Citing Difficult Web Sources in MLA
More than just a system for avoiding plagiarism or indicating the presence of secondary
research, MLA Style (and citation in general) provides readers and other scholars with a
detailed roadmap for how to locate the sources a writer uses. Unfortunately, not all sources—
especially nonperiodical publications found online and in library databases—are as easy to cite
(or find again) as books and journals. The key to citing unusual sources is to find as much
information as you can and do your best.
Specifically, try to find information for all of the following 8 categories identified in the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th Edition); if you simply cannot find one of the
components, move onto the next one, though don’t forget that many web sites and online
organizations have About Us or legal pages containing pertinent information. The goal is to
create and maintain a consistent citation style that allows readers and researchers to
successfully locate your sources.
Components of Nonperiodical Publications on the Web
(from the MLA Handbook,7th Edition, section 5.6.2)
An entry for a nonperiodical publication on the Web usually contains most of the following
components, in sequence:
1. Name of the author, compiler, director, editor, narrator, performer, or translator of the
work (for more than one author, see 5.5.4; for a corporate author, see 5.5.5; for an
anonymous work, see 5.5.9)
2. Title of the work (italicized if the work is independent; in roman type and quotation marks
if the work is part of a larger work [see 3.6.2-3])
3. Title of the overall Web site or database (italicized)
4. Version or edition (see 5.5.13)
5. Publisher or sponsor of the site; if not available, use n.p.
6. Date of publication (day, month, and year, as available); if nothing is available, use n.d.
7. Medium of publication (always Web for internet sites, unless the content is downloaded
as a PDF or some other file type)
8. Date of access (date you accessed the information; day, month, and year)
Each item is followed by a period except the publisher or sponsor, which is followed by a
comma. Untitled works may be identified by their location within the site (e.g. Home page,
Introduction, Online posting), neither italicized nor enclosed in quotation marks, in the place
where the title goes (see 5.5.8 and 5.7.7-10 for additional guidance on the use of genre labels).
If not otherwise recorded in the entry, the name of the creator of the overall Web site, such as
its editor, may be listed following the title of the site. If you cannot find some of this information,
cite what is available.
The following citations utilize the 8-step outline to create citations for difficult-to-categorize, nonperiodical sources. The sources below include reports and articles published online.