Journal and Magazine Articles
You may need to consult more than one section to accurately represent the source used (eg. number of authors and source descriptions)
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Electronic Journal Article with DOI
In text citation example
Welch and Venkateswaran (2009) found that…
OR
…environmental considerations (Welch & Venkateswaran, 2009).
OR
Welch and Venkateswaran (2009) highlight some of the environmental concerns associated with wind turbines such as "locations with the best wind currents sometimes coincide with migratory paths of birds" (p.4).
Format for reference list
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Publication date). Title of article. Title of publication, volume number (issue number), pp-pp. https://doi.org/xxxxxxxxxx
Reference list example
Welch, J. B., & Venkateswaran, A. (2009). The dual sustainability of wind energy. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 13(5), 1121-1126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2008.05.001
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), 437–472. https://doi.org/fg6rf9
Make sure you read the style notes below
In text citation style notes - If pages are being directly referenced in the text, include the page number/s in the in-text citation after the year.
- In the text, for a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus "et al." in every in text citation, including the first citation, unless doing so would create ambiguity.
Reference list style notes APA 7 Publication Manual, p.316-321
- In the reference list, provide surnames and initials for up to and including 20 authors. When there are two to 20 authors, use an ampersand before the final author's name.
- In the reference list, when there are 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors' names, insert an ellipsis, (no ampersand), and add the final author's name.
- Title of the article: Capitalise only the first word of the title and of the subtitle, if any, and any proper nouns.
- Do not italicise the title of the article or place quotation marks around it. Finish the element with a period. If the title ends with a question mark or exclamation point, that punctuation mark replaces the period.
- Title of the publication (Journal): Give the journal title in full, using title case (lower case is only used for stop words with three or fewer letters - except the first word in a title or sub-title), e.g. 'Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews'. Italicise the title of the periodical/journal.
- Publication information: Volume number (italicised)follows after the journal title. Do not use 'Vol.' before the number. The issue number (not italicised) follows within parentheses; followed by inclusive page numbers for the journal article. Place a period. Follow with the DOI or URL.
- Where a DOI is not available a URL is included, but database URLs are not included here - only much more unique and proprietary URLs.
- DOI numbers are often located on the first page of an article near the copyright notice. If available, they are included in the references retrieved by Discovery.
- For supplementary material available online, include a description of the content in brackets after the title, e.g., [Letter to the editor], [Map], [Audio podcast].
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
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Electronic Journal Article without DOI
In text citation example
Thierstein (2009) identifies…
OR
…was identified (Thierstein, 2009).
OR
The research suggests that "...females may have difficulty locating mates, potentially leading to reduced breeding success and population declines over time" (Parris et al., 2009, p.16).
Format for reference list
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author, A. A. (Publication date). Title of article. Title of publication, volume number(issue number), pp-pp. Web address of journal.
Reference list examples
Thierstein, J. (2009). Education in the digital age. Educause Review, 44(1), 33-34. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/1/education-in-the-digital-age
OR
Parris, K. M., Velik-Lord, M., & North, J. M. A. (2009). Frogs call at a higher pitch in traffic noise. Ecology and Society, 14(1), 1-24. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art25/
Make sure you read the style notes below
In text citation style notes APA 7 Publication Manual, p.266
- In the text, for a work with one or two authors, include the author name(s) in every citation.
- In the text, for a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus "et al." in every in text citation, including the first citation, unless doing so would create ambiguity.
- If pages are being directly referenced in the text, include the page number/s in the in-text citation after the year.
R
eference list style notes APA 7 Publication Manual, p.317
- In the reference list, provide surnames and initials for up to and including 20 authors. When there are two to 20 authors, use an ampersand before the final author's name.
- Article title: Capitalise only the first word of the title and of the subtitle, if any, and any proper nouns. Do not italicise the title or place quotation marks around it. Finish the element with a period.
- Journal title: Give the journal title in full, in uppercase and lowercase letters, e.g. 'Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews'. Italicise the name of the periodical.
- Publication information: Give the volume number after the journal title and italicise it. Do not use Vol. before the number.
- Where a DOI is not available a non-database URL is included after the period for the publication information. Do not place a period after the URL.
- Where a DOI is not available and the article was retrieved from a library database, do not provide the database URL, but end the reference list entry with the Publication information (Volume, issue, page numbers). This is similar to the style used for the print version of journal articles.
- To cite a pre-publication version of an article, add Advance online publication. before the URL information.
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
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Printed Journal Article (one author)
In text citation example
…was summarised (Hanson, 2010).
OR
Hanson (2010) summarised…
OR
Hanson (2010) asserts that "neither education nor institutions are ever neutral" (p.15).
Format for reference list
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of article. Name of publication, Volume(Issue), pp-pp.
Reference list example
Hanson, L. (2010). Global citizenship, global health, and the internationalization of curriculum: A study of transformative potential. Journal of Studies In International Education, 14(1), 70-88.
Make sure you read the style notes below
Reference list style notes
- Article title: Capitalise only the first word of the title and of the subtitle, if any, and any proper nouns. Do not italicise the title or place quotation marks around it. Finish the element with a period.
- Journal title: Give the journal title in full, in uppercase and lowercase letters, e.g. 'Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews'. Italicise the name of the periodical.
- Publication information: Give the volume number after the journal title and italicise it. Do not use Vol. before the number.
- Include the journal issue number (if available) along with the volume number if the journal is paginated separately by issue. Give the issue number in parentheses immediately after the volume number. Do not italicize it. Give inclusive page numbers on which the cited material appears. Finish the element with a period.
- If a journal or newsletter does not use volume numbers, include the month or season, or other designation with the year, e.g., (2008, May).
- Include both article title and subtitle, regardless of length.
- For supplementary material, include a description of the content in brackets after the title, e.g., [Special issue], [Special section].
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
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Printed Journal Article (two authors)
In text citation example
Pegg and Panizzon (2011) state that…
OR
…was stated (Pegg & Panizzon, 2011).
OR
Pegg and Panizzon (2011) reported that when "the ownership of the individuals is reduced ... teachers can report in these circumstances that there is a sense of something being done to them, as opposed to with them" (pp.165-166).
Format for reference list
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Authors, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of article. Name of publication, Volume(Issue), pp-pp.
Reference list example
Pegg, J., & Panizzon, D. (2011). Collaborative innovations with rural and regional secondary teachers: Enhancing student learning in mathematics. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 23(2), 149-167.
Make sure you read the style notes below
Reference list style notes
- Use an ampersand (&) to join author names in the Reference List or in brackets, not and (but use and when two authors are mentioned in the narrative).
- Italicise the name of the journal/publication and volume number.
- Capitalise the first and all major words of the publication's name. Give the publication name in full. e.g., Journal of Immunology not J Immunol
- Capitalise the article title as follows: first word of title and subtitle, and proper names and proper adjectives, e.g., Still moving: Between cinema and photography.
- Give the volume number of journals, magazines and newsletters. When each journal issue starts on page one, include the issue number in parentheses immediately (no space) after the volume number.
- If a journal or newsletter does not use volume numbers, include the month or season, or other designation with the year.
- Give inclusive page numbers.
- Include both article title and subtitle, regardless of length.
- For supplementary material, include a description of the content in brackets after the title, e.g., [Special issue], [Special section].
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
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Printed Journal Article (three or more authors)
In text citation example
Use the name of the first author plus et al. in every citation, unless doing so creates ambiguity, in which case include as many authors as are required to distinguish between citations:
Lindgren et al. (2009) discuss that…
OR
…was discussed (Lindgren et al., 2009).
If there are similar authors avoid ambiguity by listing as many as required
Example:
(Lawrence, Felson, Helmick, & Arnold, 2007)
(Lawrence, Felson, Helmick, & Dieppe, 2007)Subsequent use:
Lindgren et al. (2009) mention that…
OR
…was mentioned (Lindgren et al., 2009).
OR
Lindgren et al. (2009) assert that "more equal gender representation will increase policy congruence" (p. 3).
Format for reference list
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., Author, C. C., & Author, D. D. (Year of publication). Title of article. Name of Publication, Volume(issue), Page numbers.
Reference list example
Lindgren, K., Inkinen, M., & Widmalm, S. (2009). Who knows best what the people want: Women or men? Comparative Political Studies, 42(2), 31-55.
For up to twenty authors:
Raj, S., Hussain, F., Husein, Z., Torosdagli, N., Turgut, D., Deo, N., Pattanaik, S., Chung-Che, C., & Jha, S. K. (2017). A theorem proving approach for automatically synthesizing visualizations of flow cytometry data. BMC Bioinformatics, 18, 39-49. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-017-1662-4
For twenty-one or more authors:
Venter, J. C., Adams, M. D., Myers, E. W., Li, P. W., Mural, R. J., Sutton, G. G., Smith, H. O., Yandell, M., Evans, C. A., Holt, R. A., Gocayne, J. D., Amanatides, P., Ballew, R. M., Huson, D. H., Wortman, J. R., Zhang, Q., Kodira, C. D., Zheng, X. H., Chen, L., … Zhu, X. (2001). The sequence of the human genome. Science, 291(5507), 1304–1351. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1058040
Make sure you read the style notes below
In text citation style notes
- In the text, cite the surname of the first author followed by et al. and the year (the year only needed if the reference has not already appeared in the same paragraph).
Reference list style notes
- In the reference list, give names and initials for up to and including 20 authors.
In the reference list, if there are 21 more authors, give the names of the first 19, insert three ellipses, and then add the last name. - Use an ampersand (&) to join the last authors’ names in the reference list or in brackets, not and (but use and in the narrative text).
- Italicise the name of the journal/publication and volume number.
- Capitalise the first and all major words of the publication name. Give the publication name in full, e.g., Journal of Immunology, not J Immunol.
- Capitalise the article title as follows: first word of title and subtitle, and proper names and proper adjectives, e.g., Still moving: Between cinema and photography.
- Give the volume number of journals, magazines and newsletters.
- When each journal issue starts on page 1, include the issue number in parentheses immediately (no space) after the volume number.
- If a journal or newsletter does not use volume numbers, include the month or season, or other designation, with the year, e.g., (2008, May).
- Give inclusive page numbers.
- Include both article title and subtitle, regardless of length.
- For supplementary material, include a description of the content in brackets after the title, e.g., [Special issue], [Special section].
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
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Magazine Article
In text citation example
Newman (2008) reported that…
OR
Apple has been beset with more patent suits since developing the iPod (Claburn, 2008).
Format for reference list
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author, A. A. (Year of publication, Month day). Title of article. Name of Publication, XX(xx), pp-pp. https://doi.org/xxxx
Reference list example
Claburn, T. (2008, May 5). Swarm of patent suits bites Apple. Electronic Engineering Times, 1525, 22.
OR
Newman, M. (2008, October). Baffling the bandits. National Wildlife, 46, 14-15.
Online magazine article:
Burrows, C. (2009, March/April). The shyness myth: Questioning student stereotypes. ESL Magazine, 68, 22-26. http://www.eslmag.com/
Reference list style notes
APA 7 Publication Manual, p.320
- In the reference list, give the year and month separated by a comma. If appropriate, include the exact date, e.g., (2008, March 3). If the date is given as a season, provide the year and the season, e.g., (2011, Winter).
- For a work with one or two authors, include the author name(s) in every citation in the text.
- Italicise the name of the magazine and volume number.
- Capitalise the first and all major words of the magazine’s name.
- Give the magazine’s name in full, e.g., Reproduction, Fertility and Development.
- Give the volume number if available.
- Give inclusive page numbers.
- Include both article title and subtitle, regardless of length.
- For online magazines articles, provide the home page URL of the magazine publisher, not the URL of the article as retrieved from the database search. Do not place a full-stop after the URL.
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
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Secondary source
In text citation example
According to Romines (as cited in Mezei & Briganti, 2002), domestic ritual shapes...
Format for reference list
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. [authors of the article you read] (Year of publication). Title of article you read. Name of Journal, Volume(issue), pp-pp.
Reference list example
Mezei, K., & Briganti, C. (2002). Reading the house: A literary perspective. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 27(3), 837–846. https://doi.org/10.1086/337928.
In text citation style notes
- In the text, name the original article, and give a citation in parentheses for your secondary source. That is, if you did not read the article cited, list the reference for the work you did access in the Reference List, but in the text, after identifying the original work, put in parentheses the phrase as cited in followed by the authors’ names for your source and the publication year of their work.
Reference list style notes
- Use secondary sources sparingly, e.g., when the original text is not accessible.
- In the reference list, record only the secondary source.
- Journal titles are italicised.
- If pages are being directly referenced in the text, include the page number/s in the in-text citation after the year.
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
Before selecting a referencing style check with your tutor, lecturer or supervisor for the style preferred by the School or Department.
Introduction to the style
The APA style is widely used in the social sciences and other fields, such as education, commerce and nursing.
Summary of the changes between APA6 and APA7
APA is an author-date style with two key components:
- Citations in the text, including the name of the author and year of publication.
- Reference list at end of paper, alphabetically listing of all references used in the text.
The purpose of referencing is to acknowledge the source and to enable the reader to trace the sources. Reference data must be accurate, including specific page numbers or specific URLs (web addresses), when otherwise it might be difficult to retrieve the original text.
Access to the full style manual
This guide is based on the 7th edition of the APA's style rules which are set out in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition.
The full style manual is not available as a library eBook. Print copies are available from the University of Melbourne library. Consult the official manual for more information.
For more information see:
- Information about In Text Citations and References are also available on the APA Style website.
- APA Style Blog https://apastyle.apa.org/blog
In-text citations
- If more than one reference is used in a set of parentheses, the references are ordered alphabetically by author name. Separate multiple citations using a semi-colon, e.g., (Coats, 2005; McMinn, 2003; Ng, Leung, Kwok, & Chan, 2007).
- To avoid ambiguity, when the in-text citations of multiple works with three or more authors shorten to the same form, write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references, and abbreviate the rest of the names to “et al.” in every citation.
- With three or more authors, cite only the surname of the first author followed by et al. and the year.
- Always give specific page numbers for quotations in the text and include a complete reference in the reference list, e.g.,
…(Miller, 1994, p. 276)…
OR
Miller (1994) found that, "the 'placebo effect,'… in all participants" (p. 245).
- No distinction is made between print and electronic sources when citing in text.
- If quoting the full title of a reference in the text, the first word of titles and subtitles and all other major words are capitalised and italicised e.g., When The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle was published…
- For classical, major religious and very old works not included in the reference list, give the year of the translation or version that you used, with the word trans. or version, and give section numbers rather than page numbers, e.g., (Aristotle, trans. 1931); 1 Cor. 13:1 (Revised Standard Version). When the date of the original publication is available, include that date, e.g., James (1890/1983).
- To cite a web site or a Facebook or Twitter feed as a whole or to discuss it in general, you need only to provide the site URL in parentheses in the text; there is no need for a reference list entry.
Exceptions to the Basic In-Text Citation Styles
- When two works in a paper would both abbreviate to the same “et al.” form (spell out as many surnames as needed to disambiguate)
- When multiple works in a paper have an identical author (or authors) and publication year (append letters to the years)
Direct quotation of sources
These notes apply to the word-for-word reproduction from another author's work.
The quote is fewer than 40 words
- If the quote is fewer than 40 words, incorporate it into the text and use double quotation marks.
- Always provide author, year, and page number or paragraph number for non-paginated material, e.g.
According to Palladino and Wade (2010), "a flexible mind is a healthy mind" (p. 147). In 2010, Palladino and Wade noted that "a flexible mind is a healthy mind" (p. 147). "A flexible mind is a healthy mind," according to Palladino and Wade's (2010, p. 147) longitudinal study.
- List the complete reference in the bibliography
- If the quote is at the end of a sentence, close the quote with quotation marks, cite the source in brackets after the quotation marks, and place a full stop after the bracket, e.g.
In fact, "a flexible mind is a healthy mind" (Palladino & Wade, 2010, p. 147).
The quote is more than 40 words
- If the quote is more than 40 words, display in a freestanding block of text and omit the quotation marks.
- Start the quote on a new line, and indent about half an inch (equal to a tab space or 1.27cm) from the left margin (in the same position as a new paragraph).
- If there are additional paragraphs in the same quote, indent the first line of each by half an inch (one tab space).
- Double-space the entire quotation. Cite the quoted source, page or paragraph number in brackets after the final punctuation mark.
- Use p. for a single page number (Example: p. 15) and pp. for multiple page numbers (Examples: pp. 125-126).
- If citing an online source without page numbers, cite the paragraph number (Example: para. 4).
- When citing multiple authors after a quotation use the ampersand symbol '&' instead of the word 'and'.
- If the quoted source is cited and included in the introductory sentence only the page or paragraph number is required at the end of the quotation.
Example
Jones's (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style especially when it was their first time citing source. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a style manual or ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)
Block quote with author at beginning
Lyoob, Rossetti and Chen (2013) noted:
Many software providers take advantage of these developing technologies to provide new cloud computing services or transform their existing products to the cloud. Since the term cloud could refer to any infrastructure, platform or software that serves for cloud computing, every component in the cloud may be provided as a service. (p. 34)
Block quote with author at the end
Cyber threats are not the only challenge to cloud computing:
While security has been a major topic of interest, reliability is a much bigger concern. Cloud computing is based on Internet access, so a fast and constant Internet connection is critical to cloud computing solutions. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure the enterprise's connectivity to the Internet is well-established and that there are backup connections in case of connectivity failure. (Lyoob, Rosetti, & Chen, 2013 pp. 35-36)
Explore resources to enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks, visit Academic Skills.
Direct quotations of online material without pagination
- List author year and page number in brackets
- If paragraph numbers are available, use these when page numbers are absent
- Use the abbreviation para, e.g.
Basu and Jones (2007) went so far as to suggest the need for a new "intellectual framework in which to consider the nature and form of regulation in cyberspace " (para. 4).
- If a subheading is available but no paragraph or page numbers, cite the heading and the numbers of the paragraph following it, e.g.
In their study, Verbunt, Pernot, and Smeets (2008) found that "the level of perceived disability in patients with fibromyalgia seemed best explained by their mental health condition and less by their physical condition " (Discussion section, para. 1).
- If the subheading is too long and unwieldy to use (and there is no paragraph or page numbers) a short title enclosed in quotation marks will suffice, e.g.
"Empirical studies have found mixed results on the efficacy of labels in education consumers and changing consumption behaviour " (Golan, Kuchler, & Kirssof, 2007, "Mandatory Labelling Has Targeted, " para. 4).
Citations within quotations
- Do no omit citations already present in the material you are quoting. The work cited should not be listed in the bibliography either unless cited as a primary source in another part of the assignment.
Reference list
- References cited in the text must be listed in the reference list, and all references listed in the reference list must be cited in the text.
Exceptions: do not include in the reference list sources such as:
- Personal communications, such as letters, informal email, or private social media posts
- Classical works or major religious texts
- Web sites or Facebook orTwitter feeds when discussed as a whole.
Cite all these sources only in the text.
- Order the reference list alphabetically by author surnames:
- Where an item has no author it is cited by its title, and ordered in the reference list alphabetically by the first significant word of the title (not A or The) .
- References by the same single or multiple authors are arranged by year of publication, the earliest first, e.g.,
- Hong, B.H. & Yeung, K.L. (2001)
- Hong, B.H. & Yeung, K.L. (2009)
- References with the same first author and different second or third author are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the second author, or if the same, third, and so on, e.g.,
- Brown, J., Gold, F., & Black, L. (2007)
- Brown, J., Gold, F., & Greene, H. (2006)
- References by the same author (or by the same two or more authors in the same order) with the same publication date are arranged alphabetically by the title (excluding A or The) that follows the date. Lower case letters – a, b, c – are placed immediately after the year in parentheses.
- Smith, J.R. (2008a)
- Smith, J.R. (2008b)
References with multiple authors
- For a work with up to 20 authors, include all of the names in the reference. When the work has 21 or more authors, include only the first 19 names, an ellipsis, and the final name. (see section 9.8, p.286 of the APA Manual).
Formatting the reference list
- APA requires that the reference list be double-spaced
- Entries in the reference list should have a hanging indent (the second and subsequent lines of the reference must be indented five spaces.) e.g.
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington D.C: Author.
- Book titles are italicised, e.g., Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Chapter or section titles within a larger work are not italicised.
- Translated works: if you used the non-English version of a work, cite using the original title and immediately following that title, give the English translation in brackets. If you used the English translation, just cite the English translation.
- Give the publication date (the year the work was copyrighted) in parentheses, e.g., (2009). Note: APA uses parentheses (…) for standard parts of a reference, e.g., the year of publication, and brackets […] for information that you have inserted, e.g., format information such as [Audio podcast].
- Journal titles in the reference list must be italicised and be given in title case; do not abbreviate titles (e.g., Journal of Immunology, not J Immunol). Article titles are not italicised.
- Inclusive page numbers for all articles and chapters in books should be included in the reference list.
- List page numbers in full (e.g., 132-135, not 132-5).
- Electronic sources: in general, include the same elements, in the same order, as you would for a reference to a fixed-media source and add as much electronic retrieval information as needed for others to locate the source.
Acceptable abbreviations in the reference list for parts of books and other publications include:
ed. edition Rev.ed. revised edition 2nd ed. second edition Ed. ( Eds.) Editor (Editors) Trans. Translator(s) n.d. no date p. (pp) page (pages) Vol. Volume (as in Vol. 4) Vols. Volume (as in Vols. 1-4) No. Number Pt. Part Suppl. Supplement Tech. Rep. Technical report
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