Scholarly article citations should include the following information:
For electronic sources, you may also need:
- Only the first word of the article's title and subtitle should be capitalized, except for proper nouns.
- Do not use quotation marks around article titles.
- Italicize journal titles. All of the main words should be capitalized.
- If your citation includes a DOI or URL, do not end the citation with a period.
Scholarly Article in a Print Journal with no DOI present
Note that if a DOI is available for an article whether in print or electronic format it should be included at the end of the citation
Example:
Scholarly Article by Multiple Authors
Two to Twenty Authors
List each author in the same order they appear in the article's byline. Use the ampersand (&) rather than the word "and."
Example:
Wenneker, C.P., Wigbolus, D.H., & Spears, R. (2005). Biased language use in
stereotype maintenane: The role of encoding and goals. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 89(4), 504-516. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.4.504
Twenty-one or More Authors
List the first nineteen authors. Insert an ellipses (...) after the name of the nineteenth author followed by the name of the last author listed.
Example:
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), 437-471. http://doi.org/fg6rf9
Scholarly Article Accessed Online
APA style does not distinguish between articles accessed through a database and articles accessed via the Web. The exact citation formation will depend on whether the article has a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) available.
Example - Journal Article with DOI:
Martens, S., & Valchev, N. (2009). Individual differences in teh attentional blink: The
important role of irrelevent information. Experimental Psychology, 56(1), 18-26.
https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169.56.1.18
Example - Journal Article without DOI:
Montgomery, M.B. (2009). Historical and comparative perspectives on a-prefixing in the
English of Appalachia. American Speech, 84(1), 5-26.
If you accessed an article from a database and there is no DOI present, cite it as if it is a print source with no DOI.
Ahmann, E., Tuttle, L.J., Saviet, M. & Wright, S. D. (2018). A descriptive review of ADHD
coaching research: Implications for college students. Journal of Postsecondary Education
and Disability, 31(1), 17-39. http://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/publications/jped/
archived-jped/jped-volume-31
If the article is only available on a website you include the URL at the end of the citation and not widely available in databases.
Check out the link below to view APA's 3-minute video tutorial on how to find DOI's in your sources.
What Is a Digital Object Identifier?
A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a unique set of numbers and letters that can be assigned to a particular article to help identify it. Unlike a URL or Web address, an article's DOI always remains the same. Each article has a unique DOI - think of it as a "digital thumbprint."
How are DOIs used in APA citations?
DOIs are used in APA citations to help scholars find cited articles more efficiently. Unlike URL links and Web addresses, which can break or change, a DOI provides a consistent way to look up a referenced article. If you have a DOI for your article, include it at the end of the citation.
Where can I find an article's DOI?
Not all articles are assigned DOIs yet, but if available, the DOI will usually be included with the rest of the electrontic citation information for your article. This may be on the first or last page of the article, or there may be a separate link to citation information. You can also check the CrossRef database to see if a DOI is available for your article.