Citing Online Articles in APA Format

Sources for APA Citation

Concise Rules of APA Style, 6th Edition

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): APA Formatting and Style Guide

Information needed for citations:

Author

Title of article

Year

Title of periodical

Volume and issue of periodical

Inclusive page numbers of article

DOI or URL of the journal’s home page (not database URL).

DOI

The DOI (digital object identifier) is a unique number that provides a persistent link to the location of content on the internet.

Example: doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181eeb61c

If there is a DOI listed for an article you should use it in your citation.

URL

If your journal article does not have a DOI and it was retrieved from an online database, do not copy and paste the link from the database. Instead use the home page URL for the journal, which may be located by searching for the journal title in Google.

Example for American Journal of Nursing from CINAHL Plus with Full Text:

Retrieved from http://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/pages/default.aspx

Other Tips

Authors are typed as Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Marie L. Jones would be Jones, M. L.)
If there is no author listed, list the title of the article first, capitalizing the first word.
Note that only the first word, proper nouns, and the word immediately after a colon are capitalized within the title of the article.
Include every author up to seven authors. If there are more than seven authors, include the first six authors and &… last author.

Citing References In Text

If the author’s name is included within the text, follow the name with (year)
- Example: Jones (2009) found that diabetes symptoms improve with exercise.

If there are two authors, cite both names every time within the text.
- Example: Jones and Smith (2010) found that aerobic exercise improved circulation problems of diabetics.

If there are three to five authors, cite all names in the first citation in text and only first author’s surname et al. (year) in following citations in text.
- Example: Jones, Smith, Bryant, Hayes, and Lyons (2008) observed that blood glucose levels decreased following aerobic activity.
- Example: Jones et al. (2008) for following citations in text.

Parenthetical Citations

If the author’s name is not included within the text, follow the sentence with (Last Name, year).
- Example: Increased exercise resulted in diminished diabetes symptoms (Jones, 2009).

If there is no author listed, use ("Article title," year).
- Example: Increased exercise promoted cardio-vascular health within diabetics ("Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes," 2010).

If there are 3 to 5 authors, cite all names in the first citation and only (first author’s last name et al., year) in following citations.
- Example: Blood glucose levels were observed to decrease following aerobic activity (Jones, Smith, Bryant, Hayes, & Lyons, 2008).
- Example: Lowered blood glucose levels were observed to decrease diabetic complications Jones et al., 2008).

Important: number of citations in the text of paper = number of citations on the References page!

Examples for online journal articles with and without DOI

(no author, with DOI)

Title of article. (do not capitalize “the” or “an”). (year). Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number – page number. doi:xxxxxxx

(no author,without DOI)

Title of article. (do not capitalize “the” or “an”). (year). Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. Retrieved from http://www.xxxxxxxx

(one author, with DOI)

Author’s last name, Author’s first initial. Author’s middle initial (if known). (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. doi: xxxxxxx

(one author, without DOI)

Author’s last name, Author’s first initial. Author’s middle initial if known. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number – page number. Retrieved from http://xxx.xxxxxxxx

(two authors, with DOI)

Author’s last name, A. A., & Author’s last name, B.B. (year).Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. doi: xxxxxxx

(two authors, without DOI)

Author’s last name, A. A., & Author’s last name, B.B. (year).Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number– page number. Retrieved from http://xxx.xxxxxxxx

(three authors, with DOI)

Author’s last name, A. A., Author’s last name, B. B., & Author’s last name, C. C. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. doi: xxxxxxx

(three authors, without DOI)

Author’s last name, A. A., Author’s last name, B. B., & Author’s last name, C. C. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. Retrieved from http://xxx.xxxxxxxx

(four authors, with DOI)

Author’s last name, A. A., Author’s last name, B. B., & Author’s last name, C. C., Author’s last name, D. D. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. doi: xxxxxxx

(four authors, without DOI)

(five authors, with DOI)

Author’s last name, A. A., Author’s last name, B. B., & Author’s last name, C. C., Author’s last name, D. D., Author’s last name, E. E. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. doi: xxxxxxx

(five authors, without DOI)

Author’s last name, A. A., Author’s last name, B. B., & Author’s last name, C. C., Author’s last name, D.D., Author’s last name, E. E. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. Retrieved from http://xxx.xxxxxxxx

(six authors, with DOI)

Author’s last name, A. A., Author’s last name, B. B., & Author’s last name, C. C., Author’s last name, D.D., Author’s last name, E. E., Author’s last name, F. F. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. doi: xxxxxxx

(six authors, without DOI)

(seven authors, with DOI)

Author’s last name, A.A., Author’s last name, B.B., Author’s last name, C.C., Author’s last name, D.D., Author’s last name, E.E., Author’s last name, F.F., & Author’s last name, G.G. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number–page number. doi: xxxxxxx

(seven authors, without DOI)

(more than seven authors, with DOI)

Author’s last name, A.A., Author’s last name, B.B., Author’s last name, C.C., Author’s last name, D.D., Author’s last name, E.E, Author’s last name, F.F., & … Author’s last name, H.H. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number– page number. doi: xxxxxxx

(more than seven authors, without DOI)

Author’s last name, A.A., Author’s last name, B.B., Author’s last name, C.C., Author’s last name, D.D., Author’s last name, E.E., Author’s last name, F.F. & … (After listing first six authors skip to last author and place here) Author’s last name, H.H. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), page number– page number. Retrieved from http://xxx.xxxxxxxx

Online Newspaper Article – 2 Authors –without DOI

Author Last Name, A. A., Author Last Name, B. B., (year, Month day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. Retrieved from http://xxx.xxxxxxxx

Examples:

Online Encyclopedia Article from database

Diabetes. (n.d.), In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide. Retrieved from http://literati.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/diabetes/0

Online Journal Articles from databases

(no author, with DOI)

Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes. (2010). Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 42(12), 2282-2303. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181eeb61c

(three authors, with DOI)

Tuttle, L. J., Hastings, M. K., & Mueller, M. J. (2012). A Moderate-intensity weight-bearing exercise program for a person with Type 2 Diabetes and peripheral neuropathy. Physical Therapy, 92(1), 133-141. doi:10.2522/ptj.20110048

(two authors, without DOI)

Barnes, M. J., & Hong, J. (2012). Exercise as a non-pharmaceutical treatment modality to prevent comorbidity of Type 2 Diabetes and major depression. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 5(2), 203-214. Retrieved from http://www.caringsciences.org/volume005/issue2/16.Exercise%20as%20Non-Pharmaceutical.pdf.

(more than seven authors, with DOI)

Jey Sook, C., Ryungwoo, K., Jung Hyun, K., Jean Kyung, P., Oh Yoen, K., Minjoo, K., & ... Jong Ho, L. (2012). Supervised exercise program, bmi, and risk of Type 2 Diabetes in subjects with normal or impaired fasting glucose. Diabetes Care, 35(8), 1680-1685. doi:10.2337/dc11-2074

Online Magazine Article – 1 Author – without DOI

Miller, M. (2012). Metabolic meltdown: How a spare tire leads to diabetes & heart disease. (cover story). Nutrition Action Health Letter, 39(6), 3. Retrieved from http://www.cspinet.org/nah/index.htm

Sample References Page

References