PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Magazine article

How to Cite a Magazine Article in APA 7

An APA 7 magazine article reference lists the author, the date in parentheses (the year and month for a monthly, or the year, month, and day for a weekly or online magazine), the article title in sentence case, the magazine name in italics, the volume in italics and the issue in parentheses when the magazine has them, the page range for a print article, and the DOI or URL. The in-text citation is the author's last name and the year only: (Wadman, 2025).

The format

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the article. Magazine Name, Volume(Issue), page–page. 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 link into PERRLA's reference search. For magazines that register DOIs, like Science and Scientific American, PERRLA recognizes the magazine and fills in the author, the full date, the title, the volume, the issue, the pages, and the DOI. Links from magazine sites like The Atlantic, The New Yorker, TIME, The Economist, and APA's Monitor on Psychology come in as magazine articles too, with the magazine's name in italics and the date in APA order. The finished reference goes on your references page in order, hanging indent and all.

Give the result a quick look against the article before you save. Check that the headline matches the one on the page and is in sentence case, that the magazine's name has "The" if the magazine uses it, and that an unsigned article hasn't come in with the magazine as its author. If the article has no byline, delete the author: PERRLA moves the title into the author position and puts the title in your in-text citations for you. A link from a magazine site PERRLA doesn't recognize can come in as a webpage. If that happens, add the article by hand as a magazine article.

Adding one by hand? Choose Magazine, then Magazine article, and pick A single published article (or Editorial, and PERRLA adds [Editorial] after the title). Fill in the date the way the issue shows it: the month and year for a monthly, the full date for a weekly or an online article. For a seasonal issue, leave the month and day blank and type the season and year in the year box, like Summer 2018; PERRLA prints it as (2018, Summer). Add the volume, issue, and pages when the magazine has them, then the DOI or the URL. If you type the title the way the magazine capitalizes it, PERRLA offers to put it in sentence case with Fix it for me.

Look up
Paste a DOI, get the reference

10.1126/science.adz6858

Wadman, M. (2025, June 12). Trump budget proposes killing nursing research institute. Science, 388(6752), 1120–1121. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz6858

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

The parts of the reference

1. Author

Start with the writer's last name, a comma, and their initials. List every writer in the byline, up to 20, with an ampersand (&) before the last one.

Wadman, M.

No byline? Some magazines, like The Economist, don't sign their articles. Then the article title moves into the author position, ahead of the date. Don't make the magazine the author, and don't write Anonymous unless the article is signed that way.

2. Date

Magazines get more of the date than journals do. Put the year first, then a comma, then the month (and the day, if the issue or page gives one), all in parentheses, followed by a period. Spell the month out.

(2025, June 12).

Monthly magazines get the year and month: (2023, October). Weekly magazines like Science and articles posted online get the full date. A quarterly that dates its issues by season gets the season: (2018, Summer).

Use the date on the version you read. An article posted online often carries a different date from the print issue it ran in.

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.

Best practices in team teaching.

Take the title from the article itself. Magazines often give the print version and the online version different headlines, and the headline in a social media preview or a browser tab can be different again. If the article ran under a regular column name, like Ask the Cognitive Scientist, keep it at the front of the title the way the magazine does.

4. Magazine name and volume

Write the magazine's name in title case and in italics, the way the magazine writes it, including "The" when it's part of the name. If the magazine numbers its volumes, put a comma and the volume number after the name, also in italics.

Monitor on Psychology, 54

No volume or issue on an online article? End the name with a period and go straight to the URL.

5. Issue

Put the issue number in parentheses right after the volume, with no space and no italics. Weekly magazines can have long issue numbers: Science is past issue 6,700.

388(6752),

If the magazine has no issue numbers, or the online version doesn't show them, leave this part out.

6. Pages

Give the page range with an en dash (–) between the numbers, then a period. Don't write "p." or "pp." in the reference.

71–75.

Magazine articles often jump to the back of the issue to finish. List every part, separated by a comma: 28–32, 43. Online articles have no page numbers, so leave this part out.

7. DOI or URL

If the article has a DOI, end with it as a link: https://doi.org/ and the DOI. Some magazines register DOIs for their print articles, including Science and Scientific American.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz6858

No DOI? For an article you read on the magazine's website, end with its URL. For a print copy, or a copy from a library database like ProQuest or EBSCO, end after the page range and leave out the database name. Never put a period after a DOI or URL, and don't write "Retrieved from."

Examples

A weekly magazine article with a DOI

Meredith Wadman's news story on the National Institute of Nursing Research in Science, which APA treats as a magazine. It's a weekly, so the reference gets the issue's full date, and the DOI goes at the end.

  • Parenthetical citation(Wadman, 2025, p. 1121)
  • Narrative citationWadman (2025, p. 1121)

A monthly magazine article in print or from a database

Ashley Abramson's article on co-teaching from the October 2023 issue of Monitor on Psychology, APA's own monthly magazine. The print issue has a volume, an issue, and pages but no DOI, so the reference ends after the page range. A copy from a library database is cited the same way.

  • Parenthetical citation(Abramson, 2023, p. 73)
  • Narrative citationAbramson (2023, p. 73)

An article from an online magazine

Ed Yong's article on health care workers leaving their jobs during the pandemic, from The Atlantic's website. Online magazine articles get the full date from the page and the URL, and they skip the volume, issue, and pages they don't have.

  • Parenthetical citation(Yong, 2021)
  • Narrative citationYong (2021)

A magazine article with no author

The Economist doesn't sign its articles, so the title moves into the author position and the in-text citation uses the title. This one ran online on January 29, 2024, and in the February 3 print edition under a different headline, "Can Alzheimer's be transmitted?" The reference below is for the online version.

  • Parenthetical citation("Alzheimer’s Disease May, Rarely, Be Transmitted by Medical Treatment," 2024)
  • Narrative citation"Alzheimer’s Disease May, Rarely, Be Transmitted by Medical Treatment" (2024)

A quarterly magazine dated by season, with pages that jump

Daniel Willingham's column on learning styles in American Educator, the American Federation of Teachers' quarterly, from its Summer 2018 issue. APA dates a seasonal issue with the year and the season, (2018, Summer). The column runs on pages 28–32 and finishes on page 43, so both parts go in the reference, and the AFT posts it at a URL anyone can open.

  • Parenthetical citation(Willingham, 2018, p. 29)
  • Narrative citationWillingham (2018, p. 29)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for a magazine article gives the author's last name and the year only, even though the reference has the month or the full date. Add the page when you quote or point to one passage.

  • One author: (Abramson, 2023) or Abramson (2023)
  • Two authors: both names every time, joined by & inside parentheses and by and in your sentence
  • Three or more authors: the first author's last name and et al., starting with the first citation
  • No author: the title in title case and in quotation marks, then the year: ("Alzheimer’s Disease May, Rarely, Be Transmitted by Medical Treatment," 2024). You can shorten a long title to its first few words.
  • A quote from a print article: add the page: (Wadman, 2025, p. 1121)
  • A quote from an online article: online articles have no page numbers, so count paragraphs: (Yong, 2021, para. 4)

A narrative citation puts the author's name in your sentence and the year in parentheses right after it: Willingham (2018) reported that matching lessons to learning styles gives students no advantage.

Common mistakes

  • Abramson, A. (2023). Best practices in team teaching.Abramson, A. (2023, October). Best practices in team teaching.A magazine reference takes the month, and the day too for weekly and online magazines. The year alone is the journal format.
  • Abramson, A. (Oct. 2023).Abramson, A. (2023, October).The year comes first, then a comma, then the month spelled out. The same order holds for seasons: (2018, Summer), not (Summer 2018).
  • Yong, E. (2021, November 16). Why health-care workers are quitting in droves. The Atlantic.Yong, E. (2021, November 16). Why health-care workers are quitting in droves. The Atlantic.The magazine's name is italic and the article title is plain. Citing the link as a webpage flips the two.
  • The Economist. (2024, January 29). Alzheimer’s disease may, rarely, be transmitted by medical treatment.Alzheimer’s disease may, rarely, be transmitted by medical treatment. (2024, January 29). The Economist.An unsigned article has no author. The title moves into the author position, and the magazine stays in its usual place.
  • Monitor on Psychology, 54(7), pp. 71–75. Retrieved from ProQuest.Monitor on Psychology, 54(7), 71–75.APA 7 leaves "pp." out of the reference, and a database copy ends after the pages with no database name and no "Retrieved from."

Quick checklist

  • Every writer in the byline, or the title first when there's no byline
  • The year, then the month (and day for weeklies and online articles), or the season
  • Article title in sentence case, from the version you read
  • Magazine name in italics with "The" if it uses it, volume italic, issue in plain parentheses
  • Every page range, with no "p." or "pp."
  • The DOI, or the URL for an online article, or nothing for print and database copies

Questions students ask

What's the difference between a magazine and a journal in APA 7?

Journals publish peer-reviewed research and get the year only. Magazines publish news, features, and commentary for a wider audience and get the month, or the full date. Check how the publication describes itself. APA's own examples treat Science as a magazine, even though it also publishes research.

Do I include the month for a magazine article in APA 7?

Yes. Give the year, a comma, and the month: (2023, October). Weekly magazines and online articles also get the day, and seasonal issues get the season: (2018, Summer). The in-text citation still uses the year only.

How do I cite a magazine article with no author?

Move the title into the author position, then the date, the magazine name in italics, and the URL or pages. In the text, use the title in title case and in quotation marks, then the year. Never list the magazine as the author.

How do I cite a magazine article from ProQuest or EBSCO?

Cite it like the print article: the author, the date, the title, the magazine, the volume and issue, and the pages. Add a DOI if the article has one. Leave out the database name and the database's link.

Do I cite the print or the online version of a magazine article?

Cite the one you read. The two can have different titles and dates, and only the print version has page numbers. Reading Monitor on Psychology on apa.org, for example, the online article carries a full date like October 1, 2023, and the URL instead of pages.

Do online magazine articles need a volume and issue number?

Only if the online article shows them. Most online magazine articles don't, so the reference goes from the magazine's name straight to the URL. Don't hunt down print details for a version you didn't read.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.10–8.11, 8.13–8.14, 8.17, 8.25–8.28, 9.8, 9.11–9.12, 9.14, 9.19, 9.25–9.26, 9.30, 9.34–9.36, and 10.1, and the APA Style website's magazine article references and reference elements pages. Example sources verified on October 21, 2026: Science against PubMed and Crossref; Monitor on Psychology against apa.org and the October 2023 issue PDF; American Educator against the AFT's article PDF and ERIC; The Atlantic and The Economist against archived copies of each article page, since both sites block automated visits.

PERRLA builds the magazine article reference from its DOI or link, the month, the italics, and the volume and issue included.

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