How to Cite a Summary of a Magazine Article in APA Format

Papers written in American Psychological Association, or APA, style reflect research and scholarship in the fields of science. APA style outlines the standards of formatting and citations for commonly used research references. Writers might wish to reference magazine articles as a source of information. APA style citations for magazine articles are very similar to citations for journal articles.

In-Text Citation

In-text citations of magazine article summaries are normally placed at the end of the last summary sentence before the final punctuation. For example:

(Sparks, 2013).

Place the author’s last name followed by a comma and the year of publication in parentheses). If the summary includes directly quoted material from the author, include the page number. For example:

(Sparks, 2013, p. 6).

Reference Citation

All APA style papers include a "References" page listing all sources used in the research. A reference citation for a summary of magazine article includes: the author’s last name, a comma, and the author’s first initial, followed by a period. Next, place in parentheses the year of publication, a comma, and the month of publication, followed by a period. Write the title of the article, capitalizing only the first word. If the title contains a colon (:), capitalize the first word after the colon. Place a period after the complete title name. Italicize the magazine title and capitalize all major words. Follow the title with a comma, italicize the volume number, place the issue number in parentheses, add a comma, include the page range, and then end with a period. For example:

Sparks, S. (2013, April). Gaps found in access to qualified math teachers. Education Week, 32(27), 6.

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