How to Cite a Journal Article in MLA

In MLA 9th edition a journal article sits inside its journal, so the Works Cited entry gives the article in quotation marks and the journal — the container — in italics, followed by volume, issue, date and pages.

The MLA journal article format

The template for a Works Cited entry is:

Author. “Title of the Article.” Title of the Journal, vol. #, no. #, Month Year, pp. firstpage–lastpage, https://doi.org/xxxx.

Author: surname first for the first author only; later authors appear in normal order, joined by “and”. Three or more authors: list the first author followed by et al.
Article title: title case, in quotation marks, full stop inside the closing quote.
Journal: title case and italic, followed by the volume and issue in MLA’s abbreviated form: vol. 114, no. 3.
Date and pages: the publication date of the issue, then the page range introduced by pp. (a single page takes p.). Use the full range with an en dash.
DOI: a DOI is preferred over a URL. It is the entry’s location element, so it follows the page range after a comma, in the form https://doi.org/…, and the entry ends with a full stop after it.

Worked examples

Two authors, with a DOI
Nguyen, Thanh T., and Raj S. Patel. “The Effects of Spaced Practice on Long-Term Retention.” Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 114, no. 3, 2022, pp. 452–468, https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000712.

Four authors — first author plus et al.
Okafor, Chiamaka N., et al. “Remote Learning and Student Engagement in First-Year Courses.” Studies in Higher Education, vol. 46, no. 11, 2021, pp. 2287–2303.

Two authors, print issue with a month
Alvarez, Jorge, and Priya Nair. “Citation Practices Among First-Year Students.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 73, no. 2, Dec. 2021, pp. 210–235.

In-text citations

MLA in-text citations are author plus page, with no comma and no “p.”: (Nguyen and Patel 460). One author: (Brennan 100456) style — surname and the page you are citing. Three or more authors: (Okafor et al. 2290).

Common mistakes

Writing (Nguyen & Patel, 2022) — that is APA. MLA has no comma, no ampersand rule, and no year in the in-text citation.
Listing every author of a four-author article — MLA stops at the first author plus et al.
Spelling out “Volume 114, Issue 3” instead of vol. and no.
Giving a database URL instead of the DOI when the article has one.

Generate it instead

Fill in the details once and copy the finished reference — formatted, with italics and hanging indent preserved.

Or open the full MLA journal article citation generator.

Check your reference against your institution’s guidelines — lecturers sometimes vary the style.

Cite this page

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