APA JOURNAL CITATION GENERATOR

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH APA JOURNAL CITATION

This page will help you identify the essential elements that go into citing journal articles in APA style. It will provide you with examples of citations based on the different types of article that you may encounter in your studies. This guide has been compiled by experts who have extensive knowledge of how to construct an APA reference for journals; it follows the seventh edition of the APA Publication Manual. 

When putting together your reference list, your citation is comprised of the following core elements: 

  • Author and date
  • Title of article
  • Publication information (title of publication, volume and issue number, page range)
  • DOI
  • In-text citations

LET’S START WITH THE BASICS OF APA CITATION FOR JOURNAL ARTICLES

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW

The layout when citing articles in APA style is as follows:

  • Author Surname, Initial(s)., Subsequent Author(s) Surname(s), Initial(s)., & Final Author Surname, Initial(s). (Year). Title of Article. Title of Journal, Vol(Issue), page range. 

Here’s an example:

  • Chan, T. C. Y., Cho, J. A., & Novati, D. C. (2012). Quantifying the contribution of NHL player types to team performance. Interfaces, 42(2), 131–145.

When you need to produce an in-text citation—for example, when you directly quote from or paraphrase a source—the form is as follows: 

  • Parenthetical: (Chan et al., 2012) 
  • Narrative: Chan et al. (2012) 

For a more in-depth look at APA in-text citations, please refer to our discussion here.

FINDING AND CITING YOUR ARTICLES ONLINE

You will often find scholarly articles online. The main difference between print and online articles is that for the latter, you need to provide a “digital object identifier,” or DOI. 

Let’s take an example: 

  • Hegedüs, R., Åkesson, S., Wehner, R., & Horváth, G. (2007). Could Vikings have navigated under foggy and cloudy conditions by skylight polarization? On the atmospheric optical prerequisites of polarimetric Viking navigation under foggy and cloudy skies. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 463(2080), 1081–1095. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2007.1811

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH DOIs?

The general rule is that if an article has a DOI, you should supply it in your reference list. This means that even if you used a print copy, you should check to see if that article also has a DOI. If so, include it with the entry in your reference list.

The DOI should start with https://doi.org/, followed by the specific numbers relevant to your article. You can leave the DOI as an active hyperlink. Note also that you do not include a period at the end of the DOI. Because DOIs can be lengthy, you should copy and paste them, instead of typing them manually. Finally, DOIs should only appear in your reference list entries; your in-text citations do not need to provide the DOI.

SOME SPECIAL DATABASES YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

For certain databases you do need to supply a DOI or a URL, but this applies to specific situations.

One such database is the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. When citing from this, the format is the same as for other types of article, with one exception: you replace the title of the journal with the name of the database. Here’s an example:

  • Allaouat, S., Reddy, V. K., Räsänen, K., Khan, S., & Lumens, M. E. G. L. (2020). Education interventions for preventing lead poisoning in workers. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org//10.1002/14651858.CD013097.pub2

Another database that you may encounter is the UpToDate database. There are two key differences to keep in mind when citing from this database:

  • You need to provide a retrieval date (i.e., the date you accessed the article). 
  • You need to supply a URL, as opposed to a DOI.

Again, let’s take an example.

  • Raby, B. A., Kohlmann, W., Hartzfeld, D. (2020). Genetic counseling: Family history interpretation and risk assessment. UpToDate. Retrieved September 4, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/genetic-counseling-family-history-interpretation-and-risk-assessment

A MENAGERIE OF ARTICLE CITATIONS

A single-authored text 

  • Reference list:
    • Haas, H. A. (2011). The wisdom of wizards—and muggles and squibs: Proverb use in the world of Harry Potter. The Journal of American Folklore, 124(492), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.124.492.0029
  • Parenthetical:
    • (Haas, 2011)
  • Narrative:
    • Haas (2011)

Two is better than one: Duo-authored texts

  • Reference list:
    • Kurrild-Klitgaard, P., & Svendsen, G. T. (2003, December). Rational bandits: Plunder, public goods, and the Vikings. Public Choice, 117(3/4), 255–272.
  • Parenthetical:
    • (Kurrild-Klitgaard & Svendsen, 2003)
  • Narrative:
    • Kurrild-Klitgaard and Svendsen (2003)

Three’s a crowd: Dealing with three or more authors

The rules governing how to deal with multiple authors for APA citation of journal articles vary depending on the number of authors, and whether you’re making an entry for a reference list or to be used in-text.

  • Reference list entry (for up to and including 20 authors, all authors are listed):
    • McCormick, M., Büntgen, U., Cane, M. A., Cook, E. R., Harper, K., Huybers, P., Litt, T., Manning, S. W., Mayewski, P. A., More, A. F. M., Nicolussi, K., & Tegel, W. (2012). Climate change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the past from scientific and historical evidence. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 43(2), 169–220. https://doi.org/10.1162/JINH_a_00379
  • In-text:
    • Parenthetical: (McCormick et al., 2012) 
    • Narrative: McCormick et al. (2012)
  • If you have 21 or more authors, only the first 19 are listed, followed by an ellipsis (…), and then the final author’s name:
    • Castellano, S., Parra, G., Sánchez-Quinto, F. A., Racimo, F., Kuhlwilm, M., Kircher, M., Sawyer, S., Fu, Q., Heinze, A., Nickel, B., Dabney, J., Siebauer, M., White, L., Burbano, H. A., Renaud, G., Stenzel, U., Lalueza-Fox, C., de la Rasilla, M., Rosas, A., … Pääbo, S. (2014). Patterns of coding variation in the complete exomes of three Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(18), 6666–6671. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1405138111
  • In-text:
    • Parenthetical: (Castellano et al., 2014)
    • Narrative: Castellano et al. (2014)

REFERENCE LIST

Allaouat, S., Reddy, V. K., Räsänen, K., Khan, S., & Lumens, M. E. G. L. (2020). Education interventions for preventing lead poisoning in workers. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org//10.1002/14651858.CD013097.pub2

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Castellano, S., Parra, G., Sánchez-Quinto, F. A., Racimo, F., Kuhlwilm, M., Kircher, M., Sawyer, S., Fu, Q., Heinze, A., Nickel, B., Dabney, J., Siebauer, M., White, L., Burbano, H. A., Renaud, G., Stenzel, U., Lalueza-Fox, C., de la Rasilla, M., Rosas, A., … Pääbo, S. (2014). Patterns of coding variation in the complete exomes of three Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(18), 6666–6671. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1405138111

Chan, T. C. Y., Cho, J. A., & Novati, D. C. (2012). Quantifying the contribution of NHL player types to team performance. Interfaces, 42(2), 131–145.

Haas, H. A. (2011). The wisdom of wizards—and muggles and squibs: Proverb use in the world of Harry Potter. The Journal of American Folklore, 124(492), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.124.492.0029

Hegedüs, R., Åkesson, S., Wehner, R., & Horváth, G. (2007). Could Vikings have navigated under foggy and cloudy conditions by skylight polarization? On the atmospheric optical prerequisites of polarimetric Viking navigation under foggy and cloudy skies. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 463(2080), 1081–1095. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2007.1811

Kurrild-Klitgaard, P., & Svendsen, G. T. (2003, December). Rational bandits: Plunder, public goods, and the Vikings. Public Choice, 117(3/4), 255–272.

McCormick, M., Büntgen, U., Cane, M. A., Cook, E. R., Harper, K., Huybers, P., Litt, T., Manning, S. W., Mayewski, P. A., More, A. F. M., Nicolussi, K., & Tegel, W. (2012). Climate change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the past from scientific and historical evidence. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 43(2), 169–220. https://doi.org/10.1162/JINH_a_00379

Raby, B. A., Kohlmann, W., Hartzfeld, D. (2020). Genetic counseling: Family history interpretation and risk assessment. UpToDate. Retrieved September 4, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/genetic-counseling-family-history-interpretation-and-risk-assessment

Matthew McHaffie (Ph.D.)

Matthew McHaffie is a Visiting Scholar at the University of St. Andrews. He has published on medieval law and has taught citation skills to undergraduates.