MHRA Style Citation Demonstration

According to the MHRA Style Guide, this item should be cited in a bibliography as follows:

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, New Translations, 9 (MHRA, 2016), pp. v–vi, doi:10.2307/j.ctt1hch7w2.2

This is how standard MHRA style would look. Some of its book series (notably Legenda) allow an alternative citation system called 'author-date', but please talk to your editor before using it. (To see the demonstration for author-date, follow this link.)

Let's take this bibliography entry one step at a time:

Step 1. We start with the name(s) of the author(s) of the article, inverting the first name into the form 'Forename, Surname'.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas

Step 2. This is regular MHRA style, so the name's followed by a comma.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas,

Step 3. Now we add the title, in single inverted commas. Any single quotation marks already in the title must be converted to doubles.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’

Step 4. We have to say where this comes from, so:

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in

Step 5. Next we identify where the article is to be found, using italics, not quotation marks, for the volume title.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila

Step 6. After the title come any editors or translators.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa

Step 7. This book belongs to a series, so we'll name that. If the series is numbered, we give the number, too. No italics, no quotation marks in the series name.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, New Translations, 9

Step 8. Since this is a book, not a journal issue, we have to identify its source, in round brackets. Until 2024, MHRA style required a place of publication - for example, New York or Oxford. This is no longer given except in special circumstances.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, New Translations, 9 (

Step 9. Now a colon, a space, and the publisher's name. Abbreviating to 'MHRA' is fine here.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, New Translations, 9 (MHRA

Step 10. Then the year of first publication, and we're done with the bracketed part.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, New Translations, 9 (MHRA, 2016)

Step 11. Now the pagination. And we use 'p.' or 'pp.' as appropriate. Number ranges are elided in the last two digits: thus '2234-2265' should be '2234-65', and '102-109' should be '102-09'.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, New Translations, 9 (MHRA, 2016), pp. v–vi

Step 12. This contribution has a DOI, so the Fourth Edition Guide (2024) requires us to quote it, like so.

Wheeler, Duncan, Holmes, Diana, and Llosa, Mario Vargas, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, New Translations, 9 (MHRA, 2016), pp. v–vi, doi:10.2307/j.ctt1hch7w2.2

And that's the finished bibliography entry. Note that there's no final full stop.

So how about citations in footnotes or endnotes?

In standard MHRA style, the first time the work is cited in a note, it should be cited in full. This looks very like a Bibliography entry, but:

  • The author's name doesn't always come first: only for monographs. For collections and editions, the title comes first.
  • Even if the author's name does come first, it's back to being the right way round, so it's Forename Surname, not Surname, Forename;
  • Unlike Bibliography entries, notes are punctuated as sentences, and usually end in full stops.

Suppose we want to cite a passage on pages 24 to 27:

34 See Duncan Wheeler, Diana Holmes, Mario Vargas Llosa, ‘Table of Contents’, in Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. by Duncan Wheeler, with an introduction by Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, and a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, New Translations, 9 (MHRA, 2016), pp. v–vi, doi:10.2307/j.ctt1hch7w2.2, pp. 24-27.

But in any subsequent notes, a heavily abbreviated form is used:

37 Compare Wheeler, Holmes, and Llosa, p. 17.