Citing in Korean Journals: Social Science and Humanities Formats Compared

The first thing to know about citing in Korean academic journals is that there is no single national standard. No body publishes one manual that everyone follows, as APA or MLA do. Instead, each society or journal sets its own submission guidelines. Even within the social sciences, some journals put the year in parentheses and others after a period, and humanities journals usually use footnotes with Korean corner brackets (「」 and 『』).

This guide compares the actual guidelines of six Korean journals and explains the two representative formats this site's generator implements. The guidelines checked were those of the Korean Sociological Association (Korean Journal of Sociology), the Korean Psychological Association (Korean Journal of Psychology: General), the Korean Clinical Psychology Association, the Korean Academy of Social Welfare (Korean Journal of Social Welfare), the Korean Historical Association (Yŏksa Hakpo) and the Korean History Society (Hanguksa Yŏngu). They were checked on September 23, 2026. Guidelines change, so the current rules of your target journal always come first.

1. What to look up in the guidelines

• Author-date in parentheses, or footnotes?
• For three or more authors, "외" (et al.) or "등", and whether all names appear at first citation
• Co-authors separated by commas or by the middle dot (·)
• Title marks: quotation marks or 「」 for articles; 『』 for books and journals
• Volume and issue: 12(3), 제12권 제3호 (vol. 12, no. 3), or the number alone
• Pages: 45-67, 45~67쪽, or pp. 45-67
• List order: Korean sources first in Korean alphabetical order, foreign sources after in A–Z order
• Whether a romanized (English) version of each Korean reference is required

2. How six journals compare

What they share. Korean sources come first in Korean alphabetical order and Western sources follow in A–Z order. Same-author, same-year works take a, b, c after the year. Several guidelines state that all co-authors appear in the list; shortening is for in-text citations. Korean book and journal titles are commonly wrapped in 『』, even in social science journals.

Where they differ.

• Year position: in parentheses "홍길동(2020)." (APA-based), after a period "최재석. 1964.", after a comma "최옥채, 2012,", or near the end (Yŏksa Hakpo).
• Article title marks: double quotation marks, 「」, or none.
• Co-author separator: the middle dot is common in sociology, social welfare and history; APA-based journals use commas.
• Volume, issue, pages: 1(2): 88-99, 64(3): 231-256, or 『歷史學報』 176, 45~56쪽, with either a hyphen or a tilde for ranges.
• "외" or "등": "외" is more common, but both can appear in one society's rules.
• Repeat citations: Yŏksa Hakpo uses "앞 책" and "앞 논문(2019)"; Hanguksa Yŏngu uses "위 책" for the immediately preceding note and "앞 책" for earlier ones, slightly different from the common "앞의 책".

Six journals are not the whole country. The point is that "the Korean format" in practice means "this journal's format".

3. Social science format (kci-sci on this site)

This APA-based format is common in education, psychology, business and social welfare. Korean sources keep APA's element order (author, year, title, source) without italics; English sources follow APA 7th edition unchanged. The generator's Korean social science style produces:

홍길동, 김철수(2020). 논문 제목. 학술지명, 12(3), 45-67.

홍길동(2020). 책 제목(2판). 출판사.

홍길동(2020). 장 제목. 김철수(편), 책 제목(pp. 45-67). 출판사.

홍길동(2020). 논문 제목. 박사학위논문, 서울대학교.

홍길동(2020. 3. 5.). 제목. 사이트명. URL

홍길동(2020). 보고서 제목(보고서 번호). 발행기관.

홍길동(2020. 3. 5.). 기사 제목. 신문명. URL

홍길동(2020). 발표 제목. 자료집명, 45-67.

In text: (홍길동, 2020); two authors (홍길동, 김철수, 2020); three or more from the first citation (홍길동 외, 2020); with a page (홍길동, 2020, p. 45); narrative 홍길동(2020). Some journals list all names at first citation or mark pages as "1949: 23", so adjust to your venue. The in-text citation generator builds these strings.

4. Humanities format (kci-hum on this site)

Common in Korean literature, history and philosophy, this format uses footnotes, 「」 for article, chapter and news titles, 『』 for book, journal and newspaper names, and commas between elements.

홍길동·김철수, 「논문 제목」, 『학술지명』 제12권 제3호, 발행기관, 2020, 45-67쪽.

홍길동, 『책 제목』(제2판), 출판사, 2020.

홍길동, 「장 제목」, 김철수 편, 『책 제목』, 출판사, 2020, 45-67쪽.

홍길동, 「논문 제목」, 서울대학교 박사학위논문, 2020.

홍길동, 「제목」, 사이트명, 2020.3.5., URL (검색일: 2026.9.23.)

홍길동, 『보고서 제목』, 발행기관, 2020.

홍길동, 「기사 제목」, 『신문명』, 2020.3.5.

• Up to three co-authors are joined with the middle dot; four or more become "홍길동 외".
• The first footnote gives the full entry plus the cited page (…, 2020, 47쪽.). Later notes shorten it: 홍길동, 앞의 글, 47쪽. (앞의 책 for books).
• English sources use English quotation marks and italics:

John Smith, “Title,” Journal 12(3), Publisher, 2020, pp. 45-67.

Humanities journals vary the most. In the guidelines checked, Yŏksa Hakpo drops the comma between the article and journal titles and puts publication details in parentheses (韓永愚, 『韓國民族主義歷史學』(一潮閣, 1994), 35쪽.); both history journals give the volume as a bare number rather than 제○권 제○호; Hanguksa Yŏngu places the year right after the author; tildes are common in page ranges. Treat the generator's output as a starting point and adjust these details.

5. Romanized references and KCI

• The Korean Sociological Association requires every non-Roman-script reference to be followed by a romanized version, using an official English title if one exists and otherwise the Revised Romanization of Korean (2000).
• Korean Journal of Psychology: General asks for all references in romanized English, in alphabetical order, translating Korean titles that have no English title, and requires DOIs where they exist.
• We found no single reference format set by KCI (Korea Citation Index) itself; as the six journals above show, the format is set by each journal.

6. Common mistakes

1. Using a "generic Korean format" instead of the journal's own. Compare with a few references from its latest issue.
2. Mixing Korean and English formats within one list.
3. Mixing list order instead of Korean first, then foreign sources.
4. Carrying "외" from the text into the list, where most guidelines want all names.
5. Using angle brackets or quotation marks instead of 「」 and 『』.
6. Mixing page formats (45-67쪽, 45~67쪽, pp. 45-67).

Choose the Korean social science or humanities style in the reference generator to produce either format, and use the thesis checklist for thesis layout.

Examples by source type — Korean journals — social science

These examples are generated by this site's formatting engine from fictional sample data (not real publications).

Build in this style →

Korean journals — humanities

Build in this style →