How to Cite a Journal Article in APA 7th Edition (With Examples)
A clear, step-by-step guide to citing journal articles in APA 7th edition format, with real examples for one author, multiple authors, and articles with a DOI.
Citing a journal article correctly in APA 7th edition trips up a lot of students — and getting it wrong costs easy marks. This guide breaks the format down piece by piece, with examples you can copy and adapt.
The basic APA journal article format
Every APA 7th edition journal reference follows this pattern:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, Volume(Issue), Pages. https://doi.org/xxxx
There are six building blocks:
- Author — last name, then initials
- Year — in parentheses
- Article title — sentence case, not italicised
- Journal name — title case, italicised
- Volume, issue, pages — volume italicised, issue in parentheses
- DOI — as a full https link
Example 1: One author
Smith, J. A. (2021). The effects of sleep deprivation on memory retention. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 33(4), 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/example
Notice that only the first word of the article title (and any proper nouns) is capitalised. The journal name, however, uses title case and is italicised.
Example 2: Two authors
Separate the two authors with a comma and an ampersand (&):
Smith, J. A., & Patel, R. K. (2022). Remote learning outcomes during the pandemic. Educational Review, 18(2), 88–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/example
Example 3: Three to twenty authors
List every author, separated by commas, with an ampersand before the last one:
Smith, J. A., Patel, R. K., & Nguyen, T. (2023). Digital literacy in higher education. Computers & Education, 200, 104–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/example
Example 4: Twenty-one or more authors
List the first 19 authors, then an ellipsis (…), then the final author's name. Do not use an ampersand.
In-text citations
APA uses author–date in-text citations:
- Parenthetical: (Smith, 2021)
- Narrative: Smith (2021) found that…
- Two authors: (Smith & Patel, 2022)
- Three or more authors: (Smith et al., 2023)
For a direct quote, add the page number: (Smith, 2021, p. 217).
Common mistakes to avoid
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Capitalising every word in the article title | Use sentence case |
| Forgetting to italicise the journal name and volume | Italicise both |
| Writing "doi:" before the number | Use the full https://doi.org/... URL |
| Using "and" instead of "&" in the reference list | Use "&" in references, "and" in narrative text |
| Listing the issue number without parentheses | Wrap the issue in ( ) |
Do you always need a DOI?
If the article has a DOI, always include it — even for print articles. If it has no DOI and you found it through a database, APA 7th says you can end the reference after the page range. If it's a free online article with no DOI, include the URL.
Let StudVault do the formatting for you
Memorising every rule is unnecessary. Paste a DOI into the StudVault Citation Generator and it auto-fills the author, title, journal, volume, issue, and pages from the CrossRef database — then formats a perfect APA 7th edition reference (plus MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, and Vancouver) in one click.
Quick checklist before you submit
- Author names are Last, Initials format
- Year is in parentheses
- Article title is in sentence case
- Journal name is in title case and italicised
- Volume number is italicised; issue is in parentheses
- DOI is a full
https://doi.org/link - Reference list is alphabetised by author surname
- Hanging indent applied (first line flush left, rest indented)
Get those eight things right and your APA journal citations will be flawless every time.
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