How to cite a journal article in APA 7

A journal article reference in APA has four parts: the author, the date, the title and the source. For an article the source is the journal.

Reference list format

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Okafor, N., & Lindqvist, S. (2023). Sleep timing and exam performance in first-year students. Journal of Student Learning, 14(2), 112–128. https://doi.org/10.1234/jsl.2023.0142

• Authors. Surname first, then initials, with an ampersand before the last author. List up to 20 authors. With 21 or more, list the first 19, add an ellipsis (no ampersand), then the final author.
• Year. In parentheses, followed by a period.
• Article title. Sentence case: capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns. No italics and no quotation marks.
• Journal name and volume. Italic. The issue number follows the volume in parentheses and is not italic. Use the journal’s name as the journal prints it; don’t abbreviate it yourself.
• Commas. One after the journal name and one before the page range. None between the volume and the issue.
• DOI. Write it as a link starting with https://doi.org/. Don’t put a period after it.

If there is no DOI

• Found in a library database, no DOI: end the reference after the page range. Don’t add the database name.
• No DOI but a web address that works for any reader: end with the URL.
• Both a DOI and a URL: use the DOI.

In-text citation

APA uses the author and year.

• Parenthetical: (Okafor & Lindqvist, 2023)
• Narrative: Okafor and Lindqvist (2023) found that…
• Three or more authors: the first author followed by “et al.” from the very first citation, as in (Martin et al., 2020).

Common mistakes

• Putting the article title in title case. Databases often store it that way, so convert it.
• Italicizing the issue number. Only the journal name and the volume are italic.
• Writing “Retrieved from” before a DOI. APA doesn’t use it.
• Leaving out the issue number when the journal has one.

Your instructor’s rules come first, and some courses ask for extras such as a database name.