MLA 8th ed.p 1 of 10
General remarks
MLA 8th edition offers greater flexibility in how information can be cited than previous versions. For citing in some non-standard ways, you can use Citavi’s custom fields. The following guidelines apply to all relevant reference types:
- When entering a “container” (such as a database) for which no field is available, use Custom field 1.
- When entering a “descriptive term” (such as a “transcript”) for which no field is available, use Custom field 4.
- If your focus is on a contributor (such as a translator) instead of an author or editor, enter the person’s name in the Collaboarator field and enter their role in Custom field 2.
- When citing an entire work in another work (such as a novel or play in an anthology or a comic book in series) enter the the type of work in Custom field 3.
This document can be accessed from the following FAQ article:
If you want to copythe example references into your own Citavi project, please refer to the manual:
Page in Manual / Source type name in MLA / … in Citavi / In-text citation / Reference list / Notesp. 21 / Book with one
author / Book / (Jacobs 21) / Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford UP, 2011..
p. 21 / Book with two authors / Book / (Dorris and Erdrich 21) / Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdrich. The Crown of Columbus. HarperCollins Publishers, 1999.
p. 22 / Book with more than two authors / Book / (Burdick et al. 22) / Burdick, Anne, et al. Digital_Humanities. MIT P, 2012.
p. 39;
p. 107 / Book with edition information / Book / (Cheyfitz 107) / Cheyfitz, Eric. The Poetics of Imperialism: Translation and Colonization from The Tempest to Tarzan. Expanded ed., U of Pennsylvania, 1997. / Citavi cannot automatically remove the italics from book titles within a title. Change this later on by hand after converting your Citavi fields to text. We recommend only taking this step right before submitting your work.
p. 23 / Book with an editor / Book, Edited / (Nunberg 23) / Nunberg, Geoffrey, editor. The Future of the Book. U of California P, 1996.
p. 39;
p. 50 / Book with an editor and edition information and year of original publication / Book, Edited / (Newcomb 39) / Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television: The Critical View. 1976. 7th ed., Oxford UP, 2007.
p. 23 / Book with translators and editor (with focus on the translation) / Collected Work / (Sullivan and Murphy 23) / Sullivan, Alan, and Timothy Murphy, translators. Beowulf. Edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson, 2004.
p. 24 / Book with translator (with focus on the original author) / Book / (Stendhal 24) / Stendhal. The Red and the Black. Translated by Roger Gard, Penguin Books, 2002. / Enter the translation statement in the Title Supplement field.
p. 24 / Book with no author / Book / (Beowulf 24) / Beowulf. Translated by Alan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy, edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson, 2004.
p. 25 / Book with corporate author / Book / (United Nations 25) / United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and Francis, 1991.
p. 52 / Book in multiple volumes / Book / (Rampersad 52) / Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 2002. 4vols.
p. 39; p. 52 / One volume of a multivolume publication / Book / (Wellek 39; vol. 5) / Wellek, René. A History of Modern Criticism, 1750-1950. Vol. 5, Yale UP, 1955-92. 8vols. / Since the Book reference type does not have a Volume field, as a workaround enter the full volume statement (ex: “Vol. 5”) in the Edition field. When citing, enter the volume information with the cited page range.
p. 52 / Book in a series / Book / (Neruda 52) / Neruda, Pablo. Canto General. Translated by Jack Schmitt, U of California P, 1991. Latin American Literature and Culture 7.
p. 107 / Book in another language / Book / (Šklovskij 7) / Šklovskij, Viktor. “Искусство, как прием” [“Art as Device”]. О теории прозы [On the Theory of Prose], 2nd reprint, 1929, Ardis Publishers, 1985, pp. 7–23.
p. 34 / E-book retrieved from an online platform / Book / (Gikandi) / Gikandi, Simon. Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Cambridge UP, 2000. ACLSHumanities E-book, hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.07588.0001.001. / Enter the “container” (i.e. the online platform) in Custom field 1.
p. 35 / Short story in the collected works of an author retrieved from an online platform / Contribution in collected works / (Poe 250; vol. 4) / Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death.” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250–58. 4. HathiTrust Digital Library, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079574368;view=1up;seq=266. / Enter the “container” (i.e. the online platform) in Custom field 1.
p. 25 / Work in which organization is also the publisher / Report or Gray Literature / (National Endowment for the Arts 25) / Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. National Endowment for the Arts, June 2004.
p. 46 / Collection of one author’s stories or essays / Collected Works / (Adichie 74) / Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “On Monday of Last Week.” The Thing around Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 74–94.
p. 26 / Collection of essays with editor / Edited Book / (S. Alcorn Baron et al.) / Baron, Sabrina Alcorn, et al., editors. Agent of change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. University of Massachusetts Press / Center for the Book, Library of Congress, 2007. Studies in print culture & the history of the book 24.
p. 106 / Introduction, preface, foreword, or afterword / Varies depending on type of work / (Felstiner xix) / Felstiner, John. Preface. Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan, by Paul Celan, translated by John Felstiner. W. W. Norton, 2001, pp. xix–xxxvi.
p. 106 / Introduction, preface, foreword, or afterword with its own title / Varies depending on type of work / (Wallach xiv) / Wallach, Rick. “Cormac McCarthy's Canon as Accidental Artifact.” Introduction. Myth, Legend, Dust: Critical Responses to Cormac McCarthy, edited by Rick Wallach, Manchester UP, 2000, pp. xiv–xvi.
p. 53 / Essay or story in a collection of one author’s stories or essays, with information about a prior publication / Contribution in collected work / (Johnson 3) / Johnson, Barbara. “My Monster / My Self.” The Barbara Johnson Reader: The Surprise of Otherness, edited by Melissa Feuerstein et al., Duke UP, 2014, pp. 179–90. Originally published in Diacritics, vol. 12, no. 2, 1982, pp. 2-10. / Enter the information about the prior publication in Custom field 4.
p. 27 / Essay in a collection / Contribution in an edited book / (Dewar and Ang 365) / Dewar, James A., and Peng Hwa Ang. “The Cultural Consequences of Printing and the Internet.” Agent of change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, edited by Sabrina Alcorn Baron et al., University of Massachusetts Press / Center for the Book, Library of Congress, 2007, pp. 365–77. Studies in print culture & the history of the book 24.
p. 50 / Contribution in an edited book with year of original publiation / Contribution in an edited book / (Franklin 24) / Franklin, Benjamin. “Emigration to America.” 1782. The Faber Book of America, edited by Christopher Ricks and William L. Vance, Faber and Faber, 1992, pp. 24–26.
p. 52 / Contribution in an edited book in a series / Contribution in an edited book / (Kuhnheim 105) / Kuhnheim, Jill S. “Cultures of the Lyric and Lyrical Culture: Teaching Poetry and Cultural Studies.” Cultural Studies in the Curriculum: Teaching Latin America, edited by Danny J. Anderson and Jill S. Kuhnnheim, MLA, 2003, pp. 105–22. Teaching Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.
p. 38 / Translated work in a collection / Contribution in collected work / (Fagih 140) / Fagih, Ahmed Ibrahim al-. “The Singing of the Stars.” Translated by Leila El Khalidi and Christopher Tingley. Short Arabic Plays: An Anthology, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Interlink Books, 2003, pp. 140–57. / Enter the translation statement in the Title supplement field for the contribution.
p. 27 / Play in a collection / Contribution in collected work / (Euripedes 457; line 5) / Euripedes. The Trojan Women. Ten Plays, translated by Paul Roche. New American Library, 1998, pp. 457–512. / See general guideline number 4 above.
p. 28; p. 40;
p. 46 / Journal article with volume and issue number / Journal Article / (N. S. Baron 193) / Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193–200. / Citavi added initials to the in-text citation, since more than one “Baron” appears in this document.
p. 40; p. 45 / Journal article with issue number only / Journal Article / (Kafka 1) / Kafka, Ben. “The Demon of Writing: Paperwork, Public Safety, and the Reign of Terror.” Representations, no. 98, 2007, pp. 1–24.
p. 45 / Journal article with season / Journal Article / (Belton 58) / Belton, John. “Painting by Numbers: The Digital Intermediate.” Film Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 3, Spring 2008, pp. 58–65.
p. 48;
p. 110 / Journal article with a DOI retrieved from an online database / Journal Article / (Chan) / Chan, Evans. “Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema.” Postmodern Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000. Project Muse, doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.
p. 28 / Journal article retrieved from an online database / Journal Article / (Goldman 69) / Goldman, Anne. “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante.” The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, 2010, pp. 69–88. JSTOR, / Enter the “container” (i.e. the database) in Custom Field 1.
p. 43;
p. 46 / Magazine article, print version / Newspaper Article / (Deresiewicz, “Death,” 92) / Deresiewicz, William. “The Death of the Artist–and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur.” The Atlantic, Jan.-Feb. 2015, pp. 92–97.
p. 43; p. 48 / Magazine article, online version / Newspaper Article / (Deresiewicz, “Death”) / Deresiewicz, William. “The Death of the Artist–and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur.” The Atlantic, 28Dec.2014,
p. 110 / Newspaper article without consecutive pages / Newspaper Article / (Williams 1) / Williams, Joy. “Rogue Territory.” The New York Times Book Review, 9Nov.2014, pp. 1+. / Enter the entire page information as it should appear in the bibliography in the Page range field.
p. 39;
p. 51 / Film with version statement / Movie / (Scott) / Scott, Ridley, director. Blade Runner. 1982. Performance by Harrison Ford, director's cut, Warner Bros., 1992. / Enter the version (ex: “director’s cut”) in the Title Supplement field.
p. 52 / Radio broadcast transcript / Radio or TV broadcast / (Fresh) / Fresh Air. Narrated by Terry Gross, National Public Radio, 20May2008, Transcript. / Enter the descriptive term (ex: “Transcript”) in Custom field 4.
P. 28 / Television series / Radio or TV broadcast / (Buffy) / Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mutant Enemy, 1997-2003.
p. 41 / Television series with focus on the director / Movie / (Kuzui) / Kuzui, Fran Rubel, director. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Twentieth Century Fox, 1992. / If your focus is on the director of a televsion series, use the Movie reference type instead of Radio or TV broadcast.
p. 28; p. 38; p. 40; p. 43 / Episode of a television series focusing on the series creator and main actor / Radio or TV broadcast / (“Hush”) / “Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, episode 10, Mutant Enemy, 1999. / Enter the season and episode information in the Part field.
p. 43 / Episode of a television series focusing on the series creator and main actor with original air date / Radio or TV broadcast / (“Hush”) / “Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, episode 10, WB Television Network, 14Dec.1999. / Enter the season and episode information in the Part field.
p. 44;
p. 49 / Episode of a television series focusing on the series creator and main actor found on the season’s DVD set / Radio or TV broadcast / (“Hush”) / “Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fourth Season, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Geller, episode 10, Twentieth Century Fox, 2003, disc 3. / Enter the complete disc information in Custom field 4.
p. 33; p. 53 / Episode of a television series viewed online, with access date / Radio or TV broadcast / (“Under”) / “Under the Gun.” Pretty Little Liars, season 4, episode 6, ABC Family, 16July2013. Hulu, Accessed 23July2013. / Enter the season and episode information in the Part field.
p. 44 / Video on a Web site / Radio or TV broadcast / (“Buffy”) / “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Unaired Pilot 1996.” YouTube. 28Jan.2012.
p. 28 / Web site / blog / Internet Document / (Hollmichel, So) / Hollmichel, Stefanie. So Many Books. 2003-13, somanybooksblog.com.
p. 28; p. 44;
p. 48 / Posting or article on a Web site / Internet Document / (Hollmichel, Reading) / Hollmichel, Stefanie. “The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print.” So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/.
p. 44 / Comment posted on a web page / Internet Document / (Jeane, Comment) / Jeane. Comment on "The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print." So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, 22:30, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/. / Enter the comment statement in the Title supplement field.
Citavi can only show times in 24-hour format.
p. 42 / Blog posting in a network of blogs / Internet Document / (Clancy) / Clancy, Kate. “Defensive Scholarly Writing and Science Communication.” Context and Variation, Scientific American Blogs. 24 Apr. 2013, blogs.scientificamerican.com/context-and-variation/2013/04/24/defensive-scholarly-writing-and-science-communication/. / When you want to cite both the blog and the network of blogs to which it belongs, enter the blog in the Series title field. Enter the blog network in the Organization field.
p. 41 / Web site with no author / Internet Document / (Folger Shakespeare Library / Bodleian Libraries, U of Oxford / Harry Ransom Center, U of Texas, Austin) / Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible. Folger Shakespeare Library / Bodleian Libraries, U of Oxford / Harry Ransom Center, U of Texas, Austin. manifoldgreatness.org.
p. 45 / Web project as a whole / Internet Document / (Eaves et al.)
(Visualizing) / Eaves, Morris, et al., editors. The William Blake Archive. 1996-2014,
Visualizing Emancipation. Directed by Scott Nesbit and Edward L. Ayers, dsl.richmond.edu/emancipation/.
p. 39 / Musical work with version information / Musical Work / Music Album / (Schubert) / Schubert, Franz. Piano Trio in E Flat Major D 929. Performance by Wiener Mozart-Trio, unabridged version, Deutsch 929, Preiser Records, 2011.
p. 28 / A song or other piece of music on an album / Music Track in a Musical Work / Music Album / (Beyoncé) / Beyoncé. “Pretty Hurts.” Beyoncé, Parkwood Entertainment, 2013,
p. 29;
p. 49 / Work of art in a museum / Archive Material / (Mackintosh)
(Bearden) / Mackintosh, Charles Rennie. Chair of stained oak. 1897-1900, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
p. 50 / Object in an archive / Archive Material / (Chaucer) / Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Circa 1400-10, British Library, London, Harley MS 7334.
p. 41 / Work of art in an online archive / Archive Material / (Harris) / Harris, Charles "Teenie." Woman in Paisley Shirt behind Counter in Record Store. Teenie Harris Archive, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, teenie.cmoa.org/interactive/index.html#date08.
p. 29 / Review / Newspaper Article / (Mackin) / Mackin, Joseph. Review of The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, by Alan Jacobs. New York Journal of Books, 2June2011, / Enter the review statement in the Title Supplement field.
p. 29 / E-mail message / Personal Communication / (Boyle) / Boyle, Anthony T. “Re: Utopia.” Received by Daniel J. Cahill, 21 June 1997.
p. 31 / Comic book in a series / Contribution in an edited book / (Clowes) / Clowes, Daniel. David Boring. Eightball, no. 19. Fantagraphics, 1998. / See general guideline number 4 above. Enter the issue statement in the Title supplement field of the edited book.
p. 38 / The Bible / Book / (The Bible 105) / The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.
p. 105 / Government publication with corporate author / Report or Gray Literature / (Great Britain, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food 105)
(United States, Dept. of Labor 105) / Great Britain, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. Our Countryside, the Future: A Fair Deal for Rural England. Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 2000.
United States, Department of Labor. Child Care: A Workforce Issue. Government Printing Office, 1988. / If a government publication includes both a corporate author and a publisher, enter the corporate author in the Author field and the publishing organization in the Organization field.
To use an abbreviation in in-text citations as in the second example, enter the abbreviation for the organization under ListsPersons and organizations.
p. 105 / Government publication with corporate author who is also the publisher / Report or Gray Literature / (Centre on Transnational Corporations, United Nations 105) / Foreign Direct Investment, the Service Sector, and International Banking. Centre on Transnational Corporations, United Nations, 1987. / When the corporate author is also the publisher, only enter the organization name in the Organization field.
p. 53 / Bill, report, or resolution of the United States Congress / Report or Gray Literature / (United States, Congress, House, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence 53) / United States, Congress, House, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Al-Qaeda: The Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat. Government Printing Office, 2006. 109th Congress, 2nd session, House Report 615. / Enter any details regarding the number and session of Congress, the chamber, and the type and number of the publication in the Number field.
p. 105 / Congressional publication / Report or Gray Literature / (Poore 105) / Poore, Benjamin Perley, compiler. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States, Sep. 5, 1774-Mar. 4, 1881. Government Printing Office, 1885. 48th Congress, 2nd session, Miscellaneous Document 67. / Enter any details regarding the number and session of Congress, the chamber, and the type and number of the publication in the Number field.
p. 39 / Play with editors available in an app / Collected Work / (Shakespeare 1.5.35-37) / Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello. Edited by Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, version 1.3.1, Luminary Digital Media, 2013. / Enter the version number in the Edition field
p. 50;
p. 52 / Performance, lecture or another form of live presentation, with descriptive term / Lecture / (Atwood) / Atwood, Margaret. “Silencing the Scream.” Boundaries of the Imagination Forum. MLA Annual Convention, 29Dec.1993, Royal York Hotel, Toronto. Address. / Enter descriptive terms (ex: “Address”) in Custom Field 4.
p. 24; p. 29 / Short untitled message (tweets etc.) / Internet document / (@persiankiwi) / @persiankiwi. “We have report of large street battles in east & west of Tehran now - #Iranelection.” Twitter, 23 June 2009, 11:15, twitter.com/persiankiwi/status/2298106072. / Enter Twitter in the Series Title field. Citavi will output the time in 24-hour format without “a.m.” or “p.m.”
Works Cited
@persiankiwi. “We have report of large street battles in east & west of Tehran now - #Iranelection.” Twitter, 23 June 2009, 11:15, twitter.com/persiankiwi/status/2298106072.
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “On Monday of Last Week.” The Thing around Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 74–94.
Atwood, Margaret. “Silencing the Scream.” Boundaries of the Imagination Forum. MLA Annual Convention, 29Dec.1993, Royal York Hotel, Toronto. Address.
Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193–200.
Baron, Sabrina Alcorn, et al., editors. Agent of change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. University of Massachusetts Press / Center for the Book, Library of Congress, 2007. Studies in print culture & the history of the book 24.
Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Belton, John. “Painting by Numbers: The Digital Intermediate.” Film Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 3, Spring 2008, pp. 58–65.