- Pick a source type
- Add the details
- Copy your citation
The APA format for citing a journal article is:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), Pages. https://doi.org/xxxx
Examples
Brennan, M. (2020). Habit formation in early adolescence. Developmental Psychology Quarterly, 57(3), 412–429. https://doi.org/10.1037/dpq0000412
The default case: one author, full date, article title in sentence case, journal in title case and italics, DOI as a live link.
Other APA source types
Switch citation style
APA citation fields explained
| Authors | Format every author as |
| Year | The year of publication, in parentheses. For articles in advance online publication or in press, see the edge cases section - the date format changes for those. |
| Article title | Sentence case and plain text. Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Do not italicize, do not put in quotation marks, do not bold. The article title is the only field on a journal reference that uses sentence case - every other component (journal name, volume) is italicized or capitalized differently. |
| Journal name | Title case and italicized. Capitalize all major words, including words after a colon. The italics extend through any subtitle. Use the journal's full name as published - do not abbreviate (no J. for Journal, no Am. for American). APA spells out journal names in full, even for journals that abbreviate themselves on their own covers. |
| Volume and issue | Volume is italicized; issue is not. Format as |
| Page range | Use the page range with an en dash, not a hyphen: |
| DOI | If the article has a DOI, include it as a full URL: |
Examples of journal article citations in APA
Brennan, M. (2020). Habit formation in early adolescence. Developmental Psychology Quarterly, 57(3), 412–429. https://doi.org/10.1037/dpq0000412
The default case: one author, full date, article title in sentence case, journal in title case and italics, DOI as a live link.
Park, H., Mendez, A. R., & Volkov, I. (2022). Cross-cultural variation in feedback acceptance. Open Journal of Behavioral Science, 8, Article e114. https://doi.org/10.1098/ojbs.2022.0114
Some journals - especially open-access journals - assign article numbers rather than page ranges. Replace the page range with Article followed by the article number. The journal in this example does not use issue numbers, so no parentheses appear after the volume.
Carlsen, R. (2017). Reading aloud and prosodic awareness. Reading Studies Review, 22(4), 88–106.
End the reference at the page range when no DOI exists and the journal is freely available on the open web. Do not include the journal's homepage URL - APA does not require it for academic journals retrievable by title.
Iqbal, F., Ortega-Sanchez, L., Whitcombe, J., & Park, S. (2019). Algorithmic transparency in clinical decision support. Medical Informatics Quarterly, 41(7), 1102–1124. https://doi.org/10.1097/miq.2019.04102
List all authors up to twenty in the reference list. The in-text citation, however, uses et al. from the very first mention: (Iqbal et al., 2019). The reference list rule and the in-text rule diverge - students often confuse them.
Mwangi, P. (2023). Land tenure and women's economic agency in Kenya [Special issue]. Journal of African Economic Studies, 15(2), 56–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/jaes.2023.0056
For an article in a special or themed issue, add the bracketed descriptor [Special issue] after the article title. Cite individual articles in a special issue this way; the issue itself, as a whole, is cited differently (with the issue editor in the author slot).
APA edge cases for Journal article
Tricky citations don't have to be tricky. Pick a scenario to see the rule and a worked example.
Some journals genuinely paginate by volume only and do not use issue numbers. In that case, drop the parenthetical issue and write 34, 215–238. Do not invent an issue number from the publication month. Confirm by checking the journal's masthead or the article's first page for an issue line.
For an article published online before assignment to a print issue, replace the volume, issue, and page numbers with the phrase Advance online publication. The DOI is required: Park, H. (2024). Cognitive load in remote teaching. Educational Psychology Review. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/.... Once the article is assigned to a final issue, update the reference to the published version.
Preprints have not been peer-reviewed and are cited differently from published articles. Use the format: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of preprint [Preprint]. Repository name. URL or DOI. Common repositories include PsyArXiv, SSRN, bioRxiv, and arXiv. Cite the preprint version only if it is the version you actually used; otherwise cite the final published article.
To cite a retracted article (typically because you are discussing the retraction itself), include the bracketed descriptor [Retracted] after the title and add the retraction notice as a separate reference. The reader needs to know the article has been retracted; the bracket alerts them. Do not cite a retracted article as if it were valid evidence - APA's guidance is to use retracted work only when discussing the retraction or correcting prior reliance on it.
For very large author teams, list the first 19 authors, insert an ellipsis (three spaced periods, no ampersand or and), then add the final author. Authors 20 through second-to-last are not listed. The in-text citation uses et al. as it would for any article with three or more authors.
Provide the title in the original language, then the English translation in square brackets, both in sentence case: Müller, K. (2018). Sprache und Identität bei Jugendlichen [Language and identity in adolescents]. The journal name remains in its original language, italicized and in title case as the journal itself styles it. Do not translate the journal name.
APA in-text citations
In-text citation format
APA uses author–date parenthetical citations. Page numbers are required for direct quotes and recommended when paraphrasing a specific passage.
Paraphrase
Cognitive load increases sharply once decision-making continues past three hours (Tahir & Brennan, 2021).
Direct quote with page number
Tahir and Brennan (2021) describe the threshold as "the point at which clinical reasoning narrows rather than deepens" (p. 224). The ampersand is used inside parentheses; and is spelled out when the names are part of the sentence.
Three or more authors
(Iqbal et al., 2019) - APA 7 uses et al. from the very first citation when there are three or more authors. APA 6 spelled out all authors on the first appearance; the rule changed in the 7th edition and is one of the most common inherited errors.
Multiple works in one parenthesis
Order alphabetically by first author and separate with semicolons: (Brennan, 2020; Park et al., 2022; Tahir & Brennan, 2021). The order is alphabetical, not chronological.
Same author, same year
Distinguish with lowercase letters appended to the year, ordered alphabetically by title in the reference list: (Brennan, 2020a; Brennan, 2020b). The letters appear in both the in-text citation and the reference list.
References
3 References
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Reference examples: Journal articles. APA Style. apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/journal-article-references
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). APA reference list: Periodicals. Purdue OWL. owl.purdue.edu
Save & organize with Reference Library
Store, organize, and reuse your citations anytime with your personal reference library.
Go to Reference Library →Create a full bibliography
Generate a complete APA bibliography from all your saved references in seconds.
Create bibliography →