APA Citation Style (6th ed.)

citing magazine & journal articles

magazine popular author usually a journalist or professional writer, sometimes not even named often no reference list often many colorful images & pictures short easy-to-understand articles to entertain & inform

journal author usually an expert, e.g. lecturer in text citations used & reference list given charts & tables longer articles with more jargon for communication

 

parts of a magazine article citation

• author - family name first followed by initials.
  (Note: If the author is Malay or from Myanmar for example, where family names are uncommon, just enter the whole name in the order you see it. E.g. Siti Nurhaliza, Saya Gyi U Nu).
• date - year & month in brackets.
• article title - title of the article; capitalize only the first word and names.
• article subtitle - separate from the title with a colon, capitalize only the first word and names.
• magazine title - title of the magazine in italics.
• volume & issue numbers - volume number in italics, issue number in brackets.
• page numbers - separate with a dash if more than one page.
• location detail - if found online state "Retrieved from" and then the . If there is no DOI, use the magazine web page; if there is no magazine web page, use the online datatbase web page. Do not activate any links.

Quammen, D. (2005, September). Spirit of the wild. National Geographic, 208(3), 122-143.

How to find the details for the citation

other magazine examples

• monthly magazine article, from an online database where the magazine has a website

Ezzell, C. (2000, May). Care for a dying continent. Scientific American, 282(5),
69-106. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com

• weekly magazine article, no author, no volume or issue numbers, from an online database where the magazine has no website

Research and markets: Zimbabwe food and drink report 2010. (2010, April). Food
Business Week, 150. Retrieved from http://www.proquest.com

 

parts of a journal article citation

• author - family name first followed by initials.
  (Note: If the author is Malay or from Myanmar for example, where family names are uncommon, just enter the whole name in the order you see it. E.g. Siti Nurhaliza, Saya Gyi U Nu).
• date - year in brackets.
• article title - title of the article; capitalize only the first word and names.
• article subtitle - separate from the title with a colon, capitalize only the first word and names.
• journal title - title of the journal in italics.
• volume & issue numbers - volume number in italics, issue number in brackets.
• page numbers - separate with a dash if more than one page.
• location detail - include the DOI if there is one. if found online state "Retrieved from" and then the DOI. If there is no DOI, use the magazine web page; if there is no magazine web page, use the online datatbase web page. Do not activate any links.

Barros, C. P. & Dieke, P. U. C. (2008). Technical efficiency of African hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27(3), 438-447. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.11 .004

How to find the details for the citation

other journal examples

• journal article with a sub-title & DOI

Doig, A. (2006). Dirty hands and the donors: Dealing with corruption in a post-
Mugabe Zimbabwe. Political Quarterly, 77(1), 71-78. doi: 10.1111/j.1467
-923X.2006.00732.x

• journal article with no DOI, where journal has a website

Adams, K. (2010). Zimbabwe's health system is starting to function again. British
Medical journal, 341(7767), 302. Retrieved from http://www.bmj.com

• journal article with no DOI, journal has no website

Branton, M. (1961). Africa south of the Sahara. International Social Science Journal,
13(2), 197-214. Retrieved from http://www.ebscohost.com

• journal article with more than 7 authors

Nyamukapa, C. A., Gregson, S., Wambe, M., Mushore, P., Lopman, B.,
Mupambireyi, Z.,...Jukes, M. C. H. (2010). Causes and consequences of
psychological distress among orphans in Eastern Zimbabwe. AIDS Care, 22(8),
988-996. doi: 10.1080/09540121003615061

more examples

[i] APA Citation Style cheat sheet with more examples & info

 

hints & tips

[i] use the Crossref.org Guest Query form to find a doi for an article.

[ii] break the URL before the punctuation ( . - / ~ ). Do not activate the URL link.

[iii] for more than 7 authors, list the first 6, followed by 3 dots and then the last author

 

scholarly = containing a serious detailed study of a subject

doi = digital object identifier is a unique number given to a document. See this DOI video from YouTube for more information.

 

test yourself

parts of a journal article citation