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APA - Referencing Guide

Journal Articles

Information

  Only the author's initials are given, regardless of the presentation of the author's name on the journal article.

  The given name may be cited in full to identify the author when different authors have the same surname and initials.

  Provide family names and initials for up to and including 20 authors. When there are two to twenty authors, use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name.

  When there are 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors' names, insert an ellipsis (...) and then add the final author's name.

  Capitalisation practice should also be consistent.

  Only the first word of the article title and proper nouns are capitalised.

  Journal titles and sub-titles are given maximal capitalisation.

  Journal titles and volume numbers are italicised when typed or underlined when handwritten. The issue number is never italicised.

  Include the issue number in parentheses immediately after the volume number, for all journals that have an issue number.

  Include a DOI for all works that have a DOI, regardless of whether you used the online version or the print version.

•  URLs should not be used for articles retrieved from academic research databases.

•  Do not include database information for articles retrieved from academic research databases, such as PsycINFO or CINAHL.

•  If a DOI or URL is not available, the reference is the same format as for a print journal.

•  For articles with an article number or e-locator, include the word Article (capitalised) followed by the article number.

Format

Standard format for citation

DOI available:

Article Author, A. A., & Article Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), inclusive page or paragraph numbers. DOI

 

URL available:

Article Author, A. A., & Article Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), inclusive page or paragraph numbers. URL

 

With an article number:

Article Author, A. A., & Article Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), Article number. DOI or URL

 

Print journal:

Article Author, A. A., & Article Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), inclusive page numbers.

Examples

Journal article with a DOI

Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L. A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(3), 443-449. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.3.443

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

Vogels, A. G. C., Crone, M. R., Hoekstra, F., & Reijneveld, S. A. (2009).  Comparing three short questionnaires to detect psychosocial dysfunction among primary school children: A randomized method. BMC Public Health, 9(1), 489. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-489

Wiskunde, B., Arslan, M., Fischer, P., Nowak, L., Van den Berg, O., Coetzee, L., Juárez, U., Riyaziyyat, E., Wang, C., Zhang, I., Li, P., Yang, R., Kumar, B., Xu, A., Martinez, R., McIntosh, V., Ibáñez, L. M., Mäkinen, G., Virtanen, E., . . . Kovács, A. (2019). Indie pop rocks mathematics: Twenty One Pilots, Nicolas Bourbaki, and the empty set. Journal of Improbable Mathematics, 27(1), 1935–1968. https://doi.org/10.0000/3mp7y-537

Journal article with a URL

Ahmann, E., Tuttle, L. J., Saviet, M., & Wright, S. D. (2018). A descriptive review of ADHD coaching research: Implications for college students. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 31(1), 24-58. https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/publications/jped/archived-jped/jped-volume-31

Journal article with an article number

March, E., & Springer, J. (2019). Belief in conspiracy theories: The predictive role of schizotypy, Machiavellianism, and primary psychopathy. PLoS One, 14(12), Article e0225964. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225964

Journal article: No author

The pain of being a caffeine freak. (2001, October 6). New Scientist, 172(2311), 27.

Journal article from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Hay, P. P. J., Bacaltchuk, J., Stefano, S., & Kashyap, P. (2009). Psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa and binging. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000562.pub3

Journal articles from a print journal

Hanna, K. (2007). Adsorption of aromatic carboxylate compounds on the surface of synthesized iron oxide-coated sands. Applied Geochemistry, 22(9), 2045-2053.

Kyratsis, A. (2004). Talk and interaction among children and the co-construction of peer groups and peer culture. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33(4), 231-247.

Parker, G., & Roy, K. (2001). Adolescent depression: A review. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 35(5), 572-580.

Zhang, B., Cohen, J., Ferrence, R., & Rehm, J. (2006). The impact of tobacco tax cuts on smoking initiation among Canadian young adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 30(6), 474-479.


See the All Examples page for examples of in-text and reference list entries for specific resources such as articles, books, and web pages.

What is a DOI?

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alpha-numeric string, used to identify electronic documents, which provides a persistent link to its location on the internet.

A DOI is assigned to a document when it is published.

All DOI numbers begin with https://doi.org/10 and contain a prefix of four or more digits and a suffix separated by a slash: https://doi.org/1010.1037/0278-6133.27.3.379.

When a DOI is long or complex, you may use 'shortDOIs'. Use the shortDOI service provided by the International DOI Foundation to create shortDOIs.

A DOI is usually located with the author and title information or on the first page of an electronic article. You may need to open the abstract or full text of an article to find it

When referencing an electronic document, include the DOI if one is assigned - if no DOI is assigned, include the URL if appropriate.