PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Magazine article

How to Cite a Magazine Article in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a magazine article gives the author's last name and first name, the article title in quotation marks and title case, the magazine's name in italics, the volume and issue when the magazine numbers them, the date (the month and year for a monthly, the full date for a weekly or an online article), pp. and the pages for print, and the DOI or URL. The in-text citation is the author's last name and the page: (Wadman 1121).

The format

Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Article." Magazine Name, vol. #, no. #, Day Mon. Year, pp. #–#, 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 link into PERRLA's reference search. For magazines that register DOIs, like Science and Scientific American, PERRLA recognizes the magazine and fills in the author, the date, the title, the volume, the issue, the pages, and the DOI. Links from magazine sites like The Atlantic, The New Yorker, TIME, The Economist, and APA's Monitor on Psychology come in as magazine articles too. The finished entry goes on your Works Cited page in alphabetical order, hanging indent and all.

Give the result a quick look against the article before you save. Check that the title matches the one on the page, that the magazine's name has "The" if the magazine uses it, and that an unsigned article hasn't come in with the magazine as its author. If the article has no byline, delete the author, and PERRLA starts the entry with the title. A link from a magazine site PERRLA doesn't recognize can come in as a webpage; if that happens, add the article by hand as a magazine article.

Adding one by hand? Choose Magazine, then Magazine article, and pick A single published article. Fill in the Publication Date the way the issue shows it: the month and year for a monthly, the full date for a weekly or an online article. For a seasonal issue, leave the month and day blank and type the season and year in the year box, like Summer 2018. Add the Volume Number, Issue Number, and pages when the magazine has them, then the DOI or the URL. PERRLA handles the title case, the italics, the vol., no., and pp. labels, and the punctuation.

Look up
Paste a DOI, get the reference

10.1126/science.adz6858

Wadman, Meredith. "Trump Budget Proposes Killing Nursing Research Institute." Science, vol. 388, no. 6752, 12 June 2025, pp. 1120–21, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz6858.

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 writer's last name, a comma, and their first name as the byline prints it, with any middle initial. End with a period.

Willingham, Daniel T.

Two writers: invert only the first name, then and and the second writer's name in normal order. Three or more: the first writer, a comma, and et al. No byline? Some magazines, like The Economist, don't sign their articles. Then skip the author and start with the title. Don't make the magazine the author.

2. Article title

Put the article title in quotation marks and capitalize it in title case. The period goes inside the closing quotation mark, and a question mark takes its place when the title ends in one. Quotation marks inside the title become single quotation marks.

"Best Practices in Team Teaching."

Take the title from the version you read. Magazines often give print and online versions different headlines. If the article ran under a column name, like Ask the Cognitive Scientist, keep it at the front the way the magazine does.

3. Magazine name

The magazine is the container, so its name goes in italics, in title case, followed by a comma. Keep "The" when it's part of the name.

Monitor on Psychology,

4. Volume and issue

If the magazine numbers its volumes and issues, write vol. and the volume number, then no. and the issue number, each followed by a comma.

vol. 54, no. 7,

Most online magazine articles show neither, so the entry goes straight from the name to the date.

5. Date

Give the date as fully as the magazine gives it. A monthly gets the month and year; a weekly, or an article posted online, gets the day, month, and year. Abbreviate every month except May, June, and July.

Oct. 2023,

Weekly or online: 12 June 2025. A quarterly dated by season gets the season and year, and MLA 9 writes the season in lowercase: summer 2018.

6. Pages

For a print article, write pp. and the page range (p. for a single page). Past 99, the second number keeps only its last two digits, unless more are needed: 1120–21.

pp. 71–75

Articles that jump to the back of the issue get the first page and a plus sign: pp. 28+. Online articles have no pages, so leave this part out.

7. DOI or URL

If the article has a DOI, end with it as a full https://doi.org/ link. Otherwise, for an article you read online, end with its URL; the https:// can come off the front. A print copy ends after the pages. Every entry ends with a period.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz6858.

Examples

A weekly magazine article with a DOI

Meredith Wadman's news story on the National Institute of Nursing Research in Science, a weekly. The entry gets the issue's full date, the volume and issue, the pages, and the DOI.

  • In-text citation(Wadman 1121)
  • Narrative citationAs Wadman reports, … (1121).

A monthly magazine article in print

Ashley Abramson's article on co-teaching from the October 2023 issue of Monitor on Psychology, APA's monthly magazine. The print issue has a volume, an issue, and pages but no DOI, so the entry ends after the page range.

  • In-text citation(Abramson 73)
  • Narrative citationAs Abramson explains, … (73).

An article from an online magazine

Ed Yong's article on health care workers leaving their jobs during the pandemic, from The Atlantic's website. It gets the full date from the page and the URL, and it skips the volume, issue, and pages it doesn't have. With no page numbers, the in-text citation is the name alone.

  • In-text citation(Yong)
  • Narrative citationAs Yong reports, …

A magazine article with no author

The Economist doesn't sign its articles, so the entry starts with the title, and the in-text citation uses a shortened title. This one ran online on January 29, 2024, and in the February 3 print edition under a different headline, "Can Alzheimer's be transmitted?" The entry below is for the online version.

  • In-text citation("Alzheimer’s Disease")
  • Narrative citationThe Economist's article "Alzheimer’s Disease May, Rarely, Be Transmitted by Medical Treatment" reports that …

A quarterly magazine dated by season, with pages that jump

Daniel Willingham's column on learning styles in American Educator, the American Federation of Teachers' quarterly, from its Summer 2018 issue. MLA 9 gives the season and year, with the season in lowercase. The column runs on pages 28–32 and finishes on page 43, so MLA gives the first page and a plus sign. The AFT posts it at a URL anyone can open.

  • In-text citation(Willingham 29)
  • Narrative citationAs Willingham explains, … (29).

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a magazine article gives the author's last name and the page, with no comma and no p. between them. Leave the page out when the article has none, as online articles usually don't.

  • One author: (Abramson 73)
  • Two authors: both last names joined by and
  • Three or more authors: the first author and et al.
  • Online article: the name alone: (Yong). Don't count paragraphs to make up a number.
  • No author: a shortened title in quotation marks, made of the title's first noun and any words before it: ("Alzheimer’s Disease")
  • Pages that jump: the Works Cited entry shows pp. 28+, but the in-text citation gives the exact page you used: (Willingham 43)
  • Name in your sentence: give the page alone at the end of the sentence: Willingham reports that matching lessons to learning styles gives students no advantage (29).

Common mistakes

  • Abramson, A. (2023, October). Best practices in team teaching.Abramson, Ashley. "Best Practices in Team Teaching."That's APA. MLA spells out the first name, puts the title in quotation marks and title case, and moves the date after the magazine's name.
  • Monitor on Psychology, October 2023, 54(7), 71–75.Monitor on Psychology, vol. 54, no. 7, Oct. 2023, pp. 71–75.MLA labels the volume, issue, and pages, puts the date after the issue, and abbreviates the month.
  • The Economist. "Alzheimer’s Disease May, Rarely, Be Transmitted by Medical Treatment.""Alzheimer’s Disease May, Rarely, Be Transmitted by Medical Treatment." The Economist,An unsigned article has no author. Start with the title, and leave the magazine in its usual place as the container.
  • pp. 28–32, 43pp. 28+When an article skips pages, MLA gives only the first page and a plus sign in the Works Cited entry.
  • (Wadman, 2025, p. 1121)(Wadman 1121)MLA in-text citations have no year, no comma, and no p.

Quick checklist

  • Author inverted, full first name as printed, or the title first when there's no byline
  • Article title in quotation marks and title case, from the version you read
  • Magazine name in italics, with "The" if the magazine uses it
  • vol. and no. when the magazine has them
  • The month and year, the full date, or the season in lowercase
  • pp. and the pages for print (first page and + if they jump), or the DOI or URL

Questions students ask

What's the difference between a magazine and a journal in MLA 9?

MLA cites both the same way: the article in quotation marks, the periodical in italics, then vol., no., the date, and pp. The real difference is the date. A magazine usually gets the month, or the full date for a weekly, where a scholarly journal often gives only the month or season and year.

How do I cite a magazine article with no author in MLA?

Start the entry with the title in quotation marks, then the magazine, the date, and the pages or URL. In the text, use a shortened title in quotation marks. Never list the magazine as the author.

How do I cite a magazine article from a database like EBSCOhost or ProQuest?

MLA treats the database as a second container. After the magazine's details, add the database's name in italics and the article's permalink or DOI.

Do I cite the print or the online version of a magazine article?

Cite the one you read. The two can have different titles and dates, and only the print version has page numbers. An online entry ends with the URL; a print entry ends with the pages.

How do I write a season in an MLA date?

Write the season and the year, with the season in lowercase: summer 2018. MLA 9 lowercases seasons in Works Cited entries to match how they're written in sentences.

Do online magazine articles need a volume and issue number?

Only if the online article shows them. Most don't, so the entry goes from the magazine's name straight to the date and URL. Don't hunt down print details for a version you didn't read.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapters 5 and 6 (the core elements, containers, and in-text citations, including shortened titles), and the MLA Style Center's answers on lowercase seasons in works-cited entries, nonconsecutive pages, the initial article in periodical titles, and shortening titles to a noun. Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page: Science against PubMed (PMID 40504919) and Crossref; Monitor on Psychology against apa.org and the October 2023 issue PDF; American Educator against the AFT's article PDF and ERIC; The Atlantic and The Economist against saved copies of each article page.

PERRLA builds the magazine entry from its DOI or link, with vol., no., the date, and pp. in MLA order.

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