Citing Web Results: Referencing Web Sources

If you've every created a bibliography before, then you probably know that there are several key facts about the paper or book that you are referencing which should be included in each listing of the bibliography. For example, if you are referencing a book, you will need to find out information about its author, title, publisher, and date and location of publication. For example:

Bowers, Fredson Thayer, Principles of Bibliographical Description (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1949; Winchester, Hampshire: St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1986).

If you are referencing a book, finding this information can often be as easy as looking on the first few pages of the book. Finding this kind of information about a website is not always as easy: a site or page may not have an obvious title or author, and it may take some extra looking to find out which organization (if any) can be recognized as the publishing owner of the site.

If you are having trouble finding out about the author, title, and publication date of a site, these tips can help you find the appropriate information.

  1. Title

    It may not always be obvious what the correct title is for a page. In the example below, the title may initially appear to be "Matter, Elements, and Compounds." However, if you look closely at the blue bar on the top of the browser, you will see that it says "basic chemistry."


    Title: "Matter, Elements, and Compounds" or "basic chemistry"?



    This label is taken from the page's HTML source, as shown in the example:

    <HEAD>
       <TITLE>basic chemistry</TITLE>
    </HEAD>


    A view of the HTML source

    A good rule of thumb is to use the title shown in the browser title bar when creating bibliographic references, because this is the title that will be used by search engines for displaying results. However, if this title is not included (the browser title bar will say untitled), or the title shown in the title bar does not really describe the content of the page, use the title shown on the page itself.

  2. URL

    If you are referencing a web page for your research or report, then you will need to include the URL (or web address) of the web page. The URL can be found at the top of your browser.



    Here are a few tips for formatting and using the URL for your bibliography or reference:

    • You can copy and paste the URL directly into a text or word processing document by highlighting the URL in your browser and selecting Edit-->Copy.

    • Represent the URL accurately, with no added punctuation or spacing. If it is necessary to divide the URL between two lines, break only after a slash mark and do not insert a hyphen at the break.

    • Be sure the address that you cite works. Just to be safe, it is always a good idea to save or print a copy of the web pages that you may cite, so that you can refer to them later and share them with your teacher if requested.

  3. Author

    Unlike books, authorship of Web pages is not always easy to determine. Sometimes a statement of responsibility is provided on a particular page, or for the whole site. Often the organization maintaining the site is considered the author.

    What steps can you take to identify the author of a Web page?

    Scan the top and the bottom of the page for a personal author's name.

    Is there an "About this site" link? If so, this page may indicate an author or editor.

    Look for a copyright statement. This may indicate an organizational author or authoring organization.

    If no author can be determined, omit that element and begin your citation with the title.

  4. Publication Date

    Finding a publication date to cite in bibliographic references for Web pages can sometimes be tricky. A revision or "last modified" date may be provided on the page. A copyright date may be the only date provided. Cite the most recent date that you can find displayed on the page.


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