PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Special issue or section

How to Cite a Special Issue or Section in APA 7

An APA 7 reference for a whole special issue lists the guest editors with (Eds.), the year in parentheses, the issue title in sentence case followed by [Special issue], then the journal name and volume in italics and the issue number in parentheses. A special section works the same way with [Special section], and it adds the section's page range. The in-text citation uses the editors' names: (Brooks Carthon et al., 2022).

The format

Editor, A. A., & Editor, B. B. (Eds.). (Year). Title of the issue [Special issue]. Journal Name, Volume(Issue).
Editor, A. A. (Ed.). (Year). Title of the section [Special section]. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), page–page.

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

In PERRLA, choose Journal, then the type Special issue or section, then Entire special issue or Special section. Put the guest editors in the Editor rows of the contributors, in the order the issue names them, and leave the author blank. Then fill in the Issue Title (or Section Title), the Journal Name, the Publication Year, the Volume Number, and the Issue Number. A special section also asks for its pages.

PERRLA adds (Ed.) or (Eds.), the [Special issue] or [Special section] label, and the italics, and it uses the editors' names in your in-text citations. If the issue names no editors anywhere, leave the editor blank too: PERRLA moves the title to the front of the reference and into your citations for you.

Citing one article from a special issue instead? Paste the article's DOI into PERRLA's reference search, or choose Journal article and A single published article. The special issue label isn't part of that reference.

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

The parts of the reference

1. Editors

The guest editors of the issue or section take the author position: last name, a comma, and initials, with an ampersand (&) before the last one. After the names, add (Ed.) for one editor or (Eds.) for two or more, then a period.

Brooks Carthon, J. M., Perez, G. A., & Brawner, B. M. (Eds.).

Write two-part surnames the way the editor does. J. Margo Brooks Carthon's last name is Brooks Carthon, so she's listed under B, not as Carthon, J. M. B.

Use the special issue's own editors, not the journal's editor-in-chief. If the issue page doesn't list them, check the introductory editorial: guest editors often name themselves there.

2. Year

Put the year the issue was published in parentheses, followed by a period. Like a journal article, a special issue takes the year only.

(2022).

3. Title and label

Write the title of the issue or section in sentence case, not italic, then the label in square brackets: [Special issue] or [Special section]. The period goes after the bracket.

Health equity and social determinants of health [Special issue].

Leave out words like "Special Issue on" that the journal puts in front of the title. The bracketed label already says it. Research in Nursing & Health calls this issue "Special Issue on Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health," and the title in the reference starts at Health.

4. Journal name, volume, and issue

Give the journal name in title case and italics, a comma, the volume in italics, and the issue number in parentheses, not italic.

Research in Nursing & Health, 45(2).

A whole special issue ends here, with no page range, because you're citing the entire issue.

5. Pages (special sections only)

A special section is a group of articles inside a regular issue, so give the pages it runs, from the first page of its first article to the last page of its last one, with an en dash (–) between them.

Health Psychology, 41(4), 243–300.

Find the range in the issue's table of contents: the section starts with its heading and ends where the next heading begins.

6. DOI

Most special issues and sections have no DOI of their own, only their articles do, so the reference ends after the issue number or the pages. APA's general rule is to give a DOI whenever the work has one. Some publishers, Wiley among them, register a DOI for each whole issue; if yours does, it goes at the end as a https://doi.org/ link.

Examples

A special issue with guest editors

The April 2022 issue of Research in Nursing & Health is a special issue on health equity with three guest editors. They go in the order they gave themselves in their introductory editorial, which matches how Penn Nursing announced the issue. (The journal's website sorts guest editors alphabetically.)

  • Parenthetical citation(Brooks Carthon et al., 2022)
  • Narrative citationBrooks Carthon et al. (2022)

A special issue whose editors are named in its editorial

The February 2021 issue of Research in Nursing & Health is a special issue on telehealth. The issue page lists no guest editors, but the opening editorial by Melissa O'Connor and Kathryn H. Bowles says they served as co-guest editors, so they're the editors in the reference.

  • Parenthetical citation(O'Connor & Bowles, 2021)
  • Narrative citationO'Connor and Bowles (2021)

A special section inside a regular issue

The April 2022 issue of Health Psychology opens with a special section on resilience, edited by Jack Tsai, that runs from page 243 to page 300. The section's title comes from its heading in the table of contents. Its introduction has a different title, and you'd cite that introduction as a regular article only if you mean the introduction itself.

  • Parenthetical citation(Tsai, 2022)
  • Narrative citationTsai (2022)

One article from a special issue

Most of the time you'll cite a single study from a special issue, like Sangmi Kim's article in the health equity issue above. That's an ordinary journal article reference: no editors, no [Special issue] label, and the article's own pages and DOI.

  • Parenthetical citation(Kim, 2022, p. 155)
  • Narrative citationKim (2022, p. 155)

In-text citations

Cite a special issue or section by its editors and the year, just as you'd cite an author. Add a page number when you quote one specific passage.

  • One editor: (Tsai, 2022) or Tsai (2022)
  • Two editors: both names every time, joined by & in parentheses and by and in your sentence: (O'Connor & Bowles, 2021) or O'Connor and Bowles (2021)
  • Three or more editors: the first editor and et al., from the first citation on: (Brooks Carthon et al., 2022)
  • No editors named: the title of the issue or section in title case and quotation marks, then the year: ("Title of the Issue," 2022)

Don't add Eds. or the [Special issue] label to the in-text citation. They belong only in the reference. If you're really discussing one article in the issue, cite that article's authors instead: (Kim, 2022).

Common mistakes

  • Special issue on health equity and social determinants of health.Health equity and social determinants of health [Special issue]."Special issue" is a label, not part of the title. It goes in square brackets after the title.
  • Brooks Carthon, J. M., Perez, G. A., & Brawner, B. M. (2022).Brooks Carthon, J. M., Perez, G. A., & Brawner, B. M. (Eds.). (2022).The guest editors are in the author position, so (Eds.) tells your reader they edited the issue rather than wrote it.
  • Health equity and social determinants of health [Special issue].Health equity and social determinants of health [Special issue].In APA, the title of an issue or section isn't italic. Only the journal name and the volume are.
  • Research in Nursing & Health, 45(2), 137–262.Research in Nursing & Health, 45(2).A whole special issue takes no page range. Only a special section, which is part of an issue, gives its pages.
  • Kim, S. (2022). Different maternal age patterns of preterm birth: Interplay of race/ethnicity, chronic stress, and marital status [Special issue].Kim, S. (2022). Different maternal age patterns of preterm birth: Interplay of race/ethnicity, chronic stress, and marital status.An article from a special issue is cited as a regular journal article. The label is only for citing the whole issue or section.
  • Carthon, J. M. B.Brooks Carthon, J. M.Brooks Carthon is a two-part surname. Keep both parts in the last-name position, the way the editor writes it.

Quick checklist

  • Guest editors in the author position, with (Ed.) or (Eds.)
  • The year only, in parentheses
  • Issue or section title in sentence case, not italic
  • [Special issue] or [Special section] in square brackets after the title
  • Journal name and volume italic, issue number in plain parentheses
  • Page range for a special section only
  • In-text citation with the editors' names and the year

Questions students ask

How do I cite one article from a special issue in APA 7?

Cite it like any journal article: the article's authors, year, title, the journal, volume, issue, the article's pages, and its DOI. Leave out the special issue's editors and the [Special issue] label.

What if a special issue doesn't name any editors?

Move the title of the issue to the front of the reference, followed by [Special issue] and a period, then the year. In the text, use the title in title case and quotation marks with the year. Before you decide there are none, check the issue's opening editorial, since guest editors often name themselves there.

Should I include the journal's editor-in-chief?

No. List the editors of the special issue or special section, who are usually called guest editors. The journal's regular editor is credited only if they also edited that issue.

What's the difference between a special issue and a special section?

A special issue is an entire issue built around one topic, so you cite it with no page range. A special section is a set of articles on one topic inside a regular issue, so you add the pages the section covers.

Does a special issue reference need a DOI?

Only if the issue itself has one. Most don't, because DOIs usually belong to the articles. Some publishers, Wiley among them, register a DOI for each whole issue, and APA's rule is to include a DOI whenever the work has one.

Why isn't the special issue title in italics?

In APA, a special issue is part of a larger work, the journal. Parts of a larger work stay plain, and the journal name takes the italics.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.10, 8.11, 8.14, 8.17, 9.8–9.10, 9.19, 9.21, 9.25, 9.34, and 10.1 (its special issue and special section examples), and the APA Style website's reference elements page. Example sources verified on October 21, 2026, against the Wiley Online Library issue pages for Research in Nursing & Health 45(2) and 44(1) and the 44(1) guest editorial, Penn Nursing's announcement of the health equity issue, APA PsycNet's table of contents for Health Psychology 41(4), PubMed, and Crossref.

PERRLA builds the special issue or section reference with the editors, the bracketed label, and the italics in place.

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