Journal articles are the source students reference most often in APA, and they are also the source where small errors pile up fastest. A missing issue number, a journal title in the wrong case or a DOI pasted in the old format can make an otherwise accurate reference look wrong. This guide breaks one journal article reference into its individual elements, in order, so you can build yours piece by piece and check each part. If you want to test your version as you go, the free APA referencing generator will format the same details for you, which makes it easy to spot where your manual attempt differs.
The examples below follow APA 7th edition. If your course still uses an earlier edition or a local variation, check your handbook, because details such as the DOI format changed between editions.
The full reference at a glance
The pattern for a journal article in the reference list is:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., and Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal in Title Case and Italics, Volume number in italics(Issue number), page range. https://doi.org/xxxx
Worked example: Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., and 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
That single line contains seven decisions. The sections below take them one at a time.
Element 1: Authors
List authors by surname followed by initials, in the exact order they appear on the article, separated by commas, with an ampersand before the final author. Do not use the word “and” in the reference list, and do not include degrees, job titles or full first names. For a single author, the format is simply Surname, Initial. Initial. For example: McCauley, S. M.
Under APA 7th, list up to 20 authors in full. This catches students out when they copy an older example that truncated the list after seven names. If you cannot find the authors on a PDF, look at the first page header or the journal webpage for the article, not at a shortened citation in a database list view, which sometimes hides middle authors.
Element 2: Year, article title and journal title
The year of publication goes in brackets straight after the authors, followed by a full stop: (2019). Use the year the article itself was published.
The article title uses sentence case: capitalise only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns. It is not italicised and has no quotation marks. The journal title is the opposite: use title case, capitalising all major words, and put it in italics. Students reverse these two rules more than any other APA detail. A simple memory aid is that the container, the journal, gets the emphasis, while the individual article inside it does not.
Element 3: Volume, issue and page range
After the journal title, give the volume number in italics, then the issue number in brackets but not in italics, with no space before the bracket: 8(3). Then add the page range with a comma and a space: , 207-217. Use the full page numbers as printed, and keep the hyphen as a plain hyphen in the reference list.
If a journal does not use issue numbers, or the article record does not give one, leave that element out rather than guessing. If articles are published with article numbers instead of page ranges, give the article number in place of the pages. Never invent volume or page details to make a reference look complete. An honest shorter reference is better than a fabricated full one.
Element 4: The DOI, with and without
If the article has a DOI, include it at the end as a link in this form: https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185. Do not use the old “doi:” prefix, do not add a full stop after the link, and do not break the link across lines in a way that inserts extra characters. You can usually find the DOI on the first page of the PDF, on the journal article webpage or in the database record. Copy and paste it rather than typing it, because one wrong digit makes it useless.
If there is no DOI, the reference normally ends after the page range when you read the article through a standard academic database. You do not add the database name, and you do not add a long database URL. The exception is an article from an open website outside the usual databases, where APA asks for the direct URL to the article or its landing page. If you are unsure, the safest check is whether another student could find the article from the author, year, title and journal details alone. For most peer reviewed journal work, they can, which is exactly what the reference is for.
For a reminder of why the DOI looks different in older guides you may own, our overview of APA 7th edition changes from APA 6th explains the switch from the old prefix format.
In-text citations: narrative and parenthetical
The reference list entry is only half the job. In your text, cite the article every time you paraphrase, summarise or quote it. APA offers two forms. In a parenthetical citation, the authors and year sit together in brackets: Research on storybook representation has grown in recent years (Grady et al., 2019). In a narrative citation, the authors form part of the sentence: Grady et al. (2019) compared how storybooks represent different groups.
Note the difference for two author articles. Inside brackets use the ampersand: (Harris & Lee, 2021). Inside a sentence use the word: Harris and Lee (2021) found that… For three or more authors, shorten to the first surname plus “et al.” from the first citation in APA 7th, in both forms.
For a direct quote, add the page number: (Grady et al., 2019, p. 211), or Grady et al. (2019) noted that “exact quoted words” (p. 211). For a paraphrase, a page number is not required, though APA encourages one for a long source where it would help the reader. Quote sparingly: markers generally want ideas explained in your own words.
Common mistakes
- Capitalising the article title like a headline. Article titles take sentence case, journal titles take title case. Getting this backwards is the most frequent APA article error.
- Using “and” in the reference list. The reference list uses an ampersand before the final author. The word “and” belongs in narrative citations only.
- Pasting the library search URL. Long links containing session details or database search terms are not DOIs and will not work for your reader. Use the DOI link, or no link at all for standard database articles without a DOI.
- Adding a full stop after the DOI. It can become part of the link and break it. The DOI is the last element and stands without closing punctuation.
- Listing authors in alphabetical order. Keep the order printed on the article. Author order is deliberate and carries meaning about contribution.
- Mixing editions. A reference with a 6th edition DOI format and a 7th edition author list looks inconsistent. Pick the edition your course requires and apply it to every entry.
Referencing sits at the end of a longer process of planning, reading and writing. If you are struggling with the assignment itself rather than just its reference list, our assignment help page describes the support available, from £20 per 1,000 words. Sorting the argument and evidence first usually makes the final referencing check much quicker.
Special cases: advance online, article numbers and very long author lists
Advance online publication: If an article has been published online but not yet placed in a volume, write Advance online publication where the volume, issue and pages would go, and include the DOI. Update the reference once the final details are assigned.
Article numbers: Online journals increasingly use an article number instead of a page range. Give it in place of the pages, with the word Article first, for example Article e0298451. Do not include both an article number and a page range.
Twenty-one or more authors: List the first 19 authors, add an ellipsis, then give the final author, with no ampersand before that final name. You will meet this most often in health and science papers with large research teams.
Translated articles: Give the title in its original language followed by your English translation in square brackets, and keep the journal name in its original language.
Frequently asked questions
Do I include the issue number? Yes, whenever the journal gives one. It sits in brackets directly after the italic volume number, and it is not italicised itself.
What if I read the article in a database such as EBSCO or ProQuest? Do not include the database name or its URL. Use the DOI if there is one; if there is not, end the reference after the page range.
Should the DOI be a live link? Yes. Present it as https://doi.org/ followed by the identifier, with no full stop after it.
How many authors do I list? Up to 20 in full in the reference list. In the text, three or more authors shorten to the first surname plus et al. from the first citation.
Try it free
Pick the next journal article on your reading list and build its reference twice: once by hand using the elements above, and once with the free APA referencing generator. Compare the two versions carefully, especially the title cases, the italic volume number and the DOI ending. Any difference is a clue to a rule worth revising. Repeat the process for one article without a DOI, and you will have covered the two patterns that account for most APA journal references you will ever need.