In APA Style, there are two elements needed to properly cite each of your sources:
The reference list entry - information about the article that appears at the end of your paper in the list of references
The in-text citation - brief information that appears in the body of your paper to indicate a direct quote or paraphrase.
Several of the examples in this guide were drawn from the APA Manual (6th ed.).
Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in the APA Manual (6th ed.).
Reference list entry:
Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year). Article title: Subtitle. Journal Title, Volume(issue), page range. doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx OR Retrieved from home page URL of journal.
Example:
Pettigrew, T. F. (2009). Secondary transfer effect of contact: Do intergroup contact effects spread to noncontacted outgroups? Social Psychology, 40(2), 55-65. doi:10.1027/1864-9335.40.2.544
In-text citation:
(Author Surname, Year, page number)
Example:
(Pettigrew, 2009, p. 61)
If a journal article has a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) listed, you will always include this identifier in your reference. You will not have to include the URL of the journal's home page or of the database from which you retrieved the article if a DOI is available. See the box on the right for more about DOIs.
If you viewed a journal article in an online database and it does not have a DOI, you will need to do a quick search outside of the database to locate the URL for the journal's home page (pp. 191-192). This information must be included in the reference.
If you viewed a journal article in its print format, be sure to check if it has a DOI listed. If it does not, your reference to the article does not require a DOI.
A DOI (digital object identifier) is assigned to a journal article by the publisher. DOIs are used to provide permanent location information on the internet.
Not all articles have a DOI. If unable locate a DOI in the database or page view where you found the article, try https://www.crossref.org/guestquery/
If you can't locate a DOI in this way, remember that including it in your citation is not an absolute requirement of most citation styles -- you can still reference the journal publisher or library database instead.