Skip to Main Content

MLA Citations 9th Edition

How to cite sources using MLA 9 [Ninth edition, 2021].

Articles General Formatting Tips

Articles appear in numerous types of works including:

  • Newspapers in print and/or online
  • Magazines in print and/or online
  • Scholarly/Peer-reviewed/Academic Journals in print and/or online
  • Newsletters in print and/or online
  • Websites
  • Blogs

The MLA template elements for an article commonly include: 

  1. Author - The writers, editors, translators, artists, organizations, governments, etc. who created/wrote the article.
  2. Title of Source -  Article title.
  3. Container - Title of the larger work the article is part of.
  4. Number - If applicable, the numbers assigned by the larger works publisher. For articles this can volume and/or issue.
  5. Publisher - Entity that made the work available.
  6. Publication Date - The date given with the article. How specific this is and how it is structured is determined by the publisher.
  7. Location - Page range if applicable.

Articles offered online, whether via a website or library databases such as MasterFile Premier, are listed using the same information but with the addition of information for the online container:

  1. Container Publisher - Name of database or website where article is found.
  2. Container Location - DOI, permalink, or URL for the source, in this order of preference. DOI addresses always begin with https://doi.org/. For permalinks and URLs remove http:// or https://.  
  3. Container Supplemental Elements - Date of access in the format: day, month abbreviated to three letters, year, preceded by the word "Accessed." This is used only when an online source has no publication date, or if the source may be changed or removed. If you are not sure whether to add this element, ask a librarian for help.

Articles in Print

Magazine

Beaugez, Jim. "Blues in a Minor Key." Smithsonian, vol. 52, no. 5, Sept. 2021, pp. 56-64.

Long, Cheryl. "Orchids on Your Windowsills!" Organic Gardening, vol. 40, no. 8, 1993, pp. 56-61. 

 

Scholarly journal

Webb, Peter. "'Infected by the Seed of Post-Industrial Punk Bohemia': Nick Cave and The Milieu of the 1980's Underground." Popular Music History, vol. 3, no. 2,  2008, pp. 103-22.

Newspaper

  • Similar to articles in magazines but have different pagination styles.  
  • If there is more than one edition of a newspaper available for that date (as in an early and late edition of a newspaper), cite the edition after the publication date.
  • If the article extends beyond one page, and does not appear on every subsequent page, use pp. and the + (plus) sign after the page number to indicate this.

Different pagination style

Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients." Washington Post, 24 May 2007, p. LZ01.

Multi-page article not appearing on every subsequent page

Doughterty, Conor.  "For Online Sports Videos, the Action Is off the Field." New York Times, 11 Sept. 2015, pp. B1+.

Sisario, Ben and Sydney Ember. "Facing the Music: The Publisher of Rolling Stone Defends Itself in the Industry and in Court." New York Times,  17 Oct. 2016, late ed., pp. B1+.

Articles from Databases

Scholarly article with a permalink

Duderstadt, James J. “The Future of the University: A Perspective from the Oort Cloud.” Social Research, vol. 79, no. 3, Fall 2012, pp. 579–600. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.libdb.dccc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=82829445&site=bsi-live.

Webb, Peter. "'Infected by the Seed of Post-Industrial Punk Bohemia': Nick Cave and the Milieu of the 1980's Underground." Popular Music History, vol. 3, no. 2, 2008, pp.103-22. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.libdb.dccc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=43603862&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 

Scholarly article with a DOI

Gordon, Brett, and Wesley Hartmann. "Advertising Competition in Presidential Elections." Quantitative Marketing & Economics, vol. 14, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-40. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-016-9165-6. 

Magazine article 

Carbone, Nick, et al. "Shades of Facebook." Time, vol. 180, no. 5, 7 Sept. 2012, p. 99. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.libdb.dccc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=78031417&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Long, Cheryl. "Orchids on Your Windowsills!" Organic Gardening, vol. 40, no. 8, 1993, p. 56. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.libdb.dccc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9311027610&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 

Newspaper article 

Dougherty, Conor. "For Online Sports Videos, the Action Is off the Field." New York Times, 11 Sept. 2015, pp. B1+. ProQuest, libdb.dccc.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libdb.dccc.edu/newspapers/online-sports-videos-action-is-off-field/docview/1710882489/se-2?accountid=10459. 

Articles from Websites

Print article on website

Deresiewicz, William. "The Death of the Artist--and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur." The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2014, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497. 

Blog article

Hollmichel, Stefanie. "The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print." So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/.