Referencing Web
Sites
Objective: By the completion of this discussion the students will be able to properly reference web sites used as sources when writing reports, papers, web pages, and other documents.
Whenever information found on the Internet is used in reports, papers, and web documents, the source must be referenced just as when any other resources are used. There must be a citation in the body of the document at the point where the information (not just direct quotation) is used and a reference in the reference list at the end of the section or document.
This document illustrates the format presented in the American psychological Association's (APA) Publication Manual (5th edition) to be used for those citations. The general format is an author date format used for any type of document with modifications for Web documents.
In text citations:
The general form for in text citations is to give the author's last name, the date of publication, and the page number, chapter, figure, or table where the information was found. For example:
(Zaner, 2000, p. 4) or (Smith, 1998, chap. 2)
Web documents however commonly do not provide page numbers or chapters. In those cases the paragraph number (if provided) or section heading and paragraph number (count them) is given. For example:
(Jones, 2000, Basic Practices section, para. 3)
Many Web documents also do not provide the name of the author and publication dates. In those cases the organization publishing the document is used in place of the author and n.d. is used to indicate that a publication date is not available. For example:
(Drains, Inc., (n.d)., Introduction section, para. 2)
In all cases, the requirement is to direct the reader as clearly as possible to the location of the information used. In cases where the general format cannot be used because of a lack of information, the best information available is used.
Reference list:
The general format for items in the reference list is to provide the author's last name and initials, the publication date, the title of the document (article title and periodical title for periodicals), the date it was retrieved, and the source (URL). If the reference list is on a web page, the URL should he hyperlinked to the source document. For example:
Rogers, S. (1999). Welcome to the Imagemap Help Page - IHiP. Retrieved December 21, 2001 from http://www.ihip.com/.
In many cases, the author is not identified and no publication date is given. In that case, the organization is used in place of the author as illustrated in the following example of the the APA document used as the primary reference for this explanation:
American Psychological Association, (n.d.). Electronic References. Retrieved December 21, 2001, from http://www.apastyle.org/elecsource.html.
In cases where the document is contained within a large organizational website identify the host organization and program or course, etc. before giving the URL. For example, for this document the reference citation would be:
Zaner, J. A. (2001). Referencing Web Sites. Retrieved January 12, 2002, from University of Southern Maine, Internet WebSite Development Course Web Site: http://usm.maine.edu/~zanerj/281/Lessons/referencing.htm.
There will be many documents that do not provide the specific information illustrated above. In those as in all cases, the requirement is to give as accurate information as possible to identify the document and direct the reader to its source, following the specified format as closely as possible.
Last Modified Thursday, 07-Mar-2002 07:46:46 EST
ITT 281 - Internet Web Site Development
John A. Zaner
University of Southern Maine
zanerj@usm.maine.edu