How to Cite a Journal Article Online

With the increased use of online databases for storing and accessing academic journals, it's important to be adept at citing online scholarly articles. The requirements for citing an online journal article are similar to citing a printed article, but there are a few significant differences to be aware of. How you cite an online journal article will depend upon whether you are writing a paper for the social sciences---which typically will be in APA style---or for the humanities or literature---which usually will be in MLA style.

Things You'll Need

  • Word processing software
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Instructions

  1. APA format

    • 1

      Write the author's name. Use inversion, meaning that the author's last name goes first, followed by a comma and then the author's first name. A middle initial, if present, will go after the first name. End with a period. Example: McCray, Ian C.

    • 2

      Type the date of publication and enclose it in parentheses. End with a period. Example: (1997).

    • 3

      Add the title of the article and end the sentence with a period. The title of the article is in sentence case, meaning that only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized. Example: Effects of exercise on frontal lobe activity.

    • 4

      Write the name of the publication in italics and follow it with a comma.

    • 5

      Add the publication's volume number as well as issue number if available. These should also be italics. Put parenthesis around the issue number. You should now have: McCray, Ian C. (1997). Effects of exercise on frontal lobe activity. International Journal of Psychology, 4(1).

    • 6

      Provide the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the online article. Many online publishers will provide the article's DOI on the first page of the article. In some cases, the DOI may also be found by clicking a button labeled "article" or an abbreviation of the vendor's name, such as "CrossRef." Clicking on the button usually will lead you to the full article with a DOI. If you cannot find the DOI, use the URL.

      You should now have: McCray, Ian C. (1997). Effects of exercise on frontal lobe activity. International Journal of Psychology, 4(1). doi:0000090102.84002/0003939

      or:

      McCray, Ian C. (1997). Effects of exercise on frontal lobe activity. International Journal of Psychology, 4(1). Retrieved from http://www.uniaddress.edu/ijp/html

      If the article also appears in a printed medium, you don't need to include the URL. Instead, insert[Electronic version] after the title of the article, using the brackets shown.

    MLA Style

    • 7

      Write the author's name, using inversion. If the author uses a middle initial, it goes after the first name with a period. Example: Hollins, Marcia A.

    • 8

      Type the title of the article and enclose it in quotations. End with a period. Example: "Nature Themes in Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci."

    • 9

      Type the name of the journal and italicize it.

    • 10

      Add the volume and issue number, date and pages after the title of the journal. The volume number is separated from the issue number by a period. The date is in parenthesis and followed by a colon, then by the page numbers. If the journal you cite is exclusively online with no printed version and does not use pages, use the abbreviation n. pag. For example: Journal of British Romantic Poetry 7.2 (2007): n. pag.

    • 11

      Type the word "Web" to indicate that you retrieved the article from an online source. Then type the date you accessed the article, starting with the day and abbreviating the month. MLA format does not require you to include the URL. You should now have:

      Hollins, Marcia A. "Nature Themes in Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci." Journal of British Romantic Poetry 7.2 (2007): n. pag. Web. 22 May 2010.

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