Journal Articles
Citing articles, notes and symposia under Chapter 5.
Journal articles are one of the most common secondary sources used in legal research.
AGLC4 Chapter 5 covers how to cite journal articles, case notes, book reviews, symposium articles and online-only journal articles.
A journal article citation identifies both the article itself and the journal in which it appears.
Basic journal article format
A journal article citation includes:
- the author’s name;
- the article title;
- the year;
- the volume number;
- the issue number (if applicable);
- the journal title;
- the first page of the article; and
- a pinpoint reference (if required).
The first page (517) identifies where the article begins. The pinpoint (522) identifies the specific page being relied on.
Author, ‘Title of Article’ (year) volume(issue) Journal starting page, pinpoint.
Bibliography format
In a bibliography, the citation is almost the same as the footnote. The main differences are that the first author’s name is inverted and the pinpoint page is removed.
The starting page remains because it is part of the journal citation, not a pinpoint.
Authors
Author rules for journal articles follow the general rules for secondary sources.
One to three authors
List all authors. Where there are two or three authors, use and before the final author.
Four or more authors
List only the first author followed by et al.
Organisations as authors
Where an organisation wrote the article, the organisation’s name appears as the author.
Judges as authors
Where the author is a judicial officer, follow the special rules in AGLC4 rule 4.1.5.
Article titles and journal names
Journal article titles appear in single quotation marks and use title capitalisation, so significant words are capitalised. The journal name is italicised.
Year and volume numbers
The year formatting depends on how the journal organises its volumes.
Journals organised by volume number
Use round brackets around the year. The volume number follows the year.
Journals organised by year
Use square brackets around the year. The year acts as the volume identifier.
Online-only journals
Online-only journals are cited as similarly as possible to print journals. You do not include a date of access or retrieval date.
Where an online journal does not have a volume number, issue number or starting page, use the available identifier instead, such as an article number.
Pinpoints are usually to paragraph numbers where page numbers do not exist.
Other journal article formats
AGLC4 also provides specific rules for less common journal materials.
- Articles published in parts: cite according to the rules for multi-part publications.
- Symposium articles: these carry additional information identifying the symposium.
- Advance publications: articles published online before being assigned to a journal issue have their own citation format.
- Case notes and book reviews: include a description after the title to identify the type of material.
Quick checklist
Before finalising a journal article citation, check:
- ✓ Author names are formatted correctly
- ✓ Article title is in single quotation marks
- ✓ Journal title is italicised
- ✓ Year, volume and issue are included
- ✓ Starting page is included
- ✓ Pinpoint is added only when needed
- ✓ Bibliography entry removes the pinpoint but keeps the starting page
Last reviewed 4 August 2026