The pattern at a glance
- APA 7Author, A., & Author, B. (Year). Article title. Journal, vol(issue), pages. https://doi.org/...
- MLA 9Author, First, and First Author. "Article Title." Journal, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. #-#, DOI.
- Chicago (notes-bibliography)Author, First, and First Author. "Article Title." Journal vol, no. issue (Year): pages. DOI.
- Harvard (Cite Them Right)Author, A. and Author, B. (Year) 'Article title', Journal, vol(issue), pp. x-y. Available at: DOI.
Why the DOI is the best starting point
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent identifier that publishers register for articles. Typing it into a citation generator retrieves the official metadata: authors, title, journal, volume, issue, pages and dates. The same DOI then becomes a permanent link at the end of the reference.
You find the DOI on the article's first page, usually in the header or footer, and on the journal's landing page. Library databases list it in the record details. Older articles may have received a DOI years after printing, which is why their DOI record can show a much later online date than the issue year.
Four checks after any DOI lookup
- Subtitle: some publishers store it separately, and some tools drop it.
- Year: prefer the year of the printed issue over an online-first date.
- Capitals and symbols: fix ALL CAPS titles and HTML codes such as & in journal names.
- Pages or article number: online-only journals use article numbers instead of page ranges.
What changes between styles
Author lists differ the most. APA lists up to 20 authors with initials, MLA uses the first author plus et al. for three or more, Chicago lists up to six in the bibliography, Harvard (Cite Them Right) lists up to three and uses et al. from four, IEEE writes initials first, and AMA lists up to six and shortens longer lists to three plus et al.
Titles are sentence case in APA, Harvard, IEEE and AMA, and title case in MLA and Chicago. The journal name is italic in all of them. Volume and issue are written 521(7553) in APA and Harvard, vol. 521, no. 7553 in MLA and IEEE, 521, no. 7553 in Chicago, and 521(7553) after a semicolon and the year in AMA.
Preprints, accepted manuscripts and published versions
The same article can exist as a preprint, an accepted manuscript in a repository and the final published version. Cite the version you read, and prefer the published version when you can access it, because page numbers and wording may differ.
If you only read a preprint, cite it as a preprint with the server name (for example arXiv or PsyArXiv) and its DOI. Once a published version appears, update your reference.
Field by field: the journal form
One set of fields serves all six styles.
| Field | What to enter | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Authors | All authors in order. | Under the title. |
| Year | Year of the issue. | First page or issue page. |
| Title | Article title with subtitle. | First page. |
| Journal | Full journal name. | Running head. |
| Volume, issue, pages | Numbers as printed. | First page footer or landing page. |
| DOI | Code starting with 10. | First page or landing page. |
Journal article citation examples
Two frequently cited articles retrieved by DOI and formatted by the engine in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 and Harvard.
Three authors (Nature)
APA 7th: Reference entry
LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539
In-text citation: (LeCun et al., 2015)
MLA 9th: Reference entry
LeCun, Yann, et al. “Deep Learning.” Nature, vol. 521, no. 7553, 2015, pp. 436–44, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539.
In-text citation: (LeCun et al.)
Chicago 18th (notes and bibliography): Reference entry
LeCun, Yann, Yoshua Bengio, and Geoffrey Hinton. “Deep Learning.” Nature 521, no. 7553 (2015): 436–44. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539.
First footnote: Yann LeCun et al., “Deep Learning,” Nature 521, no. 7553 (2015): 436–44, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539.
Harvard (Cite Them Right 12th ed.): Reference entry
LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y. and Hinton, G. (2015) ‘Deep learning’, Nature, 521(7553), pp. 436–444. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539.
In-text citation: (LeCun, Bengio and Hinton, 2015)
Nature articles carry an issue number (7553) as well as a volume. MLA shortens to LeCun et al.; APA, Chicago and Harvard list all three authors in the reference.
Checked against DOI record (checked on 25 October 2026). Crossref record: Nature volume 521, issue 7553, pages 436-444, published 28 May 2015.
Two authors with subtitle (Psychological Science)
APA 7th: Reference entry
Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
In-text citation: (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006)
MLA 9th: Reference entry
Roediger, Henry L., and Jeffrey D. Karpicke. “Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention.” Psychological Science, vol. 17, no. 3, 2006, pp. 249–55, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x.
In-text citation: (Roediger and Karpicke)
Chicago 18th (notes and bibliography): Reference entry
Roediger, Henry L., and Jeffrey D. Karpicke. “Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention.” Psychological Science 17, no. 3 (2006): 249–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x.
First footnote: Henry L. Roediger and Jeffrey D. Karpicke, “Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention,” Psychological Science 17, no. 3 (2006): 249–55, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x.
Harvard (Cite Them Right 12th ed.): Reference entry
Roediger, H.L. and Karpicke, J.D. (2006) ‘Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention’, Psychological Science, 17(3), pp. 249–255. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x.
In-text citation: (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006)
The subtitle after the colon is capitalised in every style. MLA and Chicago shorten the second page number (249-55); APA and Harvard keep it in full (249-255).
Checked against DOI record (checked on 25 October 2026). Crossref record: volume 17, issue 3, pages 249-255, March 2006.
Formatted by the same citation engine that runs the generator above (citeproc-js with the official CSL style file). Italics follow the style.
In-text citations for articles
Author-date styles cite surname and year; MLA cites surname and page; IEEE and AMA use numbers.
- APA 7: (LeCun et al., 2015)
- MLA 9: (Roediger and Karpicke 250)
- Chicago author-date: (Roediger and Karpicke 2006, 250)
- Harvard: (LeCun, Bengio and Hinton, 2015)
- IEEE: [1]
Journal citation mistakes
- Database URL instead of DOI. Links to EBSCO or ProQuest sessions expire; the DOI does not.
- Online-first year. Cite the issue year once the article is in an issue.
- Missing issue number. Include it when the journal uses issues.
- Abbreviated journal names. Except in AMA and IEEE, which allow standard abbreviations, write the full journal name.
Journal article citation FAQ
How do I cite a journal article without a DOI?
Give all other details and, if you found it on the open web, the article URL. For articles from library databases, most styles end after the pages.
How do I find a DOI?
Look at the first page of the article or its landing page, or search the title on crossref.org.
Does the generator work offline?
The formatting runs in your browser, but the DOI lookup needs an internet connection to reach Crossref.
What is an article number?
Online-only journals give each article a number instead of pages. Cite it where the page range would go, such as Article 383 in APA.
Style guides used on this page
Rules on this page were checked against these pages on 25 October 2026.