Free MLA Citation Generator
MLA 9th Edition

How to Use This Citation Generator

Step 1: Select your citation style

Click Citation style on the search bar and choose your format: APA 7th edition, Harvard, MLA 9th, Chicago, IEEE, Vancouver, OSCOLA, or any of the 19 supported styles. Switch at any time and your entire bibliography reformats instantly.

Step 2: Choose your source type

Select a source type from the tabs: Journal article, Book, Webpage, Report, or Thesis. This filters results to match your source, the same way Scribbr, Citation Machine, and MyBib work.

Step 3: Search for your source

Type a title, author, paste a URL, DOI, or ISBN and click Cite. The generator returns matching results. Click Cite this next to the correct one.

Step 4: Build your bibliography

Each citation is added to your reference list below the search bar. The in-text citation appears in a chip. Click it to copy. When done, copy the full bibliography or export to Word, LaTeX (.bib), or clipboard.

MLA 9th Edition Citation Rules

MLA format is the standard for English, literature, and humanities courses at US colleges. The current version is MLA 9th edition, built around a single universal template of core elements that works for any source type. Set the style dropdown above to MLA 9th (or select it now if you changed it). The essentials:

• In-text citations: author and page number with no comma: (Morrison 47). If the author is named in your sentence, only the page number goes in parentheses: Morrison argues... (47).
• Works Cited: the reference page is titled Works Cited, alphabetized, double-spaced, with hanging indents.
• Core elements: Author. "Title of Source." Title of Container, Other Contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Date, Location. Elements that do not apply are simply skipped.
• Containers: a chapter sits in a book, an article in a journal, an episode in a series. The container title is italicized; the smaller work takes quotation marks.
• Titles: title case throughout, unlike APA sentence case.

MLA citation examples generated by this tool:

Book: Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage International, 2004.

Journal article: Chen, Laura. "Digital Archives and the Future of Literary Study." PMLA, vol. 138, no. 1, 2023, pp. 88 to 104.

Website: "How to Read a Poem." Poetry Foundation, 2023, www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/how-to-read-a-poem.

More citation styles: APA citation generator, Chicago citation generator, IEEE citation generator or the full citation generator with all 19 styles.

Cite a Webpage, Book, Journal Article and More

This citation generator handles every source type, and the Cite Manually option adds newspapers, videos, and book chapters. Select the right type to get the most accurate citation:

📄 Journal Article / Science Direct

Paste the DOI or full article title. For articles found on Science Direct, PubMed, JSTOR, or Google Scholar, paste the DOI (e.g., 10.1016/j.xyz...) for the most accurate result. The generator returns exact author names, journal, volume, issue, and page range.

📕 Book / ISBN

Paste the ISBN (found on the back cover) for any book citation. Works for textbooks, edited volumes, and e-books. The generator retrieves publisher, place of publication, and edition automatically.

🌐 Webpage / Website

Paste the full URL to cite a website: news article, government site, institutional report, or blog post. The generator extracts the site name, page title, publication date, and access date for the citation.

📊 Report

For government reports, WHO publications, World Bank data, OECD reports, and organizational grey literature. Cite by title or paste the report URL.

🎓 Thesis / Dissertation

For citing published theses from ProQuest, institutional repositories, or university databases. Enter the thesis title and institution for a correctly formatted citation.

{} BibTeX / LaTeX Export

Need a LaTeX bibliography? Use the Export menu (···) and select Export to LaTeX to download a .bib file with all your references. Compatible with Overleaf, TexStudio, and all major LaTeX editors. The latex quote or quotation format for your bibliography is generated automatically per source type.

MLA Citation Generator FAQs