APA Magazine Citation: Guide and Examples

How to Cite a Magazine Article in APA: Examples

During the writing process, many researchers are faced with a daunting question – “How to cite a magazine article?” The answer to this question lies in the APA format. This citation style is widely applied in psychological studies. 

American Psychological Association has explicit rules for citing magazines in both References and in text. Above all, periodical titles should be capitalized and italicized. Furthermore, in the 7th edition of APA format, you should mention volume and issue numbers.

Let’s look at how to cite online magazines and printed publications.

How to Cite an Online Magazine Article in APA Style

Knowing how to cite an online article is very useful nowadays. Online sources are much easier to access, so chances are you will use them. To create a full citation for your APA References page, you should list all key details about publication. Besides, you will need to add a DOI. This identificator is shown in most scholarly articles. So, there should be no problem finding it. However, if there is no DOI, you can integrate a web link.

While referencing a magazine article in text, you should just indicate the author and date. If you have already mentioned an author in your quote, just provide page number. Here’s a general format.

Example

APA Magazine Citation: in Print

Sometimes, you may be hungry for sources stored in your local library. Let’s figure out how to cite a magazine in print in APA style format. In fact, there is nothing difficult about APA magazine citing. All you must do is mention every single detail as in citation above except for DOI. Follow this format:

Example

Since APA advises to skip database information in your reference entries, the same structure is utilised for a periodical discovered in a database.

How to Cite a Magazine Article in APA With One Author

Now let’s see how to cite a magazine article with one author. Generally, you will use the author’s last name and initials before the work’s title. This citation is followed by the date with year mentioned first, then the publication title and periodical name. List volume and issue number as well as pages. Don’t forget to include URL or DOI for online versions.

Example

APA Magazine Citation With Two Authors

But what if you are dealing with magazine citations with two authors? To mention both authors, you should list their last names and initials. Connect them with an ampersand (&). Write only their last names using an ampersand and specify the date in your in-text citation.

Example 

APA: How to Cite a Magazine Article With Multiple Authors

Now we will learn how to cite a magazine article in APA in text citation and references if there are multiple authors. To mention 3-7 authors, APA 7th edition suggests to list all authors in a reference list using commas.  Use an ampersand before the last name. But if there are more than 7 authors, you should list the first 6 authors, insert an ellipsis and write the last author. 

As for in-text citation, you should just mention the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” and write a date. Here’s an example.

Example

How to Cite a Magazine Article in APA With No Author

In magazine citing, there can be 2 case when author is not available:

1. Unknown author.
2. Anonymous author.

Depending on each case APA magazine citation will vary. If the author is unknown, you will start your reference with the title. If the author is anonymous, you should write “Anonymous” instead of the author's name.

Example

Only capitalize the initial letter of the article title's first word. If the article title contains a colon, capitalise the initial letter of the next word following the colon.

How to Find Information for APA Magazine Citation

To find information for a magazine article citation, one must look at the title, page number, issue and volume. As a rule, these details appear in the very beginning of an article. Sometimes, this information can be found on the right or left side. There, you will be able to find all the necessary details. 

Do not mess up magazine and newspaper citations. That's why we created a separate blog that will explain how to cite a newspaper article APA. 

Journal vs Magazine: The Main Difference

Before creating APA citation for magazine article you should determine if the piece is from a magazine or an academic journal. In order to make this decision, look for two broad clues:

1. Publication frequency Journals are usually published monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly. If a periodical is published on a weekly basis, it is classified as a magazine rather than a journal.
2. Pagination The pagination of magazines is usually done by issue (i.e., with each new issue the page numbers start over with number one).

If you need an APA citation journal article, we have got you covered. Use our guides and useful tips to cite such kind of sources in the right way.

APA Magazine Citation: Helpful Tips

If you’ve come this far, consider these useful tips on formatting an APA citation for magazine: 

• Use a correct DOI format to cite an online article APA (7th edition): https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
• When referring to a specific section of an article, point out a paragraph number in your in-text citation. For example: (Doe, 2021, para.4).
• If an article goes without page numbers, but there is much content, you can specify a section heading, a paragraph number or both: (Doe, 2021, Awesome heading, para. 7).

Citing a Magazine Article APA: Final Thoughts

APA magazine citation requires much attention to detail. In fact, this citation style is considered one of the hardest and for good reason. Hopefully, this guide was of great help. If you are still unsure how to properly cite your source, you can use a citation generator. However, sometimes, even machines make mistakes. So trusting professionals specialized in academic writing with this task is your best option.