Use the following template or our MLA Citation Generator to cite an e-book or pdf. For help with other source types, like books, PDFs, or websites, check out our other guides. To have your reference list or bibliography automatically made for you, try our free citation generator.
Place this part in your bibliography or reference list at the end of your assignment.
Author Surname, Author Forename. Title. E-book ed., Publisher, Year Published.
Muñoz, Sarah-Anne. Children In The Outdoors. E-book ed., Sustainable Development Research Centre, 2009.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
(Author Surname)
"Recent research has started to examine the links between the use of the outdoors, access to greenspace and human health,"(Muñoz).
Place this part in your bibliography or reference list at the end of your assignment.
Author Surname, Author Forename. Title. Publisher, Year Published. Website Name, date page was published if known, URL. PDF download.
MacDonald, George. The Princess and the Goblin. Blackie and Son, 1911. Internet Archive, 2007, archive.org/embed/princessgoblin00macd2. PDF download.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
(Author Surname)
"She ran for some distance, turned several times, and then began to be afraid"(MacDonald).
E-books, also known as electronic books, are cited the same way that a physical book would be cited in-text. Provide the author’s name(s) and the page number from which the reference within the text.
Format
(Last Name Page Number)
Example
(Greaves 56)
If the page number is not available in an e-book, provide the chapter number instead.
Format
(Last Name Chapter Number )
Example
(Greaves ch. 3)
As per Section 5.48 of the MLA 9 handbook, you add the version element to the works cited entry to indicate that your source is an e-book version, not a printed version. The handbook further clarifies that an e-book would not have an URL and would be read using software on an electronic device, not through a website.
For works without a given individual or group author (common with reference books), omit the author name and start the entry with the book title. If the book includes an edition number, include “e-book ed.” after the edition number. See the second examples below.
Format
Author Last Name, First Name. Name of the Book. E-book ed., Publisher, Year.
Name of the Book. # ed., e-book ed., Publisher, Year.
Example
Ceaser, Tim. How Software Is Destroying the World. E-book ed., Kansas Book Press, 2020.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 11th ed., e-book ed., Merriam-Webster Inc., 2021.