How to cite a journal article in every style
Journal articles are the bread and butter of academic citation, but each style formats them differently — APA in sentence case, MLA in title case, Chicago with parentheses around the year, IEEE with abbreviations. This guide covers every major style, with edge cases for preprints, advance online publication, and 21+ author lists. Our citation generator formats any DOI in seconds.
What information you need
A journal article citation has eight elements: authors (full names or initials), publication year, article title, journal name, volume, issue, page range, and DOI. The DOI is the canonical identifier — always include one if available.
If the article doesn't have a DOI, use a stable URL. Avoid linking to a paywalled login page; link to the journal's article landing page (the page that shows the abstract).
10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256.How to cite a journal article in APA 7
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Article title in sentence case. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxxx
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256–273. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256
Article titles use sentence case. Journal name and volume are italicized; the issue number is not. Page ranges have no "pp." prefix.
How to cite a journal article in MLA 9
Author Last, First. "Article Title." Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, Year, pp. xx–yy. Database, https://doi.org/xxxxx.
Dweck, Carol S., and Ellen L. Leggett. "A Social-Cognitive Approach to Motivation and Personality." Psychological Review, vol. 95, no. 2, 1988, pp. 256–73. Wiley Online Library, https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256.
MLA uses title case, full first names, and "vol."/"no."/"pp." prefixes. The database name appears as a second container before the DOI.
How to cite a journal article in Chicago
Chicago notes-bibliography
1. Carol S. Dweck and Ellen L. Leggett, "A Social-Cognitive Approach to Motivation and Personality," Psychological Review 95, no. 2 (1988): 257, https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256.
Dweck, Carol S., and Ellen L. Leggett. "A Social-Cognitive Approach to Motivation and Personality." Psychological Review 95, no. 2 (1988): 256–73. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256.
Chicago author-date
Dweck, Carol S., and Ellen L. Leggett. 1988. "A Social-Cognitive Approach to Motivation and Personality." Psychological Review 95, no. 2: 256–73. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256.
How to cite a journal article in IEEE
See our IEEE citation style guide for the full rules. The IEEE form uses a bracketed number, initials before surnames, and abbreviated journal names.
[1] Y. LeCun, Y. Bengio, and G. Hinton, "Deep learning," Nature, vol. 521, no. 7553, pp. 436–444, May 2015, doi: 10.1038/nature14539.
How to cite a journal article in Vancouver
See our Vancouver citation style guide for the full rules. Vancouver lists up to six authors before "et al." and uses MEDLINE-style journal abbreviations.
1. Doll R, Hill AB. The mortality of doctors in relation to their smoking habits: a preliminary report. BMJ. 1954;1(4877):1451–55. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4877.1451
How to cite a journal article in Harvard
Dweck, C.S. and Leggett, E.L. (1988) 'A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality', Psychological Review, 95(2), pp. 256–273. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256.
Edge cases
Advance online publication
If an article is published online ahead of a print issue, use "Advance online publication" in place of the volume/issue/pages in APA. In MLA and Chicago, use the year of advance publication and note "published online ahead of print" if relevant.
Preprints (arXiv, bioRxiv)
Cite preprints separately from peer-reviewed versions. Use the preprint server name (arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN) as the publisher and link to the preprint URL.
Smith, J. (2024). Foundations of distributed inference [Preprint]. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345
Articles with 21+ authors
APA: list the first 19 authors, insert an ellipsis, then the final author. Vancouver: list the first 6 then "et al." Chicago and MLA: list all authors, no matter how many.
Common mistakes
Forgetting the issue number
In all major styles, the issue number is required when present. APA puts it in parentheses with no space: 95(2).
Including "pp." in APA journal cites
APA omits the "pp." prefix for journal page ranges — just write the numbers. The "pp." prefix appears only for chapters in edited books.
Wrong DOI format
All current styles use the URL form: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/yyyy. The older doi:10.xxxx/yyyy form is deprecated.
Quick reference
| Style | Author format | Title format | Volume/Issue |
|---|---|---|---|
| APA 7 | Last, F. M. | Sentence case, no quotes | 95(2) |
| MLA 9 | Last, First | Title case, in quotes | vol. 95, no. 2 |
| Chicago NB | First Last (note); Last, First (bib) | Headline case, in quotes | 95, no. 2 |
| IEEE | F. Last | Sentence case, in quotes | vol. 95, no. 2 |
| Vancouver | Last F | Sentence case, no quotes | 1954;1(4877) |
| Harvard | Last, F. | Sentence case, single quotes | 95(2) |
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