APA Style Guide for Business: Citing articles

The general format for citing an article using APA 7th ed. is:

Author, A. A., Author, B.B., & Author, C.C. (Date). Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx(i), pp-pp. https://doi.org/xxxx

Examples of periodicals include newspapers (Wall Street Journal), magazines (Newsweek, Fortune), trade journals (Chain Store Executive), and scholarly journals (Journal of Business Ethics). The DOI tends to be available for scholarly journals but not the other types shown here.

APA 7th ed. explains that database names do not need to be included in the references of these types of articles because they are often widely available (p. 297).

Article, No author

According to the APA 7th ed., if you retrieved an article from a database, there is no need to include the database name in the reference nor a URL because they are widely available (p. 317). In this case, the article was retrieved from Business Source Complete.

In addition, if there is no author, use the article title as author. For the in-text cite, italicize the source if it is italicized in the reference. If not italicized in the reference, capitalize what you use using title case (p. 265) and place quotation marks around it.

Recession contributes to jump in retail shrinkage. (2009, December 15). Chain Store Age, 85(12), 16.

Dishonest employees were the primary reasons for retail loss in North America ("Recession Contributes," 2009).

Article, one author

Retrieved from ABI/Inform Collection database, but no need to include database name or URL in the reference:

Al-Muslim, A. (2020, Dec 17). Business news: Brands get a second life online. Wall Street Journal, Eastern ed.

If you retrieve the article directly from the Wall Street Journal site then you would cite it and include the URL as follows:

Al-Muslim, A. (2020, Dec 16). Back from the brink: Buyers snatch up moribund brands for a second life online. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/back-from-the-brink-buyers-snatch-up-moribund-brands-for-a-second-life-online-11608114601

Investors in bankrupted companies such as Lord & Taylor and Stein Mart are combining targeted brand promotion and social media to reach consumers (Al-Muslim, 2020).

Scholarly article, three authors, and with DOI

Akaka, M. A., Vargo, S. L., & Schau, H. J. (2015). The context of experience. Journal of Service Management, 26(2), 206-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-10-2014-0270

Parenthetical In-text citation - Exact quote:

"In the case of fine dining, customers learn how to dress, what to eat, and how to order, eat and converse in these specific contexts as they repeatedly interact with multiple firms and other actors" (Akaka, Vargo, & Schau, 2015).

Narrative in-text citation - Exact quote:

Akaka, Vargo, and Schau (2015) point out that "in the case of fine dining, customers learn how to dress, what to eat, and how to order, eat and converse in these specific contexts as they repeatedly interact with multiple firms and other actors."