Answered By: Gabe Gossett
Last Updated: May 22, 2020     Views: 461858

Note: This is an answer only for citing appendices you create in the body of your paper. If you are looking for information on how to cite sources within your appendix, please follow this link.

When citing an appendix you are including in your paper refer to a single appendix simply as Appendix. If you include an appendix, you should refer to it in the text of your paper. If you have more than one appendix add letters to differentiate them in the order they appear in your text. For example, we could say something like "Please see Appendix A for more information on educational outcomes and Appendix B for the questionnaire used to collect student responses."

Comments (11)

  1. Useful for me
    by kate huddson on Apr 20, 2017
  2. Thanks for this information
    by Juanita Cyrus on Jun 24, 2018
  3. Once you cite an appendix in text, is that enough, or do you need to cite each time you refer to it? Do I need to say repeatedly "See Appendix A" or is the first reference enough?
    by Christy Johanson on Sep 16, 2020
  4. @Christy, this is one of those things where it all depends on context and your practice can be very similar to how you would do other citations in-text. Ultimately, make it clear for your reader. If it is clear based on the narrative of your text that you are still referring to the appendix, it is not necessary to cite it again. On the other hand, if it might be unclear whether you are writing in reference to the appendix, then cite it again.
    by Gabe Gossett on Sep 16, 2020
  5. What if you are referencing two different appendices (in-text citation)? Should it be (see Appendix A and Appendix B) or (see Appendices A and B) ... I can't find any rules around the parenthetical reference to the appendices. Thank you!
    by Barbara on Mar 21, 2021
  6. @Barbara: I don't know of any particular guidance on plural references to appendices. Either would probably be fine, though my suggestion would be to go with (see Appendices A and B) for conciseness.
    by Gabe Gossett on Mar 31, 2021
  7. When I cite a document I have included in an appendix AND in my reference list, how do I write the in-text citation? Or, if I have it as an appendix, should I simply not cite the reference? Eg, "As stated in document X (Doc X, 2004; see Appendix B)..."
    by Gunita on Jan 23, 2022
  8. @gunita: How to cite the document will probably depend how it is presented in the appendix. If the entire document is the appendix. Say Appendix A presents the in-depth research results from something related to your paper, and you reference the results in your paper/report you can direct the reader to the table in Appendix A for more detail. If you are pulling the table from another resource, you would, of course, cite the source in the Appendix as well. If your appendix contains information that you did not create (like a research study) and is presenting info from another document, I would cite the direct source (example: "Jones (2004) indicated in their research report that X and Y causes Z. (pp. 198-200). See Appendix A for a detailed table." And then include another citation to Jone in your appendix. If you created the info in the Appendix (it was based on original research and was a report you wrote expanding or explaining details related to the research), you can refer to the Appendix (Example: "In the preliminary research, A and B did not contribute to the success of C. See Appendix A for more detail...") Keep in mind that these are only two examples and they are based on my interpretation of APA. There are different ways to present similar information.
    by Elizabeth Stephan on Jan 26, 2022
  9. 1. When citing in text for example (see Appendix J), does this have to be in italics? and does the ("see") bit need a capital S ("See...") in text or does this not matter? 2. Also, when you have an Appendix which contains more than 1 part e.g questionnaire measures how can I cite this in the text? For example, would it be appropriate to say (see Appendix B6, Appendix B) or would (see Appendix B6) be sufficient? 3. When you are referring to a figure from the Appendix would I say (see Figure J9, Appendix J) and if I am referring to more than one figure would I say (see Figures J1, J2 & J3, Appendix J)
    by Maera on Aug 18, 2022
  10. Is necessary to have appendix reference in parentheses or is okay to end a sentance with a reference without parentheses? E.g. "...assumptions were not met, see appendix A."
    by Marge on Sep 10, 2022
  11. @Marge and Maera: Apologies for the late reply on your questions in the comments here. Marge, I don't see specific guidance in the APA Manual on this, but if you are referring to the appendix in the narrative of your text I would assume that a parenthetical citation for the appendix would be unnecessary, just like narrative in-text citations for sources cited. Maera, the example provided in the APA Manual does not use italics. For your other questions, while there is not specific information on how to refer to content within an appendix, but having more precise information for readers tends to be helpful, so I suggest erring on the side of including that information.
    by Gabe Gossett on Sep 19, 2022

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