MLA (9th edition) · Journal article
How to cite a journal article in MLA (9th edition)
The journal article is the workhorse citation of academic writing: author, year, article title, journal, volume, issue, pages, and increasingly a DOI. The DOI is the one field worth double-checking, because it makes the reference resolvable forever regardless of publisher website changes.
Worked example · MLA (9th edition)
Lovelace, Ada. “Sampling Strategies in Mixed-Methods Research.” Journal of Example Studies, vol. 18, no. 2, 2023, pp. 101–18, https://doi.org/10.1000/jes.2023.0182.
Rendered with the official MLA (9th edition) style file from a placeholder source (reserved example DOI and domain), so the format is exactly what the style produces. In text: Author-page in-text citations, for example (Author 23), with a Works Cited list.
What to collect before you cite a journal article
- Author or authors, in the order printed
- Article title
- Journal name (styles differ on abbreviating it)
- Volume and issue
- Page range
- DOI, whenever one exists
Have a DOI? Generate the reference instantly
Journal articles, many books and reports carry a DOI. Paste it and get the MLA (9th edition) entry from the same engine that produced the example above.
Citing a whole thesis, not one source?
CiteDash keeps your bibliography in MLA (9th edition) automatically, verifies every citation against a real paper, and compiles to DOCX, PDF or LaTeX.
Citing a journal article in MLA (9th edition): FAQ
The article has a DOI and a URL. Which one goes in?
The DOI. It is permanent and publisher-independent; a URL is only a fallback for articles that genuinely have no DOI.
The article is online-first with no page numbers yet. What now?
Cite it with the DOI and whatever numbering the journal provides (an article number, or 'advance online publication' in styles that mark it). Update the reference if the paginated version appears before you submit.
Preprint or published version?
Cite the version you actually read. If both exist and the published version says what you need, prefer it; if you read the preprint, say so, because the two can differ.
What does the in-text citation look like in MLA (9th edition)?
Author-page in-text citations, for example (Author 23), with a Works Cited list.
Is the example on this page hand-written?
No. It is rendered by the same citation engine and official CSL style file CiteDash uses for full thesis bibliographies, from a clearly-marked placeholder source, and a test re-renders it on every release so the page can never drift from the engine.