APA Style FAQ
Q: In a reference, if an article's title ends with a question mark, should you also include the period that usually ends the title element?
A: Don't add a period. The question mark replaces the usual period.
Example:
Peng, D., Iqbal, Z., & Zentall, T. R. (2026). Ephemeral reward task: Why is it so difficult for pigeons to learn it? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 52(1), 9β15. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000397
(In the image, there is a circle drawing attention to the question mark that appears after the word "it" and before the beginning of the journal's title.)
This FAQ is about punctuation in references. Each element of #APAStyle references (i.e., the author, date, title, and source) usually ends with a period.
π An exception is when the title element ends in a question mark, as in this example.
#APA7 #AcWri #APAStyleFAQ #APAreferences #punctuation