How to Cite a Secondary Source in APA
How to Cite a Secondary Source in APA
When you quote or paraphrase something one author said inside another author's work, cite it with "as cited in." Name the original author in your sentence, then credit the source you actually read in the parentheses. Only the source you read goes in your reference list.
When you're allowed to use a secondary citation
APA 7 treats secondary citations as a last resort. The manual (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed., section 8.6) tells you to track down the original whenever possible. Use "as cited in" only when the original is out of print, unavailable through your library, or in a language you can't read.
If you can get the primary source, get it. Your professor will notice a paper stacked with secondary citations, and so will a peer reviewer. It reads like you didn't do the digging.
The in-text format
Put the original author's name and year in your sentence or in the parentheses, followed by "as cited in" and the author, year, and page of the work you actually read.
Two ways to write it:
Narrative: Allport's 1954 theory of intergroup contact (as cited in Pettigrew, 1998, p. 66) argues that...
Parenthetical: (Allport, 1954, as cited in Pettigrew, 1998, p. 66)
If you don't know the year of the original work, drop the year and just name the author: (Allport, as cited in Pettigrew, 1998).
Include the page number of the secondary source when you're quoting directly. You're pointing your reader to the exact place they can verify the quote, and that page lives in the source you read, not the one you didn't.
The reference list entry
Here's the part students get wrong most often. You do not list the original source in your references. You list only the work you actually held in your hands.
So if you cite Allport as cited in Pettigrew, your reference entry is Pettigrew:
Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49(1), 65-85. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.65
No Allport entry. Your reader can find Allport by looking up Pettigrew's citation of him, which is the honest trail.
A worked example
Say you're writing about creativity and you find this line in a 2019 journal article by Sawyer:
"Guilford (1950) argued that creativity is the most important human capacity."
You want to use Guilford's claim, but you haven't read Guilford's 1950 paper. Here's how you cite it:
In your paragraph: Guilford (1950) called creativity the most important human capacity (as cited in Sawyer, 2019, p. 12).
Or: One early definition framed creativity as "the most important human capacity" (Guilford, 1950, as cited in Sawyer, 2019, p. 12).
In your reference list, you include Sawyer's article only. Guilford stays out because you never read Guilford.
Common mistakes to avoid
Citing the original as if you read it. If you never opened Guilford's paper, don't write (Guilford, 1950) alone. That claims access you don't have, and it's a small form of academic dishonesty.
Listing both sources in references. Only the source you read appears. If Guilford shows up in your reference list, your reader assumes you read Guilford and will expect a real citation of it elsewhere.
Using it for common knowledge. You don't need "as cited in" for facts that appear in dozens of sources. Secondary citation is for a specific idea, quote, or study you can only reach through a middleman.
Chaining secondary citations. Don't write (A, 1970, as cited in B, 1995, as cited in C, 2020). APA doesn't support that. Cite C, or go read B.
Quick checklist before you submit
- Original author and year appear in the sentence or parenthetical.
- The phrase "as cited in" separates original from secondary.
- Page number is included for direct quotes.
- Only the secondary source is in your reference list.
- You've tried, at least once, to locate the primary source.
That last one matters more than the formatting. If your library has the original and you skipped it, fix that before you submit.