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Citation Help for MLA, 8th Edition: Journal Article

An introduction to MLA Style.

Multiple Authors?

Example:
McGill, Ivan, John Kurt Glenn, and Alice Brockbank. The Action Learning Handbook: Powerful Techniques for Education. New York: Routledge Falmer, 2004.

Explanation:
List the first author last name first followed by the first and middle names followed by a comma. All other authors are listed first name followed by the last name. Insert the word "and" before the last author.

Month Abbreviations

According to p. 95 of the MLA Handbook 8th ed. Spell out months in the body of your paper and abbreviate as follows in your works cited list:

January = Jan.
February = Feb.
March = Mar.
April = Apr.
May = May
June = June
July = July
August = Aug.
September = Sept.
October = Oct.
November = Nov.
December = Dec.

Background

Before citing an article from a periodical, one needs to determine if the article is from a magazine or a scholarly journal. There are two general clues to look to in order to make this determination:

1. Frequency of publication. Journals are more likely to be monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly publications. If the periodical is published weekly, then it is a magazine and not a journal.

2. Pagination. Magazines are generally paginated by issue, i.e. with each new issue the page numbers start over with number one. Scholarly journals are paginated consecutively throughout the volume year. Page numbering does not begin with number one again until the first issue of the next volume year.

Examine your article and determine if it is a magazine article or not. If it is magazine article, follow this link. Remember, book reviews and newspapers articles are cited differently than both magazine and journal articles.

Example

If you got the article from a print journal:

Hagen, Patricia L., and Thomas W. Zelman. "'We Were Never on the Scene of the Crime':

     Eavan Boland's Repossession of History." Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 37, no. 4, 1991, pp. 442-453.

OR if you got the full-text of the article from an online database:

Hagen, Patricia L., and Thomas W. Zelman. "'We Were Never on the Scene of the Crime':

     Eavan Boland's Repossession of History." Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 37, no. 4, 1991,

     pp. 442-453, InfoTrac Student Edition, doi:10.5465/amle.2013.0337. Accessed 19 Mar. 2016. 
 
OR if the article does not have a doi number:

Hagen, Patricia L., and Thomas W. Zelman. "'We Were Never on the Scene of the Crime':

     Eavan Boland's Repossession of History." Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 37, no. 4, 1991,

     pp. 442-453, InfoTrac Student Edition, https://akin.css.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx

     direct=true&db=bth&AN=116756626&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed 19 Mar. 2016. 

Explanation

Author: Hagen, Patricia L., and Thomas W. Zelman.
Last name, then first and middle for the first author and first and then last name for all subsequent authors. Put a comma followed by the word and before the last author. End with a period. 

Title & subtitle of the article: "'We Were Never on the Scene of the Crime': Eavan Boland's Repossession of History."
The title & subtitle are separated by a colon. Capitalize the first and last words of the title and subtitle, and all proper nouns and important words. Place article title & subtitle in quotations and end with a period.

Title & subtitle of journal: Twentieth Century Literature
The title & subtitle are separated by a colon. Capitalize the first and last words of the title and subtitle, and all proper nouns and important words. Italicize journal title & subtitle.

Volume number & issue number: vol. 37, no. 4,
Put the abbreviation vol. before the volume number and no. before the issue number. Put commas between the two numbers and end with a comma before the year.

Year of publication: 1991,
Put the year the article was published followed by a comma.

Page numbers: pp. 442-453.
If page numbers of article run consecutively, separate beginning and ending page numbers with a hyphen preceded by the abbreviation pp. Put the abbreviation p. if the article is only one page long.  End the citation with a period. If the pages do not run consecutively, then indicate beginning page of the article followed by a + sign.


If you used an online database such as SOLAR to get the full-text of this article, then you have a few more parts including:

Database: InfoTrac Student Edition,
Include the name of the database you used to find the full-text of the article. Put in Italics and end with a comma.

DOI number OR Website Address: doi:10.5465/amle.2013.0337 OR https://akin.css.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=116756626&site=eds-live&scope=site
Add the doi number (digital object identifier) if one is given for the article. Include the lower-case letters doi followed by a colon, no space and then the number which usually starts with 10.

If a doi number is not given, then give the website address for the article. Use the permalink if possible. In our EBSCO databases, click on the Permalink option in the right-hand column to get this URL. 

End either way with a period.

Access Date: Accessed 19 Mar. 2016. 
Day, month, and year you viewed the article preceded by the word Accessed. Use proper abbreviation for months. End citation with a period.

[The above information is based on MLA Handbook  8th edition]