PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Test, scale, or inventory

How to Cite a Test, Scale, or Inventory in MLA 9

In MLA 9, cite a test, scale, or inventory through the version you used. For a manual, give the authors (first author inverted, et al. for three or more), the manual's title in italics and title case, the publisher, and the year: (Beck et al. 12) in the text. For a record in a database like APA PsycTests, give the authors, the test's name in italics, the database name in italics as the container, the year, and the DOI: (Duckworth et al.). A test you took online with no author goes by its name: Race IAT, then the organization as publisher and the URL, cited as (Race IAT).

The format

Last Name, First Name, et al. Title of the Test or Manual. Publisher, Year. (Database record: Name of the Test. Database Name, Year, https://doi.org/xxxx.)

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

Choose Tests, Scales, & Inventories, then pick what you have in hand:

  • Manual for a test, scale, or inventory: add each author as an Individual Author (person), then fill in Title of the Test, Scale, or Inventory, Publication Year, and the publisher under Publishers.
  • A record in a test database: add the authors, then fill in Database Record Name, Publication Year, Database Name (like APA PsycTests), and the URL. Paste a DOI as the full https://doi.org/ link.
  • A test, scale, or inventory directly (if manual isn't available): when an organization made the test and also puts it out, leave the author boxes empty and type the organization under Publishers, so the entry starts with the test's name. Then fill in the name, the year if there is one, and the URL. No date on the page? Fill in Retrieval Date with the day you used the test, and PERRLA adds Accessed and the date at the end.

PERRLA puts the title in italics and title case, writes the first author's name in full, and switches to et al. for three or more authors. A test that was published in a journal article is cited as the article: paste the article's DOI into PERRLA's reference search and PERRLA builds the journal entry for you.

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

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Which version you cite

Cite the thing you actually used. If you read the test's manual, cite the manual. If you're writing about how the scale was built or tested, cite the article that introduced it. If you used a database record, like a PsycTests entry, cite the record. Cite the test itself only when there's nothing else behind it.

BDI-II: the 1996 manual. Grit Scale: the 2007 article, or its PsycTests record. A Project Implicit test: the test page itself.

2. Author

Start with the first author's last name, a comma, and their first name as the source prints it, with any middle initial. Two authors: invert only the first, then and and the second name in normal order. Three or more: the first author, a comma, and et al.

Beck, Aaron T., et al.

Campos, Rui C., and Bruno Gonçalves.

For a translated or adapted version, the authors are the people who made that version. When an organization both made the test and publishes it, skip the author and start with the test's name.

3. Title

A test or a manual is a work published on its own, so its title goes in italics and title case, followed by a period. Keep the test's abbreviation if the title includes it.

BDI-II, Beck Depression Inventory: Manual.

Grit Scale.

4. Database (container)

For a database record, the database is the container: its name goes in italics, followed by a comma. MLA leaves out a publisher for a database that only makes other people's work available.

APA PsycTests,

Older references call it PsycTESTS. Use the name the record page shows today.

5. Publisher

For a manual, give the publisher as the title page shows it, leaving off a leading The and business words like Corporation, Company, or Inc. For a test from an organization, the organization goes here.

Psychological,

Project Implicit,

6. Date

Give the year the manual, record, or test gives. A print manual's entry ends with the year and a period. If the test has no date at all, leave the date out.

1996.

7. DOI or URL

End a database record with its DOI as a full https://doi.org/ link, and a test online with its URL, leaving off the https://. Close with a period.

https://doi.org/10.1037/t07051-000.

For an online test with no date, MLA suggests adding the date you used it at the end, written Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

Examples

A test manual: the BDI-II

The manual for the Beck Depression Inventory–II, by Aaron Beck, Robert Steer, and Gregory Brown, published by the Psychological Corporation in 1996. MLA drops a business word like Corporation from a publisher's name, so the entry gives Psychological. When a test has a manual and you used it, the manual is the source to cite. Three authors means the first author and et al.

  • In-text citation(Beck et al. 12)
  • Narrative citationBeck et al. explain that … (12).

A database record in APA PsycTests: the Grit Scale

The Grit Scale's record in APA PsycTests, credited to its four developers, 2007, with the record's DOI. Cite the record when you used what it says about the scale. APA PsycTests is the container, so it goes in italics after the title.

  • In-text citation(Duckworth et al.)
  • Narrative citationAs Duckworth et al. describe the scale, …

The article a test was published in: the Grit Scale

The Grit Scale first appeared in this June 2007 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. When you're writing about how the scale was built or how well it works, cite the article like any journal article, with the page you're drawing on.

  • In-text citation(Duckworth et al. 1087)
  • Narrative citationDuckworth et al. define grit as … (1087).

A translated version of a test

The Portuguese version of the BDI-II has its own PsycTests record, credited to Rui Campos and Bruno Gonçalves, who translated and tested it. Cite the version you used, with that version's authors and year. Two authors are both named, joined by and.

  • In-text citation(Campos and Gonçalves)
  • Narrative citationCampos and Gonçalves report that …

The test itself, online, with no author or date

Project Implicit's Race IAT, an implicit association test taken on the organization's site. There's no manual to cite, and Project Implicit both made the test and puts it out, so the entry starts with the test's name and Project Implicit goes in as the publisher. The page gives no date, so MLA suggests an access date at the end: Race IAT. Project Implicit, implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html. Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

  • In-text citation(Race IAT)
  • Narrative citationProject Implicit's Race IAT measures …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a test gives the first element of the Works Cited entry, usually the authors' last names, plus a page number when the source has pages and you're drawing on a specific one.

  • A manual with pages: the first author, et al., and the page, with no comma: (Beck et al. 12)
  • A database record: records have no page numbers, so the names alone: (Duckworth et al.)
  • Two authors: both last names joined by and: (Campos and Gonçalves)
  • No author: the test's name in italics, the way the entry starts: (Race IAT)
  • Name in your sentence: put only the page in parentheses at the end, or leave the parentheses off when there's no page: Duckworth et al. define grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals (1087).

Cite the version you used. If you gave participants the Portuguese BDI-II, the citation names Campos and Gonçalves, not Beck.

Common mistakes

  • Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit Scale [Database record].Duckworth, Angela L., et al. Grit Scale. APA PsycTests, 2007,That's APA. MLA spells out the first author's name, uses et al. for three or more authors, puts the date after the container, and has no bracketed label.
  • (Duckworth et al., 2007)(Duckworth et al.)MLA in-text citations don't take the year. Add a page number only when the source has pages.
  • (Beck et al.), for the Portuguese version of the BDI-II(Campos and Gonçalves)A translation or adaptation is cited by the people who made that version. Cite the version you actually gave or read.
  • Project Implicit. Race IAT. Project Implicit,Race IAT. Project Implicit,When an organization is both the author and the publisher, MLA starts the entry with the title and names the organization once, as publisher.
  • Grit Scale. APA PsycTests, 2007,Grit Scale. APA PsycTests, 2007,The database is a container, and container names go in italics.

Quick checklist

  • Cite the version you used: manual, article, database record, or the test itself
  • First author inverted, full first name, et al. for three or more
  • Title of the test or manual in italics and title case
  • Database name in italics as the container, then the year and the DOI
  • Organization that made and publishes the test: start with the title
  • In text: names (and a page if there is one), no year

Questions students ask

Do I cite the test, the manual, or the database record in MLA?

Cite the source you used. If you read the manual, cite the manual. If you're writing about the scale's development or evidence, cite the article that introduced it. If you used a database record's description, cite the record. Cite the test itself only when nothing else stands behind it.

How do I cite a PsycTests record in MLA?

Give the authors, the test's name in italics, APA PsycTests in italics as the container, the year, and the record's DOI as a full link: Duckworth, Angela L., et al. Grit Scale. APA PsycTests, 2007, https://doi.org/10.1037/t07051-000. In the text, cite the authors: (Duckworth et al.).

How do I cite a translated or adapted version of a test?

Cite the version you used, with that version's authors and year. The Portuguese BDI-II is credited to Campos and Gonçalves in 2011, not to Beck and colleagues. You can mention the original test in your sentence and cite its manual too.

What about a test on a website, like an online quiz?

If it has a manual or an article behind it, cite that. If not, cite the test itself: the author if a person made it, the test's name in italics, the organization that puts it out, the year if there is one, and the URL. With no date on the page, add the date you took it at the end: Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

Why is there no year in my in-text citation?

MLA in-text citations point to the Works Cited entry by the author's name and, when there is one, the page. The year lives in the entry. Putting it in parentheses with the name is the APA style.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, containers, and when an organization is both author and publisher) and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's answers on company reports (an entity that writes and publishes a work goes in as publisher, and the entry starts with the title) and access dates. Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page: the BDI-II manual against its Library of Congress record (via Open Library OL779362M), the two PsycTests records on APA PsycNet and Crossref (full author names, 2007 and 2011), the Grit article on PubMed (PMID 17547490: June 2007, 92(6), 1087–1101) and Crossref (full first names), and the Race IAT on Project Implicit's site.

PERRLA builds the Works Cited entry for the manual, the database record, or the test itself, italics and et al. included.

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