[NB: This file applies only to print versions of newspapers and periodicals; for their electronic versions please see Citing Internet Sources. Also, while the word "periodicals" normally includes newspapers as well as magazines and journals, this file distinguishes between "newspapers" and "periodicals" (magazines, journals, etc.) in how they are cited differently]

While newspaper and periodical citations follow the general MLA format of (a) Authorname, followed by (b) Article Title, they differ with the (c) Publication Information segment. Instead of the "City: Publisher, Year" order and punctuation for book publications, the format for newspapers and periodicals in the third segment begins with the publication name. This is followed by the publication date, and then concludes with section and page-specific data.

Examples and Explanations of Newspaper Article Citations

Consider the following examples of newspaper article citations:

• Baker, John. Terminal Illness: Computer-induced Maladies. New York Times 25 Jan. 2008, Metro ed.: B17. [or]
• Baker, John. Terminal Illness: Computer-induced Maladies. New York Times 25 Jan. 2008, Natl. ed.: C3.
• Cook, Fred. How Does Finland Produce Those Top Students? Chronicle of Higher Education 30 January 2008: A5-6.

One of the characteristics of many newspapers is that the same day's paper may appear in different editions (early, late, metro, regional, national, special, etc.) which are divided and numbered differently. Likewise, articles may change in accordance with how a story develops during the day.

The first two examples above show how a story by John Baker would have been listed for the "Metropolitan" and "National" editions of the January 25, 2008 New York Times. In the "metro" edition the article was on page 17 of Section B, and in the "national" edition it was on page 3 of Section C. [Note that if the name of the newspaper begins with a definite article this is omitted: thus The New York Times is listed only as New York Times.]

The third example shows how a story in a newspaper with only one edition would appear. As there is no need to include an edition variable, the Section and page numbers immediately follow the date.

Dates, Punctuation and Abbreviations: MLA vs Section 'House Style'

The full date information [day-month-year] follows the newspaper name without any intervening punctuation. If there is an 'edition', a comma separates the date and the edition; otherwise there is simply a colon before the section-page field. If there is a 'section' or 'edition' field preceding the colon which has been abbreviated, then the abbreviation's period and the colon appear together, as in examples 1 and 2 above.

MLA style prescribes that the names of months should be abbreviated to a maximum of 3 letters; words like "national" and "metropolitan" and "edition" should also be abbreviated. However, following the logic of English Section 'house style' as it concerns the names of publishers (where the full "Simon and Schuster" is suggested instead of only the abbreviated "Simon"), it is fully acceptable for English Section students to write out the names of months, sections and editions in full, thus reducing the risk of faulty abbreviation while at the same time increasing clarity to an 'international' readership. In this case, as illustrated in example 3 above, there would only be a colon separating the edition information from the section and pages (since no period would be needed to indicate an abbreviation).

Articles Divided Over Non-Consecutive Pages; Additional City/Location Data

Another common difference between newspaper, periodical and book citations is that newspaper and perodical stories often begin on a certain page and are then continued on a non-consecutive page.

As shown below, one indicates this in the Works Cited entry by putting a "plus-sign" [+] after the number of the page on which the article began. This indicates that the article continued later on a non-consecutive page. The in-text citation would specify what the later page number was, if other than from page 1 [in the example below], but one does not need to indicate the numbers of the additional pages in the Works Cited entry itself.

• Allen, Ethan. Verdant Vermont. Country Times [Mapleville, Vermont] 30 January 2008: 1+.
• Driver, David. Missouri Memories. Mokane News [Missouri] 30 January 2008, Morning edition: 1+.

For well-known newspapers such as The New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, etc., one does not need to put the city in which it is published. However, if the city and/or country would not be apparent, as in the two examples above, then insert in brackets [xxx] immediately following the name of the newspaper and any additional data needed to make the publication location explicit.

Unsigned Articles, Letters to the Editor, Editorials, etc.

If the newspaper article is not credited to a particular journalist, then begin with the title of the article, as below:

• Cold Weather Means Higher Taxes. Pisgah Gazette [Missouri] 30 January 2008: 5.

When citing a letter to the editor, or a reply to a letter, or an editorial, or similar other material, add an appropriate descriptive label for the material, but do not italicize it or put it in quotation marks, as it is not a "title" as such:

• Emerson, Ralph. Letter. Washington Post 29 January 2008: A2.
• Thoreau, Henry. Reply to Letter of Ralph Emerson. Washington Post 31 January 2008: A2.
• Time For Reflection. Editorial. USA Today 28 January 2008: 2.

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Citing Magazine and Journal Articles

The Works Cited detail needed for magazine and academic journal articles differs further from that of newspapers, due to the greater degree of variability in publication frequency, issue and volume labeling, etc. According to the MLA Style Manual (186) the progression of data is:

1. Author name
2. Title of the article
3. Name of the periodical
4. Series number or name (if relevant)
5. Volume number (for a scholarly journal)
6. Issue number (if relevant)
7. Date of publication
8. Page numbers
9. Supplementary information (if relevant)

The following are common examples of these for signed and unsigned articles in typical "news magazines."

• Alpern, David M. Has Moscow Violated SALT? Newsweek 22 Oct. 1984: 32.
• The Decade of Decadence. Newsmonth 14 Apr. 1990: 31-37.

These follow the same format as for the newspaper citations above, with the exception that the page numbers are given similarly to how they would be for a book, with the presumption that most (though not all) magazine and journal articles have consecutive page numbering. [If the page numbering had not been consecutive, then a plus-sign [+] would be used following the first page number, just as in the examples given above for newspapers.] Again, MLA style prescribes that the names of months should be abbreviated, but English Section house style allows the spelling out of these in full.

If no author name is available, as with The Decade of Decadence above, then the entry begins with the article title. As with newspapers, when alphabetizing magazine Works Cited entries, ignore articles like "A, An and The," so that The Decade of Decadence above would be alphabetized under "D" for "Decadence" instead of "T" for "The" (Gibaldi 168, 190, 192, 196).

Citing Articles in Scholarly Journals

With scholarly journals, which are not published on a regular daily, weekly or monthly basis as newspapers and most news and other popular magazines are — and seldom have a specific "date" of publication — a "Volume number" is usually used instead. In the Works Cited entry, this needs to be listed together with the corresponding Year for that volume. For example:

• Aardvark, Allan. Proper Poetics? Poetry Journal 81 (2007): 13-15.
• Newman, Alfred. Shakespeare's Semicolons. Computers and the Humanities 35 (2004): 57-67.

In the two examples above, the authornames and titles are standard. Following this is the journal name, which is then followed immediately — without any punctuation — by the 'Volume' number [there is no word or abbreviation for "volume"; its location in the sequence is enough to indicate that the number refers to a "volume"]. This in turn is followed by the publication year, enclosed in parentheses and followed by a colon. Finally are the inclusive page numbers, with the Works Cited entry concluding with a period.

Do Different "Issues" of a "Volume" Need to Be Listed?

The "volume" is usually the same as the publication year; with the Aardvark example above the 81st volume of the Poetry Journal would have appeared in 2007. Usually an annual "volume" of a journal would comprise several issues (4 issues for a 'quarterly journal,' for example). However, it is common with scholarly journals that all of the issues of a single volume will use consecutive page numbering; e.g. if each issue would have 50 pages, then "Issue 1" would begin with page 1, "Issue 2" with page 51, "Issue 3" with page 101, etc. Following this logic, the "Issue data" does not need to be mentioned in the Works Cited entry, since the continuous page numbering throughout all the issues in a single volume would give the exact location of the material being cited.

However, some journals use separate numbering for each issue. If this had been the case with the Poetry Journal, then the issue number should be listed (to show which issue's page numbers were in question), and entry shown above might instead look like the one below:

• Aardvark, Allan. Proper Poetics? Poetry Journal 81.1 (2007): 13-15.

Here, the "81.1" would mean the first issue of the 81st volume, with the volume number first, followed by a period and then the issue number. [Issue 3 of the same volume would be "81.3", etc.] Finally comes the page numbers.