How do I cite two sources in one sentence in APA?

Put both in one set of parentheses, in alphabetical order, separated by a semicolon: (Bell & Ortega, 2021; Ndlovu, 2019). Each work keeps its own year and, if you are quoting, its own page number. The same rule scales to three or more works.

What order do multiple citations go in for APA?

Alphabetical order by the first author's surname, which is the same order the works take in the reference list. Works by identical authors are written with the name once and the years in chronological order, n.d. first and in press last. The only exception is a work you want to emphasise, which goes first and is followed by a semicolon and "see also" before the rest.

Does MLA require alphabetical order in a parenthetical citation?

No. The MLA Style Center says the order is up to you: by importance, alphabetically, or chronologically. Choose one approach and use it consistently across the paper. Separate the works with semicolons and give each its author and page.

How do I cite two works by the same author in one MLA citation?

Repeat the author's name with a shortened title for each work, because the name alone no longer identifies a single entry: (Ndlovu, Sleep 42; Ndlovu, "Chronotype" 15). Italicise book titles and put article titles in quotation marks. If the author is named in your sentence, the parentheticals can hold only the titles and pages.

Can one Chicago footnote cite several sources?

Yes, and it should. Attach a single note number to the sentence and list every source in the note, separated by semicolons, with a period only after the last one. Use full forms for works not yet cited and shortened forms for works an earlier note has already given in full.

How are multiple sources ordered in Chicago author-date?

Chicago does not fix the order. Follow the order of the points in your text, relative importance, chronology, or the alphabet, and keep the choice consistent. Separate works with semicolons, collapse works by the same author into one name with several years, and put a space rather than a comma between author and year: (Ndlovu 2019, 2021; Bell and Ortega 2021).

What does "see also" mean inside a citation?

It signals that the works after it support the point less directly than the work before it. APA uses it to place the most relevant work first without breaking alphabetical order for the rest; Chicago allows similar lead-in phrases in notes and author-date citations. MLA has no formal equivalent, because you can already order by importance.

Is there a limit to how many sources I can put in one citation?

No style sets a number, but readability does. A parenthetical with more than four or five works interrupts the sentence; MLA explicitly suggests moving such a list into a bibliographic note, and Chicago notes already hold it outside the text. In APA, consider whether every work is needed or whether "e.g.," plus two or three representative works makes the point.

Cite Multiple Sources in One Citation: APA, MLA, Chicago [2026]

Quick Answer: several sources in one parenthetical

Separate the works with semicolons and give each one its normal in-text form. APA 7 orders them alphabetically, exactly as they sit in the reference list, and writes a shared author once with the years in chronological order. MLA 9 leaves the order to you, as long as you keep the same logic throughout the paper, and gives every work its own author and page. Chicago 18 puts several sources in a single note separated by semicolons, and in author-date style orders the parenthetical by importance or chronology. Nothing else changes: the reference list, works-cited list, or bibliography still carries one entry per work.

Templates for a grouped citation

APA 7 parenthetical (alphabetical):

(Author A, Year; Author B & Author C, Year; Author D et al., Year)

APA 7, same author, several years:

(Author, n.d., 2019, 2021, in press)

APA 7, one work emphasised:

(Author A, Year; see also Author B, Year; Author C, Year)

MLA 9 parenthetical:

(Author A Page; Author B and Author C Page; Author D et al. Page)

MLA 9, two works by one author:

(Author, Short Title Page; Author, "Short Title" Page)

Chicago 18 note:

1. First Last, Title of Book (Publisher, Year), Page; First Last, "Title of Article," Journal Volume, no. Issue (Year): Page.

Chicago 18 author-date:

(Author A Year, Page; Author B and Author C Year, Page)

Three rules that hold in every style

Before the style-specific details, three constraints apply everywhere. They are the reason a grouped citation is a citation and not a pile of names.

Every work in the group must have its own entry in the list at the end. The parenthetical points to the entries; it does not replace them. A reader has to be able to find each work from the form you used.
Semicolons separate works; commas belong inside a work. (Bell & Ortega, 2021; Ndlovu, 2019) is two works. (Bell & Ortega, 2021, Ndlovu, 2019) reads as one four-part citation and is wrong in every style.
Each work keeps its normal in-text form. Grouping does not let you drop et al., the year, a page number, or a required short title. Whatever the work would need on its own, it needs inside the group.

The worked examples below use the same four invented works so you can watch one set of sources move through all three styles: a 2019 book and a 2021 article by Amara Ndlovu, a two-author article by Bell and Ortega, and a three-author article by Kaur, Mensah, and Petrov.

APA 7: alphabetical order, semicolons, shared authors collapsed

APA is the strictest of the three about order. Section 8.12 of the Publication Manual, mirrored on the citing multiple works page, says to place parenthetical citations in alphabetical order, separated by semicolons. Alphabetical means the order the works take in the reference list, so a two-author work by Bell files before a single-author work by Ndlovu, and Kaur et al. files under K regardless of the names hidden behind et al.

APA 7 Style, citing multiple works

When citing multiple works parenthetically, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons.

Arrange two or more works by the same authors by year of publication. Place citations with no date first. Then, order works with dates in chronological order. Place in-press citations last. Give the authors’ surnames once; for each subsequent work, give only the date.

APA 7 reference list (the entries the citations point to)

Bell, R., & Ortega, L. (2021). Sleep restriction and working memory in adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health Research, 14(2), 88–104. https://doi.org/10.1234/jahr.2021.0142

Kaur, H., Mensah, K., & Petrov, I. (2020). School start times and daytime alertness: A multisite study. Sleep Science Quarterly, 8(3), 201–219. https://doi.org/10.1234/ssq.2020.0803

Ndlovu, A. (2019). Sleep and the developing brain. Riverbend Press.

Ndlovu, A. (2021). Chronotype shifts in late adolescence. Sleep Science Quarterly, 9(1), 12–29. https://doi.org/10.1234/ssq.2021.0901

APA 7 in-text, all four works in one parenthetical

Parenthetical:

Later school start times are associated with better daytime alertness (Bell & Ortega, 2021; Kaur et al., 2020; Ndlovu, 2019, 2021).

With page locators:

(Bell & Ortega, 2021, p. 91; Kaur et al., 2020, pp. 210–211; Ndlovu, 2019, p. 42)

Do not write:

(Ndlovu, 2019; Ndlovu, 2021; Kaur et al., 2020; Bell & Ortega, 2021) — repeats the author and ignores alphabetical order

Same author, several years: name once, years in order

When two or more works share exactly the same authors, APA writes the surname once and follows it with the years, separated by commas and in chronological order. Undated works come first as n.d., dated works follow in order, and in-press works come last. Two works from the same year take the lowercase letters they carry in the reference list. The authors have to be identical for this to apply: Ndlovu alone and Ndlovu with a coauthor are different author strings and are cited as separate works.

APA 7, one author across several works

Two years:

(Ndlovu, 2019, 2021)

Undated, dated, in press:

(Ndlovu, n.d., 2019, 2021, in press)

Same year, letters from the reference list:

(Ndlovu, 2021a, 2021b)

Different author strings stay separate:

(Ndlovu, 2019; Ndlovu & Farrow, 2022)

Emphasising one work: put it first, then "see also"

Alphabetical order cannot show that one work matters more than the others. APA's answer is to cite the most relevant work first, then insert a semicolon and a phrase such as see also before the remaining works, which return to alphabetical order. The phrase is ordinary text inside the parentheses, not a citation element, so it is lowercase and followed by a comma. The same mechanism allows an introductory e.g., when the list is a sample rather than a complete survey.

APA 7, one work highlighted

Narrative citations can take any order

The alphabetical rule applies only inside parentheses. When the authors are part of your sentence, APA lets them appear in whatever order the sentence needs, and the parenthetical versus narrative rules for each work still apply: and instead of the ampersand, and the year in parentheses straight after each name.

APA 7 narrative

Ndlovu (2019, 2021), Bell and Ortega (2021), and Kaur et al. (2020) all measured alertness in the first lesson of the day.

When et al. would make two works identical

A grouped citation exposes a problem you might not notice with a single work. If Kaur, Mensah, and Petrov (2020) and Kaur, Osei, and Lindqvist (2020) both shorten to Kaur et al., 2020, the parenthetical (Kaur et al., 2020; Kaur et al., 2020) tells the reader nothing. APA's same-year, same-first-author rule fixes it: add as many surnames as it takes to tell the works apart, then et al. for the rest. Write (Kaur, Mensah, et al., 2020; Kaur, Osei, et al., 2020).

MLA 9: semicolons, author plus page, your order

MLA has no alphabetical requirement. The MLA Style Center says the order of sources in a single parenthetical is the writer's choice: by importance, alphabetically, or by date. Its own example gives (Foucault; Barthes) when Foucault matters more and (Barthes; Foucault) when the writer prefers alphabetical order. Pick one logic and keep it for the whole paper; a reader should not have to guess why the order changed between paragraphs. Every work still carries its author and, where the source is paginated, its page number, exactly as in the MLA in-text overview.

MLA 9 works cited

Bell, Rosa, and Luis Ortega. "Sleep Restriction and Working Memory in Adolescents." Journal of Adolescent Health Research, vol. 14, no. 2, 2021, pp. 88–104. https://doi.org/10.1234/jahr.2021.0142.

Kaur, Harpreet, et al. "School Start Times and Daytime Alertness: A Multisite Study." Sleep Science Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 3, 2020, pp. 201–19. https://doi.org/10.1234/ssq.2020.0803.

Ndlovu, Amara. "Chronotype Shifts in Late Adolescence." Sleep Science Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 1, 2021, pp. 12–29. https://doi.org/10.1234/ssq.2021.0901.

---. Sleep and the Developing Brain. Riverbend Press, 2019.

MLA 9 in-text

Ordered by importance:

Later start times improve first-period alertness (Kaur et al. 210; Bell and Ortega 91; Ndlovu, Sleep 42).

Ordered alphabetically:

(Bell and Ortega 91; Kaur et al. 210; Ndlovu, Sleep 42)

No page numbers (unpaginated web sources):

(Bell and Ortega; Kaur et al.)

Two works by the same author need their titles

MLA identifies a work by author and page, so when the works-cited list holds two entries by Ndlovu, the author's name alone is ambiguous and a shortened title becomes mandatory. Put a comma after the author, then the short title in italics for a book or in quotation marks for an article, then the page. Repeat the author's name with each title. MLA does not collapse the years the way APA does, because MLA citations carry no year.

MLA 9, two works by Ndlovu in one parenthetical

Correct:

(Ndlovu, Sleep 42; Ndlovu, "Chronotype" 15)

Author named in the sentence:

Ndlovu makes the point in both the book (Sleep 42) and the later article ("Chronotype" 15).

Do not write:

(Ndlovu 42; 15) — the reader cannot tell which work either page belongs to

Long strings of sources belong in a note

A parenthetical with five or six works interrupts the sentence more than it helps. MLA allows bibliographic notes for exactly this situation: put a superscript number in the text and move the list into an endnote or footnote, where the same semicolon rule applies. The works-cited entries do not change.

MLA 9, a bibliographic note instead of a long parenthetical

In the text:

The link between start times and alertness is now well documented.¹

Note:

1. See Kaur et al. 210; Bell and Ortega 91; Ndlovu, Sleep 42; Ndlovu, "Chronotype" 15.

Chicago 18: one note for several sources, semicolons in author-date

Chicago has two systems, and grouping works differently in each. In notes-bibliography style, a single note can cite as many sources as the sentence needs, each in its full or shortened form, separated by semicolons. In author-date style the parenthetical looks like APA's but the order is not fixed alphabetically. Both systems are set out in the Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date citation guides.

Notes-bibliography: several sources in one note

Attach one note number to the sentence, not one per source. Inside the note, give each source in the form it would take on its own, with three or more authors shortened to the first name plus et al., and separate the sources with semicolons. Order them to match the order in which the text raises the points they support; when a single claim rests on all of them equally, order by importance or chronology. If an earlier note has already cited a work in full, use its shortened form inside the grouped note. Chicago 18 no longer asks for a place of publication in book citations, so the parentheses hold only the publisher and year.

Chicago 18 bibliography

Bell, Rosa, and Luis Ortega. "Sleep Restriction and Working Memory in Adolescents." Journal of Adolescent Health Research 14, no. 2 (2021): 88–104. https://doi.org/10.1234/jahr.2021.0142.

Kaur, Harpreet, Kwame Mensah, and Irina Petrov. "School Start Times and Daytime Alertness: A Multisite Study." Sleep Science Quarterly 8, no. 3 (2020): 201–19. https://doi.org/10.1234/ssq.2020.0803.

Ndlovu, Amara. "Chronotype Shifts in Late Adolescence." Sleep Science Quarterly 9, no. 1 (2021): 12–29. https://doi.org/10.1234/ssq.2021.0901.

Ndlovu, Amara. Sleep and the Developing Brain. Riverbend Press, 2019.

Chicago 18 notes

In the text:

Later start times are associated with better alertness in the first lesson of the day.¹

First-reference note, three sources:

1. Harpreet Kaur et al., "School Start Times and Daytime Alertness: A Multisite Study," Sleep Science Quarterly 8, no. 3 (2020): 210, https://doi.org/10.1234/ssq.2020.0803; Rosa Bell and Luis Ortega, "Sleep Restriction and Working Memory in Adolescents," Journal of Adolescent Health Research 14, no. 2 (2021): 91, https://doi.org/10.1234/jahr.2021.0142; Amara Ndlovu, Sleep and the Developing Brain (Riverbend Press, 2019), 42.

Later note, shortened forms:

4. Kaur et al., "School Start Times," 214; Ndlovu, Sleep, 50; Ndlovu, "Chronotype Shifts," 15.

With a lead-in phrase:

6. For the opposing view, see Bell and Ortega, "Sleep Restriction," 99; but compare Ndlovu, "Chronotype Shifts," 20.

Two details are easy to get wrong. A journal note ends its page reference with a colon after the year, so the semicolon that follows the DOI or page number is the only thing separating the works; do not add a full stop until the last source. And a note that lists several works by the same author repeats the shortened author name with each title, because a Chicago note has no APA-style collapsed form.

Author-date: semicolons, importance or chronology

Chicago author-date separates works with semicolons and gives each one author, year, and page. The order may follow the order of the points in the text, relative importance, chronology, or the alphabet; the manual does not insist on one. Works by the same author collapse as in APA, with the name written once and the years separated by commas, and same-year works take a and b. Remember that Chicago author-date puts a space, not a comma, between author and year, and that Chicago 18 shortens three or more authors to the first name plus et al. in the text and in notes, even though the reference list names up to six.

Chicago 18 author-date

Reference list entry, for comparison:

Kaur, Harpreet, Kwame Mensah, and Irina Petrov. 2020. "School Start Times and Daytime Alertness: A Multisite Study." Sleep Science Quarterly 8 (3): 201–19. https://doi.org/10.1234/ssq.2020.0803.

In-text, ordered by importance:

(Kaur et al. 2020, 210; Bell and Ortega 2021, 91; Ndlovu 2019, 42)

Same author, two years:

(Ndlovu 2019, 2021)

Same author, same year:

(Ndlovu 2021a, 2021b)

With see also:

(Ndlovu 2021; see also Bell and Ortega 2021; Kaur et al. 2020)

Order rules side by side

APA 7

Alphabetical, matching the reference list. Only see also or e.g. can move a work out of that order, and the works after the phrase return to alphabetical order.

(Bell & Ortega, 2021; Kaur et al., 2020; Ndlovu, 2019, 2021)

MLA 9

Writer's choice: importance, alphabetical, or chronological. Use the same logic throughout. Titles become mandatory when one author has two works.

(Kaur et al. 210; Bell and Ortega 91; Ndlovu, Sleep 42)

Chicago 18

Notes: the order the text raises the points, or importance or chronology. Author-date: the same freedom, with same-author years collapsed.