Magazine citation generator
Cite any magazine article, online or in print, in any citation style.
or fill in the details below
How to cite a magazine article
A magazine citation takes three steps. Magazines are dated by day, month or season, and the form takes all three.
Step 1
Paste the article link
We fill in the title, author, magazine and date from the page, including sites that turn automated readers away.
Step 2
Add print details if you have them
For a print issue, add the volume, issue and pages. A monthly issue needs only the year and month; a seasonal one, the season.
Step 3
Copy your citation
Add the reference entry to your list and use the in-text citation in your paper.
How to cite a magazine article in APA
An APA magazine citation gives the author, the date, the title in sentence case, the magazine in italics, the volume and issue when there are any, the pages for print, and the URL.
Format
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Magazine Name, Volume(Issue), pages. URL
Online
Haidt, J. (2022, April 11). Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
In-text citation
Parenthetical: (Haidt, 2022)
Narrative: Haidt (2022)
A monthly issue with a volume and issue
Weber, T. (2024, April). The race to decode an ancient scroll. Scientific American, 330(4). https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0424-22
Leave out the volume and issue when an online article doesn’t have them. That’s common, and APA is fine with it.
How to cite a magazine article in MLA
An MLA magazine citation gives the author, the title in quotation marks, the magazine in italics, the date and the URL, or the pages for print.
Format
Author. “Title of Article.” Magazine Name, Day Month Year, pp. #.
Online
Khullar, Dhruv. “Can A.I. Treat Mental Illness?” The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2023, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/can-ai-treat-mental-illness.
With a volume and issue
Weber, Tomas. “The Race to Decode an Ancient Scroll.” Scientific American, vol. 330, no. 4, Apr. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0424-22.
How to cite a magazine article in Chicago
Chicago cites a magazine by its date, not its volume and issue, and drops a leading The from its name.
Bibliography
Haidt, Jonathan. “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.” Atlantic, April 11, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/.
Footnote
Jonathan Haidt, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,” Atlantic, April 11, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/.
Monthly and seasonal issues
Give the date the way the magazine prints it.
A weekly or online article
Give the full date: (2022, April 11) in APA, 11 Apr. 2022 in MLA.
A monthly issue
Give the year and month: (2024, April) in APA, Apr. 2024 in MLA.
A seasonal issue
Choose the season in the form and leave the month blank: (2024, Spring) in APA, Spring 2024 in MLA and Chicago.
Magazine, journal or newspaper: which is it?
Students mix them up because all three publish articles. Here is how to tell them apart.
Magazine
Written by journalists for a general audience, published weekly, monthly or by season. The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Time and Scientific American are magazines.
Journal
Peer-reviewed research written by researchers for other researchers, usually with a DOI. Use the journal article citation generator.
Newspaper
Daily or weekly news. Use the newspaper citation generator. A news website that isn’t a newspaper, like CNN, uses the website citation generator.
Frequently asked questions
How do I cite a magazine article in APA?
Give the author, the date, the title in sentence case, the magazine in italics, the volume and issue if there are any, the pages for print and the URL. In the text, cite the author and year, for example (Haidt, 2022).
How do I cite a magazine in MLA?
Give the author, the title in quotation marks, the magazine in italics, the date and the URL without https://, or the pages for a print issue.
Is Scientific American a magazine or a journal?
A magazine. Its articles are written for general readers, even though it has a volume and issue. Cite it with this form.
What if there is no volume or issue?
Leave them out. Online magazine articles often have neither, and every style accepts that.
How do I cite a seasonal issue?
Choose the season in the form and leave the month blank. APA writes (2024, Spring) and MLA writes Spring 2024.
Is this magazine citation generator free?
Yes. It’s free with no signup, and your citations go into the same list as the main Citation Generator.