How to cite a video in youtube?

You should include as much descriptive information as you can to help your readers find the video you reference. Generally, you will need the full name and/or screen name of whoever uploaded the video, publication date, title of the video, hosting website (YouTube) and URL for video.

The general format for citing online videos in APA style is as follows:

Last Name, A.A. [Screen name]. (year, month day). Title of video [Video file]. YouTube. http://xxxx

For online videos, you will cite the person or group who uploaded the video. This is not necessarily the same as the person depicted in the video (example: a Beyoncé video uploaded by BeyFan123 would be cited under BeyFan123, and not the artist's name). If you have both the full name and screen name for the person who uploaded the video, you would include both, starting with the person's full name. If you only have the person's screen name, you would format your citation as follows:

Screen name. (year, month day). Title of video [Video file]. YouTube. http://xxxx.

You'll see the citation now starts with the screen name only, and does not include brackets.

Example of a citation with the creator's full name:

Doe, J.J. [janedoe]. (2016, December 19). Day in the Life [Video file]. YouTube. http://xxx.

and without the creator's full name (only a screen name):

Janedoe. (2016, December 19). Day in the Life [Video file]. YouTube. http://xxx

Your in-text citation should include the last name or screen name and the year. Example:

(Doe, 2016) or (Janedoe, 2016).

The general format for citing online videos in MLA style is as follows:

"Title of video." YouTube, uploaded by Screen Name, day month year, www.youtube.com/xxxxx.

If the author of the video is not the same as the person who uploaded the video, your citation would be formatted as follows:

Author last name, First Name. "Title of video." YouTube, uploaded by Screen Name, day month year, www.youtube.com/xxxxx.

Example of citation with different author and uploader:

Beyoncé . "Sorry." YouTube, uploaded by BeyFan123, 17 December 2016, www.youtube.com/xxxx.

Example of citation with no known author or same author and uploader:

"Day in the Life." YouTube, uploaded by janedoe, 19 December 2016, www.youtube.com/xxxx.

Your in-text citation will depend on whether you have the author's last name. Basically, you will want to cite in-text whatever appears first in the citation on your Works Cited page. If you are referencing a specific part of the video, MLA format also requires that you specify the time in the video when that part begins.

In-text citation with author:

(Last name, 00:01:15 - 00:02:00).

In-text citation with no author or same author and uploader:

("Title of video," 00:01:15 - 00:02:00).

Here's an example of a Berkeley College YouTube video cited in APA and MLA formats:

APA style

Works Cited list:

berkeleycollege. (2019, January 16). File Your FAFSA Today! [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/HaFACQA5SFY

In-text:

(berkeleycollege, 2019)

Works Cited list:

"File Your FAFSA Today!" YouTube, uploaded by berkeleycollege, 16 January, 2019, https://youtu.be/HaFACQA5SFY

While you might first think of books, newspapers, and journal articles as go-to sources for academic assignments, YouTube provides a wealth of informative, easily accessible videos. Yes, there is questionable content, but the site is also filled with educational channels, snippets from evening news programs, and even full-length documentaries on a range of interesting and scholarly subjects.

Since YouTube has a ton of information, citing a video retrieved from YouTube might seem more difficult than citing a book. But the process is fairly simple—and we’ve put together this helpful guide on how to cite a YouTube video using MLA format, APA format, and Chicago style.

If you’ve previously cited a video from another website, you’re in luck: The process for citing a video from YouTube is basically the same. To provide an example, we’ve cited a video from the CrashCourse YouTube channel—run by “Fault in Our Stars” author John Green—that offers educational videos on a slew of topics, including history, chemistry, and psychology. This particular video is about the US Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism. We’ve laid out how to cite the video in MLA format, APA format, and Chicago style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO7FQsCcbD8

Last name, First name (of the individual who posted the content) OR the name of the company OR the username. “Title of the Video.” Title of the Website, Name of the Publisher that uploaded the video (only include if it differs from the author or title), Date it was uploaded, URL.

Here’s how the above example would be cited in MLA 9:

CrashCourse. “The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism: Crash Course US History #8.” YouTube, 21 Mar. 2013, youtu.be/bO7FQsCcbD8.

If you need help with in-text and parenthetical citations, CitationMachine.net can help. Our MLA citation generator is simple and easy to use!

Name of the Account OR Last Name, First initial of uploader [YouTube Account Name]. (Year, Month Day it was posted). Title of the video [Video]. YouTube. URL

Here’s how the above example would be cited in APA:

CrashCourse. (2013, March 21). The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism: Crash course in US History #8 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/bO7FQsCcbD8

Last name, First name of the individual or the company who posted the content. “Title of Video.” YouTube video, length. Date published. URL.

Here’s how the above example would be cited in Chicago:

CrashCourse. “The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism: Crash Course in US History #8.” YouTube video, 13:03. March 21, 2013. https://youtu.be/bO7FQsCcbD8

The general format for citing online videos in MLA style is as follows: "Title of video." YouTube, uploaded by Screen Name, day month year, www.youtube.com/xxxxx. If the author of the video is not the same as the person who uploaded the video, your citation would be formatted as follows: Author last name, First Name.

When it comes to citing a video in MLA or APA, style matters. This is professional writing, after all. However, basically, each style is looking to answer the same questions.

If you can answer these basic questions, then you’re well on your way to beautiful, professional reference MLA and APA video citations. Now, all you need is formatting.

Since MLA is one of the most common styles used in both high schools and colleges, you often use it to cite videos. Why? Because MLA is a style that makes humanities articles easy to cite. And there are a lot of videos. This is why MLA also breaks down how to cite a video file in the works cited list.  First, the components:

Since MLA can get a bit tricky, check out a couple of different examples.

MLA Video Example With Author:

Example MLA without Author:

Now to look at in-text citations for videos in MLA. You never just cite your sources in the works cited! You have to give credit where credit is due in your article, too. If not, your teacher can consider it plagiarism, and no one wants that. To create an in-text citation in MLA, use the author and timestamp.

In-Text Citation MLA Video Example – Author

In-Text Citation MLA Video Example – Without Author

Knowing how to cite a physical DVD or BluRay is important, but a lot of videos are now offered through streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Hulu. When it comes to a streaming service, your citation looks like:

Streaming Video Example MLA – Works Cited

Streaming Video Example MLA – In-Text Citation

Like MLA, you might need to cite a video in APA style. However, APA is used for social science papers and gives them a nice flow, tone, and, most of all, uniformity. To create citations for your APA Reference page for online videos, you need:

Make APA video citations a breeze by following the basic format for a  video source APA citation:

Example Citation for Video

In addition to citing the APA video on your reference list, include a citation in the text to show your audience where the information came from.

Example – APA In-Text Quotation for Video

Example APA – In-Text Paraphrase

Since YouTube is the most common video website out there, you’ll find that you might end up citing this nine times out of ten. So, it makes sense to look at specific YouTube examples in each different style. Remember, in APA style, you do not put a period after the URL, but you do include one in MLA.

When creating your MLA paper, you might find yourself needing to cite some Youtube videos. These come up enough that the MLA style guide gives specific examples. Check out these Youtube examples in MLA format.

MLA isn’t the only style to discuss how to cite a Youtube video. APA breaks down the format for citing a YouTube video in their APA 7 format.

APA YouTube Example Author – Reference

APA YouTube Example Screenname – Reference

Videos can be a fun way to spice up your paper. Whether you are using a video from YouTube, Vimeo, or any other website, make sure to get your citation and formatting right the first time. And if your teacher calls for a different format, be sure to follow that.

To cite a YouTube video in APA Style, you include the person or organization that uploaded it, their channel name (if different from their real name), the upload date, the video title (italicized), “Video” in square brackets, the name of the site,  and a link to the video.

Note that the same format works for other video sites like Vimeo; just replace “YouTube” with the name of whatever site the video is from. APA TV show citations are different.

You can also use our free APA citation generator to generate YouTube citations in APA Style.

The information you’ll need for your citation is easy to locate on YouTube. It’s located just below the video, as shown in the image below.

The “author” of a YouTube video is not necessarily the person or group who created the video. Instead, APA requires you to list the uploader of the video in the author position. This makes it easier for the reader to locate the video.

If the uploader is an individual whose real name is known and is different from their channel name, both should be included. The real name is written in the standard format, while the channel name follows in square brackets and is written exactly as it is on YouTube, retaining any unconventional capitalization or spacing.

If the author’s real name is unknown or the uploader is not an individual, the channel name is included alone, with no brackets.

Where the channel name is the same as the author’s real name, it only needs to be written once:

For an in-text citation of a YouTube video, use whichever name appears first in the full citation, whether that’s a real name or a channel name:

When you quote or refer to a specific part of a video, include a timestamp pointing to the relevant moment in the video:

If the person quoted is not the uploader, it’s best to specify their identity in the text, as in this TED Talk citation:

Sometimes you might need to cite a whole channel instead of a single video, as when you’re discussing a channel’s content in general.

In this case, don’t include the year the channel was created – just use “n.d.” (no date) as it’s the current content of the channel that’s relevant. Write “YouTube channel” instead of “Video” in the square brackets, and include a retrieval date, since channel content will change over time.

“Home” refers to the homepage of the channel; if you’re citing something else like the videos or playlists tab, replace accordingly: