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APA Citation Style Guide (6th Ed.): Citing Articles

This guide contains examples of common citation formats in APA (American Psychological Association) Style

Articles - Overview

Note: Citations with more than one line of text should have a hanging indent of 1/2 inch or 5 spaces.

Important Elements for Reference List:

  • Author (last name, initials only for first & middle names)
  • Date of publication of article (year and month for monthly publications; year, month and day for daily or weekly publications)
  • Title of article (capitalize only the first word of title and subtitle, and proper nouns)
  • Title of publication in italics (i.e., Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Newsweek, New York Times)
  • Volume number in italics and issue number, if given
  • Page numbers of article
  • For articles retrieved online, include URL or DOI, if available

Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in the APA 6th Edition manual.

Journal Article (p. 198)

General Format

In-Text Citation (Quotation):
(Author Surname, Year, page number)

References:
Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year). Article title: Subtitle. Journal Title, Volume(issue), page range.
doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx OR Retrieved from URL of journal home page [if available]. 

Example

In-Text Citation (Quotation):
(Pettigrew, 2009, p. 61)

References:
Pettigrew, T. F. (2009). Secondary transfer effect of contact: Do intergroup contact effects spread to noncontacted outgroups? Social Psychology, 40(2), 55-65. doi:10.1027/1864-9335.40.2.55

 

Types of Articles

Article in a monthly magazine:

Swedin, E. G.  (2006, May/June). Designing babies: A eugenics race with China? The Futurist, 40, 18-21.

Article in an online magazine:

Romm, J. (2008, February 27). The cold truth about climate change. Salon.com. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2008/02/27/global_warming_deniers/

Article in a weekly magazine:

Will, G. F. (2004, July 5). Waging war on Wal-Mart. Newsweek, 144, 64.

Article in a daily newspaper:

Dougherty, R. (2006, January 11). Jury convicts man in drunk driving death. Centre Daily Times, p. 1A.

Article in a scholarly journal with DOI:

Blattner, J., & Bacigalupo, A. (2007). Using emotional intelligence to develop executive leadership and team and organizational development. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 59(3), 209-219. doi:10.1037/1065-9293.59.3.209

Book Review:

Rifkind, D. (2005, April 10). Breaking their vows. [Review of the book The mermaid chair, by S.M. Kidd]. Washington Post, p. T6.

DOIs

Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in the APA 6th Edition manual.

DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) (p. 191)

If a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is listed on either a print or an electronic source it is included in the reference (pp.188-192).  A DOI is a unique alphanumeric string that is used to identify a certain source (typically journal articles).  It is often found on the first page of an article.

Example:
doi:10.1080/14622200410001676305

For more information on DOIs and locating a DOI on a source, check out pages 188-192 of the APA Manual and/or this helpful DOI flow chart from the official APA site.

Article with DOI: If a journal article has a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) listed, you will always include this identifier in your reference.  You will not have to include the URL of the journal's home page or of the database from which you retrieved the article if a DOI is available.

Article with no DOI: If you viewed a journal article in an online database and it does not have a DOI, you will need to do a quick search outside of the database to locate the URL for the journal's home page (pp. 191-192).  This information must be included in the reference.  If the journal is no longer being published and it does not have a home page, then include the URL for the home page of the database from which you retrieved the article (p. 192.)

Print Articles: If you viewed a journal article in its print format, be sure to check if it has a DOI listed.  If it does not, your reference to the article would end after you provide the page range of the article.

Online Article without pagination: (p. 171) Many online sources do not show the original page numbers of an article.  In this case you would use paragraph numbers in place of page numbers for your in-text citations, ex. (para. 4).