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MLA

Overview of using MLA to format citations.

New Formatting Information

Print and Database

  • Note punctuation differences following containers. Containers are followed by a comma.
  • Indicate volume with "vol."| number with "no."| pages with "pp."
  • "If an issue of a scholarly journal is dated with a month or season, the month or season is now always cited along with the year" (45). Capitalize seasons in lists of Works Cited. 

Database Only

  • Since EbscoHost allows users to search multiple Ebsco databases at once, you may replace the specific database name with "EbscoHost" when you don't know which database provided access.  
  • Do not include the word "Web."
  • Use permanent links, stable URLs, or DOIs in citations. Use a Digital Object Identifier (doi) in place of a URL wherever possible.
  • Including date of access for online sources is optional, but it becomes "crucial if the source provides no information specifying when it was produced or published" (53). OWL includes the accessed date.

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2016. 

ELECTRONIC: Scholarly Journal Article

Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Source." Container 1, volume

number (vol.), issue number  (no.), Month or Season, Year, pp. 

Container 2, DOI or permalink. Accessed date. 

Note:

Including a database name before the URL or DOI is optional. (See "New Formatting.") Including a date of access is also optional. Check with your instructor.  Abbreviate all months except May, June, and July to the first three letters and a period: Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. 

With database name

Fetters, Cassandra. "The Continual Search for Sisterhood: Narcissim, Projection,

and Intersubjective Disruptions in Toni Morrison's Sula and Feminist

Communities." Meridians: Feminisim, Race, Transnationalism, 

vol. 13, no. 2, 2015, pp. 28-55. EbscoHost, 

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=

114940601&site=ehost-live. 

Without

Fetters, Cassandra. "The Continual Search for Sisterhood: Narcissim, Projection,

and Intersubjective Disruptions in Toni Morrison's Sula and Feminist

Communities." Meridians: Feminisim, Race, Transnationalism, 

vol. 13,no. 2, 2015, pp. 28-55, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=keh&AN=114940601&site=ehost-live. 

Article with Permanent Link or Stable URL

Note: Spell out seasons and capitalize them in Works Cited citations.

Sklansky, David Alan. "Not Your Father's Police Department: Making Sense of

the New Demographics of Law Enforcement." The Journal of Criminal

Law and Criminology, vol. 96, no. 3, Spring 2006,  pp. 1209-1243,

 www.jstor.org/stable/40042806. 

Article with a DOI

Son, Ki Pyo. "Symbol of Death in Lessing's 'To Room Nineteen' and in Morrison's

Sula Seen from the Perspective of Archetypal Psychology." Journal of English

Language and Literature, vol. 55, no. 6, Jan. 2009, pp. 1221-1244,

doi: 15794/jell.2009.55.6.014. 

With a date of access

Sklansky, David Alan. "Not Your Father's Police Department: Making Sense of

the New Demographics of Law Enforcement." The Journal of Criminal

Law and Criminology, vol. 96, no. 3, Spring 2006,  pp. 1209-1243,

www.jstor.org/stable/40042806. Accessed 15 July 2016.

Without

Sklansky, David Alan. "Not Your Father's Police Department: Making Sense of

the New Demographics of Law Enforcement." The Journal of Criminal

Law and Criminology, vol. 96, no. 3, Spring 2006,  pp. 1209-1243,

www.jstor.org/stable/40042806.

PRINT: Scholarly Journal Article

Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Source." Container,

volume number (vol.), issue number (no.), Month or

Season, Year, pp. 

Note: Abbreviate all months except May, June, and July to the first three letters and a period: Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov.

Rahavi, M. Marit, and Sonja B. Starr. "Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal

Sentences."  Journal of Political Economy, vol. 122, no. 6, Dec. 2014,

pp. 1320-1354. 

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