Parenthetical citation
An in-text citation placed entirely inside brackets, so the source names sit outside the grammar of your sentence.
In a parenthetical citation the author and date (or page, or number) go in brackets at the end of the clause they support: “Peer review slows publication by a median of 14 weeks (Larsen, 2024).” The sentence still reads correctly if you delete the brackets, which is the test for whether you have used this form rather than a narrative citation.
Use parenthetical form when the finding matters more than who found it. It keeps the sentence about the evidence. Reach for a narrative citation instead when you want to foreground the researcher — because you are comparing authors, or because you are about to disagree with one.
See also
Narrative citationAn in-text citation where the author's name is part of your sentence and only the date or page stays in brackets.In-text citationA short pointer placed in the body of your paper that identifies which source a statement came from and sends the reader to the full reference.Signal phraseThe words that introduce borrowed material and name its source, such as “As Larsen argues,” or “According to the 2023 review.”