How to cite a journal article in APA 7
A peer-reviewed paper published in an academic journal. Used in psychology, education, and most social sciences. 7th edition published 2020.
Quick answer
To cite a journal article in APA 7, include the author(s), year, title, and container or publisher details. A concrete example is below.
Example
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: A reinterpretation. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4
This example is rendered with the official CSL definition for APA 7. For the exact style required by your journal, paste your references into DEEPNOTIS and pick that style from the dropdown — the app covers 2,800+ variants.
What you need
For a journal article, APA 7 expects these fields at minimum:
- Author(s)
- Year of publication
- Article title
- Journal name
- Volume and issue number
- Page range
- DOI (if available)
Common mistakes
- Using title case for article titles. APA uses sentence case for everything except the journal name.
- Spelling out author first names. APA 7 uses initials (e.g. 'Smith, J.'), not full given names.
- Forgetting the DOI. When a DOI exists, most styles now require it (usually as a full https://doi.org/… URL).
- Inconsistent capitalization. APA uses sentence case for titles; MLA and Chicago use title case. Mixing them is the single most common style error.
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Last updated: 5 May 2026