How to cite an unknown author mla

How to Cite a Website in MLA | Format & Examples

Published on July 17, 2019 by Shona McCombes. Revised on June 16, 2022.

An MLA website citation includes the author’s name, the title of the page (in quotation marks), the name of the website (in italics), the publication date, and the URL (without “//”).

If the author is unknown, start with the title of the page instead. If the publication date is unknown, or if the content is likely to change over time, add an access date at the end instead.

Websites don’t usually have page numbers, so the in-text citation is just the author name in parentheses. If you already named the author in your sentence, you don’t need to add a parenthetical citation.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

The format differs for other types of online content, such as YouTube videos, TED Talks, and podcasts.

Citing online articles

The format for citing an article from an online newspaper, magazine, or blog is the same as a general web page citation. If the article is a PDF of a print article, the format differs slightly.

Write the article title in title case (all major words capitalized). Use the most recent publication date on the page, including the day, month, and year if available.

MLA online article citation

MLA format	Author last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL.
MLA Works Cited entry	Smith, Helena. “The Women Who Brought Down Greece’s Golden Dawn.” The Guardian, 22 Oct. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/22/the-women-who-brought-down-greeces-golden-dawn.
MLA in-text citation	(Smith)

Note, however, that a different format is used when citing online articles from academic journals.

Learn how to cite journal articles in MLA

If no author is credited, leave out this element, and start with the title of the page or article instead.

Use a shortened version of the title in your in-text citation. The shortened title must match the first words of your Works Cited entry.

MLA website citation with no author

MLA format	“Title of Article.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL.
MLA Works Cited entry	“US Election 2020: A Guide to the Final Presidential Debate.” BBC News, 21 Oct. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54620868.
MLA in-text citation	(“US Election 2020”)

If no publication date is available, leave out this element, and include the date on which you accessed the page at the end.

MLA website citation with no author or date

MLA format	“Title of Article.” Website Name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
MLA Works Cited entry	“Citing Sources and Referencing.” Scribbr, www.scribbr.com/category/citing-sources. Accessed 16 July 2019.
MLA in-text citation	(“Citing Sources”)

Note that a specific format exists for citing online dictionary entries.

Citing an entire website

If you cite a whole website, there is usually no named author, so the Works Cited entry begins with the name of the website in italics.

If the website has a publication or copyright date (usually found in the footer), include this; if not, add the date when you accessed the website at the end of the citation.

MLA whole website citation

MLA format	Website Name. Day Month Year, URL.
MLA Works Cited entry	Scribbr. www.scribbr.com. Accessed 11 July 2019.
MLA in-text citation	(Scribbr)

When should you cite a whole website?

Most of the time, you should cite the specific page or article where you found the information. However, you might have to cite the entire website if you are giving a general overview of its content, referring only to the homepage, or quoting text that appears on many different pages across the site (such as a company’s slogan).

If you cite multiple pages or articles from the same website, you should include a separate Works Cited entry for each one.

Publishers in MLA website citations

If the website is published by an organization with a different name than the website itself, you should include this in the citation too. The website’s publisher is usually found somewhere in the footer, often next to a copyright symbol.

If the publisher is the same as the name of the website, you leave it out of the citation to avoid repetition.

Website with different publisherWebsite the same as publisher

The MLA Style Center. Modern Language Association of America, 2019, style.mla.org.	Scribbr. www.scribbr.com. Accessed 10 June 2019.
“Antibiotic Resistance and Food Safety.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 5 Sept. 2018, www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/challenges/antibiotic-resistance.html.	“CEU Expresses Solidarity with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.” Central European U, 3 July 2019, www.ceu.edu/article/2019-07-03/ceu-expresses-solidarity-hungarian-academy-sciences.

Frequently asked questions about MLA style

How do I cite a source with no author or page numbers in MLA?

If a source has no author, start the MLA Works Cited entry with the source title. Use a shortened version of the title in your MLA in-text citation.

If a source has no page numbers, you can use an alternative locator (e.g. a chapter number, or a timestamp for a video or audio source) to identify the relevant passage in your in-text citation. If the source has no numbered divisions, cite only the author’s name (or the title).

If you already named the author or title in your sentence, and there is no locator available, you don’t need a parenthetical citation:

Rajaram argues that representations of migration are shaped by “cultural, political, and ideological interests.”
The homepage of The Correspondent describes it as “a movement for radically different news.”

Are article titles italicized in MLA?

The title of an article is not italicized in MLA style, but placed in quotation marks. This applies to articles from journals, newspapers, websites, or any other publication. Use italics for the title of the source where the article was published. For example:

“A Complete Guide to MLA Citation” is published on the Scribbr website.

Use the same formatting in the Works Cited entry and when referring to the article in the text itself.

Sources in this article

We strongly encourage students to use sources in their work. You can cite our article (APA Style) or take a deep dive into the articles below.

This Scribbr article

McCombes, S. (June 16, 2022). How to Cite a Website in MLA | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from //www.scribbr.com/mla/website-citation/

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How do you cite MLA if there is no author?

If no author or creator is provided, start the citation with the title of the source you are citing instead. Do not use "Anonymous" as the author's name. Use the first one, two, or three main words from the title, in either italics or in "quotation marks" (the same way it is written in your Works Cited list).

How do you cite if you don't know the author?

When a work has no identified author, cite in text the first few words of the article title using double quotation marks, “headline- style” capitalization, and the year.

How do you cite an unknown author in MLA 8?

Remember that for an in-text (parenthetical) citation of a book with no author, provide the name of the work in the signal phrase and the page number in parentheses. You may also use a shortened version of the title of the book accompanied by the page number.

How do you cite an unknown publisher in MLA?

The MLA Style Center As noted on page 42 of the MLA Handbook, if the book is published by its author or editor, omit the publisher's name from the works-cited-list entry: Hocking, Amanda. Fate.