In-text citations
Each time you introduce in your work an idea, thought or theory that belongs to another person, a reference number should be added and enclosed in brackets, e.g. (1), or in Superscript1 and the chosen style must be maintained throughout.
The general rules for creating an in-text citation are:
- Numbers are added sequentially.
- The reference number should be included inside the punctuation within a sentence.
- If you are using the same reference more than once, it will keep the same number all the way through, e.g. Burton (3) will be (3) all the way through your work. If a new page number or other information is acknowledged, add this after the reference number within the brackets, e.g. (3, p.28).
- Use "et al." when three or more names are given for a reference cited in the text, e.g. Demonstrated by Herron et al.
- These in-text numbers are matched to full, numbered references for each publication in a reference list.
What does an in-text citation look like?
The way in which an in-text appears in your work mainly depends on whether or not you wish the name of the author to actually appear within the general narrative of your work. i.e. the name of the author occurs within your text.
Example of a narrative In-text citation
More than 38,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer every year in the UK. (1) Studies elsewhere have investigated links between occupation and socio-demographic status and cancer (2,3), but smoking is the biggest single cause of lung cancer in the UK. (1) Some researchers have analysed populations to establish incidences of tumours. (4) Tumours may spread from the lungs to elsewhere in the body. (5) Charities and self-help groups provide advice and moral support to victims. (1,6)
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Full reference for the Reference list
- Macmillan Cancer Support. Lung cancer. [Internet]. 2010 [cited 2015 Aug 23]; [29 screens]. Available from: http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancerstypes/Lung/Lungcancer.aspx
- Valberg PA, Watson AY. Lack of concordance between reported lung-cancer risk levels and occupation-specific diesel-exhaust exposure. 3rd Colloquium on Particualte Air Pollution and Human Health; 1999 Jun 6-8; Durham, (NC).
- Amr s, Wolpert B, Loffredo CA, Zheng YL, Shields PG, Jones R. Occupation, gender, race and lung cancer. J Occup Environ Med [Internet], 2008 Oct [cited 2015 Aug 23]; 50(10):1167-75. Avail.able from doi:10.1097/JOM.0b013e31817d3639
- Tumour incidences, Nebraska 1973-83. Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data 1973-2006. National Cancer Institute (USA). [cited 2015 Aug 23]. Available from: http://seer.cancer.gov/resources
- Hart I. The spread of tumours. In Knowles MA, Selby PJ, editors. Introduction to the cellular and molecular biology of cancer. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2005. P.278-88.
- WhyQuit.com [Internet] 2012 Aug 13 [cited 2015 Aug 23]; [50+screens]. Available from: http://whyquit.com/
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You will likely use a mixture of both narrative and parenthetical In-text citations depending on how you wish to structure your sentences. Using a mixture of both kinds will help you to produce an assignment that is more engaging to read.