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APA Help (7th Ed)

References: Secondary/Indirect Sources

Works Cited In Another Source (Indirect or Secondary)

Reference List Entry Notes:

  • It is ALWAYS preferred that you find and use the primary source, if possible, rather than quoting it as an indirect or secondary source.
  • Secondary or indirect sources refer to works that cite or quote a primary source.  For example, if you are reading Case-Smith's Occupational Therapy for Children and Adolescents by Jane Clifford O'Brien and Heather Kuhaneck (2019) and they quote a passage from Occupational Therapy with Elders by Helene L. Lohman, Sue Byers-Connon, and René L. Padilla (2018), then Occupational Therapy with Elders book is the primary source (where the original quote appears), while Case-Smith's Occupational Therapy for Children and Adolescents is the secondary source referencing it.
  • Your reference citation DOES NOT mention the primary source, only the secondary source. You always reference only what you are using, not something you don’t actually have.
  • The in-text citation mentions both books’ authors and both dates (if you have the primary source's date).  Usually, you mention the title of the primary source in the text of your paper since it doesn't have a reference, but you don't have to.

Example 1: Book

Format

Author’s Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year of Publication). Book title (edition, if there is one). Publisher Name.

Reference

O’Brien, J. C. & Kuhaneck, H. (2019). Case-Smith's occupational therapy for children and adolescents (8th ed.). Mosby.

In-Text Citation

In Helene L. Lohman, Sue Byers-Connon, and René L. Padilla’s Occupational Therapy with Elders, 4th edition, they stated, "Though there is similar work on strengthening cognitive and motor abilities for children and elders, they have different goals" (2018, as cited in O'Brien & Kuhaneck, 2019, 145)

In this example, you mentioned the authors in the text of your paper so you don't need to put them in the citation, and 145 is the page number where you found the quote in the secondary source.

Example 2: Article

Format

Author’s Last Name, First Initial(s). (Date). Article title. Publication Title, Volume Number(Issue Number), pages. DOI

Reference

Segev, E., Nissenbaum, A., Stolero, N., & Shifman, L. (2015). Families and networks of internet memes: The relationship between cohesiveness, uniqueness, and quiddity concreteness. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20(4), 417-433. https://DOI.org/10.1111/jcc4.12120

In-Text Citation

The KnowYourMeme database is mentioned in The house that fox built: Anonymous, spectacle and cycles of amplification (Phillips, as cited in Segev et al., 2015)

In this example, you didn't mention the primary source's author in the body of your paper, so it goes in the in-text citation and you didn't have the date of publication for the primary source.

See here for more examples on creating an in-text citation.

Subjects: APA Help, General Help