The title of the source is the title of the work you are citing.
Many sources, such as an article or information from a website, are part of a larger work that also has a title. MLA refers to this larger work as a "container."
For example, imagine you are citing an article from the New York Times titled "The Hunt for an Alaskan Bumblebee." The title of the source is "The Hunt for an Alaskan Bumblebee" and The New York Times is the title of the container.
Whether a title is in quotes or italics depends on whether the title is part of a larger work.
A source that is contained within a larger work, such as an article from a magazine, appears in quotes and is followed by a period. "Containers," that is self-contained sources, such as a printed book, will be listed in italics and followed by a comma.
| Title in "Quotes" | Title in Italics |
| Article | Magazine |
| Chapter of a book | Book |
| Poem | Book of poetry |
| Video | Website |
| Song | Album |
| Image of a work of art | Art museum website |
| PDF of an online document | Website |
Book
Ford, Richard. Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History. Simon & Schuster, 2021.
Article from a scholarly journal
Repova, Kristina, et al. “Melatonin as a Potential Approach to Anxiety Treatment.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 23, no. 24, Dec. 2022, pp. 161-187. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232416187.
Online video
RegisteredNurseRN. “Heart Layers Anatomy Nursing: Pericardium, Epicardium, Endocardium.” YouTube, 27 May 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APJzmA4kDxE.
Poem from a book
Gorman, Amanda. "Life." Call Us What We Carry, Viking, 2021.
Article on a website
Elezaj, Rilind. “Autonomous Cars: Safety Opportunity or Cybersecurity Threat?” MachineDesign, 16 July 2019, https://www.machinedesign.com/ mechanical-motion-systems/article/21837958/autonomous-carssafety-opportunity-or-cybersecurity-threat.
Online image of art
Van Gogh, Vincent. The Starry Night. 1889. Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79802
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