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APA Style Guide (7th Edition)

Journal article with page numbers

LastName, F. M., LastName, F., LastName, M. (Date). Article title in sentence case. Journal Title, Volume(number), page-range. DOIorURLincludinghttp://

  • If a journal article has a DOI, include the DOI in the reference.
  • Always include the issue number for a journal article.
  • If the journal article does not have a DOI and is from an academic research database, but does have a URL that will resolve for readers (e.g., it is from an online journal that is not part of a database), include the URL of the article at the end of the reference.
    • if the URL will not resolve for readers, end the reference after the page range (for an explanation of why, see the database information page). The reference in this case is the same as for a print journal article.
  • Do not include database information in the reference unless the journal article comes from a database that publishes works of limited circulation or original, proprietary content, such as UpToDate.
  • There is no period after the DOI or URL.


American Psychological Association. (2020, February). Journal article references. APAstyle.APA.Org. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/journal-article-references

Journal article with an article number (digital only publication)

  • If the journal article has an article number instead of a page range, include the word “Article” and then the article number instead of the page range.


American Psychological Association. (2020, February). Journal article references. APAstyle.APA.Org. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/journal-article-references

Journal article with missing information

  • If the journal does not use volume, issue, and/or article or page numbers, omit the missing element(s) from the reference.
  • If the volume, issue, and/or article or page numbers have simply not yet been assigned, use the format for an advance online publication (see Example 7 in the Publication Manual) or an in-press article (see Example 8 in the Publication Manual).
    American Psychological Association. (2020, February). Journal article references. APAstyle.APA.Org. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/journal-article-references