Citation Errors
It is always important to double-check your citations before submitting an assignment, especially if you used a citation generator or a database's quick cite tool to gather your citation information. No citation generator is foolproof, and it is common for them to produce errors in both content and formatting.
This page of the guide provides examples of the kinds of errors commonly found in citations.
Correct Format
The typical format for a bibliography/reference list entry for a journal article in APA 7th edition is as follows:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author C. C. (Year). Title of the article. Name of the Periodical, Journal, or Publisher. volume number(issue number), page number-page number. https://doi.org/xxxx
Example:
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
Incorrect Author Name(s):
In APA, author names are listed as Lastname, F. I. Occasionally, citation generators will incorrectly copy over an author's first name instead of their first initial(s), or reverse the order of their names.
Stoltzfus Grady, J., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, Catherine, & Jillian Yelinek. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
Incorrect Capitalization:
Article titles are written in sentence case with only the first word, any proper nouns, and the first word after a colon being capitalized (ex. APA citation rules: Seventh edition changes.) However, the titles of journals and publishers are written in title case where all major words are capitalized (ex. The Journal of Important Studies). Sometimes, a generated citation will mix up the two types of capitalization, or produce a citation where a title is written all in lower case or all-caps.
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in Storybooks: A Comparison of Storybooks that Represent Ethnic and Racial Groups in the United States. PSYCHOLOGY OF POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
Note: Journal titles are italicized, as are volume numbers.
Incorrect Volume, Issue, or Page Numbers:
The numbers included in an APA citation help readers find the specific edition of a periodical or journal where an article was published. Sometimes, these numbers can be put in the wrong order or merged together by a citation generator.
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(8), 207217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
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