How to Cite a Journal Article in MLA
Updated October 2026
Citing a journal article in MLA comes down to one template and a handful of rules. Below: the exact 9th edition format, a real example produced by our citation engine, and the in-text form — or paste your source into the generator on this page and copy the finished citation.
The MLA format
Author Last, First, and First Last. “Title of Article.” Journal Name, vol. X, no. X, Year, pp. xx-xx, DOI or URL.
MLA (9th edition) formats a journal article reference as shown above. A real example, generated by our citation engine:
Rasch, Björn, and Jan Born. "About Sleep's Role in Memory." Physiological Reviews, vol. 93, no. 2, 2013, pp. 681–766, https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012.
In-text(Rasch and Born 681)
Cite a journal article in MLA — free
Set up for this page. Paste and go.
A DOI finds the article's details.
Citation style
MLA Handbook, 9th edition (2021). Title case for titles, and containers rather than fixed source types.
Finding the pieces
Or skip the hunt: Paste the article's DOI into the generator. It works out what the source is, fills every field from the source's own record, and is already set to MLA.
- DOI — first page of the PDF or the article's landing page; it fills everything else automatically
- Volume and issue — the year's bound set and its installment: 93(2)
- Page range — the article's full span in the journal, not the pages you quoted
- Journal name — italicized in every style
MLA's formatting rules at work
- Only the first author's name is inverted; co-authors appear in natural order with full first names
- Titles use Title Case — capitalize all principal words
- Source titles take quotation marks inside a container; standalone works are italicized
- The date sits near the end of the entry, in day-month-year form with abbreviated months
Journal Article-specific pitfalls
- The article title is never italicized — the journal name always is
- Online-only articles without page ranges use the article number instead
- Cite the version of record (the published version), not the preprint, when both exist
In-text citations in MLA
MLA cites in the text with author and page: (Alvarez 12) — no comma, no year. Sources without page numbers (most web sources) cite the author alone: (Alvarez). Three or more authors use et al.: (Harris et al. 360).
No author? A shortened title stands in — quoted for articles and pages, italicized for whole works: ("First Words of Title").
Building the Works Cited
Every in-text citation pairs with a full entry on the Works Cited page, alphabetized by author. Add each citation to your bibliography as you generate it, and the Bibliography Builder assembles and exports the finished page to Word with the title, ordering, and indentation MLA requires.
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- What's the basic MLA format for a journal article?
- Author Last, First, and First Last. “Title of Article.” Journal Name, vol. X, no. X, Year, pp. xx-xx, DOI or URL. — see the worked example above, generated by the same engine that powers the free citation tool.
- Do I mention the database (JSTOR, EBSCO) I used?
- Generally no in current styles — the DOI suffices. MLA permits the database as a second container for items only available there.
- How do I cite a journal article in MLA in-text?
- Author and page with no comma: (Alvarez 12); author alone when no pages exist: (Alvarez).
- Can I get this citation in other styles too?
- Yes — every result in the generator renders APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE simultaneously. Generate once, switch styles with one click.