To cite an article in APA style, you need two things: a reference list entry at the end of your paper and an in-text citation wherever you mention the source. The basic reference format follows this pattern: Author last name, first initial. (Year). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages. DOI or URL. Each element has specific formatting rules, and the details shift slightly depending on whether you’re citing a journal article, a newspaper piece, or a magazine story.
The Standard Journal Article Format
A journal article reference has six core parts, always in this order:
- Author(s): Last name followed by first and middle initials. Separate multiple authors with commas, and place an ampersand (&) before the final name.
- Year: In parentheses, followed by a period.
- Article title: In sentence case, meaning only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized.
- Journal name: Italicized, in title case (capitalize all major words).
- Volume and issue: The volume number is italicized. The issue number follows immediately in parentheses, not italicized.
- Pages or article number: A page range like 207–217, or, if the journal uses article numbers instead of pages, the word “Article” followed by the number.
Here’s a complete example:
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
Always include the issue number, even if the journal also uses continuous pagination across issues. If the journal doesn’t use volume, issue, or page numbers, simply leave out whatever is missing.
How to Format DOIs and URLs
If the article has a DOI (a permanent digital identifier assigned to most scholarly articles), include it at the very end of the reference as a full hyperlink starting with “https://doi.org/” followed by the DOI number. Even if you found the DOI in an older format like “doi:10.1037/ppm0000185,” convert it to the hyperlink version: https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185.
Do not put a period after a DOI or URL, because it can break the link. You also don’t need the phrase “Retrieved from” before any link. Just place the URL or DOI at the end of the entry.
If the article has no DOI but is available online through a stable URL that your readers could use to find it, include that URL instead. If the article only exists in a print database with no working link, end the reference after the page numbers.
In-Text Citations
Every time you refer to information from an article in the body of your paper, you need an in-text citation. APA uses two formats: parenthetical and narrative.
A parenthetical citation places the author’s last name and the year in parentheses at the end of the sentence: (Grady et al., 2019). A narrative citation works the author’s name into the sentence itself: Grady et al. (2019) found that emotional content varied across storybooks. Notice that in narrative form, only the year goes in parentheses.
For works with one or two authors, include every author’s last name in each citation. For works with three or more authors, use only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” from the very first citation onward. In “et al.,” there is no period after “et” (it’s a complete Latin word), but there is always a period after “al” (which is an abbreviation). If shortening to “et al.” would make two different sources look identical, write out enough additional author names to distinguish them.
Citing Newspaper and Magazine Articles
Newspaper and magazine articles follow the same general structure, with one key difference: the date. Instead of just the year, you include the year, month, and day in parentheses.
A newspaper article reference looks like this:
Schwartz, J. (2019, March 22). The costs of living to 100. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/xxxx
Use the full date format (2019, March 22) for any article published on a specific day, which covers most newspapers and many online magazine pieces. For monthly or bimonthly magazines, include just the year and month: (2019, March). The in-text citation still uses only the year, regardless of how specific the date is in the reference list: (Schwartz, 2019).
When the Author or Date Is Missing
Not every article lists an author or a clear publication date. APA has specific substitution rules for each situation.
If there is no author, move the article title to the front of the reference, where the author name would normally go. In your in-text citation, use a shortened version of the title in place of the author name. Do not write “Anonymous” unless the article is literally signed “Anonymous.”
If there is no date, replace the year with “n.d.” (no date) in both the reference list and in-text citations. So a dateless article by Smith would be cited as (Smith, n.d.).
If both the author and date are missing, the title moves to the front of the reference and “n.d.” fills the date position. Your in-text citation would use a shortened title and “n.d.”: (“Shortened Title,” n.d.).
If the article also lacks a title, write a brief description of the content in square brackets in place of the title, like [Editorial on housing policy]. Use that bracketed description in your in-text citation as well.
Putting It All Together
Here’s a quick walkthrough. Say you’re citing a 2021 journal article by two authors, Rosa and Chen, titled “Sleep quality and academic performance in college students,” published in the Journal of Health Psychology, volume 26, issue 4, pages 512–525, with a DOI.
Your reference list entry would be:
Rosa, L. M., & Chen, W. (2021). Sleep quality and academic performance in college students. Journal of Health Psychology, 26(4), 512–525. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
Your in-text citation would be either (Rosa & Chen, 2021) for a parenthetical citation or Rosa and Chen (2021) for a narrative one. Note that within parentheses you use an ampersand (&), but in running text you spell out “and.”
If this same article had five authors, you’d list all five in the reference entry but shorten every in-text citation to the first author’s last name plus “et al.” from the start.