When writing an APA 7 research paper or discussion post, you may discover multiple authors have made similar statements in their respective works. And if you decide to include that information in your own writing, you’ll need to cite all those works in a single parenthetical citation.
Let’s say you’re writing a paper on various tracking methods used in the search for sasquatch, and two authors of two separate works – we’ll call them B. Cartwright and H. Grant – describe sasquatch as a foul-smelling creature. Since scent is used in tracking, you decide to reference their works.
When creating the citation, the APA directs us to, essentially, merge the standard in-text citations: (B. Cartwright, 2022) and (H. Grant, 2019). This “merge” is accomplished by placing the authors in alphabetical order by last name, and the publication dates in a single set of parentheses, separated by a semicolon, like this:
(B. Cartwright, 2022; H. Grant, 2019)
The same formula would hold true if there were more than two authors:
(B. Cartwright, 2022; H. Grant, 2019; S. King, 2012)
Essentially, every individual citation is separated by a semicolon, even when we we cite specific page numbers (don’t forget to include the ‘p.’):
(B. Cartwright, 2022; H. Grant, 2019, p. 11; S. King, 2012, p. 129)
Pro Tip: Since a long string of citations can be difficult for readers to follow, the APA recommends only including the citations necessary to support your immediate statement.
The APA does provide guidance for some slight variations of this “merged” citation format (we’ll cover those in a future blog post), but the basic (author, date; author, date) formula will suffice in many cases.
‘Merging’ citations with PERRLA
With PERRLA, you can combine citations, using multiple references, by simply placing your cursor inside another citation and then creating the citation you want to merge into it.
- Create a citation using the References & Citations panel
- After the first citation is made, select the citation in the text
You should see the Content Control (blue/gray box) around the citation. - Use the References & Citations panel to create your second citation
- Repeat as needed
That's it! PERRLA will automatically merge the citations, sort them in the correct order, and list the citation under each Reference in the References & Citations panel. Remember, you can try every PERRLA feature completely free for 7 days here (no credit card required)!.