APA Style 7th ed - Citation Guide for Nursing & Health Sciences

What is a DOI? 

• A Document Object Identifier (DOI) is a unique alpha-numeric code given to individual works, usually journal articles
• Magazine and newspaper articles do not usually have DOIs
• DOIs are formatted as hyperlinks: https://doi.org/xxxxx 

Citing articles with and without DOIs:

• If the article has a DOI, always include the DOI in the reference at the end of the citation
• If the journal article has no DOI and is freely available on the web, include the URL of the article at the end of the reference
• If the journal article has no DOI and is from most library databases, end the reference after the page range. The reference in this case is the same as for a print journal article. Do not include database information. 

Reference

Last Name, F. M. (YEAR). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, volume(issue), page range or article number. DOI or URL

Basic Format

Lastname, F. M. (YEAR). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue if available), page range or article number. DOI

Reference List

Ralph, B. (2024). The destabilising effect of feminist, queer-inclusion and therapeutic counter-discourse: A feminist poststructuralist account of change in men’s friendships. Journal of Sociology, 60(2), 346–363. https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833231162637

In-Text

(Ralph, 2024)
(Ralph, 2024, p. 353) - when quoting directly

Basic Format

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (YEAR). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue if available), page range or article number. DOI

Reference List

Lang, G., & Jiménez, P. (2024). Quality changes in workplace health promotion over time: an extended validation of quality criteria from a longitudinal perspective. Journal of Public Health, 32(10), 1945–1957. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-01956-8

In-Text

(Lang & Jiménez, 2024)

Basic Format

Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (YEAR). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue if available), page range or article number. DOI

Reference List

Smith, I. A., Templer, P. H., & Hutyra, L. R. (2024). Water sources for street trees in mesic urban environments. Science of the Total Environment, 908, Article 168411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168411 

In-Text

(Smith et al., 2024)

Basic Format

Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (YEAR). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue if available), pages. 

Reference List

Armstrong, A. C., Squires, J. E., Backman, C., Charlebois, A., Cooper, C., & Lewis, K. B. (2022). Exploring nurses’ sleep promotion practices in the care of post-operative cardiac surgery patients. Canadian Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 32(1), 10–18.

In-Text

(Armstrong et al., 2022)

Basic Format

Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (YEAR). Title of article. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. DOI

Reference List

van der Steen, J.T., van der Wouden, J.C., Methley, A.M., Smaling, H.J.A., Vink, A.C., & Bruinsma, M.S. (2025). Music-based therapeutic interventions for people with dementia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003477.pub5

In-Text

(van der Steen et al., 2025)