MLA Biblographic Style Guide

In what follows, we’ll explain each of these elements, how you’ll find them, and how they might differ from one medium to another:

• Author

Begin the entry with the author’s last name(s), followed by a comma and the rest of the name, as presented in the work. End this element with a period. Last name(s), Name

Alcaraz Varó, Enrique

When a source has two authors, include them in the order in which they are presented in the work. Reverse the first of the names as just described, follow it with a comma and and, and give the second name in normal order.

Dorris, Michael, and Louis Erdirch

When a source has three or more authors, reverse the first of the names (Last name(s), Name) as just described and follow it with a comma and “et al.” (and others).

Burdick, Anne, et al.

If the author is a corporate author (an institution, an association, a government agency, or another kind of organization), you must indicate its name as it appears in the source, without initial articles and without abbreviations..

Source: The American Psychological Association (APA)

Work-cited list: American Psychological Association

 

• Title of source

The next element included in the entry in the works-cited list is the title of the source. Titles are given in the entry in full exactly as they are found in the source. When writing the title you must respect the use of capital letters of the language in which the information is given. A title is placed in quotation marks if the source is part of a larger work. A title is italicized if the source is self-contained and independent.

Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

A subtitle is includes after main title separated by a colon and a space (:). The subtitle also begins with a capital letter.

 

Akmir, Abdeluahed. Los árabes en América Latina: Historia de una emigración

When a work is published without an author’s name, skip the author element and begin the entry with the work’s title.

 

• Title of container

When the source being documented forms a part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source. The container is crucial to the identification of

Examples:

An article is contained in a research journal. The article is the source and the research journal is the container.

Goldman, Anne."Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante." The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 69-88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.

A judgment is contained in a legal database. The judgment is the source and the database is the container resource.

 

The examples provided here can be divided into two groups: those with only one container and those with two. If there are two containers, you will have to indicate both.

 

• Other contributors

Aside from an author whose name appears at the start of the entry, other people may be credited in the source as contributors. If their participation is important to the identification of the work, name the other contributors in the entry. Precede each name with a description of the role (edited by, directed by, translated by).

You must include their first and last name(s) after their job description in the source.

Edited by Begoña Lolo

Directed by René Wellek and Christopher Tingley

Ilustrated by Sabrina Alcorn Baron et al.

 

• Version

If the source carries a notation indicating that it is a version of a work released in more than one form, identify the version in your entry. Books are commonly issued in versions called editions. A revised version of a book may be labeled revised edition or be numbered (second edition, etc.). You should indicate the version with ordinal numbers (2nd, 34th, etc.) and abbreviate the terms “revised” (rev.) and “edition” (ed.).

7th ed.

Rev. ed.

Version 1.3.1.

 

• Number

If the source you are documenting may be part of a numbered sequence, for instance, an issued in multiple volumes, a journal issues, the seasons of a television series, you have to indicate this in your entry.

Vol. 2

No. 98

Vol. 128, no. 1

 

• Publisher

Another element to include in the reference, if it appears in the source, is the organization responsible for producing the source or making it available to the public. If two or more organizations are named in the source and they seem equally responsible for the work, cite each of them, separating the names with a forward slash (/). But if one of the organizations had primary responsibility for the work, cite it alone.

 

U of Oxford / U of Texas

 

• Publication date

Depending on the source you use, the date of publication indicated can be complete (day, month and year), or include only month(s) and year, only the year or a period of years, also the season, etc.

28 Dec. 2014

Jan.-Feb. 2015

 

• Location

How to specify a work’s location depends on the medium of publication:

- In print sources a page number (preceded by p.) or a range of page numbers (preceded by pp.) specifies the location of a text in a container such as a book anthology or a periodical.

pp. 515-43 (no 515-543)

-The location of an online work is commonly indicated by its URL, or Web address or, as the case may be, its persistent identifier (DOI, Handle, PURL, etc.).

www.jstor.org/stable/4628061996-2014

https://doi.org/10.153/pmc.2000.0021

-In the case of audiovisual documents on physical media that are part of a numbered sequence, their location must also be indicated, for instead a disc number of a television episode in a DVD set.