How to Cite a Journal Article — APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago & More

In this guide

What you need to collect DOIs and URLs APA 7th edition MLA 9th edition Harvard Chicago (N-B) Vancouver IEEE No DOI — online and print articles Common mistakes

What you need to collect

Before you can format a journal article citation in any style, you need to find and record these elements from the article itself:

Author(s): Full name(s) — surname and initials or first name depending on style
Publication year
Article title: Exact title, including any subtitle after a colon
Journal name: Full name (some styles abbreviate; most don't)
Volume number
Issue number (sometimes called "number")
Page range: First page – last page
DOI: If available — find on the article's first page or on the publisher's website

Where to find this information

The article's first page (usually has author, year, journal name, volume, issue, pages)
The journal website's article page — look for "How to cite this article" or the full citation
The DOI is usually on the first page or in the article metadata on the publisher's site
PubMed, Google Scholar, or your library database usually display all metadata in a structured format

DOIs and URLs — which to include?

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent, stable link to an article. It is always preferable to a URL, which can break. Every modern style recommends including a DOI when one is available.

APA 7th: Include DOI as a hyperlink — https://doi.org/xxxxx
MLA 9th: Include DOI or stable URL — no "https://doi.org/" prefix needed; include the full link
Harvard: Include DOI — format varies by institution ("doi:" prefix or full URL)
Chicago: Include DOI as a full URL — https://doi.org/xxxxx
Vancouver: Include DOI with "doi:" prefix — doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx
IEEE: Include DOI with "doi:" prefix — doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx

If there is no DOI, include the URL of the journal's website or the database URL if the article was found online. If it's a print article with no online presence, no URL is needed.

APA 7th edition

APA 7th Edition

Psychology · Education · Social Sciences · Nursing

Reference list format

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, Volume(Issue), first–last page. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Roediger, H. L., & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 20–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003

In-text citation

Parenthetical: (Roediger & Butler, 2011) | Narrative: Roediger and Butler (2011) | With page: (Roediger & Butler, 2011, p. 24)

MLA 9th edition

MLA 9th Edition

Literature · Languages · Humanities · Cultural Studies

Works Cited format

Last, First, and First Last. "Title of Article in Title Case." Journal Name, vol. X, no. X, Year, pp. xx–xx. DOI or URL.

Roediger, Henry L., and Andrew C. Butler. "The Critical Role of Retrieval Practice in Long-Term Retention." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 15, no. 1, 2011, pp. 20–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003.

In-text citation

Parenthetical: (Roediger and Butler 24) | Narrative: Roediger and Butler argue… (24)

Harvard

UK Universities · Humanities · Social Sciences · Business

Reference list format

Author, A. and Author, B. (Year) 'Title of article', Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. xx–xx. doi: xxxxx.

Roediger, H.L. and Butler, A.C. (2011) 'The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention', Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), pp. 20–27. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003.

In-text citation

(Roediger and Butler, 2011) | Roediger and Butler (2011) | With page: (Roediger and Butler, 2011, p. 24)

Chicago Notes-Bibliography

Chicago N-B

History · Arts · Architecture · Theology

Footnote (first citation)

1. Henry L. Roediger and Andrew C. Butler, "The Critical Role of Retrieval Practice in Long-Term Retention," Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15, no. 1 (2011): 24.

Bibliography entry

Roediger, Henry L., and Andrew C. Butler. "The Critical Role of Retrieval Practice in Long-Term Retention." Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15, no. 1 (2011): 20–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003.

Vancouver

Medicine · Nursing · Pharmacy · Health Sciences

Reference list format

Number. Author AA, Author BB. Title of article. J Abbrev. Year;Vol(No.):Pages. doi:xxxxx

1. Roediger HL, Butler AC. The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends Cogn Sci. 2011;15(1):20-7. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003.

In-text citation

Superscript number: text¹ | Or bracket: text [1]

IEEE

Engineering · Computer Science · Telecommunications

Reference list format

[n] A. A. Author and B. B. Author, "Title of article," Journal Abbrev., vol. X, no. X, pp. xx–xx, Mon. Year, doi: xxxxx.

[1] H. L. Roediger and A. C. Butler, "The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention," Trends Cogn. Sci., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 20–27, Jan. 2011, doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003.

In-text citation

Bracket: text [1] | Range: [2]–[5]

No DOI available

Print-only article: End the citation after the page numbers. No URL needed.
Online article, no DOI: Include the journal homepage URL (not the database login URL): "Retrieved from https://www.trendsincs.com" (APA) or similar.
Database-only article: For most styles, do NOT include the database URL (it's login-gated and won't work for others). End with the page numbers or use the journal homepage URL.

Common mistakes when citing journal articles

Using the full journal name in styles that require abbreviations (Vancouver, IEEE)
Capitalising every major word in the article title when using APA (APA uses sentence case for article titles)
Omitting the issue number — most styles require both volume AND issue
Including the database URL instead of the DOI
Writing the DOI as "DOI: 10.xxx" instead of "https://doi.org/10.xxx" (APA requires the full URL format)
Not italicising the journal name
Confusing page range format — some styles use en dash (20–27); some use hyphen (20-7 truncated in Vancouver)

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