MLA & APA Citation Guide 

Scholarly article citations should include the following information:

• Authors names
• Year of publication
• Title of article
• Title of journal
• Volume of journal
• Page number(s) of article

For electronic sources, you may also need:

• The DOI (if available)
• The URL address of the journal publisher

- Only the first word of the article's title and subtitle should be capitalized, except for proper nouns.

- Do not use quotation marks around article titles.

- Italicize journal titles. All of the main words should be capitalized.

- If your citation includes a DOI or URL, do not end the citation with a period.

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Scholarly Article in a Print Journal

If each issue of the journal begins with page 1, cite the issue number in parentheses after the volume number. If the journal's page numbers continue from issue to issue ("continuous pagination"), the issue number is not needed.

Example:

Roselle, A. (2008). Community college library practices in developmental education. 

         Journal of Developmental Education, 32(2), 24-32.

Scholarly Artcle by Multiple Authors

Two to Seven Authors

List each author in the same order they appear in the article's byline. Use the ampersand (&) rather than the word "and."

Example:

Wenneker, C.P., Wigbolus, D.H., & Spears, R. (2005). Biased language use in

         stereotype maintenane: The role of encoding and goals. Journal of Personality

         and Social Psychology, 89, 504-516. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.89.4.504

Eight or More Authors

List the first six authors as above. Insert an ellipses (...) after the name of the sixth author followed by the name of the last author listed.

Example:

Alloy, L.B., Bender, R.E., Wagner, C.A., Whitehouse, W.G., Abramson, L.Y.,

         Hogan, M.E., ... Harmon-Jones, E. (2009). Bipolar spectrum-substance abuse

         co-occurence: Behavioral approach system (BAS) sensitivity and impulsiveness as

         shared personal vulnerabilities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97,

         549-565. doi:10.1037/a0016061

Scholarly Article Accessed Online

APA style does not distinguish between articles accessed through a database and articles accessed via the Web. The exact citation formation will depend on whether the article has a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) available.

• If the article information DOES include a DOI, place it at the end of the citation.
• If the article information DOES NOT include a DOI, give the URL of the journal home page (not the database in which it was retrieved).You may need to search the Internet to locate the journal's home page.

Example - Journal Article with DOI:

Martens, S., & Valchev, N. (2009). Individual differences in the attentional blink: The

         important role of irrelevent information. Experimental Psychology, 56, 18-26.

         doi:10.1027/1618-3169.56.1.18

Example - Journal Article without DOI:

Montgomery, M.B. (2009). Historical and comparative perspectives on a-prefixing in the

         English of Applachia. American Speech, 84, 5-26. Retrieved from

         http://www.dukeupress.edu/americanspeech/

What Is a Digital Object Identifier?

A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a unique set of numbers and letters that can be assigned to a particular article to help identify it. Unlike a URL or Web address, an article's DOI always remains the same. Each article has a unique DOI - think of it as a "digital thumbprint."

How are DOIs used in APA citations?

DOIs are used in APA citations to help scholars find cited articles more efficiently. Unlike URL links and Web addresses, which can break or change, a DOI provides a consistent way to look up a referenced article. If you have a DOI for your article, include it at the end of the citation.

Where can I find an article's DOI?

Not all articles are assigned DOIs yet, but if available, the DOI will usually be included with the rest of the electrontic citation information for your article. This may be on the first or last page of the article, or there may be a separate link to citation information. You can also check the CrossRef database to see if a DOI is available for your article.

More about DOIs

DOI Flowchart