PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Report by an organization

How to Cite a Report by an Organization in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for an organization's report gives the authors named on the report, the title in italics and title case, the organization as the publisher, the date as fully as the report gives it, and the DOI or the URL without https://. When the organization wrote and published the report itself, skip the author and start with the title, so the organization appears once, as the publisher. The in-text citation is the first thing in the entry, plus a page if there is one: (Blumenthal et al.) or (2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan 5).

The format

Last Name, First Name, et al. Title of the Report. Report No. (if any), Publisher, Day Mon. Year, www.url.com. Description (optional).

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 29, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the report's DOI or the link to its PDF into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA reads it and builds a Gray Literature reference with the authors, the title, the publisher, the date, and the DOI or link. Then check three things against the report for MLA. First, the title: it should match the cover or the report page, with a colon before each subtitle. Second, the date: MLA wants it as fully as the report gives it, so add the month and day to Publication Year if the report shows them. Third, the publisher: if the organization wrote the report and no people are named, its name must be in the publisher Name box exactly as it is in the author box, with no extra Inc. on the end. When the two match, PERRLA leaves the author out and starts the entry with the title, the MLA way.

Many organizations publish reports as web pages, like Pew Research Center and KFF. A link to one of those can come back as a Webpage reference. To use the report format shown here, choose Gray Literature under Change the reference type.

Adding one by hand? Choose Gray Literature (Reports, Briefs, Codes), then A standalone work: report, brief, codes, etc. Add each person as an Author, or the organization as a Group Author (Organization). Type the title in Title of the Work, a report number in Identifying Information, and a label like Issue brief in Format or Type, then fill in the date, the publisher, and the DOI or URL. PERRLA handles the title case, the italics, and the punctuation, and puts the label at the end of the entry.

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

Look at the report's cover, title page, or byline. If people are named as its authors, they go first: the first author's last name, a comma, and the first name as printed. With three or more authors, give the first one, then a comma and et al.

Blumenthal, David, et al.

Two authors? Invert only the first name, then write and and the second name in normal order. Names in a staff list or the acknowledgments don't make those people the authors.

If only the organization is named, check who published the report. A different organization as publisher means the first one is the author. The same organization means you skip the author element entirely and start with the title.

2. Title

A report stands on its own, so its title goes in italics, in title case, followed by a period. Put a colon before each subtitle.

Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System: Comparing Performance in 10 Nations.

MLA's title case lowercases articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions in the middle of a title, so it's Key Facts about the Uninsured Population, with a lowercase about. If the title ends in a question mark, the question mark replaces the period.

How Do Americans View Childhood Vaccines, Vaccine Research and Policy?

3. Report number

If the report has a number, like Report No. 23-07, put it after the title, followed by a comma, before the publisher. Most organizations' reports have no number, so most entries skip this part.

4. Publisher

Name the organization that published the report, in plain text, followed by a comma. No city.

Pew Research Center,

When the organization is also the author, this is the only place its name appears. The NCSBN test plan starts with its title and names the National Council of State Boards of Nursing here.

2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan. National Council of State Boards of Nursing,

5. Date

Give the date as fully as the report or its page gives it, written day, month, year, with no commas inside it. Abbreviate months longer than four letters (Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.).

16 June 2026,

A report that prints only a year gets the year: the NCSBN test plan says 2026, and is effective April 2026, so the entry says 2026. For a report that's updated over time, like KFF's uninsured brief, use the date on the version you read.

6. DOI or URL

Some organizations give their reports a DOI. If the report has one, end with it as a full https://doi.org/ link, followed by a period.

https://doi.org/10.26099/ta0g-zp66.

Otherwise, end with the URL of the report itself, its PDF or the page it's published on, without the https://, and a period.

www.kff.org/uninsured/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/.

7. Description (optional)

If the title doesn't make clear what kind of document it is, MLA lets you add a short description at the very end, capitalized like a sentence and followed by a period.

Issue brief.

Use the organization's own word for the document: Issue brief, Policy brief, Fact sheet, or White paper.

Examples

A report with individual authors and a DOI

The Commonwealth Fund's Mirror, Mirror 2024 compares health system performance in 10 countries. Five people are named as its authors, so the first one leads the entry with et al., and the Commonwealth Fund is the publisher. The report page is dated September 19, 2024, and the report has a DOI, so the entry ends with it.

  • In-text citation(Blumenthal et al.)
  • Narrative citationBlumenthal et al. found that …

A report published as a web page

Pew Research Center publishes its reports as web pages, with a byline at the top. Pew labels this one a report, dated November 18, 2025, with three authors. The title ends in a question mark, which takes the place of the period, and the report has no page numbers, so the in-text citation is the name alone.

  • In-text citation(Yam et al.)
  • Narrative citationYam et al. report that …

An issue brief from a health policy organization

KFF's Key Facts about the Uninsured Population is an issue brief with four named authors. KFF updates the brief as new data come out, so cite the date on the version you read; this one is dated June 16, 2026. The description Issue brief goes at the end of the entry.

  • In-text citation(Tolbert et al.)
  • Narrative citationTolbert et al. note that …

A report the organization wrote and published

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing wrote and published the 2026 NCLEX-RN test plan, in effect since April 2026. No people are named on it, and the author and the publisher are the same organization, so the entry starts with the title and names NCSBN once, as the publisher. The citation points to page 5, where the plan gives the share of test items in each category.

  • In-text citation(2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan 5)
  • Narrative citationThe 2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan shows that … (5).

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation uses the first thing in the Works Cited entry, plus a page number when the report has one. There's no comma between the name or title and the page.

  • Three or more authors: the first author and et al.: (Blumenthal et al.)
  • Two authors: both last names joined by and: (Fried and Polyakova)
  • A specific page: add it after the name or title, with no p.: (Blumenthal et al. 12)
  • Title first, because the organization also published it: the title in italics, shortened if it's long to its first noun phrase. A four-word title like this one stays whole: (2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan 5)
  • An organization as author, with a different publisher: its name, or its first few words if the name is long.
  • Name in your sentence: give the page alone at the end, or skip the parentheses when there's no page: Yam et al. report that …

Web reports like Pew's and KFF's have no page numbers. Don't count paragraphs to make one up.

Common mistakes

  • National Council of State Boards of Nursing. 2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan. National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2026.2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan. National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2026.When the organization wrote and published the report, MLA names it once, as the publisher, and starts the entry with the title.
  • Pew Research Center. How Do Americans View Childhood Vaccines, Vaccine Research and Policy? 18 Nov. 2025.Yam, Eileen, et al. How Do Americans View Childhood Vaccines, Vaccine Research and Policy? Pew Research Center, 18 Nov. 2025.When people are named on the report, they're the authors. The organization moves to the publisher spot.
  • Blumenthal, D., Gumas, E. D., Shah, A., Gunja, M. Z., & Williams, R. D., II. (2024).Blumenthal, David, et al.That's APA. MLA spells out the first author's first name, uses et al. for three or more authors, and moves the date after the publisher.
  • How Do Americans View Childhood Vaccines, Vaccine Research and Policy?. Pew Research Center,How Do Americans View Childhood Vaccines, Vaccine Research and Policy? Pew Research Center,A question mark at the end of a title takes the place of the period. Don't add both.
  • (National Council of State Boards of Nursing 5)(2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan 5)The in-text citation starts with whatever starts the entry. This entry starts with the title, so the citation does too.
  • KFF, 2026, https://www.kff.org/uninsured/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/.KFF, 16 June 2026, www.kff.org/uninsured/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/.Give the date as fully as the report does, day first. MLA also drops the https:// from a URL (but keeps it on a DOI link).

Quick checklist

  • The people named as authors, with et al. for three or more
  • Same organization wrote and published it? Start with the title
  • Title in italics and title case
  • Any report number, then the publisher, with no city
  • The date as fully as the report gives it, day first
  • The DOI link, or the URL without https://, ending with a period

Questions students ask

Is a report on a website a report or a webpage in MLA?

If the organization calls it a report or brief and it reads like a standalone document with its own title, cite it as a report: title in italics, then the organization as publisher. A short page that's one part of a larger site is better cited as a webpage, with its title in quotation marks and the website in italics.

Who is the author of an organization's report?

Look at the cover, title page, or byline. If people are named there, they're the authors and the organization is the publisher. If only the organization is named and it published the report too, there's no author element: start with the title.

Do I use the organization's abbreviation, like NCSBN?

Not in the Works Cited entry: MLA spells out the full name. Once you've written the full name in your own sentences, you can use a familiar abbreviation in the text, as long as you use it the same way every time.

Do I need the full date or just the year?

Give the date as fully as the report gives it. If the report page shows a day, month, and year, use all three: 19 Sept. 2024. If the report prints only a year, the year is enough.

Do I need an access date for an online report?

Usually not. MLA makes the access date optional. Add one at the end (Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.) if the report has no date, if it changes often, or if your instructor asks for it.

Is a National Academies report a report or a book?

Cite it as a book. Reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, like The Future of Nursing 2020–2030, are published as books by the National Academies Press, with a DOI. Our book by an organization guide shows the entry.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (authors, titles, the number, publisher, and date elements, URLs and DOIs, and optional elements) and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's posts "How do I cite a source that has no author?" (an organization that is author and publisher is named once, as publisher, with the report example Reading at Risk), on abbreviating corporate authors in in-text citations, and on shortening titles to their first noun phrase. Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page, with the MLA details re-checked on October 29, 2026: the Commonwealth Fund report page (authors and September 19, 2024, from its October 2026 Wayback capture, since the site refuses automated requests, plus the DOI record), the Pew report page (three authors, November 18, 2025), the KFF brief (four authors, June 16, 2026), and NCSBN's test plan PDF (cover and copyright page).

PERRLA builds an organization's report entry from its DOI or PDF link, and starts with the title when the organization published it.

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