How to Cite a Scientific Paper in MLA

The style guide you would use to write your paper depends on the subject. MLA format and citations, developed by the Modern Language Association, is used for academic writing in arts and humanities. If you're writing a literature paper, it likely follows MLA format. APA format and citations, developed by the American Psychological Association, is used for psychology, social sciences, sciences, education, engineering, and nursing. Chicago Manual of Style, also known as CMOS or Chicago Style, was developed by the University of Chicago Press. History, business, and fine arts papers typically use CMOS format. There is more ambiguity around when to use Chicago, which you can read more about on our blog.

The term “bibliography” is a catch-all for any list of sources cited at the end of an academic work. Certain style guides use different terminology to refer to bibliographies. For example, MLA format refers to a paper’s bibliography as its Works Cited page. APA refers to it as the References page. Chicago Manual of Style refers to it as Bibliography. No matter which style guide you’re using, the process for writing a bibliography is generally the same. The primary difference between the different style guides is how the bibliography is formatted.

Full citations come at the end of the paper in the bibliography section. It includes all important components of the cited source, such as author name, title, publisher, publish date, page numbers, website URL, and DOI—the digital object identifier that acts as the document’s permanent ID on the internet. 

In-text citations include both in-line citations and parenthetical citations, both of which you would use when quoting or taking an idea, thought, or fact from another author or source. In-line citations occur within the text itself. You might use in-line citations to introduce a statistic, quote, or finding along with the author’s name, and then you would cite it by including the year in parentheses. A parenthetical citation is similar to an in-line citation—it appears in the body text, and the author’s name and year of publishing are cited in parentheses. You might use parenthetical citations when stating an idea, quote, or finding without mentioning the author or source name in the sentence. The citation that includes the author and year would then come at the end of the statement in parentheses. These in-text citations refer the reader to the bibliography page for the full citation. 

Footnotes are useful when you want to insert a citation without interrupting the flow of the sentence or paragraph. Footnotes include a superscript number in the text rather than author name and date, and the source information is listed at the bottom of the page or document. The number directs the reader to the corresponding source in the footnote. Chicago style typically uses footnotes. 

Annotations are footnotes with explanations or comments. You would use this if you want to provide more information about the source or text.

Plagiarism is including another’s ideas or words in your body of work and passing it off as your own—or not properly crediting the source. Plagiarism can be unintentional or intentional, but it’s easy to avoid this act of academic dishonesty. First, familiarize yourself with the most common types of plagiarism. Then, brush up on ways to avoid plagiarizing another’s writing. It’s important to cite your sources and either quote or paraphrase the cited material. You may also rewrite it in your own words or present your own idea, but you still must cite the source if you reference or allude to their ideas. A plagiarism checker can be a reliable way to check if your work has plagiarized existing material. Grammarly includes a plagiarism check, citation style formatting, and other helpful writing suggestions so you can maintain academic integrity, avoid losing points, and turn in your best work.

When you sign up for Grammarly, our free auto-citations feature is the fastest way to generate a citation without leaving a web page or using copy-paste functions. This feature automatically generates citations directly from the web page of the source you’re trying to cite. Alternatively, our free citation generator tool at the top of this page allows you to quickly build citations manually. Learn more about how to use Grammarly for instant, accurate citations.