PERRLA/Turabian 101/Journal article

Journal Article: Turabian Note and Bibliography Entry

A Turabian journal article note gives the authors, the article title in quotation marks, the journal in italics, the volume, the issue, the year in parentheses, a colon and the page you used, and the DOI. The bibliography entry inverts the first author, uses periods, and gives the article's full page range instead of a single page.

Lesson 11 of 18Section 4: Notes, Bibliography, and Citations
PERRLA Team · Updated November 2026
Reviewed against Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 9th edition

Let's cite a journal article, one of the most common sources in academic writing. We'll use a real one from the sample Bigfoot paper.

What to find first

For a journal article, find:

  • The authors' names, as printed on the article
  • The title of the article
  • The title of the journal
  • The volume and issue numbers
  • The year
  • The page range of the article, and the page you're citing
  • The article's DOI (Digital Object Identifier), or its URL if it has no DOI

Here's the article we'll cite:

Title
Predicting the Distribution of Sasquatch in Western North America: Anything Goes with Ecological Niche Modelling
Authors
J. D. Lozier, P. Aniello, and M. J. Hickerson
Journal
Journal of Biogeography
Volume, issue, year
36, no. 9, 2009
Pages
1623–1627 (we're quoting page 1626)
DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02152.x

Step by step

1. Author names

List the authors in the order they appear on the article, and write their names the way the article prints them. This journal prints initials, so the note does too:

J. D. Lozier, P. Aniello, and M. J. Hickerson,

  • With two authors, join them with and. With three, use commas and and before the last.
  • With four or more, the note gives only the first author and et al. The bibliography lists them all.
  • In the bibliography, invert only the first author: Lozier, J. D., P. Aniello, and M. J. Hickerson.

2. Article title

In quotation marks, with headline-style capitals. In the note, the comma goes inside the closing quotation mark; in the bibliography, the period does. Keep the article's own spelling, like Modelling:

“Predicting the Distribution of Sasquatch in Western North America: Anything Goes with Ecological Niche Modelling,”

3. Journal title

In italics and headline-style capitals, with no punctuation after it:

Journal of Biogeography

4. Volume, issue, and year

The volume number, a comma, no. and the issue number, then the year in parentheses. You may add the month or season before the year if the journal gives it, but it isn't required:

36, no. 9 (2009)

5. Pages

A colon, then the page. In the note, give the page you used, so this part reads:

(2009): 1626,

In the bibliography, give the article's full page range with an en dash (–), not a hyphen. Turabian shortens the second number of a range: pages under 100 are written in full (34–57), and longer numbers keep only the digits that change, at least two of them (1623–27).

6. DOI or URL

If the article has a DOI, write it as a link starting with https://doi.org/, and end with a period:

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02152.x.

No DOI? Use the URL from the journal's own website. If you read it in a library database, give the database's name instead of a long, private database link.

The finished note and entry

Here are the full note and the shortened note every time after, as they sit at the foot of the page, and the entry, as it sits in the bibliography:

  1. AuthorsIn the article's order; only the first is inverted in the bibliography.
  2. Article titleQuotation marks, headline-style capitals.
  3. JournalItalic, then volume, no. issue, and (year).
  4. PagesThe page you used in the note; the full range in the bibliography.
  5. DOIAs a link, followed by a period.
  6. Shortened noteLast names, the first few words of the title in quotation marks, and the page.

Quick checklist

  • Authors as printed, in order; et al. in the note for four or more
  • Article title in quotation marks, headline-style capitals
  • Journal title italic; volume, no. issue, (year)
  • The cited page in the note; the full page range in the bibliography
  • DOI as an https://doi.org/ link, with a period at the end

How PERRLA handles journal articles

PERRLA can look an article up by its DOI. The note and the bibliography entry build themselves, with the right quotation marks, italics, and punctuation.

Look up
Paste a DOI, get the source

10.1098/rspb.2014.0161

1. Bryan C. Sykes et al., “Genetic Analysis of Hair Samples Attributed to Yeti, Bigfoot and Other Anomalous Primates,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281, no. 1789 (2014): 20140161, https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0161.

Five authors, so the note gives the first and et al.; the bibliography lists all five. This journal numbers its articles instead of its pages, so the article number takes the page range's place.

PERRLA builds the journal article note and entry from its DOI, from authors to link.

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