How do I attribute information to a website article in my prose if no author is listed?
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.
It depends on the source and who is responsible for the information in it. You might refer to the organization responsible for the site, the site’s name, or the article’s title.
If the organization responsible for the site is also responsible for the information in the article, you could refer to the organization. For example, the MLA publishes answers to questions about MLA style on this website, so you could refer to the MLA in your prose:
The Modern Language Association recommends formatting a recommended reading list the same way you format a works-cited list (“How”).
Work Cited
“How Do I Format a Recommended Reading List?” The MLA Style Center, Modern Language Association of America, 20 Mar. 2019, style.mla.org/format-recommended-reading-list/.
But for some sources, such as a website that publishes articles by many unnamed authors, you could refer to the site’s name or to the article’s title:
According to “Why Big Tech Should Fear Europe,” [I]f you want to understand where the world’s most powerful industry is heading, look not to Washington and California, but to Brussels and Berlin.”
or
According to The Economist, “[I]f you want to understand where the world’s most powerful industry is heading, look not to Washington and California, but to Brussels and Berlin” (“Why”).
Work Cited
“Why Big Tech Should Fear Europe.” The Economist, 23 Mar. 2019, www.economist.com/leaders/2019/03/23/why-big-tech-should-fear-europe.