A white paper is a report (usually issued by a company, group, or organization) which provides details of issues and the measures to overcome them. A white paper is accessible to the general public. To cite a white paper, you need to know the name of the department or group that issued it, the title of the report, the year, and the URL.

In-text citation template and example: 

(Group Who Authored the Report)

(Department for Education)

Works cited list template and example:

Name of the Group/Organization. Title of the Report. Publisher, date published, URL.

Department for Education. GCE As and A Level Content for Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology. The National Archives, 2014, www.assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/593849/Science_AS_and_level_formatted.pdf.

There is no difference between citing a source with multiple authors having the same last name and different last names in MLA style. For a source with two authors, the last name of each author is used in in-text citations. For a source with multiple authors, only the last name of the first author is used in in-text citations. The table below shows how the in-text citation and the works-cited-list entry are included for a journal article with multiple authors having the same last name.

In-text citation

Citation in prose template & example:

First Author’s first and last name with “and others” or “and colleagues”

According to Paula Ayunerak and others,

Parenthetical citation template & example:

(First Author’s Surname et al.)

(Ayunerak et al.)

Works-cited list template & example

Author Surname, Firstname, et al. “Title of the article.” Journal Title, Volume, Issue, Publication Year, pp. #–#.

Ayunerak, Paula, et al. “Yup’ik Culture and Context in Southwest Alaska: Community Member Perspectives of Tradition, Social Change, and Prevention.” American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 54, nos. 1–2, 2014, pp. 91–99.