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APA (7th ed.) Citing Guide: Articles: Journals

APA 7th Edition

This guide is representative of the 7th edition Publication Manual of APA and focuses on a student paper structure.

APA examples are not exhaustive and focus on referencing and citations. Assistance from your professor and/or Writing Centre is suggested for clarification.

Users are responsible for interpretation of APA style guidelines and to seek further assistance when necessary.

Effective September 2020.

What are Journals?

Journal articles:

  • are usually in a specific field of study
  • have an academic or scholarly focus
  • written by experts in the field
  • are often peer-reviewed, reviewed by subject experts in the field to ensure the information is accurate, credible, and reliable before being published
  • published in paper or electronic format
  • examples: Canadian Journal of Nursing, Business Education Innovation Journal

Journal citations have several elements that need to be included in the reference list entry and in-text citations.

elements in article

Image Source: Janzen, B., Karunanayake, C., Rennie, D., Katapally, T., Dyck, R., McMullin, K., Fenton, M., Jimmy, L., MacDonald, J., Ramsden, V. R., Dosman, J., Abonyi, S., & Pahwa, P. (2017). Racial discrimination and depression among on-reserve First Nations people in rural Saskatchewan. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 108(5–6), e482-e487. https://doi.org/10.17269/CJPH.108.6151

For another illustration, check the APA Style website here.

Journal Articles With a DOI (up to 20 authors)

Reference list entry:

Archer, C. L., Brodie, J. F., & Rauscher, S. A. (2019). Global warming will aggravate ozone pollution in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic. Journal of Applied Meteorology & Climatology, 58(6), 1267–1278. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-18-0263.1 

Note: List all authors up to 20 authors.

See Publication Manual, Section 9.8. See Publication Manual 8.17 for in-text citation examples when there are multiple authors.

Journal Articles With a DOI (21 or more authors)

Reference list entry:

Fenske, W., Refardt, J., Chifu, I., Schnyder, I., Winzeler, B., Drummond, J., Ribeiro-Oliveira, A., Jr, Drescher, T., Bilz, S., Vogt, D. R., Malzahn, U., Kroiss, M., Christ, E., Henzen, C., Fischli, S., Tönjes, A., Mueller, B., Schopohl, J., Flitsch, J.,  …Christ-Crain, M. (2018). A copeptin-based approach in the diagnosis of diabetes insipidus. The New England Journal of Medicine, 379(5), 428–439. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1803760

Note: List first 19 authors followed by "..." then the last author of the article. There are no spaces before or after "...". See Publication Manual 8.17 for in-text citation examples when there are multiple authors.

Journal Article (Open Access)

Reference list entry:

Toncic, J. (2020). Teachers, AI grammar checkers, and the newest literacies: Emending writing pedagogy and assessment. Digital Culture & Education, 12(1) 26-51. https://doaj.org/article/69fe64fef90e46588b7e47e15dc1ba3c

Note: If an open access journal article has a DOI, include the DOI and not the URL.

Journal Article Without a DOI (from library database or print article)

Reference list entry:

Walters, G., & Contri, D. (1998). Outcome expectancies for gambling: Empirical modeling of a memory network in federal prison inmates. Journal of Gambling Studies, 14(2), 173-91. 

Journal Article Without a DOI

Reference list entry:

Dagen, A. S. & Morewood, A. (2016). Strengthening early literacy through online collaboration and mentoring. YC Young Children, 71;(4), 20-25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/ycyoungchildren.71.4.20 

Journal Article With Article Number or eLocator

What is an article number or eLocator?

  • some databases assign unique numbers to articles (usually open access databases do this) 
  • the same article may appear more than once in search results and not consistently include the eLocator;
  • use your discretion when choosing which result to cite

Reference list entry:

Kihoon, K., Ratri, M. C., Choe, G., Nam, M., Cho, D. & Shin, K. (2020). Three-dimensional, printed water-filtration system for economical, on-site arsenic removal. PLoS ONE, 15(4), Article e0231475. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231475

Jounal Article Example in a Specialty Database (Cochrane example)

Reference list entry:

Grande, J.A., Keogh, J., Silva, V., Scott, A.M. (2020). Exercise versus no exercise for the occurrence, severity, and duration of acute respiratory infections. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 4. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD010596.pub3

Note: Articles in the Cochrane database are only accessible in that database. Follow the formats for journal references. The database name takes the place of the source.

IEEE Conference Proceedings (Journal example)

Reference list entry:

Lachs, W. R. (2005). Area-wide system protection scheme against extreme contingencies. Proceedings of the IEEE, USA, 93(5), 1004-1027. https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2005.847263

For more information see APA Style

In-Text Citation

For all of the examples above, the in-text citation follows the same format. Refer to the Publication Manual, Section 8.17 for explanation with multiple authors.

Parenthetical citation format: (last name of author(s), year)

e.g. (Lachs, 2005)

e.g. (Walters & Contri, 1998)

Narrative citation format: include the author's or authors' names in the sentence, with the date in brackets

e.g. Lachs (2005) wrote...

e.g. Walters and Contri (1998) wrote...

More in-text citation information on this guide.