If the author, publisher, and name of a website are all the same, do I need to list the author or publisher?
Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.
As the MLA Handbook explains, in some cases, you may omit the name of a publisher from your works-cited-list entry—for example, if you are citing a source from a website with basically the same name as that of its publisher (42):
Burns, Shauntee. “Finding Wonder Women at the Library: Online Biographies and Encyclopedias.” New York Public Library, 2 Mar. 2016, www.nypl.org/blog/2016/03/02/biographies-women-history.
The handbook also notes that if a work is by a corporate author, such as a public institution, the author element is omitted from the entry, and the institution’s name is given in the “Publisher” slot (25). But if you are citing such a work from a website with basically the same name as that of its publisher, then both the author and publisher elements are omitted:
“Education.” New York Public Library, 2018, www.nypl.org/education.
Work Cited
MLA Handbook. 8th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2016.