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Citation

MLA Citation Generator

Enter one source to get its Works Cited entry and in-text citations in MLA Style. Each result explains how it was built and what to check, so you learn the rules as you go.

Free, no account
What are you citing?
Authors

In the order shown on the source. Leave blank if there is no author.

Author 1
Author type

Use the author's full given name when available.

As it appears on the source, in title case: capitalize the first, last and principal words.

Date of publication

Leave blank if the source shows no date. MLA leaves a missing date out.

More details (optional)

A number, such as 2, or the source's wording, such as Expanded ed. Leave blank for a first edition.

Such as 10.1038/nature14539, or the full https://doi.org/ link.

Only if there is no DOI.

Works Cited entry

Fill in the form, or load the example, to see the Works Cited entry and in-text citations.

What should I do next?

You have formatted entries. Now check the whole list.

  • Reference Checker

    Checks reference lists and citations in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, IEEE and Harvard for structure, missing details, duplicates, order and mismatched citations.

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    Literature Matrix Builder

    Organise, compare and synthesise the studies in your literature review, and see the repeated methods, variables and gaps across them.

  • MLA 9 Citation and Works Cited Guide

    Learn how MLA 9 builds Works Cited entries from a source and its container, how in-text citations point to them, and what to do when details are missing.

How entries are formatted

  • An entry is built from MLA's core elements, in order, using only those that apply: author, title of the source, title of the container, version, number, publisher, date and location.
  • The first author is inverted (Smith, Jane). Two authors are joined by “and”; three or more become the first author and “et al.”.
  • A book's title is italicized. An article or web page title is in quotation marks, and the journal or website that contains it is italicized.
  • Dates are written day, month, year, with months longer than four letters abbreviated. A missing date is left out, not replaced with n.d.
  • A DOI is preferred to a URL and written after https://doi.org/. A URL is written without http:// or https://.
  • In-text citations give the name and page with nothing between them, such as (Smith 24), and no year.

What the generator can't check

  • Capitalization. Titles are used exactly as you type them, because title case needs judgment about names, terms and other languages.
  • Short titles. When a work has no author, the in-text citation uses the full title; shorten a long one yourself.
  • Several works. The generator formats one source at a time. It doesn't order a Works Cited list or add short titles to tell apart several works by the same author.
  • Other kinds of source and contributors. Book chapters, editors, translators, newspapers, videos and other formats aren't supported yet.
  • Your instructions. An instructor or publisher may require changes to standard MLA; their instructions come first.
  • Whether the details are right. The generator formats what you enter; check names, dates and numbers against the source.

Privacy

Your citation is generated entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to ResearchKit or anyone else, or stored.