MHRA referencing, 4th edition

MHRA style comes from the MHRA Style Guide, published by the Modern Humanities Research Association. Many UK departments use it, especially in English, modern languages, film and drama. The 4th edition came out in February 2024, and it’s free to download from the MHRA’s website. This guide follows it, and so does KanBananza.

If you’ve seen MHRA examples with a place of publication, like “(London: Allen Lane, 2011)”, they follow the 3rd edition. The 4th edition leaves the place out of book references unless it’s really useful. The examples below were made by KanBananza’s own formatter, so they match what it pastes.

Footnotes

In MHRA, names and dates don’t go in your sentences. You add a small raised number, and the details go in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

• Put the number at the end of the sentence, after the full stop.
• Let your word processor number the notes. In Word, it’s References, then Insert Footnote. In Google Docs, it’s Insert, then Footnote.
• The first footnote for a source gives its full details. Later ones use a short form.
• Names go first name first in footnotes: Daniel Kahneman.
• Each footnote ends with a full stop.

There are full examples of each in the cards further down.

Four or more authors

Give the first author’s name, then “and others”: Daniel Kahneman and others. With two or three authors, name them all.

Page numbers

Give the page you’re using, with “p.” for one page and “pp.” for a range. For a book, it goes at the end of the note: Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Allen Lane, 2011), p. 81.

For an article or a chapter, the full page range comes first, and your page follows it in brackets, like (p. 81). The “Two authors” example in the table shows how.

Quotes

Short quotes go in single quotation marks, inside your sentence. Longer quotes go in their own indented paragraph, without quotation marks. The footnote number goes after the quote.

Something you read about in another source

If you only saw a quote in another book, say so. Give the original’s details as far as you know them, then “quoted in” and the full details of the book you read. Better still, find the original and read it.

Later footnotes: the short form

After the first full footnote, MHRA uses the shortest form that’s still clear. Usually that’s the author’s surname and the page.

If you cite two works by the same author, add a short title, so the reader knows which one you mean. For a long title, the first few words will do. Keep using the same short form each time.

What about ibid.?

“Ibid.” means “in the same place”: the same source as the note before. MHRA prefers the short forms above. If you use ibid. at all, use it sparingly, only where it can’t confuse anyone, like a note that repeats the source of the note straight before it. Some courses have their own rule, so check your handbook.

The MHRA Style Guide is free to read, and it has the details. Don’t use “op. cit.” or “loc. cit.”: use a short form instead.

The bibliography

At the end of your work comes the bibliography: every source you cited, in one list. Your handbook will say whether to add things you read but didn’t cite.

• Order: A to Z by the first author’s surname, or by the organisation’s name.
• Names: only the first author’s name is turned round: Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke.
• Pages: give the whole page range of an article or a chapter, but not the page you used.
• Titles: capital letters on the main words. Books and journals in italics. Articles and chapters in single quotation marks.
• Journals: the volume and part, like 3.2, then the year in brackets, the page range after “pp.”, and the DOI.
• Online: the link goes in angle brackets, followed by the date you accessed it in square brackets.
• Layout: each entry starts on a new line. KanBananza pastes them with a hanging indent.

Some courses ask you to split the bibliography in two: primary sources (the novels, films or documents you’re studying) and secondary sources (what other people have written about them). Your handbook will say.

Here’s each kind of source: the footnote pattern (the placeholder words show where each detail goes), a real first footnote, and its bibliography entry.

Not shown here: lecture slides, theses, datasets, Acts and cases. For those, see the MHRA Style Guide or your handbook.

A full bibliography

Here’s the bibliography KanBananza copies for four sources. It’s A to Z by surname, whatever order you cited them in.

• Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke, ‘Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3.2 (2006), pp. 77–101, doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
• Kahneman, Daniel, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Allen Lane, 2011)
• McLeod, Saul, ‘Working Memory Model’, Simply Psychology, n.d. <https://www.simplypsychology.org/working-memory.html> [accessed 20 October 2026]
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Hypertension in Adults: Diagnosis and Management, NICE guideline no. NG136 (2019) <https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng136> [accessed 20 October 2026]

What changed in the 4th edition

The MHRA Style Guide’s 4th edition replaced the 3rd (2013) in February 2024. For references, the main changes are these:

• Books leave out the place of publication, unless it’s really useful: (Allen Lane, 2011).
• Journal articles use “pp.” before the page range, as chapters always did.
• A journal’s part number is always given, like 3.2.
• Journal references include the DOI, where there is one.

If your handbook still shows the 3rd edition, ask which one your course wants, then stick to it.

Common mistakes

• (Author, year) in the text. MHRA uses footnotes, not citations in brackets.
• The full note every time. After the first footnote, use the short form.
• Op. cit. MHRA doesn’t use it. Use the short form.
• Double quotation marks for titles. Article and chapter titles go in single ones.
• Every name turned round in the bibliography. Only the first author’s goes surname first.
• A place of publication. That’s the 3rd edition. The 4th leaves it out of book references.
• No page for a quote. Every quote needs its page in the footnote.

To keep your footnotes and bibliography in order while you write, see how to reference as you go. For a dissertation, track which sources each chapter uses.