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Referencing: MLA

This Guide contains or links to guidance for the main referencing styles used at JCU, and general information about referencing

Useful MLA 9 Links

Notes on the Style

Notes about the 9th Edition

The MLA 9th Edition is an expansion of the updated style rules developed for the 8th Edition. It is largely the same as the 8th Edition (the 9th Edition of the Manual has more detail than the 8th Edition, but did not change the style itself).

Some citation management tools (including EndNote and Word's Citations & Bibliography) do not have a style for the 9th Edition of MLA - if you can find a style for the 8th Edition, you can use that. Similarly, some search tools (including One Search) currently only offer MLA 8th for their citation formats, but this can be used instead of MLA 9th if no 9th Edition style is not available.

MLA 7th Edition and older editions were noticably different from the current MLA style, so if the only style options available are MLA 7th or older, these will not be suitable. Only use an older version of MLA if you have been instructed to by your lecturer.

MLA and EndNote

The style listed in EndNote as MLA is for the 7th Edition. The latest version of EndNote 21 has a style for MLA 9th edition, but if you have an older version of EndNote you will need to choose MLA 8th.

N.B.: You will need to check the references generated by EndNote for accuracy.

Notes:

  • If you have an eBook or online journal article with a database as a second container, to make the database name appear in the correct position and in italics, put it in the "Name of Database" field and put it in italics in that field (highlight the text and use Ctrl+I or pop out the record to see the text controls).
  • If your resource has a DOI, you will need to put the DOI in the URL field, formatted like a URL. Put the prefix https://doi.org/ in front of the DOI.
    • DOI: 10.1353/bkb.2019.0025 = https://doi.org/10.1353/bkb.2019.0025
  • If your URL begins with https://, you will need to edit the URL to remove the protocol.
    • https://muse.jhu.edu/article/723529 = muse.jhu.edu/article/723529
    • http://www.jstor.org.elibrary.jcu.edu.au/stable/41804370 = www.jstor.org.elibrary.jcu.edu.au/stable/41804370

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