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APA – Citing Sources

Articles

Surname, A., Surname, B., & Surname, C. (year). Article title. Journal title, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

Further reading on how to write references for journal articles on APA Style: Journal Article References

Volume and Number

Different journals use different combinations of denoting volume and number. Some journals only have volumes, others have only numbers, while others use both volume and number. The volume is a part of the journal name and should therefore also be in italics, just as the journal name should be, whereas the issue is stated in regular, non-italic, form, within parentheses.

If volume or number is missing

Search the reference in Primo or any database to see if the information is there. If there is no volume or number, just skip that part of the reference.

Examples of references that lack certain information can be found on APA's website: Journal article with missing information.

Printed or Digital, DOI

Articles can be in both printed and digital forms. The difference is that you, in the latter case, add a link to the article. This is usually a so-called DOI (Digital Object Identifier), a unique and persistent URL that will take you to the article even if it is moved from one place to another on the journal's website.

Note! For articles without DOIs from most academic research databases, there is no need to include a URL. Only include the URL if the article is from a website. Read more about this on APA Style: When to include DOIs and URLs

Example of references for works without DOI from academic databases: 

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.

If the article comes from a website, include a URL.

Example of references for works without DOI from webpages:

Green, B. (2018). A qualitative investigation of bullying of individuals with disabilities on a college campus. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 31(2), 135-147. https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/publications/jped/archived-jped/jped-volume-31

Article with one author

In-text citation:​

  • . . . and academic texts require reliable evidence to support any statements made (Nodén, 2023).
  • Nodén (2023) emphasizes that . . .

In the reference list:

Author, A. A. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

Reference example:

Houle, C. (2019). Social mobility and political instability. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 63(1), 85–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002717723434

Article with two authors

In-text citation:

  • . . . and academic texts require reliable evidence to support any statements made (Nodén & Welander, 2023).
  • Nodén and Welander (2023) emphasize that . . .

In the reference list:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

​Reference example:

Ebrahimzadeh, A., & Giski, Z. E. (2019). Tsallis entropy of partitions in quantum logics. International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 58(3), 672–686. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-018-3966-1

Article with three to twenty authors

In-text citation:

For articles with three to twenty authors, the first author is followed by et al.

  • . . . and academic texts require reliable evidence to support any statements made (Nodén et al., 2023).
  • Nodén et al. (2023) emphasize that . . .

To avoid ambiguity:

If a citation is the same as another one, add as many names as necessary to make the citing unique. 

  • According to Nodén, Welander, Hjort et al. (2023) and Nodén, Welander, Albertsson et al. (2023), the most important component...

In the reference list:

  • Provide surnames and initials for all the authors up to and including 20 authors.
  • When there are two to 20 authors, use an ampersand (&) before the final author’s name.

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

​Reference example:

Norling, J. C., Sibthorp, J., Suchy, Y., Hannon, J. C., & Ruddell, E. (2010). The benefit of recreational physical activity to restore attentional fatigue: The effects of running intensity level on attention scores. Journal of Leisure Research, 42(1), 135–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2010.11950198

Article with 21 or more authors

In-text citation:

For articles with three to twenty authors, the first author is followed by et al. 

  • . . . and academic texts require reliable evidence to support any statements made (Nodén et al., 2023).
  • Nodén et al. (2023) emphasize that . . .

To avoid ambiguity: 

If the citation is the same as another one, add as many names as necessary to make the citing unique. 

  • According to Nodén, Welander, Hjort et al. (2023) and Nodén, Welander, Albertsson et al. (2023), the most important component...

In the reference list:

  • When an article has 21 or more authors, you write the first 19 authors followed by ellipsis points, consisting of three spaced full stops (periods), and finally the last author:

Author, A., Author, B., Author, C., Author, D., Author, E., Author, F., Author, G., Author, H., Author, I., Author, J., Author, K., Author, L., Author, M., Author, N., Author, O., Author, P., Author, Q., Author, R., Author, S.,. . . Author, Z. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

Reference:

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 Meteorological Society, 77(3), 437–472. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077<0437:TNYRP>2.0.CO;2

Article with article number

Some journals online use article numbers instead of page numbering. This article number is found in the article or on the journal's webpage.  In the reference, provide the article number instead of the page range. 

In the reference list:

Author, A. A., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume(number), Article XXXXX. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

Reference example:

​Jerrentrup, A., Mueller, T., Glowalla, U., Herder, M., Henrichs, N., Neubauer, A., & Schaefer, J. R. (2018). Teaching medicine with the help of “Dr. House”. PLoS ONE, 13(3), Article e0193972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193972

Article with no volume, issue or page numbers

In the reference list:

Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Article title. Journal Title. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx

​Reference examples:

Advance online publication:

Dardas, L. A., Woodward, A., Scott, J., Xu, H., & Sawair, F. A. (2018). Measuring the social impact of nursing research: An insight into altmetrics. Journal of Advanced Nursing. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13921​

Manuscript in preparation:

O'Shea, M. (2018). Understanding proactive behavior in the workplace as a function of gender [Manuscript in preparation]. Department of Management, University of Kansas.
Enter the author/author's affiliation in a distinct way.

Unpublished manuscript:

Yoo, J., Miyamoto, Y., Rigotti, A., & Ryff, C. (2016). Linking positive effect to blood lipids: A cultural perspective [Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Manuscript submitted for publication:

Lippincott, T., & Poindexter, E. K. (2019). Emotion recognition as a function of facial cues: Implications for practice [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Department of Psychology, University of Washington. 

In press:

Pachur, T., & Scheibehenne, B. (in press). Unpacking buyer-seller differences in valuation from experience: A cognitive modeling approach. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

Newspaper article in printed form

In-text citation:

  • . . . and academic texts require reliable evidence to support any statements made (Nodén, 2023).
  • Nodén (2023) emphasizes that . . .

It is sufficient to enter the year in the citation in the in-text citations and exclude the date.

When using articles without authors, the article title works as a substitute. In the citation, the title is within quotation marks ("). It is sufficient to use the beginning of the article title. 

  • In an article ("Gör en insats", 2019) this is judged as being a . . .

In the reference list:

Author, A. (year, month day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, pages (use "p." for a single page and "pp." for multiple pages).

​Reference examples:

Article with author

Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.

Commentary: If an article appears on discontinuous pages, give all page numbers, and separate the numbers with a comma (e.g. pp. B1, B3, B5-B7). If the newspaper consists of different sections, like A, B, C, etc., state those before the page numbers as well.

 

Article without author

Gör en insats för klimatet - ät ett vildsvin. (2019,  March 12). Jönköpings-Posten, p. 2.​​

Put the article title in the place of the author.

Online news article

In-text citation:

  • Fountain (2019) states that . . .

For articles with no author specified, the title of the article is used as the main entry, instead of an author name. Write the title within quotation marks. It is enough to write the beginning of the title if it is long:

  • In an editorial ("A whistleblower on Xinjiang", 2019) this is seen as . . .

In the reference list:

Author, A. (year, month day). Title of article. Name of the newspaper. https://xxxx

​Reference examples:

Article with author specified:

Fountain, H. (2019, April 25). A respite from record losses, but tropical forests are still in trouble. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/climate/tropical-forest-deforestation.html

Article with no author specified:

A whistleblower in Xinjiang has been detained: Is China behind the arrest? (2019, March 11). Washington Post. ​https://www.washingtonpost.com
Commentary: Put the article title in the place of the author in the reference.
Also note that if the article title ends with punctuation marks, like a question mark or an exclamation mark, do not insert a full stop (period) after the punctuation mark.