Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition) UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Title of container is the third core element.

Containers are either

1. Complete works which contain smaller works, like a book containing essays, a book containing short stories, or an academic journal containing articles, or
2. Larger containers holding smaller containers, like a database containing academic journals or a website containing Web pages.

Examples of containers

• Book
• YouTube channel
• Research database
• Website
• Newspaper
• Dataset
• Website

More information

• The title of the container is italicized and followed by a comma.
• It is possible for a source to have more than one container, for example an article [title of source] from a journal [title of first container] accessed from an online database [title of second container].
• A web site is a container when it is the platform of publication (e.g. Google Books). It is not a container when it provides passive access (e.g. Google search results). Refer to "When Is a Web Site a Container?" for more information.
• Sometimes titles will contain other titles. For example, a book of stories may be titled the name of one story "and Other Stories".
  • If the title mentioned is usually indicated by italics, do not use italics or quotation marks for the title within the title. The title within the title will be in Roman. Examples are a book about a novel and a book about a film.
    • Example of a book title which includes the title of a book: The Complete Gone with the Wind Trivia Book
  • If the title mentioned is usually indicated by double quotation marks, italicize the title (along with the rest of the title of container, and enclose the title in double quotations marks. Examples are a book about a poem and a book of short stories.
    • Example of a book title which includes the title of a short story: "The Metamorphosis" and Other Stories

For ease of identification, container titles are in bold and red text below.

Collection of essays, stories, poems, etc.:

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Black Cat". Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, edited by Robert DiYanni, 6th ed., McGraw Hill, 2007, pp. 137-43.

Print journal, magazine, or newspaper article:

Dukes, Charlene. "Recognizing our Camelot Moment." Community College Journal, vol. 86, no. 5, Apr./May 2016, p. 1. 

Journal, magazine, or newspaper article:

Tucker, Virginia M., et al. “Learning Portals: Analyzing Threshold Concept Theory for LIS Education.” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, vol. 55, no. 2, Apr. 2014, pp. 150-65. Academic OneFile.

Hathaway, Rosemary V. “The Unbearable Weight of Authenticity: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and a Theory of ‘Touristic Reading.’” Journal of American Folklore, vol. 117, no. 464, Apr. 2004, pp. 168-90. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/jaf.2004.0044.

Television series episode:

"Something Nice Back Home." Lost, directed by Stephen Williams, performance by Matthew Fox, season 4, episode 10, Bad Robot, 2008.

Web page:

Meade, Rita. "It's Not Too Late to Advocate." Screwy Decimal, 1 June 2016, www.screwydecimal.com/2016/06/its-not-too-late-to-advocate.html.

Comic book:

Byrne, John and Jim Lee. "The Resurrection and the Flesh." X-Men, no. 4, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1992.

Special issue of a scholarly journal:

Appiah, Kwame Anthony and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editors. Identities, special issue of Critical Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 4, 1992.