Cite a source you encountered inside another source in APA
Decide when to retrieve the original, format an APA secondary citation, and reference the work you actually read without inventing source access.
About 4 min read · Allow extra time for the practical checks
If you read one author’s account of another author’s work, first try to obtain and read the original. If it remains unavailable and you use the account you have read, an APA secondary-source citation makes that route visible. The reference entry is for the work you actually consulted.
This guide follows APA 7. Check your assignment or journal instructions before applying it to a different style.
Separate the claim from the route by which you found it
A useful source note answers two questions: whose idea is being discussed, and which document did you read? Those answers can name different authors.
APA’s secondary-source guidance recommends finding and reading the original where possible. That gives you a chance to check the surrounding argument instead of relying entirely on someone else’s selection.
For your working notes, record the original author’s identity, the work that discusses it, the location of the passage you read and whether you obtained the original. Keep the last field explicit. A downloaded bibliography entry is not evidence that you read its source. The guide to taking reusable source notes can help you keep these records apart.
Choose between three access situations
The following authors, dates, titles and passages are entirely fictional teaching examples. They are not research evidence or sources to add to your paper.
Imagine that you read a 2024 book by Patel. On page 58, Patel discusses an account of feedback scheduling published by Morgan in 2011.
| What you actually read | What to do |
|---|---|
| You locate Morgan’s original and read the relevant discussion | Check what Morgan actually says; cite Morgan directly for the idea you use |
| You read Patel but cannot obtain Morgan; the original year is known | Identify Morgan and 2011, then show that you encountered the work through Patel |
| You read Patel but the original year cannot be established | Keep Morgan’s identity and the secondary-source route; omit the unknown original year |
Finding the original does not automatically validate Patel’s interpretation. Compare the relevant passage before deciding which wording your paper can support. If your point concerns Patel’s interpretation itself, make Patel the subject of that point.
Format the secondary citation
For the known-year fictional case, the parenthetical form is:
(Morgan, 2011, as cited in Patel, 2024)
A narrative form is:
Morgan (2011, as cited in Patel, 2024) described feedback scheduling.
These demonstrate attribution, not a real finding. The University of Queensland’s indirect-citation guide explains the two-author route and shows that the reference-list format follows the type of secondary work consulted.
If Morgan’s year is unknown, the narrative form becomes:
Morgan (as cited in Patel, 2024) described feedback scheduling.
Do not borrow Patel’s year for Morgan. APA instructs writers to omit an unknown original year in this situation. That is a different problem from having personally read an undated work.
The University of Canterbury’s guide also illustrates a locator pointing to the secondary work. In our fictional book example, adding p. 58 after 2024 could help a reader find the discussion. It would identify Patel’s page, not a page in Morgan’s unseen work. The examples here are paraphrases; check the separate quotation requirements if reproducing exact words.
Build the reference entry from the work in hand
For the secondary-only example, Patel belongs in the reference list; Morgan does not receive a separate entry merely because Morgan appears in the indirect citation.
Do not copy Morgan’s entry from Patel’s bibliography and present it as a work you consulted. Likewise, do not make up Patel’s publisher or title to complete an entry. Reopen the actual source and use the reference format for that source type. The fictional example deliberately supplies no full bibliographic record.
This is why a simple name-matching check can mislead: an indirect citation legitimately contains an original author’s name without a corresponding original-work entry. During a two-way citation audit, mark the source-access chain rather than treating that name as an unexplained missing entry.
Check the finished passage
Read the sentence and your source note together. Does the sentence claim more than the account you read supports? Does it imply that you inspected the original? Can a reader tell which work supplied your access?
Then check the year, the secondary-work locator if used and the corresponding reference entry. If you later obtain the original, revisit the sentence and citation together. The final paper should reflect the reading you actually completed.
