How do I cite a journal article that only has an article number in MLA Style?
Answer
Many journals, but especially online only journals, have stopped assigning unique page numbers to PDFs of their articles and instead assign the entire article a number.
Article numbers can have many different formats to them, here are some examples
- e19019080
- 65
- 200245012
- sg2345
While the PDF will be numbered starting with 1, these are not the official page numbers and should not be used in citations.
MLA Style suggests leaving the article number out entirely and ending the year of the article with a period if you got the article from a database. If the article came from the journal’s or publisher’s website, place a comma after the year and follow with the URL or DOI.
Article from a Database
Author Last Name, Author First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Name, vol. volume number, no. issue number, publication year. Database Name, DOI/URL.
Tait, Jessica, et al. "Are Flying-Foxes Coming to Town? Urbanisation of the Spectacled Flying-Fox (Pteropus conspicillatus) in Australia." PLoS One, vol. 9, no. 10, 2014. ProQuest, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109810.
Article from a Journal or Publisher Website
Author Last Name, Author First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Name, vol. volume number, no. issue number, publication year, DOI/URL.
Tryland, Morten, et al. “A Screening for Canine Distemper Virus, Canine Adenovirus and Carnivore Protoparvovirus in Artic Foxes (Vulpes lagopus) and Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions of Norway. Polar Research, vol. 37, no. 1, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2018.1498678.
For in-text citations, simply list the author(s) last name without a page number to accompany it.
Author Last Name(s) states…
Tryland et al. states…
OR
(Author Last Name(s)).
(Tryland et al.).
If you need further help, contact a librarian