Back to Library Help

    MLA Style Citations : Journal Articles

  • Authors are handled the same in all formats
  • Article titles are the same in all formats
  • The title is capitalized according to conventions
  • The title is placed within quotation marks
  • There is a period, within the quotation marks, at the end of the title
  • An article subtitle is handled the same as a book title except it is inside the quotation marks

    Journal article

Author's Last Name, First Name Middle Initial. "Title of Article." Name of Journal

Volume.Issue (Year): Pages.

Author

  • The first part of a journal article citation is the author(s), which is the same for all formats of materials. See Authors page for more information.

Article Title

  • Article titles are the same in all formats
  • The article title is capitalized according to conventions
  • The article title is placed within quotation marks
  • There is a period, within the quotation marks, at the end of the article title
  • An article subtitle is handled the same as a book title except it is inside quotation marks

    Author. "Article Title."

Example:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal Title
  • Journal title is underlined.

    Author. "Title." Journal Title

Example:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal of Urban History

Volume and Issue Numbers
  • In a journal citation, the volume number is listed
  • In a journal without continuous pagination, issue number is listed
  • A journal that starts each issue with "page 1" does not have continuous pagination

    What is a volume and issue number?

  • Volume refers to a time period, usually one year
  • Usually volume refers to one publication year of the journal. (Volume 19 is equivalent to 1994)
  • An issue is one item published within a volume
  • Do not use the words volume or issue or abbreviations (vol., no., iss., etc.)
  • Separate volume and issue numbers with a period.

    Author. "Title." Magazine Title volume.issue

In the example below, the volume is 19, meaning it was the 19th year of publication.
The issue is 2, which stands for the second publication within that volume.
The two numbers are separated by a period.

Example:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal of Urban History 19.2

Publication Year
  • The publication year is listed in parentheses after the volume and issue
  • The year is followed by a colon ( : )

Author. "Title." Magazine Title volume.issue (Year):

Example:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal of Urban History 19.2 (1993):

Page Numbers
  • Page numbers are the same for newspapers, magazines, and journals
  • Beginning and ending page numbers are listed
  • If pages are nonconsecutive, note with + symbol (24-28+)
  • Do not use abbreviations for pages such as p., pp. pg., pgs.
  • Page numbers are followed by a period

Author. "Title." Journal Title volume.issue (Year): Pages.

Example:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal of Urban History 19.2 (1993): 95-125.

Journal Article from Database

  • A periodical is considered a print periodical if you actually have the publication or a photocopy from the publication
  • If you accessed the article through a database (i.e. online) you need to add the database information to the basic periodical citation format we learned above
  • If you received an article through UTAD, the Utah Article Delivery Service, it was photocopied from the periodical and is considered a print periodical article
  • The basic citation for a journal article from a database is the same as a print article

Author's Last Name, First Name Middle Initial. "Title of Article." Name of Journal

Volume.Issue (Year): Pages. Name of Database. Dixie College Library,

St. George, UT. Day Month Year you accessed the article. <Main URL

for database>.

Database Name

  • After the basic citation, information about the database is added
  • The first element added is the name of the database
  • The database name is followed by a period

One important note: EBSCOhost is NOT a database. The library subscribes to many EBSCOhost databases including: EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost Business Source Premier, etc.

It is important to include the full name of an EBSCO database because the purpose in doing a Works Cited list is so others can locate the same material.

Journal Article Citation. Name of Database.

Example:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

    Journal of Urban History 19.2 (1993): 95-125.

    EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite.

Access Information
  • The next element is the access information
  • For all subscription databases, the access information is the Dixie College Library or Browning Library
  • Library or Browning Library
  • Subscription databases are those you must be on campus or use the off-campus access to use
  • Library is always abbreviated "Lib." in MLA citations
  • The library information is followed by a comma

Periodical Article Citation. Name of Database. Dixie State College Lib.,

Example:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal of Urban History 19.2 (1993): 95-125. EBSCOhost Academic

Search Elite. Dixie College Lib.,

Place of Acess
  • For all subscription databases, the place of access is St. George, UT
  • States are abbreviated with the same two letter abbreivations used for book place of publication
  • The place of access ends with a period

Periodical Article Citation. Name of Database. Dixie State College Lib., St. George, UT.

Example:
Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal of Urban History 19.2 (1993): 95-125.

EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite. Dixie College Lib., St. George,

UT.

Date of Access

This is the date you accessed the article in the online database.
The date is in the usual Day Month Year format.
The date ends with a period.

Periodical Article Citation. Name of Database. Dixie State College Lib., St. George, UT.

Day Month Year.

Example:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal of Urban History 19.2 (1993): 95-125. EBSCOhost Academic

Search Elite. Dixie College Lib., St. George, UT. 15 June 2002.

Brief URL
  • A brief URL is the final element
  • A URL is a Uniform Resource Locator, the Internet address of a Web site
  • The URL is shortened to access only the database, not the article
  • The brief URL is enclosed in angled brackets ( < > )
  • The citation ends with a period

Periodical Article Citation. Name of Database. Dixie State College Lib., St. George, UT.

Day Month Year. <Brief URL>.

Examples:

Hise, Greg. "Home Building and Industrial Decentralization in Los Angeles."

Journal of Urban History 19.2 (1993): 95-125. EBSCOhost Academic

Search Elite. Dixie College Lib., St. George, UT. 15 June 2002.

<http://www.epnet.com/>.

All EBSCOhost database articles (Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost Business Source Premier, etc.) will have the same shortened URL: <http://www.epnet.com/>.
Copyright © 2001 - Dixie State College, for more information contact: snyder@dixie.edu