MLA Style: Journal articles

UON Library guide to MLA referencing style 8th edition for UON students

Journal articles: General rules

Author Names

Appear first in the reference. Use the full names of authors and invert only the first author.
Include all authors in the works-cited list when an article has one or two authors; list only the first author followed by et al. for three or more authors.
Pseudonyms, including online usernames, are mostly given like regular names, e.g. @persiankiwi.
If the article does not have an author move the title to the author position.

Article Titles

Capitalise all words in the title and sub-title (except for common words - of, and, etc).
Article titles appear in double quotation marks.

Journal Title

Capitalise all words in the journal title (except for common words - of, and, etc).
Journal titles appear in full (not abbreviated), and in italics. e.g. The Journal of Stuff.
MLA 8th edition requires to treat the initial The/A/An as part of the journal title; do not drop them off anymore.

Volume Number

Volume number follows the journal title, separated by a comma and preceded by vol. e.g. vol. 66, no. 5.
If the volume is dated with a month or season, the month (abbreviated) or season is cited along with the year.

Issue Number

The issue number follows the volume number, separated by a comma and preceded by no. e.g. vol. 66, no. 5-6.
The issue number may be included even if pagination is continuous throughout a volume.

Page Numbers

Include the beginning and ending page numbers of the entire article, preceded by pp. e.g. pp. 458-67.
For magazine or newspaper articles, the page numbers are also needed.
If a work is not printed on consecutive pages, include only the first page number and a plus sign, leaving no intervening space, e.g. pp. 4+

Year of Publication

If the year is dated with a month or season, the month (abbreviated) or season is cited along with the year.
Months should be abbreviated (Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. and Dec.); seasons should be spelled out and capitalised.
If the year of publication is unavailable, just omit this element, as n.d. (no date) is not used anymore.

Database Name

If the source is located from a library database, add the database name in italics before the DOI or URL, followed by a comma, e.g. JSTOR, www.xxxx.xxx.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Most individual articles are assigned an identifying "digital object identifier" or DOI. If a DOI is available, include it at the end of the reference.
DOIs are cited in the format of doi:10.xxxxxxx, e.g. doi:10.1086/679716.
In the absence of a DOI, include the URL or a permalink if available.
Check the What are DOIs? site for more information on DOIs.

Secondary Sources

For citations taken from secondary sources, see the Secondary Sources page.

Journal articles with 1 author

The following is the general format with an example of a reference to an online journal article with one author and a DOI.

See the general rules for journal articles for more details.

In-text citation: format and example

... (Author's Last Name Page/s cited) ...

... (Acciari 23) ...

Works-cited entry: format and example

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Article Title: Subtitle." Title of Journal, vol no, issue no, Month or Season Year, pp. page range. Database Name, doi:10.xxxxxxxx.

Acciari, Monia. “The Italianization of Bollywood Cinema: Ad Hoc Films.” Studies in European Cinema, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp.14-25. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/17411548.2014.903099.

Journal articles with 2 authors

The following is the general format of a reference to an online journal article with two authors and a DOI.

See the general rules for journal articles for more details.

In-text citation: format and example

... (Last Name of Author One and Author Two page/s cited) ...

... (Narr and Krist 85) ...

Works-cited list entry: format and example

1st Author's Last Name, First Name, and 2nd Author's First name Last name. "Article Title: Subtitle." Title of Journal, vol no, issue no, Month or Season Year, pp. page range. Database Name, doi:10.xxxxxxxx.

Narr, Charlotte F., and Amy C. Krist. “Host Diet Alters Trematode Replication and Elemental Composition.” Freshwater Science, vol. 34, no. 1, Mar. 2015, pp. 81–91. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1086/679411.

Journal articles with 3 or more authors

When a journal article has three or more authors, list only the first author followed by et al. in the in-text citation and the works-cited list.

The following is the general format of a reference to an online journal article with three or more authors and a DOI.

See the general rules for journal articles for more details.

In-text citation: format and example

... (Last Name of Author One et al. Page/s cited) ...

... (Gmuca et al. 151) ...

Works-cited list entry: format and example

1st Author's Last Name, First Name, et al. "Article Title: Subtitle." Title of Journal, vol no, issue no, Month or Season Year, pp. page range. Database Name, doi:10.xxxxxxxx.

Gmuca, Natalia V., et al. “The Fat and the Furriest: Morphological Changes in Harp Seal Fur with Ontogeny.” Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, vol. 88, no. 2, Mar./Apr. 2015, pp. 158–66. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1086/680080.

Journal articles with corporate authors

'Corporate authors' are organisations, associations, groups, or societies who have written publications. This includes universities, research groups, museums, government departments, professional associations, and so on.

The following is the general format of a reference to a journal article by a corporate author with a DOI.

See the general rules for journal articles for more details.

In-text citation: format and example

... (Corporate Author Year of Publication) ...

... (SPRINT Research Group 2015) ...

Works-cited list entry: format and example

Corporate Author. "Article Title: Subtitle." Title of Journal, vol no, issue no, Month or Season Year, pp. page range. Database Name, doi:10.xxxxxxxx.

SPRINT Research Group. “A Randomized Trial of Intensive Versus Standard Blood-Pressure Control.” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 33, no. 22, Nov. 2015, pp. 2103-16. Proquest, doi:10.1056/NEJMc1602668.

Journal articles with no author listed

When a work is published without an author's name, do not list the author as "Anonymous." Instead, skip the author element and begin the entry with the work's title.

If the article does not have an author move the title to the author position. An initial article (A, An, or The) is ignored in alphabetizing.
Text citations may refer to a short form of the title (up to four words) but must include the first word (other than an initial article).

The following is the general format of a reference to a journal article without an author.

See the general rules for journal articles for more details.

In-text citation: format and example

... ("Shortened Article Title" page/s cited) ...

... (“Pregnancy and Diabetes” 736) ...

Works-cited list entry: format and example

"Article Title: Subtitle." Title of Journal, vol no, issue no, Month or Season Year, pp. page range. Database Name, doi or URL.

“Pregnancy and Diabetes.” Hospital, vol. 48, no.1260, Sept. 1910, pp. 736-37. Medline, ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/sp-3.33.0b/ovidweb.cgi

Journal articles - 'In press', advance publication, online first

Many journal publishers provide access to articles before they have been assigned a volume, issue, or page number, referring to them as "In Press", "Advance Publication", or "Online First" articles.

It is important to re-check references prior to submitting assessment tasks in case an 'in press' article has been assigned a volume, issue and page numbers. If this is the case, ensure you re-format the citation following the guidelines on the appropriate tab on this page for the number of authors the article has.

Referencing 'in press' articles:

If an article has been accepted for publication by a journal but has not yet appeared, forthcoming stands in place of the year and the page numbers. Any article not yet accepted should be treated as an unpublished manuscript. For example:

Adams, Anna. “Article Title.” Journal Title, (forthcoming).

If an article is published by a journal electronically ahead of the official publication date, use the posted publication date. For example:

Jubb, Robert. “The Real Value of Equality.” Journal of Politics, vo. 77, no. 3, published ahead of print, April 14, 2015. doi:10.1086/681262.

Where possible always refer to the final versions of your sources.

Online journal articles without a DOI

If an online journal article does not have a DOI assigned, add the URL at the end of the citation. If the article is located in one of the library databases, add the database name before the URL. Omit the http:// or https:// from the URL.

See the general rules for journal articles for more details.

In-text citation: format and example

... (Author's Last Name page/s cited) ...

... (Maddison 21)...

Works-cited list entry: format and example

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Article Title: Subtitle." Title of Journal, vol no, issue no, Month or Season Year, pp. page range. Database Name, URL.

Maddison, Sarah. "Private Men, Public Anger: The Men's Rights Movement in Australia." Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, Dec. 1999, pp. 39-51. NOVA, hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1048435.

Note:

No retrieval date is needed for online articles.
Do not insert a hyphen if you need to break a URL across lines. Break the URL before a slash or dash or at another logical division point.
Include a full-stop after the URL at the end of the reference.

Print journal articles

The following is the general format of a reference to a print journal article with one author which does not have a DOI.

See the general rules for journal articles for more details.

In-text citation: format and example

... (Author's Last Name page/s cited) ...

... (Cavell 252) ...

Works-cited list entry: format and example

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Article Title: Subtitle." Title of Journal, vol no, issue no, Month or Season Year, pp. page range.

Cavell, Stanley. "What Becomes of Things on Film?" Philosophy and Literature, vol. 2, no. 2, Fall 1978, pp. 249-57.