Citation Struggles: The Hidden Time Sink of Academic Writing

You’ve found the perfect journal article for your research, but now you need to cite it in APA 7th edition. One wrong punctuation mark and your citation could be marked incomplete. Getting it right matters — and APA has very specific rules.

Journal articles are the most common source type in academic writing, and APA 7th edition provides precise guidelines for every element of the citation. This guide covers the full format with real examples, including how to handle articles with DOIs, articles without DOIs, and articles with multiple authors.

APA 7th Journal Article Reference Format

The basic structure for a journal article citation in APA 7th edition follows this pattern:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), page range. https://doi.org/xxxx

Key Formatting Rules

• Author names: Last name followed by initials only. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author.
• Year: In parentheses after the author names, followed by a period.
• Article title: Sentence case (capitalize only the first word, proper nouns, and the word after a colon).
• Journal title: Title case and italicized. Capitalize all major words.
• Volume number: Italicized. Do not use “Vol.”
• Issue number: In parentheses, not italicized, immediately after the volume number.
• Page range: Full page range of the article.
• DOI: Always include as a hyperlink if available. Do not add a period after the DOI.

Examples

Journal Article with a DOI

Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Julik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24(3), 225–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225a

Journal Article with Multiple Authors (Three or More)

For articles with three or more authors, list all authors up to 20 in the reference list. Use an ampersand before the final author.

Masters, K. S., Stillman, A. M., & Berry, T. D. (2024). Mindfulness and academic performance in graduate students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(2), 312–329. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000821

Journal Article Without a DOI

If the article has no DOI and you accessed it online, provide the URL of the journal homepage. Do not include database names or URLs for subscription databases like JSTOR or ProQuest.

Chen, L. (2023). Narrative identity in second-generation immigrants. Journal of Cultural Psychology, 18(4), 145–162. https://www.jculturalpsychology.org/archive

In-Text Citations for Journal Articles

APA uses the author-date system for all in-text citations, including journal articles.

For direct quotes, add the page number: (Smith, 2023, p. 45)

Common Journal Article Citation Mistakes

• Incorrect title capitalization — The article title uses sentence case, but the journal title uses title case. These are easy to mix up.
• Forgetting the DOI — APA 7th edition requires the DOI when available. Missing it makes the citation incomplete.
• Including database names — Do not include JSTOR, ProQuest, EBSCO, or similar database names in the citation.
• Wrong author format in-text for 3+ authors — Use “et al.” for three or more authors in every in-text citation.
• Missing the hanging indent — Every reference list entry requires a hanging indent of 0.5 inches. See our guide on how to create a hanging indent in Word.

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