How to Cite a Journal Article in APA

The APA journal article format

The template for a reference-list entry is:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of the article in sentence case. Title of the Journal in Title Case, volume(issue), firstpage–lastpage. https://doi.org/xxxx

• Authors: surname plus initials for every author, up to 20 in the reference list. The last author is joined with an ampersand (&).
• Article title: sentence case — only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalised.
• Journal name: title case and italic. The volume number is italic too; the issue number sits in parentheses after it and is not italic.
• Page range: joined with an en dash (–), in full — 452–468, not 452–68.
• DOI: always in the form https://doi.org/… and never followed by a full stop. If the article has no DOI, the entry simply ends after the page range (for a print article) — do not invent one.

Worked examples

Two authors, with a DOI
Nguyen, T. T., & Patel, R. S. (2022). The effects of spaced practice on long-term retention. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(3), 452–468. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000712

Four authors, no DOI
Okafor, C. N., Lindqvist, E. M., Romero, D. A., & Kim, H. J. (2021). Remote learning and student engagement in first-year courses. Studies in Higher Education, 46(11), 2287–2303.

One author, article number instead of pages
Brennan, S. K. (2020). Feedback timing and revision quality in undergraduate writing. Assessing Writing, 45, 100456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2020.100456

In-text citations

One author: (Brennan, 2020). Two authors: (Nguyen & Patel, 2022) in parentheses, but “Nguyen and Patel (2022)” in a sentence. Three or more authors shorten to et al. from the very first citation: (Okafor et al., 2021). For a quote, add the page: (Nguyen & Patel, 2022, p. 460).

Common mistakes

• Writing the DOI in the old “doi:10.…” form, or printing it twice when it arrives inside a URL.
• Putting the article title in title case, or the journal name in sentence case — APA does the opposite for each.
• Italicising the issue number along with the volume.
• Shortening the page range — APA prints both numbers in full.

Check your reference against your institution’s guidelines — lecturers sometimes vary the style.