UTS Library

Journal Article

When referencing a journal article in the Harvard UTS Style, you will need the following information about the journal article:

  • the author or authors of the journal article
  • the year the journal article was published
  • the title of the article in single quotes
  • the journal title (in italics)
  • volume and issue numbers
  • page numbers

In most cases this information can be found at the top of the article itself. Once you have collected this information you will need to arrange it as shown below. Roll the mouse over each section for a description of the information.

Islamoglu, H. & Keyder, C. 1977'Agenda for Ottoman history'Review, vol. 1no. 1pp. 31-55.

Only the first word and any proper nouns within the article should be capitalised. Leave other words (eg: for, history) in lower case. All words in the journal title should be capitalised.

For more information about referencing a journal article please expand any of the options below. You can also get help with referencing at any time via the Ask a Librarian page.

Authors

In text

One Author

(Raza 2010)

If there are two or three authors, list their surnames with an & before the last one.

Two Authors

(Islamoglu & Keyder 1977)

Three Authors

(Tarnoud, Rossi & Monticelli 2014)

Four or more authors

If there are four or more authors, list the first author only, followed by et al. 

(Gillespie et al. 1986)

Reference list using these four examples

The third example is from a journal that has seasonal issues.

The fourth example is from a journal that has article numbers instead of page numbers. (There is a section on this type of article below with more examples).

Note that in the reference list all authors must be listed even if there are four or more

Gillespie, N.C., Lewis, R.J., Pearn, J.H., Bourke, A.T.C., Holmes, M.J., Bourke, J.B. & Shields, W.J. 1986, 'Ciguatera in Australia: occurrence, clinical features, pathophysiology and management', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 145, no. 11-12, pp. 584-90.

Islamoglu, H. & Keyder, C. 1977, 'Agenda for Ottoman history', Review, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 31-55.

Raza, S. 2010, 'A conflict analysis methodology for formulating security policy and strategy', Security and Defense Studies Review, vol. 10, no. Spring-Summer, pp. 23-47.

Tarnoud, J., Rossi, G. & Monticelli, L. 2014, 'Lipid membranes as solvents for carbon nanoparticles', Physical Review Letters, vol. 112, no. 5, pp. 068102:1-5.

No Author

In text

(‘Schuth wins Leibniz prize’ 2003)

Reference list

‘Schuth wins Leibniz prize’ 2003, Materials Today,vol. 6, no. 6, p. 61.

Quote from a work citing another author

Sometimes when you read a document it will quote from another author, and you find that you want to use that quote.

For example, on page 78 of a book by Kip Thorne, written in 1994, you find a quote from a 1906 paper by Albert Einstein. To cite the work by Einstein you should mention Einstein's paper in the text and use Thorne as your in-text reference, with page number. There are many ways you could do this. Here are three examples:

Einstein stated in 1906 that 'time is relative' (Thorne 1994, p. 78).

Thorne (1994, p. 78) quotes Einstein as saying in 1906 that 'time is relative'.

The theory that 'time is relative' was first stated by Einstein in 1906 (Thorne 1994, p. 78).

In your reference list you must have the full reference for Thorne. If you wish, you may also include the reference for Einstein (you can get this from Thorne's bibliography). This isn't usually recommended however, because you haven't actually consulted the Einstein paper directly.

Online journal article

If the article does come in PDF form use the print article convention seen above. You don't need to use a DOI or other online address for an article that has a print equivalent.

If your article does not come in PDF form, or does not contain page numbers, and can be found free on the web, use the electronic article template below. You must include the date you viewed the article, followed by the full URL within angle brackets.

In text

(Clark et al. 2003)

Reference list

Clark, J., Diefenderfer, C., Hammer, S. & Hammer, T. 2003, 'Estimating the area of Virginia', Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications, vol. 3, viewed 6 October 2009,<http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/4/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=507 >.

If the article does not come in PDF form, or does not contain page numbers, and is found on a library database, indicate the database in angle brackets.

BMJ and other journals that have article numbers

Some journals such as British Medical Journal (BMJ) and Physical Review Letters use an unusual numbering system where all articles are marked with an article number and all articles begin on page 1. To reference these articles we use the journal article template, but (1) if there is an issue number (eg Physical Review Letters), add the article number in front of the page numbers, separated by a colon; or (2) if there is no issue number (eg BMJ), use the article number in place of the issue number and treat the page numbers as normal. The examples below show these two cases.

In text

(Grabowska & Kaplan 2016), (Semsarian & Ingles 2016)

Reference list

Grabowska, D.M. & Kaplan, D.B. 2016, ‘Nonperturbative regulator for chiral gauge theories?’, Physical Review Letters, vol. 116, no. 21, pp. 211602:1-5.

Semsarian, C. & Ingles, J. 2016, ‘Preventing sudden cardiac death in athletes’, BMJ, vol. 353, pp. i1270:1-2.

In press

If the article has been accepted for publication (so you know the journal name) but you don't know when it will be published, use 'in press' instead of the year and leave out all details following the journal title. If you know the year of publication (this must be the year of print publication even if it is published first electronically), you can use that and then use 'in press' following the journal title. If the article has been submitted but not yet accepted, use 'submitted' in place of the year and leave out the journal name as well.

In text

(Johnston in press), (Jilette & Teller 2012), (Whitbury submitted)

Reference list

Johnston, A.H. in press, 'Images of jellyfish in human history', Annals of Oceanic Art.

Jilette, P. & Teller, R.J. 2012, 'How to make fish disappear', Canadian Journal of Magic, in press.

Whitbury, M.J. submitted, 'New evidence on fake moon landings'.

Tips and Tricks

Almost all online journals have a printed equivalent. When this is the case reference it as the print version. This is partly because URLs for online articles are usually very long, and change with time; and partly because not everyone will be able to access the online journal in the same way that you did.

When referencing a journal article retrieved from an online database do not include the database name. The reason is the confusion that often arises when journals are duplicated across different databases, publishing companies merge, or online access to a provider stops.

Some journals don't use page numbers, but instead each article has its own article number with page numbers always beginning at 1. Examples are Physical Review Letters and BMJ. In this case use the article number in place of either the issue number (if there is no issue number) or added to the page numbers (if there is an issue number). There are some examples of these in the sections above.

If your journal article does not have a printed equivalent, or if the online version is significantly different from the print version, use the Online journal article format.

If your journal article is not yet published use the In press format.

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