How to Cite a Journal in Text in APA

In APA style, published by the American Psychological Association, in-text journal citations follow the same pattern as any other source. Unlike the average book or Web page, however, journal articles often have numerous articles, sometimes as many as seven or more. Fortunately, the APA publication manual sets forth clear rules for these situations, simplifying the in-text citation's format. These rules aim to minimize the content of the parenthetical so that it distracts from the paper's content as little as possible, while still providing essential information.

Instructions

    • 1

      Type one space after the last word in the sentence that references the journal, then type a beginning parenthesis.

    • 2

      Cite the author or authors of the journal article.

      If the source has only one author, then write that author's last name and then type a comma and a space: "Smith, ..."

      If the source has two authors, then write the first author's last name, an ampersand, the second author's last name and then a comma: "Smith & Jones, ..."

      If the source has three, four or five authors, cite all of their last names the first time you cite the article. First, type the first author's last name and then a comma; repeat this pattern until the end, but insert an ampersand before the last author. For example, "Smith, Jones, Brown, Little, & Johnson, ..." The next time you cite this source, only cite the first author's last name, but add the phrase "et al.," including the period: "Smith et al., ..."

      If the journal article has six or more authors, then skip right to using the abbreviated form, even for the first citation: "Smith et al., ..."

    • 3

      Cite the journal article's year of publication: "Smith, 2007." If you need to cite a page number as well, then add a comma; if not, omit the comma and skip to Step 5.

    • 4

      Cite the page number, if you referenced specific information that you found on a particular page or pages in the article. For example, if you referenced the sample size used in the study, then cite the page of the article that specifies that fact; if you only mentioned the study's general purpose or topic, then don't cite any page numbers.

      First write the abbreviation "p.," if you're citing only one page, or "pp.," if you're citing multiple pages. Type a space, then write the page number or range: "p. 7," for example, or "pp. 23-24."

    • 5

      Add the final parenthesis, and then the overall sentence's final punctuation mark. Ultimately, the in-text citation for a journal article should look similar to this: "(Smith, Jones, & Brown, 2007, pp. 23-24)."

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