MLA Citation Guide (MLA 7th Edition): Magazine Articles

Note: For your Works Cited list, all citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

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Not sure whether your article is from a magazine? Look for these characteristics:

Popular magazines:

• Main purpose is to entertain, sell products or promote a viewpoint.
• Appeal to the general public.
• Often have many photos and illustrations, as well as many advertisements.
• Author may or may not have subject expertise.
• Name and credentials of authors often NOT provided.
• Articles tend to be short –less than 5 pages
• Unlikely to have a bibliography or references list

Trade magazines:

• Main purpose is to update and inform readers on current trends in a specific industry or trade.
• Audience is members of a specific industry or trade or professors and students in that trade or industry
• May have photos and numerous advertisements, but still assume that readers understand specific jargon of the profession.
• Usually published by an association.
• Authors are professionals working in the specific industry or trade.

Articles may also come from journals or newspapers.

Access Date

For all content found on the Web, you must list the date you first viewed the resource. This comes last in a citation.

Authors/Editors

An author can be a person but can also be an organization, or company. These are called group or corporate authors.

Database Names

The name of the database will usually appear at the top of the search screen. Note that ProQuest and EBSCOhost are NOT database names, they are database providers. The name of the database will appear separately.

If you have used the function to search multiple databases at once and therefore do not know the individual database name, enter the name of the database provider (e.g. ProQuest) as the database.

Dates

The format of all dates is: Date Month (shortened) Year. E.g. 5 Sept. 2012.

If no date is listed, write n.d.

Page Numbers

If no page number is listed, write n. pag. in the Works Cited list.

If the entire article is only one page, do not include a page number in the in-text citation.

If the article appears on non-consecutive pages (e.g., the article starts on page 5 then continues on page 12), write the first page number and a plus (+) sign. E.g., 5+

For page numbers with the same first digit, you can leave out the first digit on the second page number listed. E.g., An article spanning pages 156 to 179 can be written as 156-79. An article spanning pages 72-79 can be written as 72-9.

Titles

Capitalize the first letter of every important word in the title. You do not need to capitalize words such as: in, of, or an.

If there is a colon (:) in the title, include what comes after the colon (also known as the subtitle).

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Title of Magazine Date of Publication: Page numbers. Name of Database. Format. Access date.

Author's Last Name, First Name, Second Author's First Name Last Name, and Third Author's First Name Last Name. "Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Title of Magazine Date of Publication: Page numbers. Name of Database. Format. Access date.

Note: Only the first author listed appears in "Last Name, First Name" format. Authors' names are separated by a comma. Before the last author to be listed, add the word "and."

"Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Title of Magazine Date of Publication: Page numbers. Name of Database. Format. Access date.

Note: If the author is unknown, begin the citation with the title of the article.

Anonymous. "Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Title of Magazine Date of Publication: Page numbers. Name of Database. Format. Access date.

Note: If and only if the work is signed "Anonymous", use Anonymous where you'd normally put the author's name. If the work has no named author but is not signed "Anonymous", follow the example for Unknown Author.

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article: Subtitle if Any."Title of Magazine Date of publication: Page numbers. Format. Access date.

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Title of Magazine Date of Publication: Page numbers. Format.

Author's Last Name, First Name, Second Author's First Name Last Name. "Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Title of Magazine Date of Publication: Page numbers. Format.

Note: Only the first author listed appears in "Last Name, First Name" format. Authors' names are separated by a comma. Before the last author to be listed, add the word "and."

"Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Title of Magazine Date of Publication: Page numbers. Format.

Anonymous. "Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Title of Magazine Date of Publication: Page numbers. Format.

Note: If and only if the work is signed "Anonymous", use Anonymous where you'd normally put the author's name. If the work has no named author but is not signed "Anonymous", follow the example for Unknown Author.