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Citation Help: Periodical Articles - Print & Online

Overview

This page covers some basic examples of APA citations for online and print articles.  For more complete information, see the resources listed in the box to the right. 

In each box below you will see a list of the elements you need to gather to create the citation Then you will see the formatting to use to put the elements in the proper format.  Last, you will see an example of a citation in APA format.

Also note that the citation examples should be double spaced with a hanging indentation, which are not always displayed correctly online.  To view a paper formatted for APA, including the reference list at the end, see the APA Sample Paper from the OWL at Purdue.

Elements, Format, & Examples

Elements Needed (in order given) -

  • Author. Start with title if no author is listed.
  • (Date). Put date after title if there is no author listed.
  • Article title. Only first word, proper nouns and first word after a colon capitalized.
  • Publication Title italicized and all important words capitalized.
  • Volume
  • Pages
  • Retrieved from URL or database name, if found online.

Format

Author, A. A. (Date). Article title. Publication title. Volume (Issue), pages.  Retrieved from URL or database.

Example Newspaper Article -

Blevins, L. (2006, March 31). Livermore flourishes at turn of century. Tri-Valley Herald, pp. Valley 1, 2.

Example Magazine Article -

Halloran, L. (2006, May 8). Pulling back from the brink. U.S. News and World Report, 140(17), 36-38. 

           Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Example Journal Article - 

Shin, H. J. (2011). Genetically engineered microbial biosensors for in situ 
     monitoring of environmental pollution. Applied Microbiology and 
     Biotechnology, 89(4), 867-877. 

More In-Depth Help

This guide is meant as a general overview.  For more in-depth help, please use the following resources, review the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, or contact an LPC librarian.