APA Reference List: Journal Citations (Examples)

What are APA style reference list rules for articles in periodicals? The references below use the APA Publication Manual 7 (released on October 2019). Learn how to properly cite a source or reference in APA style format in this full APA format citation guide. Read the other guides to learn how to cite other source types according to research papers, professional papers, scholarly journal’s, and student essays.

Understanding an APA reference list for articles in periodicals: what is APA style?

APA is a writing format for academic documents. These documents typically include scholarly journals, books, student essays, and other educational material. For example, in the field of behavioral and social sciences (including sociology, education, health science, criminal justice, and psychology) APA style is used as a standard format for research.

APA stands for the American Psychological Association. The APA became involved in journal publishing in 1923. And in 1929, an APA committee had created a seven-page writer’s guide published in the Psychological Bulletin. Editions of the APA manual have since evolved. With major releases in 1974, 1983, 1994, 2001, 2009, and 2019. Each with their edition titles.

For example, the 2019 edition is referred to as “APA 6” style. Revisions of the APA style guide tend to follow developments of the English language and linguistics as a whole.

APA Style 7th Edition font suggestions

APA Publication Manual 7 requires that chosen fonts be accessible to readers and consistent throughout essays and research papers. The APA Manual does not specify a certain typeface or font for papers. They do recommend the following typefaces with their point sizes as follows:

Font	Point size
Calibri	11-point
Arial	11-point
Lucida Sans Unicode	10-point
Times New Roman	12-point
Georgia	11-point
Computer Modern	10-point

APA Style font recommendations

What are the APA reference list rules for articles in periodicals?

APA style mentions that authors should get named by their last names followed by their initials. Then the publication year (between parentheses), followed by a period. The title of the article should be in sentence-case, making the first word and proper nouns in the title capitalized.

The general format is as follows:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Here are the rules that govern the articles in periodicals APA style.

Rule	Example
Article in a print journal	Smith, R. (1998). The eclipse of humans. The New Journal, 15(3), 5–13.
Article in an electronic journal	Smith, S., & Johnson, S. (2012). Data and UX Design: Human Centered Learning. Duke University, 6(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979
Using URL instead of a DOI	Smith, H., Johnson, J., & Bryan, L. (2018). “What computers tell us about the future”: Understanding humans and the machines. The Journal Center, 37(1), 67–98. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26537363
Articles in a magazine	Smith, J. (1992, April). Small is better than large. Time, 135(17), 20–21.
Article in a newspaper	Smith, S. (2012, December 28). Making policy change. USA Country Today, 1A, 2A.

Adding a citation for a magazine or newspaper articles in APA style

APA 7th Edition Formatting and Style Guides:

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Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.