University of Newcastle Library Guides
An in-text citation is usually taking one of the following two formats depending on the focus of the writing:
Narrative Citation is an author prominent citation format. Use this format when you want to emphasise the author, e.g.
Smith and Jones (2016) report that this model has been adopted widely in the last decade.
Parenthetical Citation is an information prominent citation format. Use this format when you want to emphasise the information, e.g.
This model has been adopted widely in the last decade (Smith and Jones 2016).
Additional works by the same author(s) are cited by date only, separated by commas except where page numbers are required, e.g.
(Whittaker 1967, 1975; Wiens 1989a, 1989b)
(Wong 1999, 328; 2000, 475; García 1998, 67)
Every time you paraphrase, or use an idea from another source you must include an in-text citation to that source.
See the general rules for in-text citations for more details:
Below are the general formats for in-text citation for sources with 1, 2, 3, 4 or more authors
Australian education providers will need to address a number of challenges to ensure standards of special education are fully supporting students with special needs and their families (Dempsey 2019).
Dempsey (2019) states that Australian education providers will need to address a number of challenges to ensure ...
...new technologies need to be evaluated before large scale investment is made by organisations (Marra and Edmond 2019).
...this finding (Chan, Adams, and Smith 2019) shows....
According to the data collected by Chan, Adams, and Smith (2019) ...
... the role for adult literacy partnerships (Black et al. 2019) ...
According to Smith et al. (2022), ...
If the source has no author, cite the work by its short title, but must include the first word (other than an initial article) of the title. The short title should be up to 4 words in the proper format (the same format as the title in the reference list, e.g. if the source is a smaller part of a larger publication, such as journal articles, book chapters, or web pages, enclose the title in double quotation marks; if the source is a book, brochure, web site or report, italicise the title.
See the general rules for in-text citations for more details.
Below is the general format for sources without an author:
... to avoid visiting the doctor ("Australians Turning to Dr Google" 2016).
... a memorial to all Australians who lost their lives in service during the First World War (Anzac Memorial 2012)...
If the source is by a corporate author (e.g. a university, association, or government department), cite it in the format of (Corporate Author Year of Publication), e.g.
... thousands of teachers, principals, early childhood workers and academics have graduated and gone on to make their mark in and out of the classroom in communities (University of Newcastle 2019).
If a publication issued by an organization, association, or corporation carries no personal author’s name on the title page, the organization may be listed as author even if it is also given as publisher.
To facilitate shorter parenthetical text citations, the organization may be listed under an abbreviation, in which case the entry must be alphabetized under that abbreviation (rather than the spelled-out name) in the reference list, e.g.
In-text citation
... (ISO 1997)
Reference list
ISO (International Organization for Standardization). 1997. Information and Documentation—Rules for the Abbreviation of Title Words and Titles of Publications. ISO 4:1997. Paris: ISO.
To cite works by authors who SHARE the SAME SURNAME, but who are in fact different people:
Adding the initial to the author names helps readers avoid confusion with the in-text referencing and allows easier location of entries in your reference list.
...(Acciari 2014a) ... and ... (Acciari 2014b), or ...(Acciari 2014a, 2014b)
Additional works by the same author(s) are cited by date only, separated by commas except where page numbers are required, e.g.
(Whittaker 1967, 1975; Wiens 1989a, 1989b)
(Wong 1999, 328; 2000, 475; García 1998, 67)
If you need to cite more than one publication within one in-text citation, list all the sources alphabetically separating each citation with a semicolon, e.g.
...several reviews (Featherstone 2012; Gates 2011; Muldoon 2014) have found that...
Citations of different locations in a single sources are separated by commas, e.g.
... (Baron 2019, 194, 200, 197-98)...
If you need to cite two or more publications by the same author, order the citations by the year, e.g.
...about the reading and the physical media (Baron 2008, 2004) ...
If you include a direct quote, that is word-for-word, from a source, the in-text citation must include the author, year and page numbers where the quotation appeared. Direct quotations must be accurate and follow the wording, spelling, and punctuation of the original source.
The in-text citation for a short quotation (no more than 4 lines enclosed in quotation marks) is placed after the closing quotation mark, before the period. If the author is mentioned in the text, only the year and page/s cited appear in the citation. For example:
Reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" (Baron 2013, 194). ...
or
According to Naomi Baron, reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" (2013, 194). ...
For a long quotation (more than 4 lines) that is set in a separate block off from the text (block quotation, indented, without quotation marks), type a space after the concluding punctuation mark of the quotation and insert the in-text citation. There is no punctuation before or after the citation. For example:
The forms of writing that accompany reading
can fill various roles. The simplest is to make parts of a text prominent (by underlining, highlighting, or adding asterisks, lines, or squiggles). More-reflective responses are notes written in the margins or in an external location--a notebook or a computer file. (Baron 2013, 194)
A quotation may be shortened from that included in the original source by including three spaced ellipses points (...) within the quotation to indicate where the omitted words had been included.
Example
Whereas, other researchers "believe that the third stage of labour is a much neglected stage in the process of labour ... and it deserves much greater attention" (Harris and Clark 2019, 856).
If your source uses explicit part numbers rather than pages numbers, as some web resources do, give the relevant number or numbers, preceded by the label, e.g.
Separate the author and the part number with a comma, e.g. (Smith 2019, para. 3)
If the source includes headings, but not paragraph or page numbers, you may use the section heading, e.g. James concludes "bullying is at epidemic levels in organizations which do not display strong leadership at the top" (sec. Discussion).
When a source has no page number or any other kind of part number, no number should be given in an in-text citation. Do not count unnumbered paragraph or other parts.
Sources cited within another source are known as 'secondary sources'. In-text citations to secondary sources must cite both the original source and the secondary source in the format of (original source quoted in secondary source), and list the secondary source only in the reference list entry.
For example, Grieve and Gear’s work from 1966 is being quoted in Kirtley’s 2006 book on page 23. If you could not access the original Grieve and Gear’s work from 1966, you could reference it as a secondary source:
… the pattern (Grieve and Gear 1966 quoted in Kirtley 2006, 23) ... or ... Grieve and Gear (1966 quoted in Kirtley 2006, 23) suggest a pattern of ...
In the reference list, list the work you have actually consulted, i.e. Kirtley’s 2006 book, not Grieve and Gear’s work from 1966.
By following this pattern we are crediting the original author while being able to reference the source we are actually using.
For more information see the page on Secondary sources.
There may be times when you need to use the same reference multiple times in consecutive sentences (or even a whole paragraph) where there are no other references to break up the in-text citations. To make your citations more concise, you can use one of the following techniques:
No matter which way you cite it, make it clear that the information or quotations are borrowed from the source cited.
In a slide-based presentation using software such as PowerPoint or Keynote, when you borrow material (quotations, paraphrases, images, videos, and whatever else you copy or adapt), you may provide the citations by:
In a video, you might overlay text at the bottom of the screen to provide your viewers with brief information about what they are seeing (e.g. the producer and title of a borrowed video clip, or the name of a person being interviewed), and include full documentation in your closing credits.
In a project on the Web, you might link from your citations to the online material you cite, and add a reference list as an appendix to the project.
If the source has no date, use n.d. (no date) in the place of the year, preceded by a comma, e.g.
... (Smith, n.d.) ... or ... Smith (n.d.) notes that ...
See the general rules for in-text citations for more details.