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MLA: Journals

Bibliographic Citations

Things to Keep in Mind!

  • Use vol. and no. in front of volume and issue numbers. 
  • The month (abbreviated) or season can go before the date.
  • Use p. or pp. before the range of page numbers for the whole article. 

 

Works by One Author. 

Last name. First name M. "Article Title." Journal Title, vol. Volume#, no. Issue#, Mon, or Season Year, pp. Page Range.

Davis, Alan. "Decision Processes." Critical Thought, vol. 5, no.1, Jan. 2010, pp. 17-25

 

Works by Two Authors

First Author's Last name, First M., and Second Author's First name M. Last name. "Article Title." Journal Title, vol. Volume#, no. Issue#, Year, pp. Page Range. 

Jones, Ted C., and David Wise. "All Things Must Matter." The Journal of Citation, vol. 25, no. 7, 2015, pp. 73-96.

 

Works by Three or More Authors

First Author's Last name, First name, M., et al. "Article Title." Journal Title, vol. Volume#, no. Issue#, Year, pp. Page Range. 

Kirk, J., et al. <insert standard article citation>. 

 

In-Text Citations for Works with One Author

  • Signal phrases use present tense verbs. 
  • End citations do not use punctuation to separate the elements

Signal phrase: Last name indicates... (Page#)

Davis indicates... (23).

End citations: (Last name Page#)

(Davis 23).

In-text Citations for Works with Two Authors

  • Both signal phrase citations and end citations link the two authors with "and."

Signal phrase: 1st Author's Last name and 2nd Author's Last name state... (Page#)

Jones and Wise state... (75). 

End citation: (1st Author's Last name and 2nd Author's Last name Page#). 

(Jones and Wise 75). 

In-Text Citations for Works with Three or More Authors

  • All sources with 3 or more authors use "et al." in both the signal phrase and end citation.
  • There is no comma, but the period after et al. is required

Signal phrase: 1st Author's Last name et al. say... (Page#). 

Kirk et al. say...(321). 

End citation: (1st Author's Last name et al. Page#). 

(Kirk et al. 321). 

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