Citation Guide

The MLA Citation Style has recently been updated to the 9th edition. Compared to MLA 8th edition, most of the style guidelines and citation rules still apply in the 9th edition.

What has changed since MLA 8th edition?   

Not much! MLA 9th edition is an expansion of the 8th edition with new sections on grammar, writing advice, mindful of inclusive language, expansion endnotes & footnotes, and new guidelines for annotated bibliographies.

Here are the important citation updates for MLA 9th edition:

URLs:

Remember: When getting a URL from a library's database, use the permalink provided by the database. Do not copy and paste the URL from the browser. If a DOI is available, it is preferred over a permalink. 

• For general websites copy and paste the URL from your browser. Some links will include www. and others may not. Either one is acceptable.
• Full URLs are recommended but optional. (Especially for URLs that are a few lines long).
• Extremely Long URLs can be shortened to the general site.
• If a DOI is available, it is preferred over a URL or a Permalink.
• DOI should now include the http:// and https:// prefix.

Access Date: 

• Only use access dates when the source (usually a website) does not provide a publication date. 

 

When citing an article from an online database, pay attention to the most recent changes for the MLA 9th edition citation format listed below and incorporate them in your citation.

• The Journal title in the citation needs to be italicized (not underlined).
• Descriptors of numbers (Volume, issue number, month and year of publication and page numbers) should be included in an abbreviated form. (ex: vol. 62, no. 4, Dec. 2010, pp. 99-105). 
• Commas and periods separate the elements in a citation. Colons and parenthesis are no longer used. 
• Include the name of the Database provider. Including the article's permalink URL is recommended but optional.
• Indent your citation after the first line (this is called a hanging indentation).
• If the source has two authors, include them both in your in-text citation and Works Cited entry. If there are more than two authors, name only the first author, followed by et al.

Citing an article from an online journal with a URL 

Format:  Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. "Article Title." Journal Title, Volume Number, Issue Number, Publication Date, Pages. Database provider. URL. 

Example: Dominique, Rachel Beauvoir. “The Social Value of Voodoo throughout History: Slavery, Migrations and Solidarity.” Museum International, no. 4, 2010, pp. 99. EBSCOhost, http://fscproxy.framingham.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.261886091&site=eds-live. 

Citing an article from an online journal with a DOI (Three or more authors)

Format:  First Author's Last Name, First Author's First Name, et al. "Article Title." Journal Title, Volume Number, Issue Number, Publication Date, Pages. Database provider. URL. 

Example: Conlon, Rachel P. Kolko, et al. “Demographic, Pregnancy-Related, and Health-Related Factors in Association with Changes in Sleep Among Pregnant Women with Overweight or Obesity.” International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, vol. 28, no. 2, Apr. 2021, pp. 200–06. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.fscproxy.framingham.edu/10.1007/s12529-020-09887-4.

           

Please pay attention to the MLA recent updates listed below when citing a print journal. Make sure to incorporate these updates in your citations.

• The Journal title in the citation needs to be italicized (not underlined).
• When citing a print article, the issue number and the medium used for retrieval need to be included in the citation.

Single Author Article 

Format: Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. "Article Title." Journal Title, Volume Number, Issue Number, Publication Date, Pages.

Example: Ulmer, William A. "The Christian Wordsworth 1798-1800", Journal of English and Germanic Philology 95, (1996), pp. 336-58.

Multiple Author Article

Format: First Author's Last Name, First Author's First Name, et al. "Article Title." Journal Title, Volume Number. Issue Number (Publication Date): Pages.

Example: Hibel, Jeremy, et al. "Who Is Placed into Special Education?" Sociology of Education, Volume 83, Number 4 (October 2010), pp. 312-332.

When citing a book, pay attention to the most recent updates of the MLA Citation Format that are listed below and incorporate them in your citations.

• Contributors roles (such as editors and translators, etc.) need to be spelled out in full.
• City of publication is omitted. 
• Colons and parenthesis are no longer used. Commas and periods separate the elements in each citation.  
• Indent your citation after the first line (this is called a hanging indentation). 

Single Author

Format: Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. Book Title. Publisher, Year of Publication.  

Example: Lears, Jackson. Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America. Basic Books, 1994. 

Two Authors

Format: Author's Last Name, Author's First Name and Author's First Name Last Name. Book Title. Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example: Achtert, Walter S. and Joseph Gibaldi. The MLA Style Manual. MLA, 1985. 

 

Multiple Authors - Three or More Authors 

Basic Format: Author's Last Name, Author's First Name, et al. Book Title. Publisher, Year of Publication

Example: Shoham, Shlomo G., et al. International Handbook of Criminology. CRC Press, 2010.

 

Book with Multiple Editions  (List edition only if the book has more than one edition.)

Format: Last name, First Name. Book Title. Edition, Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example: Mitchell, Susan. American Attitudes: Who Thinks What About The Issues That Shape Our Lives. 2nd edition, New Strategist Publication, 1998.

 

Chapter/Anthology

Contributors' roles (such as editors and translators, etc.) need to be spelled out in full.  

Format: Last name, First Name. "Chapter Title". In First and Last name (editor), Book Title. Edition, Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example: Collier, Richard. "Masculinities and Crime: Rethinking the "Man Question"? In Sumner, Colin (editor), The Blackwell Companion to Criminology. Blackwell Publishing, 2004.  

 When citing an e-book, pay attention to the MLA recent updates listed below and incorporate them in your citations.

• The Book Title needs to be italicized (not underlined).
• Omit the medium of publication "Web" but include the URL. 
• Provide DOI or the link to the item, if available. Otherwise, just copy and paste the web address where you accessed it.
• Omit http:// at the beginning of the web address. 
• Date of access should be included when the web publication itself is not dated, but can usually be omitted when the item has a publication date.  

Format: Last Name, First Name. Book Title. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher, year of publication. Name of library database, Parmalink URL.

Please pay attention to the MLA recent update listed below when citing information from a website. Make sure to incorporate these updates in your citations.

1. The name of the website and retrieval date (The date on which you found the information on the Web) need to be included in the citation. 

• The website URL needs to be included only in websites in which the content changes frequently. 

Format: Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. "Article Title." Website Title, Publication Date. URL (optional). Retrieval Date.

Example 

Richter, Ruthann. "Among Teens, Sleep Deprivation is an Epidemic." Stanford Medicine News Center. URL. November 21, 2018.

Remember  to:

Use Available from when the URL leads to information on how to obtain the material.

Use Retrieved from when the material itself has actually been retrieved from the site.