LibGuides: APA Style 7th Edition: Journal Articles

How to Cite Journal Article

Formatting

Create a Hanging Indent

Hanging Indents:

All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Hyperlinks:

It is acceptable for hyperlinks to be blue and underlined (live) or black without underlining.

All hyperlinks must include https://

Do not put a period after DOIs or hyperlinks.

Tips

Author

Today, scientific articles can have many authors due to large-scale experiments run by large teams. In some research areas, an article can even have hundreds of authors! Generally, the first author is considered the lead author, so when citing it is important not to change the order co-authors are listed in. For details on how to balance efficiency and accuracy when citing academic articles with long lists of authors, see the various examples on this page.

Titles

Italicize titles of journals, magazines and newspapers. Do not italicize the titles of articles.

Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the article title. If there is a colon in the article title, also capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon.

Dates

If an item has no date, use the short form n.d. where you would normally put the date.

Volume and Issue Numbers

Italicize volume numbers but not issue numbers

Retrieval Dates

Most articles will not need these in the citation. Only use them for online articles from places where content may change often, such as a social media site like Academia.edu.

Page Numbers

If an article doesn't appear on continuous pages, list all the page numbers the article is on, separated by commas. For example (4, 6, 12-14)

What is a DOI?

DOI Numbers in Library Databases

Some electronic content is assigned a unique number called a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). If a DOI is provided for a journal article, include it after the page numbers of the article as a hyperlink - https://doi.org/xxxxx

You do not need to put a period after a DOI number.

How Do I Know If It's a Journal?

Photo from Flickr under Creative Commons license, created by the.Firebottle

Not sure whether your article is from a journal? Look for these characteristics:

Main purpose is often to report results of original search
Articles usually have a very narrow, technical subject focus
May see labeled sections such as the abstract, discussion, results, and conclusion
Author of the article is an expert or specialist in the field and often their credentials are listed
Article is intended for students, scientists, researchers and/or professionals instead of the general public
Usually includes a References list at the end

Articles may also come from magazines or newspapers.

Journal Article from Library Database with DOI - One Author

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Journal, Volume Number(Issue Number), first page number-last page number. DOI formatted as a hyperlink

Example

Bailey, N.W. (2012). Evolutionary models of extended phenotypes. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 27(3), 561-569. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

In-Text Paraphrase

(Author's Last Name, Year)

Example: (Bailey, 2012)

In-Text Quote

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page Number)

(Bailey, 2012, p. 562)

Journal Article from Library Database with DOI - Two to Twenty Authors

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given., & Last Name of Second Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Journal, Volume Number(Issue Number), first page number-last page number. DOI formatted as a hyperlink

Note: Separate the authors' names by putting a comma between them. For the final author listed add an ampersand (&) after the comma and before the final author's last name.

Example

Pempek, T.A., Yermolayeva, Y.A., & Calvert, S.L. (2009). College students' social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 3(2), 227-238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.010t

In-Text

Number of Authors/Editors

First Time Paraphrased

Second and Subsequent Times Paraphrased

First Time Quoting

Second and Subsequent Times Quoting

Two

(Case & Daristotle, 2011)

(Case & Daristotle, 2011, p. 57)

Three or more

(Case et al.,2011)

(Case et al., 2011)

(Case et al., 2011, p. 57)

Journal Article from Library Database No DOI - One Author

Note: The APA Manual (7th ed.) recommends not including the database or the URL of the journal home page for online articles without a DOI.

Example

Carlisle, D. (2012). In the line of fire. Nursing Standard, 26(39), 18-19.

In-Text Paraphrase

(Author's Last Name, Year)

Example: (Carlisle, 2012)

In-Text Quote

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page Number)

Example: (Carlisle, 2012, p. 18)

Journal Article from Library Database No DOI - Two to Twenty Authors

Note: In the reference list invert all authors' names; give last names and initials for only up to and including twenty authors. When a source has twenty-one or more authors, include the first twenty authors’ names, then three ellipses (…), and add the last author’s name.

Note: The APA Manual (7th ed.) recommends not including the library database for journal articles without a DOI as these works are widely available.

Example

Bogan, E., & Paun, E. (2011). The assimilation of immigrants into the British labor market. Geopolitics, History, and International Relations, 3(2), 272.

In-Text

Number of Authors/Editors

First Time Paraphrased

Second and Subsequent Times Paraphrased

First Time Quoting

Second and Subsequent Times Quoting

Two

(Case & Daristotle, 2011)

(Case & Daristotle, 2011, p. 57)

Three or more

(Case et al.,2011)

(Case et al., 2011)

(Case et al., 2011, p. 57)

Journal Article from a Website - One Author

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Journal, Volume Number(Issue Number if given). URL

Example

Flachs, A. (2010). Food for thought: The social impact of community gardens in the Greater Cleveland Area. Electronic Green Journal, 1(30). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6bh7j4z4

In-Text Paraphrase

(Author's Last Name, Year)

(Flachs, 2010)

In-Text Quote

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page Number)

Example: (Flachs, 2010, Conclusion section, para. 3)

Note: In this example there were no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, so you can cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from.

Journal Article In Print - One Author

Example

Jungers, W.L. (2010). Biomechanics: Barefoot running strikes back. Nature, 463(2), 433-434.

In-Text Paraphrase

(Author's Last Name, Year)

Example: (Jungers, 2010)

In-Text Quote

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page number)

Example: (Jungers, 2010, p. 433)

When You Have 21 or More Authors

When a journal article has twenty-one or more authors:

References List

List the first nineteen authors followed by three spaced ellipse points (. . .) , and then the last author's name.

Example

Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Sha, S., White, G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Higgins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K. C., Ropepelewski, C., Wang, J., Leetmaa, A., ... Joesph, D. (1996). The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 77(3), 437-471. https://doi.org/fg6rf9

In-Text Paraphrase

(First author's last name et al., Year)

Example: (Nilsson et al., 2016)

In-Text Quote

(First author's last name et al., Year, p. Page number quote is from)

Example: (Nilsson et al., 2016, p. 103)

Works by the Same Author with the Same Year

When you are citing two different sources that share the same author and year of publication, assign lowercase letters after the year of publication (a, b, c, etc.). Assign these letters according to which title comes first alphabetically. Use these letters in both in-text citations and the Reference list.

Example In-Text:

Paraphrasing content from first source by this author (Daristotle, 2015a). "Now I am quoting from the second source by the same author" (Daristotle, 2015b, p. 50).

Example Reference List entries:

Daristotle, J. (2015a). Name of first article. Made Up Journal, 26(39), 18-19.

Daristotle, J. (2015b). Title of second article. Another Made Up Journal, 35(1), 48-55.

In-Text Citation for Two or More Authors/Editors

Number of Authors/Editors	First Time Paraphrased	Second and Subsequent Times Paraphrased	First Time Quoting	Second and Subsequent Times Quoting
Two	(Case & Daristotle, 2011)	(Case & Daristotle, 2011)	(Case & Daristotle, 2011, p. 57)	(Case & Daristotle, 2011, p. 57)
Three or more	(Case et al.,2011)	(Case et al., 2011)	(Case et al., 2011, p. 57)	(Case et al., 2011, p. 57)

Number of Authors/Editors

First Time Paraphrased

Second and Subsequent Times Paraphrased

First Time Quoting

Second and Subsequent Times Quoting

Two

(Case & Daristotle, 2011)

(Case & Daristotle, 2011, p. 57)

Three or more

(Case et al.,2011)

(Case et al., 2011)

(Case et al., 2011, p. 57)

In-Text Citation for Group or Corporate Authors

Type of Group	First Time Paraphrased	Second and Subsequent Times Paraphrased	First Time Quoting	Second and Subsequent Times Quoting
Groups readily identified through abbreviations	(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2003)	(NIMH, 2003)	(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2003, p. 5)	(NIMH, 2003, p. 5)
Groups with no abbreviations	(University of Pittsburgh, 2005)	(University of Pittsburgh, 2005)	(University of Pittsburgh, 2005, p. 2)	(University of Pittsburgh, 2005, p. 2