How to Write a Bibliography – with Examples

March 1, 2025

The bibliography is a key part of your academic paper that informs the reader of your paper’s context and attributes proper credit to the work that shapes your analysis. This final page of your essay also shows that you’ve conducted meaningful research for your writing and can clarify any questions regarding plagiarism. By sharing your sources, you also help readers follow your ideas more clearly and create a database for others interested in the topic who might want to conduct their own research. You show your professor the thoroughness of your writing process and establish credibility with your effort to learn about existing dialogues in the field before adding your contributions. With the bibliography’s ability to shape your paper, knowing how to write a bibliography becomes an important part of the academic writing process.

There are two bibliography styles: American Psychological Association (APA) and Modern Language Association (MLA). The kind you use depends on the paper’s subject matter. APA is used more for natural, social, and physical sciences while MLA generally works for humanities, arts, and language essays. Some essay topics might be related to multiple fields, so if you’re unsure which bibliography type to use or how to write a bibliography, you can also ask your teacher or professor. They also might note the bibliography type they expect in the assignment guidelines.

Once you’ve figured out the type you need, you’ll note the kinds of sources you used. These can range from books to online articles to podcasts to an organization’s website. Each type of source has its own formula for the bibliography entry. With all of these details, many students, understandably, have questions about how to write a bibliography. See the bibliography examples below to help you complete the process

General Tips for How to Write a Bibliography

A bibliography will be the last page of your research paper. It should begin on a separate page, have a header, and be written in Times New Roman and size 12 font. Note: a Works Cited or References list only includes sources directly cited in the paper while a bibliography includes all sources consulted during research, even if not directly cited. Check the assignment guidelines or ask your teacher for the type to use. The type will also indicate the header you use for the page.

Some students create a spreadsheet like so to track their sources:

Source Type	Author Last Name	Author First Name	Quote I’ll Use	Page #	URL
Magazine Article	Tiger	Lion	“Tigers, lions, and bears…”	35	exampleurl.edu
Book	Panda	Penguin	“If penguins were….”	123	N/A
Website article	Cheetah	Walrus	“The zoo is…”	N/A	exampleurl.com

Organizing information about your sources as you research can help you build your argument and make the process of writing your bibliography much simpler.

Here are more tips:

Sources should be listed in alphabetical order based on the first word of the bibliography entry.
Hanging indentation: if an entry surpasses one line, the second line should be indented half an inch from the left.
Bibliography entries have specific punctuation, capitalization, and italicization conventions. Double-check the bibliography examples to note where to place periods and commas, and which words to capitalize or italicize.
Before looking at the bibliography examples, it can help to organize your sources. Consider using a system like a Word Document, spreadsheet, Zotero, or another platform to gather basic information about your sources such as the author, title, date of publication, or URL.
Rules for how to write a bibliography change over time, so check the APA and MLA websites for the latest updates.

MLA

This style is more common in high school and for academic essays in humanities, arts, and language classes. For how to write a bibliography in MLA, see the bibliography examples below.

Print Source Bibliography Examples

Book: Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

Article in a scholarly journal: Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.

Article in a magazine or newspaper: Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.

Online Bibliography Examples

Website: Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number, Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI (Digital Object Identifier, is a string of numbers, letters and symbols used to uniquely identify an article or document) or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).

A Page on a Web Site: For an individual page on a website, list the author or alias if known, followed by a reference of the specific page or article you are referencing. Usually, the title of the page or article appears in a header at the top of the page. Follow this with the information covered above for entire websites. If the publisher is the same as the website name, only list it once.

An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal: For all online scholarly journals, provide the author’s name (or names), the name of the article in quotation marks, the title of the publication in italics, all volume and issue numbers, and the year of publication. Include a DOI if available, otherwise provide a URL or permalink to help readers locate the source.

MLA requires a page range for articles that appear in scholarly journals. If the journal you are citing appears exclusively in an online format (i.e. there is no corresponding print publication) that doesn’t use page numbers, indicate the URL or other location information.

Social Media Bibliography Examples

An X (formerly Twitter) post: X Handle (First Name Last Name if Known). “The entire post word-for-word.” X, Day Month Year of post, Time of post, URL.

YouTube Video: Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Video Title.” Website, uploaded by Uploader, Day Month Year, URL.

TikTok Post: Creator’s Username [@TikTokHandle], “Title or Description of Post”. TikTok, Day Month Year, URL.

Audio Bibliography Examples

Podcast: Host’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Podcast Episode.” Title of Overall Podcast, Episode Number if Given, Web Site Hosting If Different From Podcast Title, Day Month Year of Episode, URL of episode. Accessed Day Month Year podcast was downloaded/played.

Music Album: Artist. Album Title. Record Company, Date.

Single Song or Track on Album: Artist. “Song Title.” Album Title, Record Company, Date.

Artistic Bibliography Examples

Painting: Last Name, First Name. Title. Date. Repository, Location.

Cartoon: Lastname, Firstname. “Title.” Cartoon. Title of Publication. Date. Page. Source.

Film & Television Bibliography Examples

Film: Title. Director, the film studio or distributor, release year. (If relevant, list performer names after the director’s name.)

TV Series: TV Show Title. Created by Creator first name Last name, Production Company, Year–Year.

TV Series Episode: “Episode title.” Series title, created by First name Last name of show creator, season #, episode #, Production company, Day Month Year of original air date.

Netflix, Hulu, Google Play: “Episode Title.” Name of Show, season #, episode #, original broadcast network, Date Month. Year. Platform, platform URL.

Personal Interview Bibliography Examples

Personal Interviews: Personal interviews refer to those interviews that you conduct yourself. List the interview by the name of the interviewee. Include the descriptor “Personal interview” and the date of the interview.

For example: Smith, Jane. Personal interview. 19 May 2014.

APA

See these bibliography examples for how to write a bibliography in APA. This style fits academic essays in the natural, social, and physical science fields.

Print Bibliography Examples

Book: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name. DOI (if available)

Article in a scholarly journal: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), Page range. doi: XX

Article in print journal: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Article in a magazine: Author’s Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication, Month). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Magazine, Volume Number(Issue Number), first page number-last page number.

Online Bibliography Examples

Article in an online scholarly journal: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), page range. doi:xxxxx.

Article in an online newspaper: Author’s Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication, Month Day if Given). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Newspaper, p. SectionPage if given.

A Page on a Web Site:

If the page names an individual author, cite their name first: Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site Name. URL
If the resource was written by a group or organization, use the name of the group/organization as the author. Additionally, if the author and site name are the same, omit the site name from the citation: Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site Name. URL

Social Media Bibliography Examples

An X (formerly Twitter) post: Author name, Initials [@username]. (Year, Month Day). Text of post. X. URL

YouTube Video: Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. OR Author screen name. (Year, Month Day {of video post}). Title of video [Video]. Title of website. URL of specific video

TikTok Post: Author, A. A. [@username]. (Year, Month Day). First 20 words of caption [Video]. TikTok. URL

Audio Bibliography Examples

Podcast: Executive Producer, E. P. (Executive Producer). (Range of publication). Title of podcast [Audio podcast]. Production company. URL

Music Album: Recording artist. (Year of release). Title of album [Album]. Record label.

Single Song or Track on Album: Recording artist. (Year of release). Title of song [Song]. On Title of album [Album]. Record label.

Artistic Bibliography Examples

Artwork in a Museum or on a Museum Website: Artist, A. (Year of release). Title of artwork [medium]. Name of museum, City, State, Country. URL of museum

Film & Television Bibliography Examples

Film: Director, D. D. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of motion picture [Film]. Production company.

Film or Video in Another Language: Director, D. D. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of motion picture in original language [Translated title] [Film]. Production company.

TV Series: Executive Producer, P. P. (Executive Producer). (Date range of release). Title of series [TV series]. Production company(s).

TV Series Episode: Writer, W. W. (Writer), & Director, D. D. (Director). (Original air date). Title of episode (Season number, Episode number) [TV series episode]. In P. Executive Producer (Executive Producer), Series title. Production company(s).

Bibliographies vs. In-Text Citations

Note that a bibliography comes on a separate page after your essay and gives more details about the sources. In many cases, a bibliography will be accompanied by in-text citations, which are parentheticals that tell the readers which sentences in your essay directly draw from one of your sources. Many essays, particularly research essays, will use both a bibliography and citations. This way, your reader experiences greater clarity on your analysis and your integration of the sources.

Final Thoughts – How to Write a Bibliography with Examples

Learning how to write a bibliography helps you understand your own research patterns and communicates how your essay is in dialogue with other schools of thought. While the formatting for each entry is specific, the guidelines help the reader decipher the full details of each source so they have a greater sense of your ideas and can even find the source themselves. As you continue your academic writing, you’ll feel more comfortable learning how to write a bibliography and may even begin to rely on others’ bibliographies more to enhance your own writing process.

For more resources on how to write a bibliography and conduct research, check out:

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Victoria Cho

Victoria Cho is a writer and educator based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Joyland, The Offing, SmokeLong Quarterly, Word Riot, and elsewhere. She previously worked in social services, managing a career and college readiness for under-served high school students. She holds a Bachelor's from Boston University and a Master's in Creative Writing from University of New Orleans.