Database articles are available only through a subscriber who pays for the service (typically a college library or municipal library). When a researcher has fulfilled the student tuition fee arrangement, access to the database is still only available through the subscriber. Consequently, the MLA format includes the subscriber’s name as part of the documentation. Also, since the database title is the equivalent of a book or anthology, it is underlined (or in italics) e.g. MasterFILE Premier. The database vendor is the equivalent of a corporate publisher (e.g. EBSCOhost) and is not underlined.

As of this revision, the MLA format for database articles does NOT require the printout page number because readers may use a full text or a real text image which can cause differences in pagination. To simplify the database Works Cited entries, the URL for the subscriber or the vendor is also optional and need not be used.

Note: When you get your database printout, please note that the titles of the articles or sources are not always in upper-lower case, not always underlined or in quotation marks as MLA requires them. You are to correct them to conform to MLA. Also, a database title and a publisher may have the same names. The database title will be underlined.

21. Newpaper databases

Harden, Nick. “Water-rich Californians Lose Interest In Xeriscaping.” Arizona Republic 6 Sept. 1997: AH15. Newsbank. NewsBank. Glendale Community College Library Media Center, Glendale, AZ. 22 July 2005.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (Harden).

Duerksen, Susan. “Study Links Ibuprofen, Alzheimer’s Care.” San Diego

Union-Tribune 8 Nov. 2001: B1. NewsBank. NewsBank.

Glendale Community College Library Media Center, Glendale,

AZ. 5 Dec. 2006.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (Duerksen).

22. Magazine and multiple-source databases

Nock, Steven L., James D. Wright, and Laura Sanchez. “America’s Divorce Problem.” Society May/June 1999: 43. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCOhost. Glendale Community College Library Media Center, Glendale, AZ. 9 May 2001.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (Nock et al).

Oscar, Charles S. “The FBI Under Fire.” CQ Researcher 11 Apr. 1997. CQ

Researcher. CQ Press. Glendale Community College Library Media

Center, Glendale, AZ. 25 Sept. 2004.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (Oscar).

Schwartz, John. “ ‘Web Bugs’ Are Tracking Use of Internet.” New York Times

14 Aug. 2001, late eastern ed.: C1+. Proquest Newspapers. ProQuest. Glendale Community College Library Media Center, Glendale, AZ. 26 Sept. 2005.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (Schwartz).

Clark, Julia V. “Minorities In Science and Math.” ERIC Digest 1 May 1999.

ERIC. EBSCOhost. Glendale Community College Library Media

Center, Glendale, AZ. 5 Dec. 2006.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (Clark).

Deyette, Camile. “Here’s Looking At You.” Los Angeles Times 7 Oct. 1998: E1.

LexisNexis™. Lexis-Nexis. ASU West Library, Phoenix, AZ. 10 May 2000.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (Deyette).

23. A scholarly journal database

Brown, Kathryn S. “Making A Splash with Zebrafish: a New Model System

Dives into Developmental Biology.” BioScience 47.2 (1997): 68+.

Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. Glendale Community

College Library Media Center, Glendale, AZ. 26 July 1999.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (Brown).

24. Other database sources

“U.S. – Saudi Relations.” Issues and Controversies 9 Nov. 2001. Issues and

Controversies on File. FACTS.com. Glendale Community College

Library Media Center, Glendale, AZ. 3 Dec. 2001.

“Blah, blah, blah, blah” (“U.S.- Saudi Relations”).

Note: Please go to page 28 for more database formats for GCC.

MLA Documentation Guidelines
English Department

Page maintained by : Marla DeSoto
Last edited: 4/4/2006