The in-text citation can naturally be integrated into a sentence or be placed in parentheses.
- Narrative: Benja (2018) found a connection between social media usage and the increased sales in an organization.
- Parenthetical: There is a connection between social media usage and the increased sales in an organization (Benja, 2018).
It is important to note that the publication year (2018) appears directly after the author’s name in the narrative format. In the parenthetical citation, the year of publication can be placed within or at the end of the sentence.
Depending on the APA format you are using, you also need to consider the use of et al. depending on the number of authors in a particular journal. The currently used APA 7th version requires that et al. is used for articles with more than three authors. For example, a paper authored by Omondi Joshua, Bryian Kello, and Nicholas Smith, with 2022 as the year of publication will be cited as follows;
The human resource management department plays an integral role in the success of an organization (Omondi et al., 2022).
