Tacoma Community College Library: Guide to APA and Chicago citation for LS 102 students: Building APA-style citations

Building a scholarly journal article citation

Building a Scholarly Journal Article Citation

Here is the journal article, as you would see it presented through a database, or in the print version of the journal, showing you which elements that you need to collect to build your References citation, and your in-text citation.

References Page Citation

Author, Initial. Initial., & Author, Initial. (year). Article title typed in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, Italicized, volume#(issue#), page-range. doi presented as a hyperlink.

Gordon, M. S., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771. http:doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y

In-Text Citation

Gordon and Cui (2015) found compelling evidence suggesting that a person’s career outcomes in adulthood are more of a product of the quality of their childhood relationships with their parent(s), or other adult guardians, rather than the quality of the education they received.

OR

Compelling evidence suggests that a person’s career outcomes in adulthood are more of a product of the quality of their childhood relationships with their parent(s), or other adult guardians, rather than the quality of the education they received (Gordon & Cui, 2015).

In-text and References citations

A Quick Look at the Two Parts of a Citation

The brief in-text citation lets your reader know where the information in your paper came from, as you are using it. Usually, this means the author(s) and year.
The full References citation is on a separate References page, letting your reader know, in detail, where to find that source.

Below is an example of how the two citation pieces fit together in APA style:

The In-Text Citation

References

Gordon, M. S., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y

What's a DOI?

A unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is assigned to every journal article that is available in digital, as well as print, form. While there is some effort to retroactively assign DOIs to older articles, you may find that if you are using an article older than 2000, there is no DOI. Also, journal articles that are only available in print (very rare now), they also do not have DOIs. There is a lot more information about DOIs (and URLs) in this guide that is relevant to you. See the About APA citations tab.

Reference for the above information
HIstory
Reference for the above information
Assigning doi retroactively (for older articles that were never assigned a doi)

APA style citations

Much more than citation

Publication styles, whether APA or some other style, is about much more than citation.

If you are very interested in mastering APA, I recommend the tutorial below from the APA itself.
If you plan on going on in social sciences, maybe you are transferring soon to a social sciences degree, specifically a Psychology or Nursing degree, I would also recommend that you purchase a copy of the APA 7 publication manual (you can buy it from many book sellers, not just the APA, including but not limited to Amazon).

Academic Writer Tutorial (APA)
About the many aspects of writing using APA style. Click the "Start Learning" button when you get there!
APA publication style manual order page