PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Comment on an article or post

How to Cite a Comment on an Article or Webpage in APA 7

An APA 7 reference for a comment on an online article or webpage gives the commenter (a real name, a username, or both), the comment's own date in parentheses, the comment's title or its first 20 words, then a bracketed note: [Comment on the article "Title of the article"] or, for a page on a news website, [Comment on the webpage Title of the page]. Then comes the site's name and a link to the comment itself. The in-text citation is the commenter and the year: (mickofemsworth, 2013).

The format

Commenter, A. A. [username]. (Year, Month Day). Comment title or first 20 words of the comment [Comment on the article "Title of the article"]. Name of the Newspaper, Magazine, Journal, or Blog. URL

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

Comments are added by hand. PERRLA's reference search doesn't read comments on articles or webpages (a Reddit comment's link is the one exception), so start with the form. Choose Online Comment, then Comment on an article. In Is the comment on an article or webpage?, pick Comment on an article for a newspaper, magazine, journal, or blog, or Comment on a webpage for a news website like CNN, HuffPost, or Ars Technica.

The commenter's role is Individual Commenter w/ username. Type the screen name in Name. If the comment shows a real name, type it in First, Middle, and Last and leave Name empty, or fill in both when the comment shows both. An organization commenting goes in as Organizational Commenter w/ username.

Paste the comment, or its title if it has one, into Post Content exactly as it's written; PERRLA keeps the first 20 words. Type the article's title in Article or Page Title in sentence case, and the site's name in Source Title. Pick the comment's date in Date of Comment and paste the comment's own link in URL. PERRLA writes the bracketed note, the italics, and the in-text citation.

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

The parts of the reference

1. Commenter

The person who wrote the comment is the author, not the person who wrote the article. Use the name the way the comment shows it. A real name goes last name first with initials. A username goes exactly as it's spelled, lowercase letters and all.

mickofemsworth.

Agarwal, P. K.

If the comment shows both a real name and a username, give the real name first and the username after it in square brackets: Agarwal, P. K. [username]. Comments with no name at all are rare. When one has none, the comment's text moves up to start the reference. Write Anonymous only if the comment is signed that way.

2. Date of the comment

Give the full date the comment was posted: year, month, and day. It's almost never the same as the article's date. A comment on a 2005 article might be from 2013.

(2013, July 30).

Some sites show only "3 years ago." Hover over that text or open the comment's own link to find the exact date. If there's truly no date, use (n.d.).

3. Comment title or first 20 words

If the comment has its own title, as comments on PLOS journals do, use the title. If not, use the comment's text, up to the first 20 words. Copy it exactly: the commenter's spelling, capitalization, punctuation, hashtags, and emoji stay as they are. Don't italicize it, don't put it in quotation marks, and don't add an ellipsis where you stop.

Surely the answer is Bayes theorem?

Hi Erin. Three rounds sounds amazing! I can imagine that just one of the rounds would be effective, but the

Cutting off mid-sentence after word 20 is normal. APA's own example does it.

4. The bracketed description

Right after the comment text, say what it's a comment on, in square brackets. For a newspaper, magazine, journal, or blog article, write Comment on the article and the article's title in sentence case inside quotation marks.

[Comment on the article "Why most published research findings are false"].

For a page on a news website that has no print paper (CNN, HuffPost, Vox, Ars Technica), write Comment on the webpage and the page's title in sentence case and italics, with no quotation marks.

[Comment on the webpage Antibiotic resistance among germs swells during droughts, study suggests].

5. Site name

Next comes the name of the publication the article appeared in. A newspaper, magazine, journal, or blog name is in italics and title case.

PLOS Medicine.

The name of a news website is in plain type: Ars Technica. This matches how APA treats the article or page itself.

6. URL

End with a link to the comment itself whenever the site gives one. Look for a timestamp, a share button, or a link icon on the comment; it usually opens a URL with the comment's number in it. If there's no comment link, use the article's URL. A short link is fine. No period after the URL.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/retrieval-practice/#comment-100329

Examples

A titled comment on a journal article, by a username

A 2013 reader comment on John Ioannidis's 2005 PLOS Medicine essay. PLOS comments carry their own titles, so the title stands in for the first 20 words. The date is the comment's, not the article's.

  • Parenthetical citation(mickofemsworth, 2013)
  • Narrative citationmickofemsworth (2013)

A comment on a blog post, by a named expert

Cognitive scientist Pooja K. Agarwal replying in the comments under Jennifer Gonzalez's 2017 Cult of Pedagogy post on retrieval practice. A blog post counts as an article, so the note says Comment on the article. The comment runs past 20 words, so the reference stops at word 20.

  • Parenthetical citation(Agarwal, 2017)
  • Narrative citationAgarwal (2017)

A comment on a news website page

A reader comment under a March 2026 Ars Technica story on antibiotic resistance. Ars Technica is a news website with no print paper, so APA calls the story a webpage, and the note says Comment on the webpage.

  • Parenthetical citation(Happy Medium, 2026)
  • Narrative citationHappy Medium (2026)

In-text citations

Cite a comment by its commenter and the year the comment was posted, the same as any other author.

  • Username: spell it exactly as the comment does, lowercase and all: (mickofemsworth, 2013) or mickofemsworth (2013)
  • Real name: last name only: (Agarwal, 2017) or Agarwal (2017)
  • Real name and username: the in-text citation uses the real name only. The username stays in the reference.
  • Two words in a username: keep them together as one name: (Happy Medium, 2026)
  • No name at all: the first few words of the comment take the author's place, followed by the year.

Comments have no page numbers. If you quote a long comment, the quote can come from any part of it, even past word 20, and the citation stays the same. A comment you only read about in someone else's work is cited through that work, not as a comment.

Common mistakes

  • Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Surely the answer is Bayes theorem? [Comment on the article ...]mickofemsworth. (2013, July 30). Surely the answer is Bayes theorem? [Comment on the article ...]The commenter wrote the comment, so the commenter is the author. The article's author and the article's date don't belong at the start.
  • mickofemsworth. (2013). Re: Why most published research findings are false [Web log comment].mickofemsworth. (2013, July 30). Surely the answer is Bayes theorem? [Comment on the article "Why most published research findings are false"]."Re:" and [Web log comment] are the old 6th edition format, and many generators still print them. APA 7 uses the comment's own words and names the article it was left on.
  • Hi Erin. Three rounds sounds amazing! I can imagine that just one of the rounds would be effective, but the...Hi Erin. Three rounds sounds amazing! I can imagine that just one of the rounds would be effective, but theStop at word 20 with no ellipsis and no quotation marks. The whole comment never goes in the reference.
  • Surely the Answer Is Bayes Theorem?Surely the answer is Bayes theorem?The comment's words go in plain type, copied as the commenter wrote them. Don't italicize them or change their capitalization.
  • https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/retrieval-practice/https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/retrieval-practice/#comment-100329Link to the comment itself when the site gives it a link, so your reader lands on the words you cited and not the top of a page with 90 comments.

Quick checklist

  • The commenter as the author, real name or username as shown
  • The comment's full date, not the article's
  • The comment's title or first 20 words, in plain type, no ellipsis
  • [Comment on the article "Title"] for newspapers, magazines, journals, and blogs
  • [Comment on the webpage Title] for news websites
  • The site's name, then a link to the comment itself

Questions students ask

Can I cite a comment in an APA paper?

Yes. APA 7 has its own format for comments on articles and webpages. A comment is one person's opinion, though, so use it for what someone said, like a reader's reaction or an expert's aside, not as evidence for a clinical or research claim.

Do I use Comment on the article or Comment on the webpage?

It follows the kind of source the comment sits on. Newspapers, magazines, journals, and blogs take Comment on the article, with the title in quotation marks. Pages on news websites that have no print paper, like CNN, HuffPost, or Ars Technica, take Comment on the webpage, with the title in italics.

What if the comment is longer than 20 words?

Use the first 20 words and stop, even mid-sentence. Don't add an ellipsis. If the comment has its own title, use the title instead of any of its text.

How do I cite a reply to a comment?

The same way. The person who wrote the reply is the author, the reply's date is the date, and the note still names the article or webpage, not the comment being answered. Link to the reply itself if you can.

What about comments on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Reddit?

Those follow the format for the platform's own posts, with a bracketed note that says what the comment was left on. Reddit comments, for example, take [Comment on the online forum post]. This page covers comments left on articles and webpages.

Is the username in the in-text citation, or the real name?

Whichever comes first in the reference. A comment signed only with a username is cited by the username, spelled exactly as written. If the reference shows a real name with the username in brackets, cite the real name.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.14, 8.17, 9.8, 9.12, 9.14, 9.19–9.22, 9.34–9.35, 10.1, and 10.16, and the APA Style website's newspaper article and webpage reference pages (comment examples). Example comments verified on October 21, 2026, on each comment's own page: commenter, date, comment title or text, the article's title, and the site name.

PERRLA builds the comment reference from what you paste in, 20-word cut, bracketed note, and all.

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