A periodical is a source that publishes new content on a continuing basis, usually at regular intervals. Examples include journals, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. The most common type of periodical resource used in academic coursework is a journal article.
Basic Elements of a Journal Article Citation:
Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial., Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial., & Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Year). Title with only first letter of a sentence and proper nouns capitalized: Except first word after a colon. Name of Journal, volume(issue), page #–#. https://doi.org/xxxx
Basic Journal Article Citation:
One Author:
Clay, Z. (2018). Exiled in America: Life on the margins in a residential motel. Social Work, 63(2), 186–187. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swy010
Two Authors:
Include a comma after the first author and an ampersand (&) before the second.
Niangthianhoi, S. L., & Khudsar, F. A. (2015). The nesting success of the Oriental Darter Anhinga melanogaster (Aves: Suliformes: Anhingidae) in the Yamuna Biodiversity Park, New Delhi, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 7(14), 8148–8153. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2430.7.14.8148-8153
Three to Twenty Authors:
Include a comma after each author and an ampersand (&) before the last author.
Buckingham, S. L., Emery, L., Godsay, S., Brodsky, A. E., & Scheibler, J. E. (2018). ‘You opened my mind’: Latinx immigrant and receiving community interactional dynamics in the United States. Journal of Community Psychology, 46(2), 171–186. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21931
21 or More Authors
List first nineteen authors followed by an ellipsis and then the last author.
Tarasconi, A., Coccolini, F., Biffl, W. L., Tomasoni, M., Ansaloni, L., Picetti, E., Molfino, S., Shelat, V., Cimbanassi, S., Weber, D. G., Abu-Zidan, F. M., Campanile, F. C., Di Saverio, S., Baiocchi, G. L., Casella, C., Kelly, M. D., Kirkpatrick, A. W., Leppaniemi, A., Moore, E. E., . . . Catena, F. (2020). Perforated and bleeding peptic ulcer: WSES guidelines. World Journal of Emergency Surgery, 15(3). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13017-019-0283-9
Combination of Individual and Group Authors
Include "& members of Group" after individual authors.
Harris, D. M., Borsky, A. E., & members of the CNA Health ACTION Partnership for SATIS-PHI/CRC. (2018). Health care systems for tracking colorectal cancer screening tests. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. https://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/final-reports/crcscreeningrpt/index.html
No DOI, with a Non-database URL
Use the URL for the webpage of the article.
Dunlap, J. E., Nichols, W. S., Hebebrand, L. C., Mathes, L. E., & Olsen, R. G. (1979). Mobility of lymphocyte surface membrane concanavalin A receptors of normal and feline leukemia virus-infected viremic felines. Cancer Research, 39(3), 956–958. https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/39/3/956.short
No DOI or Non-database URL
Never include a database URL in a citation, e.g. EBSCO, JSTOR, etc. If there is no DOI or non-database URL, leave the field empty.
Nolan, J. (1975), Watergate: A case study in how not to handle public relations. Public Relations Quarterly, 20(2), 23–26.
Published in a Language Other than English
List the article title in English in brackets after the title in original language. If an English title has been provided, use it; if not, you can translate the title yourself or use a translation service.
Brodard, F., Giroudeau, I., Quartier, V., & Roman, P. (2019). La perception parentale de la pratique du bilan psychologique de l’enfant et de l’adolescent [Parental perception of the child and adolescent psychological assessment]. Pratiques Psychologiques, 25(4), 383–397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prps.2018.08.003
Newspaper, Magazine, or Blog
Use the specific date of publication. Note that newspaper, magazine, and blog articles are cited as articles, whereas pages on online news websites are cited as webpages. The distinction between the two is vague; APA says that the following are examples of newspapers and magazines: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Science.
Koseff, A. (2015, October 26). Food pantries for hungry students spread at California colleges. The Sacramento Bee. https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article41478480.html
Cochrane Articles
Cited like newspaper/magazine/blog articles with "Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews" as the publication title.
Cluett, E. R., & Burns, E. (2018, May 16). Immersion in water during labour and birth. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000111.pub4
