Formatting a Journal Article Entry in MLA 9

Let's create an entry for a journal article, one of the most common sources in academic writing.

What to find first

For a journal article, try to find:

• The authors' names
• The title of the article
• The title of the journal
• The volume and issue numbers
• The year it was published
• The page range
• The article's DOI (Digital Object Identifier), or its URL if it has no DOI

Here's what we found for the made-up article we'll cite:

Title

An Analysis of Recent Biological Evidence

Authors

Jonathon Strange and Kathy H. Weber

Journal

Sasquatch Today

Volume, issue

14, 2

Year

2020

Pages

34–57

DOI

10.1000/sasquatch.2020.004

Step by step

1. Author names

List the authors in the order they appear on the article. Reverse only the first name, and join two authors with "and":

Strange, Jonathon, and Kathy H. Weber.

• Full first names, with middle initials as the article shows them
• A comma after the first author's first name, then "and"
• End with a period

With three or more authors, give the first author, a comma, and et al.: Sykes, Bryan C., et al.

2. Article title

Next comes the title of the article. It's:

• In quotation marks, not italics, because the article lives inside a larger work
• In title case
• Followed by a period inside the closing quotation mark

“An Analysis of Recent Biological Evidence.”

3. Journal name

The journal is the container, so it switches to italics, in title case, followed by a comma:

Sasquatch Today,

4. Volume, issue, year, and pages

Now the numbers, each followed by a comma:

vol. 14, no. 2, 2020, pp. 34–57,

• vol. for the volume and no. for the issue, both lowercase
• The year after the issue
• pp. before a page range, or p. for a single page
• A dash between the first and last page

When page numbers run past 99, MLA shortens the second number to its last two digits when it can: pp. 1623–27, not pp. 1623–1627.

5. DOI or URL

This is the last part of the entry, and it ends with a period.

If the article has a DOI, write it starting with https://doi.org/:

https://doi.org/10.1000/sasquatch.2020.004.

If there's no DOI and you found the article online, use a stable link to it instead. For a regular web address, leave off the https:// at the front.

If you read the article in a library database, the database is a second container. Add its name in italics after the page range, followed by the article's DOI, permalink, or URL.

When there's a DOI, it wins: you don't need the URL too.

The finished entry

1. AuthorsFirst author reversed, then "and" and the second author.
2. Article titleTitle case, in quotation marks, period inside.
3. Journal nameItalic, title case, then a comma.
4. Volume, issue, year, pagesvol., no., year, pp., each followed by a comma.
5. DOIAs a link, followed by a period.

It takes a few more pieces than a book entry, but once you know each part, it's manageable.

Quick checklist

• Authors in the article's order, first one reversed, "and" or et al. as needed
• Article title in quotation marks, title case, period inside
• Journal title in italics, followed by a comma
• vol., no., year, and pp. in that order
• Page range shortened the MLA way past 99
• DOI starting with https://doi.org/, and a period at the end

How PERRLA handles journal articles

PERRLA can look an article up by its DOI. The entry builds itself, and lands on your Works Cited page with the right quotation marks, italics, and punctuation.

Related MLA 101 lessons

• Formatting a book entry: the author's full name, the italic title, the publisher, and the year.
• Formatting a web page entry: the page title, the website, the date, the URL, and pages with no author.
• The Works Cited page: the centered label, alphabetical order, and hanging indents.
• In-text citations: author and page with no comma, and when et al. applies.
• All 18 lessons in MLA 101