First, the easy way: PERRLA
Paste the article's DOI or PubMed ID into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA finds the article, fills in every author, the year, the title, the journal, the volume, the issue, the pages, and the DOI, and puts the finished reference on your references page in order, hanging indent and all.
Adding one by hand? Choose Journal, then Journal Article, and fill in what's on the article's first page. PERRLA handles the capitalization, the italics, and the punctuation.
10.2307/3462928
Benner, P. (1982). From novice to expert. American Journal of Nursing, 82(3), 402–407. https://doi.org/10.2307/3462928
Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.
The parts of the reference
1. Authors
Start with each author's last name, a comma, and their initials. Separate the authors with commas, and put an ampersand (&) before the last one.
Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S. P., Sloane, D. M., Sochalski, J., & Silber, J. H.
List up to 20 authors. With 21 or more, list the first 19, then an ellipsis (…), then the final author. Never write et al. in a reference.
2. Year
Put the year the article was published in parentheses, followed by a period. Journal articles take the year only, never the month or day.
(2002).
3. Article title
Write the article title in sentence case: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Don't italicize it or put it in quotation marks.
Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction.
4. Journal name and volume
Write the journal name in title case and in italics, as the journal writes it. Put a comma after it, then the volume number, also in italics.
JAMA, 288
5. Issue
Put the issue number in parentheses right after the volume, with no space and no italics. If the journal has no issue numbers, leave this part out.
288(16),
6. Pages or article number
Give the page range with an en dash (–) between the numbers, then a period. Online journals that number articles instead of pages get the word Article and the number: Article e0185809.
1987–1993.
7. DOI
End with the DOI written as a link: https://doi.org/ and the DOI. Don't put a period after it, and don't write "Retrieved from" or "doi:" in front of it.
https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.16.1987
No DOI? If you found the article in an academic database like CINAHL or ProQuest, end the reference after the page range. Don't add the database name or its link.
Examples
A journal article with one author
Patricia Benner's article on the stages of nursing skill, published in the American Journal of Nursing in 1982.
References
Benner, P. (1982). From novice to expert. American Journal of Nursing, 82(3), 402–407. https://doi.org/10.2307/3462928
- Parenthetical citation(Benner, 1982, p. 405)
- Narrative citationBenner (1982, p. 405)
A journal article with several authors
A widely cited JAMA study with five authors. Every author goes in the reference. The in-text citation uses the first author's name and et al. from the very first time you cite it.
References
Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S. P., Sloane, D. M., Sochalski, J., & Silber, J. H. (2002). Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction. JAMA, 288(16), 1987–1993. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.16.1987
- Parenthetical citation(Aiken et al., 2002, p. 1990)
- Narrative citationAiken et al. (2002, p. 1990)
In-text citations
An APA 7 in-text citation gives the author's last name and the year. Add the page number when you quote, or when you point to one specific passage.
- One author: (Benner, 1982) or Benner (1982)
- Two authors: both names every time, joined by & inside parentheses and by and in your sentence: (Aiken & Sloane, 2002) or Aiken and Sloane (2002)
- Three or more authors: the first author and et al., starting with the first citation: (Aiken et al., 2002)
- A quote: add the page: (Benner, 1982, p. 405)
A narrative citation puts the author's name in your sentence and the year in parentheses right after it: Benner (1982) described five stages of skill.
Common mistakes
- Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.16.1987https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.16.1987APA 7 dropped "Retrieved from" before a DOI. The link stands on its own.
- doi:10.1001/jama.288.16.1987https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.16.1987Write the DOI as a full link, the way APA 7 shows it.
- Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction.Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction.Article titles take sentence case in the reference, even when the journal prints them in title case. Only the journal name takes title case.
- JAMA, 288(16), 1987–1993.JAMA, 288(16), 1987–1993.Only the volume is italic. The issue number and its parentheses are not.
Quick checklist
- Every author, up to 20, with an ampersand before the last
- The year only, in parentheses
- Article title in sentence case, not italic
- Journal name in title case and italic, volume italic, issue in plain parentheses
- Page range with an en dash, or Article and the article number
- DOI as a https://doi.org/ link, with no period after it
Questions students ask
What if a journal article has no DOI?
If you found it in an academic database or in print, end the reference after the page range. Don't add the database name. If it comes from a website that isn't a database, end with the article's URL instead.
Do I include the issue number in APA 7?
Yes, whenever the journal has one. It goes in parentheses right after the volume number, with no space, and it isn't italicized.
How do I cite a journal article with 21 or more authors?
List the first 19 authors, then an ellipsis, then the last author's name, with no ampersand. In the text, use the first author's name and et al.
Do I need the database name, like CINAHL or PubMed?
No. APA 7 leaves out database names for journal articles, because the same article is in many databases. Give the DOI when there is one.
When do I use et al. for a journal article?
For three or more authors, use the first author's last name and et al. in every in-text citation, starting with the first. In the reference itself, list the authors out.
Related guides
Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.17, 9.8, 9.25–9.37, and 10.1, and the APA Style website. Example sources verified against PubMed and each article's DOI.