APA Style: Primary and Secondary Sources or Indirect Sources

"A primary source reports original content; a secondary source refers to content first reported in another source." In other words, a primary source is a source you found in another source. The source you found it in is called a secondary source or indirect source.

• "If possible . . . find the primary source . . . and cite it directly rather than citing a secondary source."
• "When citing a secondary source, provide a reference list entry for the secondary source."
• "In the text, identify the primary source and then write 'as cited in' the secondary source."
• "If the year of publication of the primary source is known, also include it in the text."
• "If the year of the primary source is unknown, omit it from the in-text citation."

Examples:

Narrative citation: Allport's diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003)

Parenthetical citation: (Rabbitt, 1982, as cited in Lyon et al., 2014)

(Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 258)