You are reading an article you found in a library database, and the author of the article quotes/cites another person’s work that you would like to incorporate into your paper. Who do you cite and how?
If you want to use a source that was cited in another source (a secondary source) for a paper you are writing ….
- Name the original source in your signal phrase
- Include the secondary source in your parenthetical citation, preceded by the words “as cited in”
- List the secondary source in your reference list/bibliography
In this APA example, Mills is the secondary source:
Jordan argued that …. (as cited in Mills, 2007, p. 70).
If you are required to use another style, such as MLA, Chicago, or Turabian, please refer to the respective style manual on how to cite indirect sources (this information could be listed under “indirect sources”, “citing sources”, or “in-text parentheticals”, also.)
on Jun 5th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Thank you for this. What is the protocol for putting the indirect source into your bibliography or works cited?
on Jun 8th, 2009 at 9:22 am
As noted in the post, you would add the secondary source into your bibliography/works cited. In the example used for this post, Mills is the secondary source. So, you would add the citation for the Mills source, according to the style (APA, MLA, etc.) you are using.