This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998), and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. Contexts other than traditionally-structured research writing may permit the simple present tense (for example, Jones (1998) finds).
Note: On pages 65-66, the Publication Manual suggests that authors of research papers should use the past tense or present perfect tense for signal phrases that occur in the literature review and procedure descriptions (for example, Jones (1998) found or Jones (1998) has found.). What follows are some general guidelines for referring to the works of others in your essay. Reference citations in text are covered on pages 169-179 of the Publication Manual. The equivalent APA 7 page can be found here. It will remain online until 2021, but will not be updated. Note: This page reflects APA 6, which is now out of date. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6 th ed., 2 nd printing). This resource, revised according to the 6 th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.
APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences.