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| MLA Citation for a Journal Article |
Homepage > Academics > Library > Find Research Tools > Help for Citations > MLA Formats > Journal MLA
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 journal article or not. Follow these links for a magazine article, a book review, or a newspaper article as these are all cited differently.
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Example
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 37.4 (1991):
442-453.
Author
Last name, then first and middle. Avoid initials, if possible. Does your article have multiple authors? - Hagen, Patricia L., and Thomas W. Zelman.
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Title & subtitle of the article
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 - "'We Were Never on the Scene of the Crime': Eavan Boland's Repossession of History."
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Title & subtitle of journal
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. Underline journal title & subtitle - Twentieth Century Literature
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Volume number & issue number
Separate with a period - 37.4
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Year of publication
In parentheses. Separate from page numbers with a colon - (1991):
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Page numbers
If page numbers of article run consecutively, separate beginning and ending page numbers with a hyphen. End the citation with a period. If the pages do not run consecutively, then indicate beginning page of the article followed by a + sign - 442-453.
**If you got this article from an online database such as Academic Search Premier, you are not done! See the Full-text Articles from Online Databases for the second half of your citation.
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[The above information is based on p. 180-184 of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition]
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