APA 7: cite a journal article

Two titles in one APA article entry

A journal article reference names two works: the article you read, A small study, and the journal that published it, Journal of Sample Studies. APA 7 treats them differently. On this page the article title stays in plain text and in sentence case, while the journal title and the volume number are italicized. Take the details from the article's first page or the publisher's record.

Here is the reviewed example as plain text. Plain text cannot carry italics, so restore them on Journal of Sample Studies and on 12 when you paste it into your paper: Stone, M. (2024). A small study. Journal of Sample Studies, 12(2), 12–18.

Typing the Stone article into the workbench

• Set Style and reviewed reference variant to APA 7 reference, Source kind to Journal article and Version consulted to Print version.
• Under Authors, in source order, type Maya in Given names and Stone in Family name. The workbench reduces the given name to the initial M. itself.
• Enter A small study as the Source title and again as the Reviewed sentence-case title. APA output uses the sentence-case field when it is filled; the workbench never recases a title for you.
• Put Journal of Sample Studies in Containing work or site, 2024 in Publication year, 12 in Journal volume, 2 in Journal issue and 12-18 in Published page range.
• Press Create reference; 12-18 comes back as 12–18.

When the journal uses article numbers or online-first pages

The reviewed journal template needs a volume and a numeric page range. If the journal prints an article number such as e124 instead of pages, the workbench holds the entry and shows Published page range: this source form is outside the reviewed case set. That is a limit of this tool, so follow the APA journal-article examples linked below instead of inventing pages. A blank page range or a missing year also stops the entry, with a message naming the field.

If you choose Online version, the workbench also expects a Source URL or a DOI. Type the DOI without the https://doi.org/ prefix; the finished entry then ends with the full https://doi.org/ link.

The same article in the Citelle app

In the app, paste the DOI or the article link into Add a source and tap Find. Citelle looks the record up at doi.org or Crossref and fills the fields; Enter manually works too. For APA the app converts the title to sentence case on its own, and the Are these names? prompt lets you keep capitals on proper nouns. When a record carries an article number instead of pages, the app writes it as Article followed by that number.

Slips that change this article entry

• Copying the PDF's page count into the page field instead of the published range 12-18.
• Putting the journal title in the author row or the article title in Containing work or site.
• Leaving the title as A Small Study when the APA example uses A small study.
• Pasting the workbench text without putting back the italics on the journal title and volume.

Gather the source details

• Open the article or its publisher record.
• Record authors in the published order.
• Distinguish the article title from the journal title.
• Check volume, issue, pages or article number and any assigned DOI.

Author

Maya Stone

Title as supplied

A small study

Publication year

2024

Containing work or site

Journal of Sample Studies

Volume

12

Journal issue

2

Published pages

12-18

Tools

• Open the reference workbench

Sources

• APA7: Journal article references

Next guide: Chicago 18 author-date: cite a journal article