PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Advance online publication

How to Cite an Advance Online Publication in APA 7

An advance online publication is a journal article posted online before it's assigned to an issue. In APA 7, the reference gives the authors, the year it went online, the article title, and the journal name in italics, then the words Advance online publication and the DOI. There's no volume, issue, or page range yet. The in-text citation is the author and year, as usual: (Hutchinson & Murphy, 2026).

The format

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Name. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the article's DOI into PERRLA's reference search. When the DOI record has no volume, issue, pages, or article number, PERRLA sets it up as an advance online publication and adds the words for you. Check the finished reference: it should end with Advance online publication and the DOI. If it shows an article number built from the DOI, like Article jan.70790, change the kind to Advance online publication and clear the article number field. Read the authors and the title against the article too: the DOI record can leave a stray space inside a term, like COVID -19. Before you turn in your paper, look the article up again: if it has been placed in an issue, PERRLA brings in the volume, issue, and pages.

Adding one by hand? Choose Journal, then Journal Article, then the kind Advance online publication, and fill in the authors, the year, the article title, the journal, and the DOI. Leave the volume, issue, page, and article number fields empty.

Look up
Paste a DOI, get the reference

10.1037/ser0001094

Hutchinson, J., & Murphy, P. (2026). Emergency medical services (EMS) professionals: Unpacking anxiety, burnout, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and social support perceptions. Psychological Services. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0001094

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Authors

Last names and initials, with an ampersand before the last author, the same as any journal article.

Hutchinson, J., & Murphy, P.

2. Year

Use the year the article was posted online, in parentheses. Journal articles take the year only, so leave off the month and day the journal shows as the online date.

(2026).

3. Article title

Sentence case, no italics. Many journals print titles in title case on the article page, so lowercase everything except the first word, the first word after a colon, proper nouns, and abbreviations like EMS and PTSD.

Emergency medical services (EMS) professionals: Unpacking anxiety, burnout, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and social support perceptions.

4. Journal name

The journal name in title case and italics, followed by a period. There's no volume after it, because the article doesn't have one yet.

Psychological Services.

5. Advance online publication

Write the words Advance online publication, then a period. This takes the place of the volume, issue, and pages. Use these words even when the journal calls it something else: Wiley says Early View, many journals say Online First, and PubMed says Online ahead of print.

Advance online publication.

6. DOI

End with the DOI as a link, with no period after it. The DOI doesn't change when the article moves into an issue, so the same link keeps working.

https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0001094

Examples

An article in an APA journal, not yet in an issue

A study of anxiety, burnout, and PTSD among EMS professionals, posted online in Psychological Services on October 15, 2026. When we checked on October 21, 2026, PubMed and the DOI record listed it as published online with no volume, issue, or pages.

  • Parenthetical citation(Hutchinson & Murphy, 2026)
  • Narrative citationHutchinson and Murphy (2026)

A Wiley Early View article

A qualitative study of nurse attrition, posted to Journal of Advanced Nursing's Early View on October 16, 2026, with seven authors. Early View is Wiley's name for an advance online publication, so the reference uses APA's words, not Wiley's. The journal prints the title in title case, and the reference puts it in sentence case.

  • Parenthetical citation(Decaro et al., 2026)
  • Narrative citationDecaro et al. (2026)

After the article moves into an issue

This Journal of Advanced Nursing review was posted online on December 23, 2025, as an advance online publication. It was then placed in Volume 82, Issue 7 (July 2026), pages 7183–7199. Now it gets a regular journal article reference with the volume, issue, and pages, and the year changes from 2025 to 2026, the year of the issue.

  • Parenthetical citation(Zacharjasz & Anbari, 2026)
  • Narrative citationZacharjasz and Anbari (2026)

In-text citations

An advance online publication is cited in the text the same way as any journal article: the author and the year it went online.

  • Two authors: (Hutchinson & Murphy, 2026) or Hutchinson and Murphy (2026)
  • Three or more: (Decaro et al., 2026) or Decaro et al. (2026)

Quoting one? Advance versions usually have no final page numbers. If the PDF numbers its pages, use them. If not, give a paragraph number (para. and the number) or name the section heading. If you update the reference to the issue version, update the year and the page in your in-text citations to match.

Common mistakes

  • Psychological Services. Epub ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0001094Psychological Services. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0001094Epub ahead of print, Online ahead of print, Early View, and Online First are what databases, citation managers, and publishers call it. APA 7 uses one phrase for all of them: Advance online publication.
  • Hutchinson, J., & Murphy, P. (2026, October 15).Hutchinson, J., & Murphy, P. (2026).Journal articles take the year only, even when the journal shows the exact day it went online.
  • Hutchinson, J., & Murphy, P. (n.d.).Hutchinson, J., & Murphy, P. (2026).An advance online publication has a date: the day it went online. Use that year. n.d. is only for works with no date at all.
  • Zacharjasz, A., & Anbari, A. B. (2025). Rural COVID-19 vaccine decision-making: A qualitative meta-synthesis. Journal of Advanced Nursing. Advance online publication.Zacharjasz, A., & Anbari, A. B. (2026). Rural COVID-19 vaccine decision-making: A qualitative meta-synthesis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(7), 7183–7199.Once the article is in an issue, the advance online version is out of date. Use the issue's volume, issue, pages, and year, then the DOI.
  • Hutchinson, J., & Murphy, P. (in press).Hutchinson, J., & Murphy, P. (2026).In press is for an accepted article you can't read online yet. Once it's posted with a DOI, it's an advance online publication with a year.

Quick checklist

  • The year it went online, with no month or day
  • Article title in sentence case
  • Journal name in italics, then a period, with no volume, issue, or pages
  • The words Advance online publication, whatever the journal calls it
  • DOI as a https://doi.org/ link
  • Before you submit, check whether it's now in an issue

Questions students ask

What is an advance online publication?

A journal article that has been peer reviewed, accepted, and posted online with a DOI before the journal places it in an issue. It has no volume, issue, or page numbers yet. Depending on where you find it, you'll see it called Early View, Online First, or Online ahead of print.

How do I know an article is an advance online publication?

Look at the top of the article page. A volume and issue number mean it's in an issue. Labels like Early View or Online First, or a PubMed record that says Online ahead of print with no volume, mean it's still an advance online publication. A missing issue number alone doesn't prove it: some journals never use issues.

Which year do I use?

For the advance online version, the year it was posted online. Once it's in an issue, the year of that issue, which can be a year later. The Journal of Advanced Nursing review above went online in December 2025 and is cited 2026, the year of its July 2026 issue.

The article now has a volume and article number but says "in press." What do I do?

Elsevier journals often assign a volume and an article number while an article is still listed as in press or as a journal pre-proof. If the volume and article number are there, use them: cite it like any article with an article number. Use Advance online publication only when those details haven't been assigned yet.

Should I update my reference when the article moves into an issue?

Yes, if it happens before you turn in your paper. Check the DOI link before you submit. If the article now shows a volume, issue, and pages, replace Advance online publication with them and change the year in your reference and your in-text citations if it changed.

Is an advance online publication the same as a preprint?

No. A preprint is shared before peer review, often on a server like medRxiv or PsyArXiv, and it isn't the journal's version. An advance online publication is the journal's own peer-reviewed article, posted early. Cite a preprint with its server's name instead.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.28, 9.10–9.14, 9.25, 9.34–9.36, and 10.1 (Example 7), and the APA Style website's guidance on the date element and journal article references. Example sources verified against PubMed, each DOI record, and each article's page on October 21, 2026.

PERRLA recognizes an advance online publication from its DOI and adds the label for you, and a fresh lookup brings in the volume and pages once the article is in an issue.

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