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Citing sources in APA style 7th ed.

Crediting sources and formatting references according to the style of the American Psychological Association (APA). Based on the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the APA.

Journal article references: general form

The general form of a journal article reference is:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Volume number(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/10.xxxxxxxx

Most journals have both volume numbers and issue numbers.

If the author is not known, the title of the article moves to the author position.

Finish with the DOI if there is one. Also when you have consulted the printed version of the article.

Journal articles: printed and electronic form

Journal article published in printed form only

Kessels, S. (2020). Voorkom uitval van startende leraren. Basisschoolmanagement, 34(5), 14-17.

 

Journal article with DOI

Koopmans, R., & Muis, J. (2009). The rise of right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands: A discursive opportunity approach. European Journal of Political Research, 48(5), 642-664. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2009.00846.x

  • If an article has page numbers, include these preceding the DOI.
  • If page numbers are missing (article is only available as web text), just leave off this part of the reference and place the DOI directly after the volume number and/or issue number.

 

Journal article with DOI, with an Article number

Da Silva, S., Moreira, B., & Da Costa, N., Jr. (2014). Preschoolers and the endowment effect. PLOS ONE, 9(10), Article e109520. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109520

  • Put the word "Article" before the article number. A range of pages needs not to be noted in the reference list. If the article has numbered pages such as in a PDF then these page numbers may be used for in-text citations.
  • If names have prefixes, put this prefix first and keep the author's preferred capitalisation.
  • The suffix Jr. (= Junior) after the author's name N. Da Costa has to be included in the reference list but if this had been the first author then do not include this suffix in citations in-text.

 

Journal article with DOI, with 21 or more authors

Thombs, B. D., Aguila, K., Dyas, L., Carrier, M.-E., Fedoruk, C., Horwood, L., Canedo-Ayala, M., Sauvé, M., Kwakkenbos, L., Malcarne, V. L., El-Baalbaki, G., Pelaez, S., Connolly, K., Hudson, M., Platt, R. W., Elrod, S., Fortune, C., Gottesman, K., Nielsen, K., . . . Stephens, N. (2019). Protocol for a partially nested randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network Support Group Leader EDucation (SPIN-SSLED) Program. Trials, 20, Article 717. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-019-3747-z

  • If an article has 21 or more authors, include the first 19, then three periods (with spaces in between and around) and then the last author (without a preceding &).
  • In text the citation is: (Thombs et al., 2019)
  • If an article has up to 20 authors, include all author names and put an & before the last name.

 

Journal Article with a DOI, combination of individual and group authors

Becetti, K., Kwakkenbos, L., Carrier, M.-E., Gordon, J. K., Nguyen, J. T., Mancuso, C. A., Mouthon, L., Nguyen, C., Rannou, F., Welling, J., Thombs, B. D., Spiera, R. F., & SPIN Investigators. (2019). Physical or occupational therapy use in systemic sclerosis: A Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network cohort study. The Journal of Rheumatology, 46(12), 1605-1613. https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.181130

  • Copy name of group authors as mentioned in the article.
  • If the author's first name is hyphenated, retain the hyphen (Carrier, M.-E. for Marie-Eve Carrier).

 

Journal article with DOI, advance online publication

Saharan, T., Pfeffer, K., Baud, I., & Scott, D. (2019). Comparing governance and bargaining of livelihoods in informal settlements in Chennai and eThekwini. Cities. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.02.017

  • This is an advance online publication. After a period of time it is replaced by a final version.
  • The advance online article has a DOI, but not yet a volume number, issue number and page numbers.
  • If there is no DOI, include the URL.
  • Before publishing your own work or handing in your paper, check if there is a final version that you can use for referencing,

 

Journal article without DOI (for which no DOI is available)

Scheef, A., Caniglia, C., & Barrio, B. L. (2020). Disability as diversity: Perspectives of institutions of higher education in the U.S. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 33(1), 49-61. https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/publications/jped/archived-jped/jped-volume-33

  • Include the URL if the article has no DOI but is accessible on the Internet.
  • It is not necessary to include a date on which the article is retrieved.

Magazine article

A magazine is a special kind of journal: a popular or professional journal with illustrations and advertisements. Most of the scholarly journals are not magazines and can be seen as proper journals (see the examples above).

Magazine article

Bernardo, L. (2022, Spring). A cold drink of objectivity. Dissent, 69(2), 160-164. https://doi.org/10.1353/dss.2022.0033

  • Include the date as you find it in the magazine. If you deal with a monthly magazine, include the month, if you deal with a weekly magazine also mention the day. 

Newspaper articles

Newspaper article with author

Moorman, M. (2022, January 6). Satire valt niet mee, als de werkelijkheid nog grotesker is. De Volkskrant, 2-3.

 

Newspaper article, no author

Waarom worden kinderen sneller wagenziek? (2022, March 19). NRC Handelsblad, 12.

  • In text cite as follows: (“Waarom worden kinderen sneller wagenziek?”, 2022).

 

Online newspaper article

Kindy, D. (2022, March 26). Researchers think they've found the last surviving Pilgrim ship. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/03/26/sparrow-hawk-pilgrim-ship-cape/

Special issue of a journal

Gopnik, A., Frankenhuis, W. E., & Tomasello, M. (Eds.). (2020). Life history and learning: How childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals [Special issue]. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375(1803).

  • Eds. is the abbreviation of Editors.

Reviews

Review of a book: review has a title of its own

Gerrard, M. B. (2021, August 19). The children's climate crusade [Review of the book They knew: The US federal government's fifty-year role in causing the climate crisis, by J. G. Speth]. Science, 373(6557), 860. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj9799

  • Identify the type of medium being reviewed between brackets: [Review of the book . . .].
  • Science is a magazine, for that reason the date is included.
     

Untitled review of a book

If the review in the example above was untitled, it would be as follows:

Gerrard, M. B. (2021, August 19). [Review of the book They knew: The US federal government's fifty-year role in causing the climate crisis, by J. G. Speth]. Science, 373(6557), 860. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj9799

 

Reviews of films, DVDs etc.

For reviews of other type of media, use the examples of book reviews given above. Then change the type of medium, for example: [Review of the film . . .]