The Modern Language Association (MLA) is the principal scholarly society for the study of language and literature in the United States, founded in 1883 and headquartered in New York City, with more than 20,000 members in around 100 countries. It is best known to most researchers for MLA style - the citation and formatting system defined in the MLA Handbook - but it is also a working scholarly publisher. Its flagship journal, PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America), has appeared continuously since 1884 and is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious journals in literary studies. Since 2021, PMLA has been published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the MLA.

This guide covers the MLA's publication venues, what each one publishes, open-access and cost considerations, the peer-review process at PMLA, and how to submit.

• PMLA - four regular issues a year (January, March, May, and October) plus a September issue carrying the annual-convention program. It publishes essays "of interest to scholars and teachers of language and literature" across periods, languages, and methodologies.
• Profession - an online publication on MLA Commons devoted to the state of the field: articles, news, and resources on teaching, careers, and academic working conditions. Free to read.
• ADE Bulletin and ADFL Bulletin - bulletins for department chairs and program administrators in English and in world languages, covering enrollment data, hiring, curriculum, and departmental policy.
• Books and reference works - the MLA Handbook (currently the 9th edition, 2021, with more than 6.5 million copies sold across editions), scholarly book series, and the MLA International Bibliography, the standard index of scholarship in languages and literatures.

The MLA charges no article processing charges on any of its venues.

PMLA follows Cambridge's Green open-access policy: authors may deposit accepted-manuscript versions in institutional or other non-commercial repositories, and Cambridge Core Share allows a read-only version of the published PDF to be shared. PMLA does not currently offer a Gold or hybrid OA route with an APC, and it is not listed as meeting Plan S requirements - if you are under a funder OA mandate, check the journal's current open-access page or your library before submitting.

PMLA uses double-anonymized peer review: authors prepare their manuscripts so that their identity is not revealed, and referee identities are likewise withheld. Essays are read by specialist reviewers and by the journal's editorial board, and because PMLA addresses the whole membership rather than a single subfield, essays are also judged on their interest to non-specialists. Expect a decision timeline of several months, typical for highly selective humanities journals. The MLA is a COPE member, and PMLA operates under Cambridge's publishing-ethics framework.

1. Choose the venue. For scholarly essays, that almost always means PMLA; professional and pedagogical pieces belong in Profession or the bulletins.
2. Read the current submission guidelines on the PMLA pages at mla.org and Cambridge Core - length limits, anonymization requirements, and eligibility rules (MLA membership has traditionally been expected of PMLA authors; verify the current policy).
3. Format in MLA style. PMLA manuscripts follow the MLA Handbook (9th edition) for citations and formatting. SciSpace provides MLA-format templates and an MLA citation generator.
4. Submit through ScholarOne Manuscripts, the submission system PMLA uses under Cambridge University Press. The account is separate from a Cambridge Core account.
5. Prepare for anonymized review. Remove self-identifying references from the text and notes before uploading.

Most researchers meet the MLA first through its style guide. The MLA Handbook, now in its 9th edition (2021), defines the citation system used across literary studies, modern languages, and much of the humanities: in-text author-page citations paired with a works-cited list built from the MLA's "core elements" template. The MLA also runs the MLA Style Center (style.mla.org) with free guidance, sample papers, and teaching resources. If a journal or instructor asks for "MLA format," they mean this system - not submission to an MLA journal.

The MLA is a member of COPE (the Committee on Publication Ethics), and PMLA additionally operates under Cambridge University Press's research-publishing ethics policies, covering authorship, competing-interest declarations, and the use of AI tools in manuscripts. The association's professional-ethics statements also set community standards for scholarship and academic employment in the modern languages.