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The author of a work can be a writer, artist, or any other type of creator. The author can be an individual, a group of persons, an organization, or a government.
Always begin the entry with the author's last name, followed by a comma and the rest of the name, as presented in the work. End this element with a period (unless a period that is part of the author's name already appears at the end).
If no author or creator is provided, start the citation with the title of the source you are citing instead.
Bennett, Joshua. "Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things." Callaloo, vol. 41, no. 2, spring 2018, pp. 29-43. https://doi.org/10.1353/cal.2018.0037.
Chow, Rey. "The Jargon of Liberal Democracy." PMLA, vol. 137, no. 5, Oct. 2022, pp. 935-41.
Sharpe, Will. Shakespeare and Collaborative Writing. Oxford UP, 2023.
When a source has two authors, include them in the order in which they are presented in the work. Reverse the first of the names as described above, follow it with a comma and and, and give the second name in normal order.
Gaiman, Neil, and Terry Pratchett. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. 1990. William Morrow Paperbacks, 2006.
Zhou, Quan, and Qiping Lui. "Agentic Things and Traumatized People in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye." JML, vol. 45, no. 3, 2022, pp. 106-120. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.45.3.08.
When a source has three or more authors, reverse the first of the names as described above and follow it with a comma and et al. ("and others").
Altshuler, Daniel, et al. A Course in Semantics. MIT P, 2019.
Ballenger, Bruce, et al. The Curious Writer. 6th ed., Pearson, 2022.
A corporate author is an institution, association, government agency, or other kind of organization.
When a work is published by an organization that is also its author, skip the author element and begin the entry with the title. List the organization only as publisher.
When the author of a work is a division or committee of the organization, list the division or committee as the author and list the organization as the publisher.
Initial articles (a, an, the) should be omitted in the works-cited-list entry.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Contribution of Terrestrial Animal Source Food to Healthy Diets for Improved Nutrition and Health Outcomes. United Nations, 2023.
Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Technology as a Creative Medium. National Endowment for the Arts, June 2021, https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Tech-as-Art-081821.pdf.
In some languages (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), the surname may be listed before the given name on the title page. In these cases, only reverse the name in the works-cited list if the surname is given last. Otherwise, list the name as it appears on the title page (no comma is needed).
Do not reverse names of an author without a surname, some names of nobility and premodern names, and pseudonyms (including stage names and online usernames) that do not take the form of a name traditionally reversed.
Do reverse a pseudonym, screen name, stage name, and the like that takes the form of a name traditionally reversed.
To learn more about pseudonyms, see pp. 115-117 of the manual.
Elizabeth II. A Queen Speaks to Her People: A Complete Record of Her Majesty's Christmas Messages to the Commonwealth From 1952 to 1976; Also Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee Address. Australian Heritage Society, 1977.
Lady Gaga. Chromatica. Interscope Records, 2020.
Shen Fu. The Old Man of the Moon. 1809. Translated by Leonard Pratt and Chiang Su-hui, Penguin Classics, 2015.
If an author's online handle differs from the author's account name, it may be helpful to supply the handle in square brackets after the name.
When the handle and account name are similar, you can usually omit the handle if you include the URL in your entry. If you omit the URL or it is not available, include the handle even if it is similar to the account name.
Fogarty, Mignon [@GrammarGirl]. "I just created a file name with "final" at the end, so it's now guaranteed I'll have to make another version." Twitter, 30 Sept. 2021, twitter.com/GrammarGirl/status/1443640746905505813.
New York Times [@nytimes]. "New York City's child welfare agency agreed to pay $75,000 to a mother from the Bronx...." Twitter, 7 Sept. 2023.