APA Citation Generator for Journal Articles
The generator below is preset to APA (APA 7th edition) for a journal article.
Check your reference against your institution's guidelines — lecturers sometimes vary the style.
Need a second pair of eyes on the whole assignment? RozContent’s Assignment Support checks referencing, proofreading and structure — first sample free.
Paste a URL, DOI, ISBN or title, or fill in the form yourself — the citation updates as you type, and you can copy it formatted, with italics and hanging indent intact, or as plain text. Under the tool you will find the APA rules for this source type, worked examples, and the mistakes students make most often.
The rules: APA format for journal articles
Template: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal in Title Case, volume(issue), first page–last page. https://doi.org/xxxx
- List every author as surname plus initials, with an ampersand (&) before the last author. APA lists up to 20 authors in full.
- Only the year goes in the brackets for a journal article, even if you know the month.
- The article title uses sentence case. The journal name uses title case and is italicised, and so is the volume number.
- The issue number goes in brackets straight after the volume and is not italicised. Separate the page range with an en dash.
- If the article has a DOI, end with it in the form https://doi.org/… and put no full stop after it. The DOI replaces the URL — never give both.
- In text: (Okafor & Torres, 2023) in brackets, but “Okafor and Torres (2023)” in a sentence. Three or more authors shorten to et al. from the first citation: (Patel et al., 2022). A quote adds the page: (Okafor & Torres, 2023, p. 148).
Examples
Okafor, D., & Torres, L. M. (2023). Mindful attention and test performance in first-year students. Journal of College Learning and Cognition, 18(2), 145–162. https://doi.org/10.1234/jclc.2023.0182
Patel, S. K., Nguyen, H., & Brooks, E. J. (2022). Group study formats and exam outcomes. Journal of College Learning and Cognition, 9(1), 23–38.
Whitaker, J. (2021). Feedback timing and revision quality in undergraduate writing. Writing Studies Quarterly, 14, 201–219.
Common mistakes
- Writing the article title in title case — APA article titles are sentence case.
- Italicising the issue number, or putting a comma between the journal name and the volume.
- Adding a full stop after the DOI, or giving both the DOI and the journal URL.
- Using “and” instead of & between authors inside brackets.
Need this in MLA or Chicago instead? MLA version of this page · Chicago version of this page
Go deeper: read the guide how to cite a journal article in APA style.
From the RozContent Study Blog: read the matching study guide on the blog.