Secondary sources refer to situations where you use information from a source that you have not read, but you’ve found in another source.
If you cannot find the original primary source, you should cite it through the secondary source that led you to it. This is called citing an indirect or secondary source. Therefore, secondary sources describe information originally presented from a primary source.
How to cite a source within a source using APA 7:
If you need to cite a source within a source, follow the guidelines from APA 7, Section 8.6.
Your in-text citation should include both authors: the author(s) of the original primary source and the author(s) of the secondary source:
Follow these instructions when citing a secondary source APA Style:
In text, name the primary source first, and then give the in-text citation for the secondary source: (“as cited in…, year”).
In-Text Citation:
When using the secondary source in your text, you would structure your citation as follows:
(Smith, 2000, as cited in Jones, 2020)
In this example, Smith (2000) is the original source you want to cite, but you only know of it because you read about it in Jones (2020), the source you actually read.
Reference List:
In the reference list at the end of your paper, you do NOT list the original source (Smith, 2000 in our example) because you did not read this source directly. Instead, you only list the source you did read:
Jones, A. (2020). Title of the book or article. Publisher or Journal Name, volume number(issue number), pages. URL or DOI
Note: Only list the secondary source (i.e. the one you have read) on the reference page.
APA (see APA, section 6.17, p. 178;) suggests that secondary sources should be used sparingly, especially when the full text of the original source is available.
However, there are instances in which the primary source is unavailable:
- The primary source is out of print.
- Unpublished or archived sources.
- Unavailable through the usual sources.
- Not available in English.
Summary
- You should always try to read and cite the original work (the primary source). If it is not possible to do this, you have to cite the original as contained in the secondary source.
- The words “as cited in” in the parenthetical reference indicate you have not read the original research. Only include the year of the secondary source in your text.
- In your reference list you should provide the details of the secondary source (the source you read).
Further Information
