Skip to Main Content

Citing Sources of Information: Writing for the Health Sciences

This LibGuide was designed to provide you with assistance in citing your sources when writing an academic paper.

About MLA Style

Modern Language Association (MLA) style for documentation is widely used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature. Generally simpler and more concise than other styles, MLA style features brief parenthetical citations in the text keyed to an alphabetical list of works cited that appears at the end of the work.

Formatting Your Research Project

For more information, please check MLA Style Center

Or visit the Purdue OWL on MLA Formatting and Style Guide.


MLA Handbook. Ninth edition., The Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

In Text Citations- Why Use Them?

In-text citations are called parenthetical references in MLA.

These are used in the body ("in the text") of research papers or assignments when you use information from sources.

Parenthetical references are used to provide the reader with:

  • which sources in the Works Cited list the writer is referring to
  • what page number(s) you got the information from

Note: Parenthetical references musthave a matching source on the Works Cited list.

RUTGERS.EDU | SEARCH RUTGERS.EDU

© , Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any accessibility issues with Rutgers websites to accessibility@rutgers.edu or complete the Report Accessibility Barrier / Provide Feedback form.