Q. How do I cite an article that has not yet been published or an advanced version that was published online?

When working with online resources, it’s best to work with the final, published work (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020, p. 258), but you may find yourself using an advance online version. Cite the version you used, so if that was the advance online version, cite that work. Similarly, if you worked with a pre-print, which is “the final peer-reviewed manuscript as accepted for publication [that] might be available from a variety of places, including a personal website, an employer’s server, an institutional repository, a reference manager, or an author social network” (APA, 2020, p. 258), cite that version.

Please see the information and specific examples provided in the APA Style manual for references to advance online and in press journal articles (p. 318), unpublished manuscripts and manuscripts submitted for publication (p. 336), informally published works (p. 337), and unpublished raw data (p. 338). For general examples, see below for references to manuscripts at different stages of the publication process:

Unpublished manuscript (see p. 336)

Author, A. (year). Title of manuscript [Unpublished manuscript]. University Department, University Name.

"Include the department and institution where the work was produced, if possible” (APA, 2020, p. 336).

Manuscript submitted for publication (see pp. 336-337)

Author, A. (year). Title of manuscript [Manuscript submitted for publication]. University Department, University Name.

“Do not list the name of the journal to which the work was submitted. Once the manuscript has been accepted for publication, cite it as an in-press article” (APA, 2020, p. 337).
“A manuscript submitted for publication is not available to the public. If the manuscript is available online, treat it as informally published” (APA, 2020, p. 337).
In-text citation: (Author, year, p. X)

Journal article, in press (see p. 318)

Author, A. (in press). Title of article. Title of Journal.

In-text citation: (Author, in press, p. X)

Journal article, advance online publication (see p. 318)

Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/xxx

In-text citation: (Author & Author, year, p. X)

Informally published work from a preprint archive or institutional repository (see p. 337)

Author, A. (year). Title of article. Publisher. URL

In-text citation: (Author, year, p. X)

Unpublished raw data (see p. 338)

Author, A. (year). [Unpublished raw data on description of data]. University Name.

Author, A. (year). Title of data set [Unpublished raw data].

In-text citation: (Author, year, p. X)

Reference