MLA 9th edition
How to cite a preprint article in MLA 9th edition
Preprints carry DOIs but lack journal volumes and page numbers; styles require explicit repository names (arXiv, bioRxiv) and clear preprint designation.
THE FORMAT
A preprint article in MLA, at a glance
Author Last, First. “Title of Article.” Repository Name, Day Month Year, https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx. Preprint.
Morrison, Chloe, and Liam Vance. “Rhetorical Shifts in Nineteenth-Century Archival Epistolary Collections.” bioRxiv, 14 Feb. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.14.580211. Preprint.
(Morrison and Vance)
In prose: Morrison and Vance analyze archival correspondence patterns.
Copyeditor formats APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE automatically — cite a source once and the works cited builds itself. See how citations work .
BEFORE YOU FORMAT
What MLA needs from a preprint article
Elements to collect
- Author or authors
- Year and month of posting
- Article title
- Preprint repository name (e.g. arXiv, bioRxiv)
- DOI or persistent repository URL
Rules specific to this entry
- In MLA 9, append "Preprint." as an optional element at the end of the entry.
Building the entry, step by step
Collect the details
Before you format anything, gather every element MLA needs for a preprint article: Author or authors; Year and month of posting; Article title; Preprint repository name (e.g. arXiv, bioRxiv).
Build the works cited entry
Arrange those details in the MLA order: Author Last, First. “Title of Article.” Repository Name, Day Month Year, https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx. Preprint.
Add the in-text citation
In the body of your paper, cite it as (Morrison and Vance) — or work the same reference into your sentence as Morrison and Vance analyze archival correspondence patterns..
Check it against the exceptions
In MLA 9, append "Preprint." as an optional element at the end of the entry.
MLA RULES
The conventions behind every MLA entry
MLA Handbook (9th ed.) is the authority. Where a journal or department publishes its own house rules, those win — check your submission guidelines before the works cited is final.
The rules that apply across every source — author order, capitalization, how the works cited is sorted, and where MLA entries most often go wrong — are collected on the MLA 9th edition guide.
The same preprint article in another style
Switching styles late in a draft is normal. Here is the same source formatted five other ways.
Questions about MLA and preprints
What if the preprint article has no author?
Move the title into the author position and alphabetize by the first significant word of that title — ignoring an initial “A”, “An” or “The”. In the text, use a shortened form of the title where the author name would go.
What do I need before I can cite a preprint article?
Author or authors, Year and month of posting, Article title, and the rest of the elements listed above. Preprints carry DOIs but lack journal volumes and page numbers; styles require explicit repository names (arXiv, bioRxiv) and clear preprint designation.
Is there anything unusual about a preprint article in MLA?
In MLA 9, append "Preprint." as an optional element at the end of the entry.
Can I reformat this preprint article in another style later?
By hand, you would retype the entry — the element order, punctuation and italics all differ between styles. In Copyeditor, sources are stored as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole reference list at once.
Cite it once
and never reformat it again
Copyeditor keeps sources as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole works cited at once.
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