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To provide a complete MLA citation, you must provide the author of the file and the page number of your reference (when possible). If the author is mentioned in the statement, just put the page number in the parentheses: According to Spiers, college has become too expensive (48). Otherwise, use a parenthetical with both the name and the page number at the end of the sentence or quotation: Some argue that college has become too expensive (Spiers 48). If there are two authors, put both last names in parentheses with "and" in the middle followed by the page number: Dogs have evolved alongside humans (Draper and Simpson 68). If there are more than two authors, use commas to separate the authors' last names followed by the page number: Embroidery should be considered a "fine art form" (Kozinsky, King, and Chappell 56). If no author is listed, use the institution's name: Dinosaurs became extinct millions of years ago (Smithsonian 21). If no institution is credited, just start the citation with the title of the piece: According to experts, energy drinks should not be over consumed ("Impact of caffeine consumption" 102). MLA in-line citations should not indicate whether or not your source is in a PDF file. In all of these scenarios, the parenthetical citation goes before the final punctuation of the sentence. Some ebooks and PDF files have fixed page numbers, where the page numbers don't change depending on your display. If your document has fixed page numbers, use them.. If there are no page numbers, do not try to give them. You can cite by chapter or section instead. For example, to cite a PDF without page numbers that is divided into sections, you can cite it by section: According to Blankenship, caffeine intake should be limited to 200mg per day (ch. 2). If the PDF or ebook is not divided into any identifiable sections, cite the file as a whole and do not give page numbers: Blankenship's study on caffeine consumption, "Too Jittery, Joe?" suggests that caffeine intake should be limited to 200mg per day. in MLA bibliographic format. According to MLA guidelines, you should indicate the type of electronic file you have accessed for ebooks, such as "PDF file" or "Kindle file." The basic format is: Author's last name, Author's first name. ''Book Title''. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Ebook publisher, Year of Ebook publication. File type. For example: Smith, John. The Fantastic Novel. London: Great Publishing House, 2010. Google Books, 2011. PDF file. 1 December 2012. If your ebook is not a PDF file, cite the file type you have. For example: Smith, John. The Fantastic Novel. London: Great Publishing House, 2010. Kindle file. In your works cited page, cite journal articles you access from an online database by giving the publication information just as you would for articles in print. This is followed by the name of the online database where you found the article and the medium (Web), as well as the date you accessed the file. The basic format is: Author's last name, Author's first name. "Article title." Journal Title Volume number.Issue number (Date of publication): page numbers. Database name. Medium. Date of access. For example: Doe, Jane. "Interesting Citation Article." Journal of Citation Information 4.7 (2006): 82-5. Academic Access Premier. Web. 20 November 2012. Some academic journals are now available only online and do not provide PDFs with pagination. If your PDF is from an online-only journal and does not have page numbers, follow the basic model for your works cited page but add the words "n. pag." in place of page numbers. For example: Doe, Jane. "Interesting Citation Article." Online Journal of Citation Information 4.7 (2006): n.pag. Web. 20 November 2012.
Look for the author. Look for page numbers. Cite ebook PDFs Cite journal article PDFs in MLA bibliographic format. Note whether the journal article is from an online-only journal.