Citing the Web

Follow these steps to create a citation in your bibliography for a document found on the web:

Identify the style you are required to use

Check with your instructor or the publication you writing for to identify their particular requirements

Different styles are required for various disciplines. Styles include:

APA (American psychological Association)

Chicago

MLA (Modern Language Association)

Turabian

Identify the type of work you are citing

Web site

Online journal, magazine, or newspaper article previously published in print (Most of the materials found in the WVU Libraries’ full-text databases are electronic versions of articles previously published in print. Citing these items requires both the original publication information and information about the electronic edition.)

Online journal, magazine, or newspaper article published online

Find and follow online examples

From the WVU Libraries Reference Shelf Style Manuals

Examples generally follow a list of elements required by each style: APA, Chicago, MLA, and Turabian.

If you are not immediately sure how to cite the source,

record as much of the following information available to use later when creating an accurate citation:

Author, editor, compiler, or translator

Title of the article, page, scholarly project, database, periodical, professional or personal site, or, for a professional or personal site with no title, a description such as Home page

Name of the list or forum (for a posting to a discussion)

Original source of article with date and page numbers

Product or service name providing item (Examples: Lexis-Nexis or EBSCOhost)

If a library is the subscriber--the name, city, and state abbreviation of the library

Publisher, producer, or distributor

Institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the web site

Number range or total number of pages, paragraphs, or other sections, if numbered

Date of electronic publication, of the latest update, or of posting

Date item was retrieved on Web (date of visit to site)

Electronic address, or URL, of the source (in angle brackets); or, for a subscription service, the URL of the service's main page (if known) or the keyword assigned by the service

Note on Pagination

Most documents on the web do not have page numbers.

If the document you are citing lacks numbering, omit numbers from parenthetical references. Do not use the numbers from a printout of a web page because pagination may differ in different printouts.

If the document you are citing has page numbers, or section numbers, include them in your parenthetical references.

If there are no page numbers, you may use paragraph numbers. For example, in MLA style: "(Gorman and Allis, par. 3)."

Books for more information:

Gibaldi, Joseph, and Walter S. Achert. (1988) MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Third Edition. New York: MLA.

L, Xia, and Nancy Crane. (1993) Electronic Style: A Guide to Citing Electronic Information. Westport: Meckler.

Miller, Joan I., and Bruce J. Taylor. (1987) The Thesis Writer’s Handbook: A Complete One- Source Guide for Writers of Research Papers. West Linn: Alcove Publishing.

Turabian, Kate L. (1976) Student’s Guide for Writing College Papers, Third Edition. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.