Writing & StyleStyle guide

Are Proceedings Titles Italicized?

Yes in MLA-style citations when you mean the title of the published proceedings as a whole; treat it like a book title. Keep the proceedings title separate from an individual paper or presentation title, which is a smaller work and can receive quotation marks.

Quick answer

Yes in MLA-style citations when you mean the title of the published proceedings as a whole; treat it like a book title.

Key details

Core Issuewhether the title of published conference proceedings should be italicized
Registeracademic, institutional, edited, and style-governed writing
RulePurdue OWL’s MLA guidance says published conference proceedings are cited like a book; book-level titles are italicized, while an individual paper or presentation title can be quoted separately.

Important caveats

Scope Boundary

Keep the proceedings title separate from an individual paper or presentation title, which is a smaller work and can receive quotation marks.

Further guidance

Recommendation

In MLA-style citations, italicize the published proceedings title as the book-level work.

Sources and evidence

Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.

  1. MLA Works Cited: Other Common Sources (opens in a new tab)Purdue Online Writing Lab, Purdue University · Purdue OWL MLA guidance explicitly stating that album names are italicized while individual song titles are placed in quotation marks.
  2. MLA Works Cited Page: Books (opens in a new tab)Purdue OWL · MLA-oriented guidance and examples treating an anthology or collection as a whole book/container title, supporting italics for the anthology title.

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