MLA Core Elements 

Author

In the Author element, list the primary creator of the work you are citing. The author of a work can be a writer, artist, or any other type of creator. The author can be an individual, a group of persons, an organization, or a government. Some examples of authors are the author of a play, such as Euripides; the author of an essay, such as Benjamin Franklin; a painter, such as Berthe Morisot; a music group, such as the Beatles; and an intergovernmental body, such as the United Nations. Include pseudonyms, stage names, online usernames, and the like in the Author element, especially if the person is well known by that form of the name (e.g., Stendhal, Mark Twain, and Lady Gaga).  Sometimes a label must be used to describe the role of the person or persons listed in the Author element. This most often occurs when the person is not the primary creator, such as for editors of collections of essays written by various authors, since editors shape the content of the volume. 

• Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. Vintage, 2004.

• Sanchez Prado, Ignacio M., editor. Mexican Literature in Theory. Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.

When a work is published without an author's name, do not list the author as Anonymous. Instead, skip the Author element and begin the entry with the work's title.

• Lazarillo de Tormes. Medina del Campo, 1554.

Author: How to Style It

When an entry begins with the name of an author who has a family name or other surname, begin with the surname so that the entry can be alphabetized under this name. Follow the surname with a comma and the rest of the name as presented by the work. End the Author element with a period (unless a period that is part of the author's name already appears at the end). 

• Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasure of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford UP, 2011.

Two Authors

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 described above, follow it with a comma and the word and, and give the second name in the normal order. To include a label such as editors or translators, add a comma after the second author's name and then add the label.

• Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdrich. The Crown of Columbus. HarperCollins Publishers, 1999.

• Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar, editors. The Female Imagination and the Modernist Aesthetic. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1986.

The comma is needed in addition to and so that the reader can easily distinguish the two names. 

Three or More Authors

When a source has three or more authors, reverse the first of the names as described above and follow it with a comma and the abbreviation et al. ("and others"). Italicize et al. only if it is referred to as a term, as the example in this sentence show. In parenthetical citations and works-cited-list entries, the abbreviation should be set roman (i.e., not italicized). 

• Charon, Rita, et al. The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Oxford UP, 2017.

Names not Reversed

In some languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, the surname may be listed before the given on the title page. Do not reverse the name in the works-cited list. When a name is not reversed, no comma is needed. 

Lack of Surname

Do not reverse the following: the name of an author who lacks a surname, some names of nobility and premodern names, pseudonyms (including stage names and online usernames) that do not take the form of a name traditionally reversed, and name of groups and organizations. 

• Elizabeth I. Collected Works. Edited by Leah S. Marcus et al., U of Chicago P, 2000.

• Film Crit Hulk. "What We Talk about When We Talk about Female Filmmaking." Film Crit Hulk! Hulk Blog!, 16 Mar. 2018, filmcrithulk.blog/2018/03/16/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-female-filmmaking/.

• Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Kings of Britain. Translated by Michael A. Faletra, Broadview, 2008.

• Lady Gaga. The Fame. Interscope Records, 2008.

• United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and Francis, 1991.

But reverse a pseudonym, screen name, stage name, and the like that take the form of a name traditionally reversed.

• Tribble, Ivan. "Bloggers Need Not Apply." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 8 July 2005, chronicle.com/article/Bloggers-Need-Not-Apply/45022.

Pseudonyms and Name Changes

Authors may write and publish under different names--for instance, by adopting pseudonyms or changing their names. When you are aware that an author has published under different names, consider whether it is useful for your reader to know that works published under different names are by the same person, clearer to use a well-known form of an author's name for easy recognition, or appropriate to avoid the former version of an author's name. Various solutions exist for presenting such works. 

One technique is to list the work or works under the best-known form of the name. For example, if a letter by Mark Twain (a well-known pseudonym) was written and published under his real name, Samuel Clemens, you can list a single entry under the better-known form of the name, allow you to refer to that form in your prose and to avoid cumbersome in-text references. When citing ore than one work [by the same author] you can consolidate entries under the better-known form of the name. 

• Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. William Collins, 2010.

• ----. Letter to Francis D. Clark. 5 Jan. 1876. Mark Twain Project, Regents of the University of California, 2017-20, www.marktwainproject.org. 

Another technique is to add information to entries in square brackets. 

• Bachman, Richard [Stephen King]. The Long Walk. Signet, 1979.

• Clerk, N. W. [C. S. Lewis]. A Grief Observed. Faber and Faber, 1961.

Or, if you elect to list the work under the person's better-known, real name, provide the pseudonym in square brackets, preceded by published as in italics.

• King, Stephan [published as Richard Bachman]. The Long Walk. Signet, 1979.

• Lewis, C. S. [published as N. W. Clark]. A Grief Observed. Faber and Faber, 1961.

Online Handles

If an author's online handle differs from the author's account name, it may be helpful to supply the handle in square brackets after the name.

• Fogarty, Mignon [@GrammarGirl]. "Every once in a while, that Gmail notice asking if you meant to reply to a 5-day-old message is quite helpful." Twitter, 13 Feb. 2019, twitter.com/GrammarGirl/status/1095734401550303232.

Organizations, Groups, and Government Authors

Listing by Name

Initial articles (a, as, the) should be omitted in the works-cited-list entry.

Incorrect

• The Beatles. Revolver. EMI Records, 1966.

• Beatles, The. Revolver. EMI Records, 1966.

Correct

• Beatles. Revolver. EMI Records, 1966.

Alphabetize a name of an organization by the first word and do not reverse the name.

Incorrect

Nations, United. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and Francis, 1991.

Correct

United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and Francis, 1991.

Government Authors

Government publications emanate from many sources and so present special problems in citation. If you are working with many government sources, you may choose to standardize the names of government entities so that entries can be consolidated. But nonspecialists and writers working with very few government sources can usually treat them just like any other source written by an organization: record the name as presented by the source.

• U. S. Department of Labor. Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-2015. Skyhorse Publishing, 2014.

Title

In the Title of Source element, list the title of the work you are citing. 

• Apostol, Gina. Insurrecto. Soho Press, 2018.

If the work doesn't have a title, provide a concise but informative description of the work.

• Advertisement for Upton Tea Imports. Smithsonian, Oct. 2018, p. 84.

• Lizzo. Concert. Vega, 19 Nov. 2019, Copenhagen.

• Mackintosh, Charles Rennie. Chair of stained oak. 1897-1900, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

• Ng, Celeste [@pronounced_ing]. Photo of a letter from Shirley Jackson. Twitter, 22 Jan. 2018, twitter.com/pronounced_ing/status/955528799357231104.

Title of Container 

On the MLA template of core elements, a container is a work that contains another work. In the example below, the website Guernica contains the short story "Carrot Legs"; the website name appears in the Title of Container element. 

• Chou, Elaine Hsieh. "Carrot Legs." Guernica, 12 Sept. 2019, www.guernicamag.com/carrot-legs/.

Websites are not always containers. A website is a container when it serves as the platform of publication of the particular version of the work you consult; it is not a container when it is a passive conduit providing access to the work. To determine whether an app or a database is a container, apply the same criteria as for a website.

• If you click on a link on Facebook that takes you to a New York Times article, Facebook is not the container of the article; the New York Times website is. But when you read a comment posted by one of your friends on Facebook, then Facebook is the container of the comment.

• A learning management system, like Blackboard, is not a container if it links you to a work on an external website, like Project Muse. But if you read a class lecture on Blackboard and quote from that lecture in your paper, then Blackboard is the container because it is the platform of publication of the version of the lecture you quote from.

• An online store, like Amazon, is not the container of an e-book that you download form the store. But if you quote a review of the book posted by a customer on the Amazon website, the Amazon website is the container of the review.

• If you search for an image of the Mona Lisa through Google Images and the results page includes thumbnails of the painting, do not cite the results page as the container for one of the thumbnails. Choose a thumbnail from the search results and click through to the website hosting the image of the Mona Lisa. That website, not Google Images, is the container because it is the platform that published the image. But when Google publishes an original artwork, as it does when it features changes to its search bar with Google Doodles, Google is the container of the artwork.

• When an app like Bible Gateway that is downloaded to your phone, tablet, or computer contains other works--in this case, different versions of the Bible--the app is a work containing other works, and this it is a container. However, if you quote from a PDF of an article you downloaded and saved on the Google Drive app on your phone, the app is not a work and not the platform of publication for the work. It is simply the software through which you accessed the work published elsewhere.

• Suppose that you search for articles on the role of literature in promoting literacy at public libraries on the EBSCOhost site and then decide to read the article "The Latinx Family" by clicking on the PDF. The journal Bilingual Review/La revista bilingue contains the article, and EBSCOhost is the container of the journal. 

• If you search for an article on how teachers can provide helpful feedback on student papers and decide to read the article "Preparing Teacher Candidates for the Instruction of English Language Learners", you are sent the website eric.gov to read the article. Thus, the website titled ERIC (an abbreviation for Education Resources Information Center, so styled in capital letters) is the container of the article, not EBSCOhost.

Contributor 

People, groups, and organizations can contribute to a work while not being its primary creator. This may be the case for works that have a primary author, whether specified or anonymous, and for ensemble works that are the product of many contributors but not of a single, primary creator. Key contributors should always be listed in your entry. Other kinds of contributors should be listed on a case-by-case basis in the Contributor element, as explained below. Whenever you list a contributor, include a label describing the role played.  You should always list the following contributors in your entry, generally in the Contributor element:

• translator

• editors responsible for scholarly editions and anthologies of a primary author's works

• editors responsible for edited collections of works by various primary authors from which you cite an individual contribution 

Names in the Contributor element are styled just like the names in your prose. Note that, unlike names in the Author element, names in the Contributor element are not reversed for alphabetization, since this element does not begin the entry. Introduce each name (or each group of names, if more than on person performed the same function) by describing the role that the person or group played in the creation of the work. Below are some common descriptions.

• adapted by

• choreographed by

• conducted by

• created by

• directed by

• edited by

• illustrated by

• introduction by

• narrated by

• performance by

• translated by

The nature of the contribution may require you to develop a more specific label.

• Burge, Stuart, director. Othello. Japanese subtitles by Shunji Shimizu, BHE Films, 1965.

When a work's author is listed in the Contributor element, precede the author's name with the label by.

• Eiland, Howard, and Kevin McLaughlin, translators. The Arcades Project, by Walter Benjamin, Belknap Press, 1999.

But do not indicate when an editor or translator has also written a preface, forward, introduction, or other section of a work, even when your source does. Similarly, if the name of the author of a preface, introduction, or the like is given on the title page, do not include the name in the Contributor element. When citing a preface or an introduction, list its author in the Author element.

The label describing the contributor's role should be lowercase (unless it is a proper noun). Note, however, that the initial word after the period that concludes the element should be capitalized. In the first example below, edited is lowercase because it is a word that is normally lowercase and appears after a comma. It is capitalized in the second example because it is placed after the period following the Title of Source element.

• Sabau, Ana. "The Perils of Ownership: Property and Literature in Nineteenth-Century Mexico." Mexican Literature in Theory, edited by Ingacio M. Sanchez Prado, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp. 33-54.

• Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed., W. W. Norton, 2009.

When a source has three or more contributors in the same role, list the name of the first contributor and follow it with the abbreviation et al. ("and others").

• Balibar, Etienne. Politics and the Other Scene. Translated by Christine Jones et al., Verso, 2002.

If you are listing more than one contributor in different roles, follow the order of the source or list contributors in order of prominence or importance to the work. But when you are including the author in the Contributor element, as in the example below, always list the author first. 

• King, Martha, and Carol Lazzaro-Weis, translators. "The Signorina" and Other Stories. By Anna Banti, edited by Lazzaro-Weis, Modern Language Association of America, 2001.

When a name appearing in the Contributor element has already been given in full in an entry, shorten it by listing the form that you would use for subsequent references in your prose.

• Bakhtin, M. M. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Edited by Michael Holquist, translated by Caryl Emerson and Holquist, U of Texas P, 1981.

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.). Versions of books are sometimes given other descriptions as well.

• The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.

• Cheyfitz, Eric. The Poetics of Imperialism: Translation and Colonization from The Tempest to Tarzan. Expanded ed., U of Pennsylvania P, 1997.

• Miller, Casey, and Kate Swift. Words and Women. Updated ed., HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

• Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television: The Critical View. 7th ed., Oxford UP, 2007.

Works in other media, such as websites, apps, musical compositions, and films, may also appear in versions.

• Bible Gateway. Version 42, Bible Gateway/Zondervan, 2016.

• Blade Runner. 1982. Director's cut, Warner Bros., 1992.

• Minecraft. Java ed. for Mac, 2017.

• Schubert, Franz. Piano Trio in E-flat Major D 929. Performance by Wiener Mozart-Trio, unabridged version, Preiser Records, 2011.

You can also use the Version element to specify that you have an e-book version of a printed book. (An e-book is defined here as a digital book that lacks a URL and that you use software to read on a personal electronic device.)

• Crystal, David. Making a Point: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation. E-book ed., St. Martin's Press, 2015.

• MLA Handbook. 9th ed., e-book ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

When citing versions in the works-cited list, write ordinal numbers with arabic numerals and no superscript (2nd, 10th). Abbreviate revised (rev.) and edition (ed.).

• Parker, William Riley. The MLA Style Sheet. Rev. ed., Modern Language Association of America, 1962.

• Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 2002. 2 vols.

Descriptive terms for versions, such as expanded ed., are written in lowercased, but an initial letter directly following a period is capitalized.

• Cheyfitz, Eric. The Poetics of Imperialism: Translation and Colonization from The Tempest to Tarzan. Expanded ed., U of Pennsylvania P, 1997.

• Rumi, Jalal al Din. The Essential Rumi. Translated by Coleman Barks, with Reynold Nicholson et al., new expanded ed., HarperCollins Publishers, 2010.

Names like Authorized King James Version and Norton Critical Edition are proper nouns (names of unique things) and are therefore capitalized like titles. Such names are not abbreviated. 

Number

The source you are documenting may be part of a sequence, like a numbered volume, issue, episode, or season. If your source uses a numbering system, include the number in your entry, preceded by a common abbreviation or term that identifies the kind of division the number refers to. A text too long to be printed in one book, for instance, is issued in multiple volumes, which may be numbered. If you consult one volume of a numbered multivolume set and each volume is titled the same, indicate the volume number. 

• Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2nd ed., vol. 2, Oxford UP, 2002.

• Wellek, Rene. A History of Modern Criticism, 1750-1950. Vol. 5, Yale UP, 1986.

Journal issues are typically numbered. Some journals use both volume and issue numbers. In general, the issues of a journal published in a single year compose one volume. Usually, volumes are numbered sequentially, while the numbering of issues starts over with 1 in each new volume. 

• Young, Vershawn Ashanti. "Should Writers Use Only Their Own English?" Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 110-18.

Some journals do not use volume numbers but instead number all the issues in sequence.

• Kafka, Ben. "The Demon of Writing: Paperwork, Public Safety, and the Reign of Terror." Representations, no. 98, 2007, pp. 1-24.

Comic books are commonly numbered like journals--for instance, with issue numbers.

• Clowes, Daniel. David Boring. Eightball, no. 19, Fantagraphics, 1998.

The season and episode numbers of a television show will usually not be apparent when you are watching the show live; when you are streaming the show, the navigation menu or landing page sometimes indicates this information. Similarly, podcasts and other audiovisual sources published online or streamed through apps will indicate the number alongside other publication information. 

Use arabic numerals in the Number element. Convert roman numerals in the source to arabic numerals; numbers that are spelled out in the source should be rendered as arabic numerals.

In the source In the Number element

Volume Two vol. 2

Number XXIX no. 29

Precede the number with a label, often abbreviated, identifying the type of division it is. Some works require more than one component in the Number element: for example, a journal that publishes issues in volumes and numbers or a television show or podcast that produces numbered episodes and seasons. When your source uses more than one number, show both components, each with an appropriate label. Separate two components in the Number element with a comma.

• Baron, Naomi S. "Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media." PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193-200.

• "Hush." Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, season 4, episode 10, Mutant Enemy, 1999.

Publisher

The publisher is the entity primarily responsible for producing the work or making it available to the public. In the example below, Oxford University Press is the publisher of the book "Who Set You Flowin'?" The African-American Migration Narrative. 

• Griffin, Farah Jasmine. "Who Set You Flowin'?" The African-American Migration Narrative. Oxford UP, 1996.

The Publisher element may include the following:

• the publisher of a book

• the studio, company, distributor, or network that produced or broadcast a film or television show

• the institution responsible for creating the content of a website

• the theater company that put on a play

• the agency or department that printed or produced a government publication

A publisher's name may be omitted when, by convention, the publisher need not be given or there is no publisher. Examples include the following:

• periodicals (works whose publication is ongoing, like journals, magazines, and newspapers)

• works published by their authors or editors (that is, self-published works)

• websites whose titles are essentially the same as the names of their publishers (e.g., the Modern Language Association publishes a website of the same name)

• websites not involved in producing the works they make available (e.g., a service where users upload and manage their own content, like WordPress or YouTube, or a platform that aggregates previously published content, like JSTOR; if the contents of an aggregated site are organized into a whole, as the contents of YouTube and JSTOR are, the site is named in the Container element. 

Record the name of the publisher--including its punctuation--as presented in the work you are citing. Standardize the capitalization of publishers' names according to the guidelines for capitalizing the names of organizations. 

If two or more independent organizations are named in the source and they seem equally responsible for the work, include each of them in the Publisher element, separating the names with a forward slash (/). But if you know that one of the organizations had primary responsibility for the work, list it alone.

• Parisian, Catherine M., editor. The First White House Library: A History and Annotated Catalogue. Pennsylvania State UP/Bibliographic Society of America/National First Ladies' Library, 2010.

If the government agency as it appears in the source has many component parts, you can truncate the name, keeping only the name of the government and the primary agency. For instance, you've found a special report from the US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Studies, this can be truncated to U. S. Department of Justice.

• Durose, Matthew R., et al. Multistate Criminal History Patterns of Prisoners Released in Thirty States. U. S. Dept. of Justice, Sept. 2015, www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mschpprts05.pdf.

When you give publishers' names in the list of works cited, include the word Publishing or Publishers (e.g., Workman Publishing) or Pictures (e.g., Dream-Works Pictures) if it appears, but omit words denoting the type of legal corporate entity the publisher is, like Company (Co.), Corporation (Corp.), Incorporated (Inc.), and Limited (Ltd.). Also omit initial articles (The).

If the name of an academic press contains the words University and Press or foreign language equivalent, use the abbreviation UP or the equivalent in the publisher's name.

In the source In your entry

Oxford University Press Oxford UP

Presses Universitaires de Grenoble PU de Grenoble

SUNY Press or State University of New York Press   State of U New York P

If the word University or a foreign language equivalent does not appear in the name of the press but the word Press does, spell out Press.

• Academic Press

• Feminist Press

• MIT Press

As you do for publishers' names in prose, change an ampersand or a plus sign to and in a publisher's name in your list of works cited.

In the source In your entry

Farrar & Rinehart Farrar and Rinehart 

The traditional practice of citing the city where the publisher of a book was located usually serves little purpose today. There remains a few circumstances in which the city of publication may matter, however. Books published before 1900 are conventionally associated with their cities of publication. In an entry for a pre-1900 work, you may give the city of publication in place of the publisher. Spell the name of the city according to the source: for example, if the source shows Firenze, do not render it as Florence. 

• Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret. Translated by John Oxenford, new ed., London, 1875.

• Segni, Bernardo, translator. Rettorica ed poetica d'Aristotile. Firenze, 1549.

Publication Date

The Publication Date element tells your reader when the version of the work you are citing was published. In the example below, 2018 is the publication date of the novel There There.

• Orange, Tommy. There There. Alfred A. Knopf, 2018.

In addition to an actual date of publication, this element may include the following:

• the date of composition for unpublished material (such as letters)

• the date of revision or upload if that is more pertinent (e.g., the date a wiki post was last updated rather than the date it was started)

• the label forthcoming for works not yet published

• the date on which a source was viewed or heard firsthand (e.g., the date that you attended the performance of a play or concert)

The Publication Date element may include one or more of the following components:

• a year

• a day and month

• a season

• a time stamp

• a range of dates or years

Works may be associated with more than one publication date. You should record the publication date provided by the version of the source you consult. Use the day-month-year style to minimize commas in your entry. Generally provide the most specific date you can find in your source. Thus, include the day, month, and year if your source does. If your source presents roman numerals for the year, convert them to arabic numerals (e.g., MCMXCII in the credits of television show should appear as 1992 in your entry). If a range is needed, style it as your work in prose. Lowercase season of the year when they are part of a publication date in the works-cited list, just as you would in prose. 

• Belton, John. "Painting by Numbers: The Digital Intermediate." Film Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 3, spring 2008, pp. 58-65.

When a time is given and helps define and locate the work, include it. Times should be expressed in whatever form you find them in the source: the twelve-hour-clock form (2:00 p.m.) or the twenty-four-hour-clock form (14:00). Include time zone information when provided and pertinent. 

• Max the Pen. Comment on "Why They're Wrong." The Economist, 29 Sept. 2016, 6:06 p.m., www.economist.com/node/21707926/comments.

When documenting a nonperiodical work (not a journal, magazine or newspaper) work that is ongoing--namely, a multivolume set of books--leave a space after the en dash (or hyphen, if used instead) that follows the beginning date.

• Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Vintage Books, 1982- .

Do not use this technique for websites, journals, television or streaming series, and other works published on an episodic or periodic basis. For works with clear beginning and end date, such as a museum exhibition, a completed date range may be provided in the Publication Date element. (If you are citing a live performance, however, cite the specific date you attended it, because performances can vary during the run of a play or a concert tour, for example.)

• Kwang Young Chun. Aggregations. 16 Nov. 2018-28 July 2019, Brooklyn Museum, New York City.

If your source or the achieve, museum, or other institution holding it gives an approximate date (e.g., circa 1400-10 or early 15th century), record the date as given, but spell out phrases normally spelled out in prose, like fifteenth century, even if numerals are given in the source. Capitalize or lowercase the term just as you would in prose, unless a period precedes it, in which case capitalize the term.

• Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Circa 1400-10, British Library, London, Harley MS 7334.

• ----. The Canterbury Tales. Early fifteenth century, U of Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, Corpus Christi College, MS 198.

If your source or the institution holding it indicates that the date is uncertain (e.g., probably 1870, possibly 1870, 1870?), list the date followed by a questions mark. 

• Dickinson, Emily. "Distance-is not the Realm of Fox." 1870?, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City. Manuscript.

Location 

How to specify a work's location depends on the format of the work. For paginated print or similar fixed-format works (like PDFs) that are contained in another work (e.g., an essay in a print anthology or the PDF of an article in a journal), location is the page range. 

• Copeland, Edward. "Money." The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Copeland and Juliet McMaster, Cambridge UP, 1997, pp. 131-48.

• Soyinka, Wole. "Twice Bitten: The Fate of Africa's Culture Producers." PMLA, vol. 105, no. 1, Jan. 1990, pp. 110-20.

In rare cases, additional information may be needed to be included with the page numbers so that the work can be found. In the example below, for a print newspaper, the section title is included in the Location element along with the page number. Include a section name only if it is needed to locate the work.

• Akabas, Shoshana. Letter. The New York Times, 5 Apr. 2020, Sunday Review sec., p. 8.

For online works, the location, in order of preference, is the DOI, permalink, or URL. A DOI (digital object identifier) is an identifier permanently assigned to a source by the publisher. DOIs are more reliable locators than URLs (uniform resource locators), the web addresses that appear in your browser window, because DOIs remain attached to their sources even if the URLs change, and DOIs are often more concise. When a DOI is available and specified by the publisher, include it in the works-cited-list entry instead of a URL or permalink (a URL intended to be permanent). 

For unique or ephemeral works viewed or heard firsthand--like a performance, lecture, artwork, or manuscript in an archive--the location is the place where the work was viewed or heard. 

For physical media other than paginated print works, use the numbering system provided by the source (e.g., the location of a television episode in a DVD set may be indicated by the disc number). Do not include a numbering system if it is specific to your version of the source, as is the case for a location number for an e-book read on a personal device.

Page numbers do not need to be specified in your works-cited-list entry for a paginated work, like a novel, that is not contained in another work--even when that work is digitized on a website. For example, the Location element for a print copy of Pride and Prejudice is left blank; for a copy digitized by HathiTrust Digital Library, the Location element lists the permalink.

• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962.

• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962. HathiTrust Digital Library, hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435004226296.

URLs should be copied directly from the address bar in a browser window, as should DOIs and permalinks when you use them to directly access a work. Even if you initially access a work through a URL, when the publisher indicates (typically on the landing page of the work) that a DOI or permalink is associated with the work, list it in your entry instead.

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