APA Citation Guide

How to Cite Journal Articles in APA Style

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Citing journal articles

Journal articles, printed or retrieved from online databases, are referenced differently from books with one or multiple authors. When preparing journal-obtained citations, database records should provide all of the information required to produce a reference, from which you should extract the following:

  1. Author or authors of the piece (last name first and first name as an initial)
  2. Year of publication (in brackets)
  3. Article title
  4. Journal title (in italics)
  5. Volume of journal (in italics) and issue number (in brackets, no italics)
  6. Page range
  7. DOI (when available)

Remember that reference lists should be placed at the very end of essays and research papers and should be presented alphabetically.

APA Journal article reference format:

Last name, initial. (Year). Article Title. Journal Name, Volume (Issue), pp. page range.

Examples:

  • Darlow, B. et al. (2013). The enduring impact of what clinicians say to people with low back pain. Annals of Family Medicine, 11(6), pp.527-534. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.1518
  • Maceachen, D. (1950). Wilkie Collins and British Law. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, 5(2), pp. 121–139. DOI: 10.2307/44372511
  • Theroux, A. (1990) “Henry James’s Boston”, The Iowa Review, 20(2), pp. 158–165. DOI: 10.17077/0021-065X.3902