Whenever you refer to information produced by someone else, you need to cite the original source in the text of your paper and in a reference list at the end of your paper. This allows the reader to follow up and learn more, while also giving credit and avoiding plagiarism (visit MacEwan's Academic Integrity pages to learn more).
ASA in-text citation guidelines are detailed below.
| Paraphrase | There was no relationship found (Nkumbe 2016). |
| Paraphrase, author noted in the text | Nkumbe (2016) found that . . . |
| Quote | The author found that ". . ." (Lopez 2015:15). |
| Quote, author noted in the text | Lopez (2015:15) states that ". . ." |
| Two authors | ". . . nothing was proven" (Nkumbe and Lopez 2016: 89). |
| Two authors, noted in the text | Nkumbe and Lopez (2016:89) found that . . . |
| Three authors (in subsequent citations, use et al.) | The authors found that ". . ." (Smith, Heller, and French 2019:5). It was also discovered that ". . ." (Smith et al. 2019:11). |
| More than three authors (use et al. in each citation) | According to Frenzel et al. (2019:5) ". . ." |
| No page numbers (omit this part of the citation) | The author found that ". . ." (Lopez 2014). |
Note: While ASA does not require page numbers when paraphrasing, MacEwan Library recommends doing so to avoid any academic integrity issues. To include page numbers, refer to the Quotations section below.
When you write information from someone else’s work out in your own words, also known as paraphrasing, cite the last name of the author followed by the year of publication:
Dhungel (2017) found that day-to-day oppressions, or microaggressions, towards survivors of sex trafficking in Nepal are pervasive and make it difficult for these women to integrate back into their communities and family life.
Day-to-day oppressions, or microaggressions, towards survivors of trafficking victims in Nepal are pervasive and make it difficult for these women to integrate back into their communities and family life ( Dhungel 2017) .
If referring to the same work multiple times, include an in-text citation each time (do not use ibid).
Only cite the source as many times as needed to ensure that it is clear to the reader where the information came from (bearing in mind that it is better to err on the side of caution and risk over-citing rather than under-citing):
Tsai et al. (2010) found that the effect of lowered systolic blood pressure (SBP) in hospitalized children continued after their animal-assisted therapy sessions had ended. However, the authors also found that despite a similar decrease in SBP during the alternate therapy of a puzzle session, the children’s SBP returned to their original levels after the session was complete.