To cite a journal article in APA style, list the author's last name and initials, the publication year in parentheses, the article title, the italicized journal name and volume, the issue number, the page range, and the DOI.
Mastering the APA 7th edition guidelines for journal articles is an essential part of academic writing. Whether you are drafting a literature review or finalizing your thesis, formatting your reference list correctly ensures your work is credible and easy for other researchers to track.
Standard APA Reference Format
The basic formula for a journal article reference looks like this:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Title of Periodical, volume(issue), page range. https://doi.org/xxxx
Breakdown of Key Elements
To build a flawless citation, follow these specific formatting rules for each component:
- Authors: Write the author's last name first, followed by a comma and their initials. If there are multiple authors, use an ampersand (&) before the final author's name. APA 7th edition requires you to list up to 20 authors in the reference entry.
- Year of Publication: Place the year the article was published in parentheses, followed by a period.
- Article Title: Use sentence case. This means you only capitalize the first word of the title, the first word of any subtitle (after a colon), and proper nouns. Do not italicize the article title.
- Journal Title and Volume: Use title case (capitalize all major words) and italicize both the journal name and the volume number.
- Issue Number: Place the issue number in parentheses immediately after the volume number. Do not add a space between them, and do not italicize the issue number.
- Page Range and DOI: List the full page range of the article followed by a period. Finally, include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) formatted as a secure, clickable URL (starting with https://doi.org/).
Formatting In-Text Citations
Whenever you quote or paraphrase from the article, you must include an in-text citation.
- Parenthetical citation: (Smith & Jones, 2023)
- Narrative citation: Smith and Jones (2023) demonstrated that...
If the article has three or more authors, simply use the first author's last name followed by "et al." for all in-text citations (e.g., Smith et al., 2023).
Manually tracking down DOIs and formatting every author's name perfectly can slow down your research process. If you want to avoid formatting errors, WisPaper's TrueCite auto-finds and verifies citations for you, which eliminates hallucinated references and ensures your APA citations are accurate and backed by real sources. Always double-check your final reference list to ensure your indentations (a hanging indent of 0.5 inches) and spacing align with your university's specific formatting requirements.
