bibliottHow to Cite a Journal article in MLA 9th edition
Format, in-text rule, and a copy-paste example for journal articles in MLA. Citing a peer-reviewed article from an academic journal, online or print.
MLA format for journal articles
Author Last, First. "Title of Article." Journal Name, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. #–#. DOI/URL.
Smith, Jane D. "The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Research." Nature Machine Intelligence, vol. 5, no. 3, 2023, pp. 234–45. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-023-00001-x.
Pro tip
In-text uses page number with no comma — (Smith 240) not (Smith, 240).
Information you need
Before generating your MLA citation, gather these details from the journal article:
Author(s)
Year
Article title
Journal name
Volume and issue
Page range
DOI
Common mistakes to avoid
✗Using a stable URL when a DOI exists (always prefer DOI)
✗Italicizing article title instead of journal name
✗Forgetting issue number for journals that paginate by issue
Cite a journal article in another style
Other MLA guides
Frequently asked questions
For a journal article in MLA, you'll need: Author(s), Year, Article title, Journal name, Volume and issue, Page range, DOI. bibliott auto-detects most of these from a URL or DOI.
Using a stable URL when a DOI exists (always prefer DOI)
Yes — the example follows the official MLA 9th edition format. Replace the author, title, year and other fields with your source's data, or use the bibliott generator to do it automatically.