PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Journal article with an article number

How to Cite a Journal Article With an Article Number in MLA 9

When a journal article has an article number (like e0245798) instead of page numbers, the number goes where the page range would: after the date, as article and the number. The Works Cited entry gives the first author's last name and first name, the article title in quotation marks, the journal name in italics, vol., no., the date, the article number, and the DOI as a link. With no page numbers, the in-text citation is the author's name alone: (Diehl et al.).

The format

Last Name, First Name, et al. "Title of the Article." Journal Name, vol. #, no. #, Month Year, article #, https://doi.org/xxxx.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 27, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the article's DOI or PubMed ID into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA finds the article and fills in the authors, the title, the journal, the volume, the issue, the date, the article number, and the DOI, then puts the finished entry on your Works Cited page in alphabetical order, hanging indent and all.

Adding one by hand? Choose Journal, then Journal article and A single published article. Fill in the authors, the Article Title, the Journal Name, the Publication Year, the Volume Number, the Issue Number if the journal has one, and the DOI. In Page Numbers / Article Number, choose Article for the number and leave Pages empty: the PDF's page count is not a page range. PERRLA handles the title case, the italics, the vol. and no. labels, and the punctuation.

Look up
Paste a DOI, get the reference

10.1371/journal.pone.0245798

Diehl, Elisabeth, et al. "The Relationship between Workload and Burnout among Nurses: The Buffering Role of Personal, Social and Organisational Resources." PLOS ONE, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2021, article e0245798, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245798.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Author

Start with the first author's last name, a comma, and their first name as the article prints it, with any middle name or initial. Two-part last names stay together. End with a period.

Two authors: invert only the first name, then write and and the second author's name in normal order. Three or more, which is most articles in these journals: give the first author, a comma, and et al.

Diehl, Elisabeth, et al.

2. Article title

Put the article title in quotation marks and capitalize it in title case, even though the journal prints it in sentence case. Keep the article's own spelling, British spellings like organisational included. The period goes inside the closing quotation mark.

"The Relationship between Workload and Burnout among Nurses: The Buffering Role of Personal, Social and Organisational Resources."

3. Journal name

The journal is the container, so its name goes in italics, in title case, followed by a comma. Write it the way the article prints it, not the way a database abbreviates it.

PLOS ONE,

4. Volume and issue

Write vol. and the volume number, then no. and the issue number, each followed by a comma.

vol. 16, no. 1,

Many article-number journals have volumes but no issues. Elsevier journals like Nurse Education Today number each article within a volume, so write vol. alone and go straight to the date.

vol. 121, Feb. 2023,

5. Date

Give the date of the issue or volume the article belongs to, as fully as the journal gives it. PLOS ONE publishes a monthly issue, so give the month and the year. Abbreviate months longer than four letters (Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.).

Jan. 2021,

When one issue covers the whole year, as each BMC Nursing volume does, the year alone is enough.

2025,

6. Article number

Give the article number where a print journal would give the page range: after the date, the word article in lowercase (like vol. and no.), then the number exactly as the journal prints it, letters included, followed by a comma.

Jan. 2021, article e0245798,

Don't swap in pp. 1–17 from the PDF, even though this article's PDF numbers its pages 1 through 17. Those page numbers start at 1 for every article, so they don't place the article anywhere in the volume. The article number does.

7. DOI

End with the DOI as a full https://doi.org/ link, followed by a period. For an online journal, the DOI is the location: it's the part of the entry that takes your reader straight to the article.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245798.

The article number is often part of the DOI as well, as e0245798 is here. If the article has no DOI, use its URL from the journal's website, without the https://.

Examples

A PLOS ONE article with an e number

A 2021 study of workload and burnout among nurses in Germany, published in the January 2021 issue of PLOS ONE as article e0245798. MLA names the first of its seven authors, then et al.

  • In-text citation(Diehl et al.)
  • Narrative citationAs Diehl et al. found, …

A BMC Nursing article with a plain article number

A 2025 umbrella review of nurse burnout in BMC Nursing, volume 24, article number 596. BMC article numbers are plain numbers with no e. Each BMC volume runs as a single issue, no. 1, for the whole year, so the date is the year alone.

  • In-text citation(Getie et al.)
  • Narrative citationGetie et al. report that …

An Elsevier article with a volume and no issue

A systematic review of high-fidelity simulation in Nurse Education Today, volume 121 (February 2023), article 105679. Elsevier uses no issue numbers here, so the entry has vol. and no no. The article went online in December 2022, which is why the DOI contains 2022, but the entry gives the date of the volume it belongs to.

  • In-text citation(Alshehri et al.)
  • Narrative citationAlshehri et al. conclude that …

In-text citations

An article number never goes in the in-text citation. MLA cites by the author's last name, plus a page number only when the version you read has page numbers.

  • Three or more authors: the first author and et al.: (Diehl et al.)
  • Two authors: both last names joined by and.
  • Name in your sentence: when there's no page, nothing is left for parentheses: Diehl et al. found that a good working team weakened the link between workload and burnout.
  • Quoting the PDF: if the PDF prints page numbers, add the page after the name, with no comma and no p., just as you would for any journal article. The PLOS ONE PDF numbers its pages 1 through 17, so a quotation from its fifth page is (Diehl et al. 5). The web version of the article has no page numbers, so cite the name alone, and don't count paragraphs to make up a number.
  • Two works by the same authors: add a short version of the title in quotation marks: (Diehl et al., "Relationship").

Common mistakes

  • PLOS ONE, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2021, Article e0245798,PLOS ONE, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2021, article e0245798,That's the APA habit. MLA writes the label in lowercase, like vol. and no., and puts the number after the date.
  • PLOS ONE, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 1–17,PLOS ONE, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2021, article e0245798,The PDF's pages start at 1 for every article. They aren't a page range in the volume; the article number is what places the article there.
  • (Diehl et al. e0245798)(Diehl et al.)An article number is not a page number. With no page to cite, the author's name alone is the in-text citation.
  • (Diehl et al., 2021)(Diehl et al.)That's APA. MLA in-text citations don't take the year.
  • Diehl, Elisabeth, Sandra Rieger, Stephan Letzel, et al.Diehl, Elisabeth, et al.With three or more authors, MLA names only the first, then et al.
  • Nurse Education Today, vol. 121, no. 105679, 2023,Nurse Education Today, vol. 121, Feb. 2023, article 105679,The article number isn't an issue number. When the journal has no issues, write vol. alone, and give the article number after the date.

Quick checklist

  • First author inverted, full first name as printed; et al. for three or more
  • Article title in quotation marks and title case
  • Journal name in italics, then vol., no. (if there is one), and the date
  • article and the number after the date, never the PDF page range
  • DOI as a https://doi.org/ link, ending with a period
  • In the text: the name alone, or the PDF page if you quote it

Questions students ask

Do I include the article number in MLA?

Yes. It goes after the date, as article and the number: Jan. 2021, article e0245798. The MLA Handbook has no rule of its own for article numbers, and an older MLA Style Center answer, written for the eighth edition, suggested leaving them out, so if your instructor asks you to drop it, end the entry with the DOI after the date.

What is an article number?

It's the number an online journal gives an article within a volume, in place of page numbers. PLOS ONE, BMC Nursing, BMJ, and many Elsevier journals use them. You'll also see them called e-numbers or eLocators.

The PDF says pages 1–17. Do I include that?

Not in the Works Cited entry. Those pages start at 1 for every article, so they don't place it in the volume. You can use them in your in-text citation when you quote the PDF: the first author's name and et al., then the page, with no comma.

Which date do I use for an article-number journal?

The date of the issue or volume the article belongs to, as fully as the journal gives it: Jan. 2021 for a monthly PLOS ONE issue, 2025 for a BMC Nursing volume that runs all year. If an Elsevier article went online before its volume came out, use the volume's date.

Does a BMC Nursing article have an issue number?

Yes, no. 1. BMC publishes each year's volume as one continuous issue. The article page shows only the volume and the article number, but PubMed and the DOI record list issue 1, so the entry includes it: BMC Nursing, vol. 24, no. 1, 2025.

Is it different from APA?

Yes. APA writes Article, capitalized, where the pages would go (Article e0245798). MLA writes article in lowercase after the date. MLA also spells out first names, puts the title in quotation marks and title case, and drops the year from the in-text citation.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapters 5 and 6 (the core elements, containers, and in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's answers on page ranges and DOIs for online journals and on early-access articles (once an article is in an issue, give the issue's date). The Handbook has no rule for article numbers; the entry gives the number after the date, in the place of a page range (the Style Center's 2019 answer on article numbers, marked as eighth-edition content, suggested leaving them out). Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page, re-checked on October 27, 2026, against PubMed (PMIDs 33481918, 40420259, and 36542870), Europe PMC, Crossref, and the PLOS ONE article page and PDF: every author's full name and order, the volume, the issue, the article number, the issue or volume date, and the DOI.

PERRLA builds the article's Works Cited entry from its DOI, with the journal, volume, issue, and date in MLA order.

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