MLA Citation Guide

Author

• One author: Listed as LastName, FirstName. Example: Smith, Jane.
• Two authors: Listed in the order they appear in the work as Author1LastName, FirstName, and Author2FirstName LastName. Example: Smith, Jane, and John Doe.
• Three or more authors: Listed as Author1Lastname, FirstName, et al. Example: For a work with the authors Jane Smith, John Doe, and Rita Jones, the author element becomes Smith, Jane, et al.​​​​​​​
  • ​​​​​Et al. is an abbreviation for et alia, a Latin phrase that means "and others." Style manuals and editors use the abbreviation "et al." to save space and ink.
• Corporation or organization as author: Do not reverse any part of the organization's name. If the organization's name begins with an article (a, an, or the), omit it. Examples: RAND Corporation; Beatles

Title of Source

• Articles from magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, and encyclopedias: The title of the source will go in quotation marks. Example: "Art Fraud."
• Book chapters: Same format as articles - the title goes in quotation marks.
• Entire books: The title is italicized. Example: The SAGE Handbook of Child Research.

Title of Container

• Articles: The title of the article's magazine, journal, newspaper, or encyclopedia in italics. Example: Consumer Reports.
• Book chapters: The title of the entire book in italics. Example: Skateboarding: The Ultimate Guide.
• Entire books: Omit this element and skip to Other Contributors. (The library database is a container, but it goes at the end of the citation.)

Other Contributors

• Articles: Typically don't have other contributors.
• Book chapters: If the author of the chapter is different than the book's editor, use the phrase Edited by FirstName LastName. Example: Edited by Jane Doe.
• Entire books: If there is an editor or translator in addition to the book's author, use the phrase Edited/Translated by FirstName LastName. Example: Translated by Seamus Heaney.

Version

• Articles: Library database articles typically don't have versions.
• Book chapters: Same as for entire books - see below.
• Entire books: If the book's publication information includes a version (e.g., "Revised edition" or "3rd edition"), use the phrase X ed. Example: 3rd ed.

Number

• Articles: Individual issues of magazines, newspapers, and journals typically have a volume number (abbreviated vol.) and an issue number (abbreviated no.). Example: vol. 12, no. 3
  • Some periodicals have only issue numbers without volumes. In this case, omit vol. from your citation.
  • Articles from multi-volume encyclopedias use the same number format as entire books - see below.
• Book chapters: Same as for entire books - see below.
• Entire books: Only included if it is a multi-volume work. Use the phrase vol. X. Example: vol. 3

Publisher

• Articles: Magazines, newspapers, and journals typically do not include publisher information. Encyclopedia articles use the same format as entire books - see below.
• Book chapters: Same as for entire books - see below.
• Entire books: Omit "the" if it begins the publisher's name. Abbreviate the words Company (Co.), Corporation (Corp.), Incorporated (Inc.), and Limited (Ltd.). For academic presses, University is abbreviated as U (no period) and Press is abbreviated as P (no period).

Publication date

• Articles: 
  • If the publication lists an exact date, use the format DD Month Year. Example: 12 June 2019
  • If the exact date is not listed, use the format Month Year or season Year. Examples: Apr. 2015, winter 2017
  • If the article is from a periodical published every other month or every other season, use the format Month-Month Year or season-season Year. Examples: spring-summer 2016, July-Aug. 2011
• Book chapters: The year the book was published.
• Entire books: The year the book was published.

Location

• Articles: 
  • For a single-page article, use the format p. X. Example: p. 22.
  • For articles of two pages or more, use pp. X-X. Example: pp. 37-52.
  • For articles that run on non-consecutive pages (for example, a newspaper article that starts on p. B1 and continues on p. B4), use pp. X+. Example: pp. B1+.
• Book chapters: Use the same formatting as for articles.
  • Some books use Roman numerals for introductions and prefaces. If this is the case, use the same number formatting as the book. Examples: p. III,  pp. xx-xiv.
• Entire books: Do not use this element.

Supplemental Element 2

• Date of access: Do not include this in database citations unless your instructor asks you to. If you do need to include it, format it as Accessed DD Month Year. Example: Accessed 12 Feb. 2020.
• Medium of publication: Include when you use a source's supplemental material. Examples: Transcript, PDF download. 
• Government documents: Specifically for documents created by the United States Congress (the Senate and/or the House of Representatives). Include: the number of Congress, the session of Congress, whether the document came from the Senate or House of Representatives, the type of document (bill, resolution, report), and the number of the document. If it was legislation that passed, also include the date. Example: 115th Congress, 2nd session, House Resolution 6147, passed 1 Aug. 2018.

Database as container

Since these sources are all from library databases, you will need to include the following information at the end of the citation:

• Title of the database in italics. Example: EBSCOhost.
• URL or DOI of the article.
  • URLs: If a DOI is available, use that instead of the URL (see below). If the article does not have a DOI, use the URL instead. 
    • Don't copy the link from your browser's address bar - it is often a temporary link. Instead, look at the article's record for a link button or a field labeled permalink, document link, or stable link.
    • Don't insert a space or hyphen to create line breaks.
    • Don't use a URL shortener such as Bitly or TinyURL.
    • Omit https:// from the beginning of the URL, unless doing that breaks the link.
  • DOIs are designed to be persistent (unlike URL links, which can go dead if a website is rearranged). If a work has a DOI, always use that instead of the URL.
    • If the DOI is already in link format, you can use it as-is. Example: https://www.doi.org/10.1139/cjp-2018-0821
    • The DOI might be listed on the document in an older format, such as DOI: 10.2514/1.J052201. If so, place the DOI at the end of the URL https://www.doi.org/ (do include the https://). Example: https://www.doi.org/10.2514/1.J052201.