APA Guide

Citing a Paper Journal Article 

Format: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal in Italics, volume number in italics, page number(s).

Example: Bassett, S. D. (2016). Exploring the issue of confidentiality. Nurse Educator, 32, 147-153.

Citing a Journal Article From a Database or Website 

No DOI given: Include URL of Journal's Homepage

Format: Author, A. A.  (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal in Italics, volume number in italics(issue number), page number(s). Retrieved from http://url_of_journal_home_page

*Note: If issue number not listed, skip.

Example 1: Bozkurt, O. (2017). Wired for work. Society, 44(2), 42-52. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/content/0147-2011

Example 2: Sims, J. M., & Miracle, V. A. (2017). An overview of mitral valve prolapse. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 26, 145-149. Retrieved from http://journals.lww.com

DOI given

Format: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal in Italics, volume number in italics(issue number), page number(s). doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx

*Note: If issue number not listed, skip.

Example 1: Ganz, F. D. (2015). Tend and befriend in the intensive care unit. Critical Care Nurse,32(3), 25-34. doi:10.4037/ccn2012903

Example 2: Rehermann, B. (2016). Hepatitis C virus versus innate and adaptive immune responses: A tale of coevolution and coexistence. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 119, 1745-1754. doi:10.1172/JCI39133a

Helpful Information

Journals:

If each issue of a journal begins on page 1 (i.e. paginated separately), include the issue number in parenthesis.

For the article title, capitalize only the first word of the article title and subtitle as well as any proper nouns. 

For the journal title, capitalize all the significant words as periodical titles are considered proper nouns.

If article is on discontinuous pages, give all page numbers, and separate the numbers with a comma.

If no date is given, use (n.d.)

Double space entries. If an entry runs more than one line, indent the next line(s)

Acceptable abbreviations can be found on p. 180; Table of contents of examples, pp. 193-198

If what you are citing is not listed in APA manual, choose example in manual most like your source.

Information about the digital object identifier (DOI)

At the end of the journal and book articles, include the DOI. If no DOI given, “provide the home page URL of the journal or of the book” publisher. You may have to search online for this. If you are in an EBSCO database, clicking on the journal link will take you to a page with information about the publication. This sometimes includes the publisher’s URL. The URL may also be found at the bottom of a PDF version of an article. If article is an older (archival) article and is only available online database, give the database home page.

If the DOI is not listed with the citation information, sometimes it will be found on the PDF version of the article. If the DOI is not listed, go to http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/ or http://www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery/ and enter citation information to search for DOI.