How to Cite a Research Paper
Updated October 2026
"Research paper" covers several different publication types, and the citation depends on which one you're holding: a journal article, a conference paper, a preprint, a thesis, or a working paper. Identify the type and the format follows.
Most likely: it's a journal article
If the paper names a journal with a volume and issue, cite it as a journal article — the most common case and the easiest, since it will have a DOI on the first page:
Rasch, B., & Born, J. (2013). About sleep's role in memory. Physiological Reviews, 93(2), 681–766. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012
In-text(Rasch & Born, 2013)
B. Rasch and J. Born, "About sleep's role in memory," Physiological Reviews, vol. 93, no. 2, pp. 681–766, 2013. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00032.2012.
In-text[1]
Cite a paper by DOI — free
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A DOI finds the article's details.
Citation style
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020). The 7th dropped the publisher location and the "Retrieved from" prefix that the 6th required.
The other research paper types
- Conference paper — cite like an article with the conference proceedings as the container: In Proceedings of [Conference Name] (pp. xx–xx). Published proceedings often carry DOIs.
- Preprint — the repository is the source: arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.xxxx. If a journal version now exists, cite that instead.
- Thesis or dissertation — author, year, italicized title, [Doctoral dissertation/Master's thesis, University Name], and the repository or database.
- Working paper / technical report — the institution is the publisher: (Working Paper No. 1234). Institution Name.
Which version are you citing?
Papers exist in multiple versions: the preprint, the accepted manuscript, the published "version of record." Cite the version you actually read — page numbers and even content can differ between them. If you read the preprint but the journal version exists, best practice is to read and cite the journal version; reviewers check.
Quoting and paraphrasing a paper
In-text citations follow your style's normal rules: (Rasch & Born, 2013, p. 685) in APA for quotes; [1] in IEEE; (Rasch and Born 685) in MLA. For findings, cite the paper that reports them — not a textbook or news article about the paper. If you only saw the finding secondhand, use the secondary-source form: (Ebbinghaus, 1885, as cited in Rasch & Born, 2013).
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- What's the fastest way to cite a research paper?
- Find the DOI on the first page or the article's landing page and paste it into the generator — the citation builds itself from the publisher's registry record in every style at once.
- How do I cite a paper I found on Google Scholar?
- Google Scholar is a search engine, not a source — click through to the actual article and cite that (its DOI is the reliable route). Scholar's own "cite" button is convenient but frequently has stale or incomplete metadata.
- Can I cite an unpublished paper?
- Yes — as an unpublished manuscript in APA: Author. (Year). Title [Unpublished manuscript]. Department, University. If it's on a preprint server, cite the preprint instead.
- Do I cite the paper or the dataset it used?
- Cite what you used. If you reanalyzed their dataset, cite both — datasets have their own DOIs and citation formats.