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Research Guides

APA Style (7th edition)

Based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition.

Overview

The APA 7th format for articles varies a little depending on the type of article you are citing. There are three general types of articles:

  • Newspaper articles
  • Magazine articles
  • Scholarly, academic or peer-reviewed articles

Citing Articles: Basic Format

As explained in APA's Principles of References List, a citation in APA Style provides four basic elements: Author, Date, Title, and Source.

The basic citation format for a periodical article is:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Periodical, volume(issue), #–#. https://doi.org/xxxx

Below is a citation example for a journal article with DOI:

Citing Articles: The Details

Author(s) – list the author by last name, first name initial. Put a period after the first name initial. (sections 9.7 - 9.9)

  • More than one author – list authors by last name, first name initial (up to 20 authors); put a comma in between the names, and put an ampersand (&) before the last author. [e.g. Hayward, D., Smith, A., & Brown, J.]
  • More than 21 authors – list the first 19 authors and insert three ellipsis points […] then add the last author without an ampersand (&) before the last author (see Chapter 10, example 4 on pg. 317).
  • No author – when there is no author, start with the title of the work (section 9.12).
  • Group authors – such as government agencies, associations, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, etc.  Spell out the full name of the group in the reference list followed by a period. (section 9.11).

Title - capitalize using sentence case (i.e. only capitalize the first word of the title and of the subtitle, and any proper nouns).  (sections 9.18 & 9.19)

  • Titles that are part of a larger work (e.g. book chapters, newspaper article, magazine article, journal articles) – do not italicize or use quotation marks.
  • Titles that are stand alone works (e.g. books, reports, newspaper, magazine and journal) – Italicize 

DOIs & URLs - both DOIs (Digital Object Identifier) and URLs should be treated as hyperlinks beginning with "http://" or "https://".  The hyperlinks should be live and takes readers directly to the content.  It is not necessary to state "Retrieved from" or "Accessed from" before a DOI or URL. (section 9.35).

  • Follow the current recommendations of the International DOI foundation for DOIs formatting.  Currently, the format is: https://doi.org/xxxxx
  • Do not add a period after the DOI or URL as it may interfere with the hyperlink functionality.

Missing elements - see the chart on what to do when certain citation elements are missing in the References List, "What To Do When Information is Missing" section.

Database Sources - Only provide the database name if the reader need to go to the specific database to retrieve the cited work (i.e. limited circulation works or archived works).  Do not need to include database name for works that can be accessed from most academic research databases such as ProQuest, EBSCOhost, JSTOR, Google Scholar, etc. (section 9.30).

Retrieval date - Retrieval date is not needed for most online sources or archived online sources.  Only include retrieval date for sources with contents designed to change over time and the page/content is not intended to be archived (section 9.16). 

  • Follow the format: Retrieved October 11, 2019, from https://xxxxx

More Examples

Newspaper article with no author from a printed source: 

The coolest place to be when it's hot. (2006, June 4). Los Angeles Times,  p. B3.

Note: If no author, start with the article title.

Magazine article from a printed source:

Dickinson, T. (2012, September 13). The federal bailout that saved Romney. Rolling Stone, 52-53.

Note: Only capitalize the first word in the article title and any proper nouns.

Magazine article from an online source:

Bustillos, M. (2013, March 19). On video games and storytelling: An interview with Tom Bissell. The New

Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/on-video-games-and-storytelling-an-interview-with-tom-bissell

Journal article with more than 21 authors with DOI:

​Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White, G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Higgins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K. C., Ropelewski, C., Wang, J., Leetmaa, A., ...Joseph, D. (1996). The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bulletin of the American Meteorogical Society, 77(3), 437-471. http://doi.org/fg6rf9 

Note: List the first 19 authors, followed by 3 eclipse dots and then list the last author.