). https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org
- Pears, R., & Shields, G. (2022). Cite them right: The essential referencing guide (12th ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
- IEEE. IEEE reference guide. IEEE Author Center. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/
- Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine, 2(8), e124. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124