PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Journal article with an article number

How to Cite a Journal Article With an Article Number in APA 7

When a journal article has an article number instead of a page range, write the word Article and the number where the pages would go: Article e0245798. Everything else is a normal APA 7 journal article reference: authors, year, article title in sentence case, journal name and volume in italics, issue in parentheses, then the DOI. The in-text citation is the first author's last name and the year, with et al. for three or more authors: (Diehl et al., 2021).

The format

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Article Number. 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 or PubMed ID into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA reads the article number from the article's DOI record, checks PubMed when the DOI record shows a page count like 1–14 instead, and writes Article and the number where the page range would go. If the DOI record lists an issue, PERRLA includes it.

Adding one by hand? Choose Journal, then Journal Article, then the kind A single published article. Type the number in the article number field exactly as the journal prints it (keep a leading e), and leave the page fields empty. If both are filled in, PERRLA prints the pages, so the article number only shows when the pages field is blank.

Look up
Paste a DOI, get the reference

10.1371/journal.pone.0245798

Diehl, E., Rieger, S., Letzel, S., Schablon, A., Nienhaus, A., Escobar Pinzon, L. C., & Dietz, P. (2021). The relationship between workload and burnout among nurses: The buffering role of personal, social and organisational resources. PLOS ONE, 16(1), Article e0245798. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245798

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

The parts of the reference

1. Authors

List each author's last name and initials, with an ampersand (&) before the last one. Two-part last names stay together, exactly as the article prints them.

Diehl, E., Rieger, S., Letzel, S., Schablon, A., Nienhaus, A., Escobar Pinzon, L. C., & Dietz, P.

List up to 20 authors. With 21 or more, see the guide for a journal article with 21 or more authors.

2. Year

The year the article was published, in parentheses, then a period. Online-only journals still take the year only, not the month and day shown on the article page.

(2021).

3. Article title

Sentence case, no italics, no quotation marks. Keep the article's own spelling, including British spellings like organisational.

The relationship between workload and burnout among nurses: The buffering role of personal, social and organisational resources.

4. Journal name, volume, and issue

The journal name in title case and italics, written the way the article shows it. Then a comma and the volume in italics, then the issue in plain parentheses when there is one.

PLOS ONE, 16(1),

Many article-number journals have no issues at all. Elsevier journals like Nurse Education Today number each article within a volume and have no issue number. When there's no issue, the reference goes straight from the volume to the article number.

Nurse Education Today, 121, Article 105679.

5. Article number

Write the word Article with a capital A, a space, and the number, then a period. The article number takes the place of the page range, so don't add pages too. Copy the number exactly, including any letter in front of it.

Article e0245798.

Where to find it: PLOS journals print it in the citation line (the e number before the DOI). BMC and other Springer Nature journals print the volume and "Article number: 596" near the top of the article page. Elsevier journals print it right after the volume and date at the top of the article. The PDF's own page numbers (1 of 14, and so on) are not a page range for the reference.

6. DOI

End with the DOI as a link, with no period after it.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245798

The article number is often part of the DOI, as e0245798 is here. It still gets its own spot in the reference: the article number says where the article sits in the volume, and the DOI links to it.

Examples

A PLOS ONE article with an e number

A 2021 study of workload and burnout among nurses in Germany, published in PLOS ONE. PLOS article numbers start with a lowercase e, which stays in the reference. The sixth author's two-part last name, Escobar Pinzon, stays together.

  • Parenthetical citation(Diehl et al., 2021)
  • Narrative citationDiehl et al. (2021)

A BMC Nursing article with a plain article number

A 2025 umbrella review of nurse burnout in BMC Nursing, Volume 24, article number 596. BMC article numbers are plain numbers with no e. Each BMC volume is issue 1, and the publisher's citation download, PubMed, and the DOI record all list it, so the reference includes (1).

  • Parenthetical citation(Getie et al., 2025)
  • Narrative citationGetie et al. (2025)

An Elsevier article with a volume and no issue

A systematic review of high-fidelity simulation in Nurse Education Today, Volume 121 (February 2023). Elsevier gives each article a number within the volume and uses no issue number. The article went online in December 2022, which is why the DOI contains 2022, but its volume is dated February 2023. The reference uses 2023, the year of the volume.

  • Parenthetical citation(Alshehri et al., 2023)
  • Narrative citationAlshehri et al. (2023)

In-text citations

An article number changes nothing about the in-text citation. It's the author's last name and the year, with et al. for three or more authors from the very first citation.

  • Parenthetical: (Diehl et al., 2021)
  • Narrative: Diehl et al. (2021) looked at how personal, social, and organizational resources buffer the link between workload and burnout.
  • Three authors: still et al.: (Alshehri et al., 2023)

Quoting an article-numbered article? Never use the article number as a page number. If the PDF numbers its pages, give the page with p. and the number. If the version you read has no page numbers, point to the paragraph (para. and the number) or name the section heading instead.

Common mistakes

  • PLOS ONE, 16(1), e0245798.PLOS ONE, 16(1), Article e0245798.APA 7 adds the word Article in front of the number. Without it, the number reads like a page.
  • BMC Nursing, 24(1), Article number 596.BMC Nursing, 24(1), Article 596.BMC article pages say "Article number: 596," but APA 7 uses the single word Article. The same goes for Art., No., and eLocator: none of them go in the reference.
  • PLOS ONE, 16(1), Article E0245798.PLOS ONE, 16(1), Article e0245798.Copy the article number exactly as the journal prints it, lowercase e included. Only the word Article is capitalized.
  • PLOS ONE, 16(1), Article e0245798. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0245798PLOS ONE, 16(1), Article e0245798. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245798The DOI is still written as a full https://doi.org/ link, the same as any journal article.
  • (Diehl et al., 2021, Article e0245798)(Diehl et al., 2021)The article number belongs in the reference only. In the text, cite a page, paragraph, or section when you quote, never the article number.

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 and volume in italics, issue in plain parentheses when there is one
  • Article and the number, copied exactly, in place of the page range
  • No page range from the PDF
  • DOI as a https://doi.org/ link, with no period after it

Questions students ask

What is an article number in APA 7?

It's the number an online journal uses to identify an article inside a volume, in place of page numbers. PLOS ONE, BMC Nursing, BMJ, and many Elsevier journals use them. Some call it an eLocator. In the reference, write Article and the number where the page range would go.

Do I write "Article" before the number?

Yes. APA 7 shows it as the word Article, capitalized, then a space and the number: Article e0245798. That's a change from APA 6, which printed the number alone.

The PDF says pages 1–14. Do I include that?

No. Those are the pages of the PDF, which start at 1 for every article. Use the article number in the reference. You can use those PDF page numbers when you quote the article in your text.

Does a BMC Nursing article have an issue number?

Yes, issue 1. BMC publishes each year's volume as one continuous run of articles, all in issue 1. The article page shows only the volume and the article number, but the publisher's citation download, PubMed, and the DOI record all list issue 1, and APA 7 includes the issue whenever there is one: BMC Nursing, 24(1), Article 596.

What if an article has both page numbers and an article number?

If the journal assigned real page numbers in a printed issue, use the page range. Use the article number when the journal uses it in place of pages, which is what continuous online journals do.

Is "PLOS ONE" or "PLoS ONE" correct?

Write the journal name the way it appears on the article. Recent PLOS ONE articles print the name in all capitals, so a reference to one uses PLOS ONE. APA's own sample reference uses the older styling, PLoS ONE, so you'll see both.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.17, 8.28, 9.25, 9.27, 9.34–9.36, and 10.1, and the APA Style website's journal article reference examples. Example sources verified against PubMed, each article's page, and each DOI.

PERRLA finds the article number from the DOI and writes Article and the number for you, so you never have to hunt for it in the PDF.

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