MLA Format for a Journal Article

Last, First, and First Last. "Title of Article." Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. #-#. DOI.

Example

Lester, Catherine. "The Children's Horror Film: Characterizing an 'Impossible' Subgenre." The Velvet Light Trap, vol. 78, no.1, 2016, pp. 22-37. doi.org/10.7560/VLT7803.

Notes

• The first author's name is structured as last name, first name. Following authors are listed as first name last name.
  • If there are 3 or more authors, only list the first author followed by et al. (Latin for "and others").
• The title of the article is in Title Case
  • Refer to this page for information on titles within titles
• The title of the journal is in italics and Title Case
• The volume number is noted with vol.
• The issue number is noted with no.
• Only the year is included for academic journal articles
• Page numbers are noted with pp.
  • Omit the first sets of repeated digits. Pages 225 to 251 would be notated as pp. 225-51
  • A single page is notated as a single p.
• The DOI can be formatted as a link (doi.org/10.1111/jan.15480) or as a number (DOI: 10.1111/jan.15480). If there is no DOI, use a permalink from the Library Search item record or the database you found it in.
• Create a half-inch hanging indent

What is AI?

AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT are Large Language Models (LLM), which means they are very good at putting words next to each other that sound like natural, human language. It does not “think” (that would be Artificial General Intelligence). This is why it sometimes "hallucinates."

What is Academic Integrity?

Maintaining academic integrity means only taking credit for your original work and ideas, and citing or giving credit to the author of works that you use. A more detailed definition is available from the International Center for Academic Integrity.

Examples of AI use that conflict with Academic Integrity

• Using AI to write something for you without notifying your reader that AI was used
• Using AI to summarize your course readings
• Using AI to generate citations and summaries without verifying that they are accurate

Examples of AI use that maintain Academic Integrity

• Using AI to generate writing prompts to help you write
  • I am writing a paper about… I will give you the assignment details and what I have written so far. Give me writing prompts to improve my paper. Do not write or rewrite anything for me.
• Using AI to verify your summary of an article
  • I will upload an article I am reading with a summary of my understanding. Tell me how accurate my summary is using examples from the text.
• Using AI to develop keyword searches
  • I am trying to find sources about… Here are the keywords I've already used... What are some searches I can use in Google Scholar and library databases to find them?

TL;DR

Don't let it write for you. Use it as a tool.

When in doubt, seek guidance from an instructor first.