How to cite a magazine article

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B16 / R16.5 · Books, periodicals & other secondary

Example

Barbara Ward, Progress for a Small Planet, Harv. Bus. Rev., Sep.-Oct. 1979, at 89, 90.

More examples

Each of these is checked against the rules on every change to the tool.

• Damages for a Deadly Cloud: The Bhopal Tragedy Will Cost Union Carbide $470 Million, Time, Feb. 27, 1989, at 53.
• Charles E. Mueller, The American Who Wants to Give Away His Country but Doesn’t Know That’s What He’s Voting for, 34 Antitrust L. & Econ. Rev., no. 1, 2008, at 1, 7.
• Richard Carelli, Judges’ Financial Reports Hit Web, Associated Press, June 22, 2000, 2000 WL 23358974.

What the citation needs

Required

• Article title — The title as it appears on the source. R8(a): capitalize every word except articles, conjunctions and prepositions of four or fewer letters, unless they begin the title or follow a colon.
• Magazine — The periodical’s name, abbreviated per T13 and T10.
• Date — The date the rule for this source calls for, with the month abbreviated per T12 (“Nov. 24, 1978”).
• First page — The page the source begins on. The page you are citing goes in the pincite.

When they apply

• Author — The author’s full name as it appears on the publication (R15.1; R16.2).
• Designation — A label that precedes or replaces the title — “Note” or “Comment” for student work (R16.7.1).
• Volume — The volume number, which comes before the reporter, code or periodical name.
• Issue — The issue number, where the periodical is paginated by issue.
• Year — The year that goes in the date parenthetical at the end of the citation.
• Section — The section cited (R3.3).
• Pincite — The exact page (or section, or paragraph) your point is on — not the first page. R1.2(f): pincites are required except after “see generally”.
• Place of publication — Where the work was published or the event took place.
• Publishing organization — The organization that issued or publishes the source.
• Database citation — A commercial-database citation, where the source is cited to one — “2010 WL 12345”.

In a brief and in a law review

The Bluebook sets citations two ways: the Bluepages for court documents and legal memoranda, the Whitepages for law review footnotes. Here is the first example above as each one prints it, in its typeface.

Court documents (Bluepages)

Barbara Ward, Progress for a Small Planet, Harv. Bus. Rev., Sep.-Oct. 1979, at 89, 90.

Law review footnotes (Whitepages)

Barbara Ward, Progress for a Small Planet, Harv. Bus. Rev., Sep.-Oct. 1979, at 89, 90.

The words are the same in both; only the typeface changes.

Common mistakes

Each of these is a citation the checker refuses, with what it says is wrong and the corrected form.

Governing rules

B16 / R16.5

• 3.2(a) — pinpoint pages.
• 16 — periodicals.
• T13 — periodical title abbreviations.
• 16.5 — nonconsecutively paginated journals & magazines.

Build this citation with the generator, check one you have already written, or paste a whole list of footnotes to check them in order.

Related source types

Books, periodicals & other secondary:

• Book
• Work in a collection
• Foreword, preface or introduction
• Frequently cited named work
• Law review / journal article
• Newspaper article
• Forthcoming article
• Working paper
• Unpublished manuscript or thesis
• Letter, memo, e-mail or press release
• Interview
• Speech or address
• Microform