How to cite a magazine article in APA Style
To cite a print magazine article in APA Style, list the author’s name, the publication date, the article title, the magazine name, the volume and issue numbers if available, and the page range of the article.
| Format | Last name, Initials. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Magazine Name, Volume(Issue), page range. |
|---|---|
| Reference entry | Mogelson, L. (2021, January 25). The storm. The New Yorker, 5–12. |
| In-text citation | (Mogelson, 2021) |
The same format is used for a magazine found in a database, since APA recommends against including database information in your reference entries.
Citing online magazine articles
To cite an online magazine article, follow the print format but add the URL at the end. Volume and issue numbers, as well as the page range, may be omitted if they’re not stated anywhere.
In the example shown here, only an issue number is present, so the volume number is omitted. Additionally, no exact publication date is given, so the season is used instead.
| Format | Last name, Initials. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Magazine Name, Volume(Issue), page range. URL |
|---|---|
| Reference entry | Tokarczuk, O. (2021, January 25). Eccentricity as feminism. The Paris Review. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/01/25/eccentricity-as-feminism |
| In-text citation | (Tokarczuk, 2021) |
More academic magazines may list a DOI, much like a journal article. Always use a DOI if one is available; otherwise, try to find a stable URL on the page (e.g. under a “Share” button).
| Format | Last name, Initials. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Magazine Name, Volume(Issue), page range. DOI |
|---|---|
| Reference entry | Piller, C. (2021, January 22). Disgraced COVID-19 studies are still routinely cited. Science, 371(6527), 331–332. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.371.6527.331 |
| In-text citation | (Piller, 2021) |
Frequently asked questions about APA Style citations
- How do I format a DOI in APA Style?
-
Include the DOI at the very end of the APA reference entry. If you’re using the 6th edition APA guidelines, the DOI is preceded by the label “doi:”. In the 7th edition, the DOI is preceded by ‘https://doi.org/’.
- 6th edition: doi:10.1177/0894439316660340
- 7th edition: https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439316660340
APA citation example (7th edition)
Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. (2016). The relations among social media addiction, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in university students. Social Science Computer Review, 35(5), 576–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439316660340
- How do I cite a source with no page numbers in APA Style?
-
When you quote or paraphrase a specific passage from a source, you need to indicate the location of the passage in your in-text citation. If there are no page numbers (e.g. when citing a website) but the text is long, you can instead use section headings, paragraph numbers, or a combination of the two:
(Caulfield, 2019, Linking section, para. 1).
Section headings can be shortened if necessary. Kindle location numbers should not be used in ebook citations, as they are unreliable.
If you are referring to the source as a whole, it’s not necessary to include a page number or other marker.
2 comments
Nikhil Jaisinghani
February 6, 2021 at 6:37 AMHi Jack, thanks for helping to explain APA citations. I have a question regarding not magazines but reports. I have to cite a section of multi-section report which has different authors from the main editors of the collection. How exactly would I go about doing that? The only thing I've found in the APA guidelines are citing book chapters with different authors, not reports.
For reference, this is the report: 16th International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research 2020 (Alison Koslowski, Sonja Blum, Ivana Dobrotić, Gayle Kaufman and Peter Moss (Ed.))
The chapter is the chapter "United States" (Kaufman, Gatenio Gabel, Engemann, & Petts)
Jack Caulfield (Scribbr Team)
February 9, 2021 at 4:19 PMHi Nikhil,
To cite a chapter from a report like that, you'd follow a similar format to citing a chapter from a book. First list the authors and title of the chapter, then the editors and title of the whole report. The citation for the example you give would look like this:
Kaufman, G., Gatenio Gabel, S., Engeman, C., Petts, R. J. (2020). United States. In A. Koslowski, S. Blum, I. Dobrotić, G. Kaufman, & P. Moss (Eds.), 16th International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research 2020 (pp. 601–613). FernUniversität in Hagen. https://ub-deposit.fernuni-hagen.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/mir_derivate_00002067/Koslowski_et_al_Leave_Policies_2020.pdf
Note that "Eds." is used for multiple editors. Our article on citing reports in APA Style may also be helpful, though it doesn't specifically cover reports with separately authored chapters.