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MLA - Referencing Guide

Books

Information

  See Book Chapters guidance page to reference book chapters, as this page has guidance for referencing whole books.


  The authors' names are given as they appear on the publication you have used, i.e., use full first name where provided or first name initials where initials only are provided.

  Give the author's complete name, using as much detail as is given in the source document.

  The given name should be cited in full, if possible.

  Capitalisation practice should be consistent.

  Titles and subtitles of books are given maximal capitalisation.

  Book titles are italicised if typed and underlined if handwritten.

  If an organisation is both the author and publisher of a book, the Works Cited list entry begins with the title.

•  Include the DOI for e-books in your reference, if given.

•  If using a DOI, omit the URL, access date, and publication date from Works Cited entry. 

Include the protocol (http:// or https://) with DOIs

Do not include the protocol (http:// or https://) in URLs unless hyperlinking to the resource (unless using a software program such as EndNote that does not allow links without the protocol).

 Cite by title if no author or editor is given.

Additional information must be provided (depending on the type of electronic publication) to correctly identify that you accessed the document in an electronic format.

Format

Standard format for citation

Authored work:

Author's Surname, Given Names, and Given Names Author's Surname. Title: Subtitle. Edition (if not the first), Publisher, Year.

 

DOI available:

Author's Surname, Given Names, and Given Names Author's Surname. Title: Subtitle. Edition (if not the first), Publisher, Year. doi.org/10.XXXX/XXXXXXXX.XX.

 

First edition e-book:

Author's Surname, Given Names, and Given Names Author's Surname. Title of E-Book: Subtitle. E-book ed., Publisher, Year of original publication. Source, doi or internet address.

 

Subsequent edition e-book:

Author's Surname, Given Names, and Given Names Author's Surname. Title of E-Book: Subtitle. Edition, e-book ed., Publisher, Year of original publication. Source, doi or internet address.

 

Edited work:

Editor's Surname, Given Names, and Given Names Editor's Surname, editors. Title: Subtitle. Edition (if not the first), Publisher, Year.

Examples

Single author

Boyle, Jimmy. The Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries. Canongate, 1984.

Eckes, Thomas. The Developmental Social Psychology of Gender. E-book ed., Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.murdoch.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=44644&site=ehost-live.

Two authors or editors

Miller, Casey, and Kate Swift. Words and Women. Updated ed., HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

Dollimore, Johnathon, and Keith Hall, editors. Political Shakespeare: Essays in Cultural Materialism. 2nd ed., Cornell UP, 1994.

Three or more authors
If there are three or more authors or editors, name only the first and add et al. ("and others").

Bass, Len, et al. Software Architecture in Practice. 2nd ed., e-book ed., Addison Wesley, 2003. Safari Books Online, learning-oreilly-com.libproxy.murdoch.edu.au/library/view/software-architecture-in/9780132942799/title.html.

MacIntosh, Angus, et al. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English. Aberdeen UP, 1987. 4 vols.

Edited work (Anthology or Compilation)

Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television: The Critical View. 6th ed., Oxford UP, 2000.

Later edition

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited by F. N. Robinson, 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 1957.

Two or more books by the same author

Pilger, John. Distant Voices. Vintage, 1992.

A Secret Country. Cape, 1989.

Multivolume work

Summerfield, Geoffrey. Voices: An Anthology of Poetry and Pictures. Penguin, 1968. 3 vols.

Translation

Moliere. Five Plays: Moliere. Translated by John Wood, Penguin, 1953.

Organisation (Author only)

American Library Association. Libraries: Culture, History, and Society. Pennsylvania State UP, 2017.

Organisation (Author and Publisher)

Copyright for Book Publishers: A Practical Guide. Australian Copyright Council, 1997.

Government publication

Australian Film Commission. Film Agency Funding in Australia: Government Assistance to the Australian Film Industry Through Federal and State Agencies to June 2002. AFC, 2004.

Government department reports

Australia, Council for the Arts. Writing: Protocols for Producing Indigenous Australian Writing. 2nd ed., ACA, 2007.

Western Australia, Office of Multicultural Interests. The Western Australian Language Services Policy 2008. OMI, 2008.

Please Note: Documents authored by government departments are cited following the jurisdiction to which they report. Precede the department name with Australia, Western Australia, etc.


See the All Examples page for examples of in-text and reference list entries for specific resources such as articles, books, and web pages.