Citing Internet Resources
The Internet has given us gateways to information which previously did not exist. Usenet news groups, electronic discussion groups, World Wide Web sites, electronic journals, and online data archives are just some of the resources it has made available to students preparing research papers. However, although these new formats can enrich research papers with a wealth of interesting material, students still face the requirement for complete and correct documentation of all sources used. While both the American Psychological Association and the Modern Language Association style manuals (those most frequently required for papers in the social sciences and humanities) discuss electronic formats, including the Internet, neither gives detailed examples of citations from common Internet resources. The result is often confusion and anxiety for the student who wants to prepare a complete, correct bibliography. The following examples of commonly used Internet formats should help.
General Principles
As is the case with other scholarly resources, the basic function of an Internet citation is to lead the reader to all resources used by the writer. If multiple paths could lead the reader to the same electronic information, it is best to choose the simplest path possible. For sources such as websites, which can be revised at any time, it is best to cite both the date of the latest revision and the date the writer accessed the site. All subdirectories used to access an electronic document should be cited, so that following up on your sources is easy and unambiguous.
The APA Manual
The American Psychological Association, Publication Manual, like other scientific citation formats, uses last name and initials for personal authors. The publication date follows the author's name immediately, and quotation marks and underlining are not used in giving titles of works. Date accessed by the writer is given last.
A Usenet News Article
Skinner, B.F. (1995, July 1). Training pigeons [Discussion], [Online].
Available e-mail: USENET Newsgroup sci.psychology.research
(visited 1995, July 6)
A Discussion List Article
Alardyce, G. (1996, May 20). Visualizing a home run [Discussion].
Sportpsy-Exercise and Sports Psychology Discussion List [Online].
Available e-mail: LISTSERV@VM.TEMPLE.EDU (visited 1996, May 23)
An Article from an Electronic Serial
Katsch, E. (1996, September). Lawyers in the Networld [27
paragraphs]. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
[Online serial], 2 (2). Available: http://
cwis.usc.edu/dept/annenberg/journal.html
(visited 1996, October 13)
News Article, No Author Cited
Trouble in Toyland (1996, November 27) [8 paragraphs]. CNN
Interactive [Online]. Available: http://
www.cnn.com/US/9611/27/dangerous.toys/index.html
(visited 1996, November 28)
World Wide Web Sites
A Nonprofit Organization
National Audubon Society (1995) A Walk in the Corkscrew Swamp
Sanctuary. Available: http://www.audubon.org/audubon/cork.html
(visited 1996, October 21)
A Corporate Financial Report from EDGAR
Maxwell Laboratories, Inc. (1995, October 27). Form 10-K Annual
Report for the Fiscal Year Ended July 31, 1995. [Online].
Available: Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval
System, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319815/
000089430-95-002081.txt (visited 1996, October 21)
Government Statistical Data
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1996, September 13). Use of Computers at
Home and School by Persons 3 to 17 Years Old: October 1993.
[Online]. Available: http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/
computer/compusec.txt (visited 1996, October 21)
The MLA Manual
The Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is widely used for scholarly communication in the humanities. It differs from the APA Publication Manual in several ways. For one, complete first names of authors, rather than initials, must be supplied. Date of publication or revision is placed at the end of the citation, rather than immediately after the author's name. And article titles are enclosed in quotation marks. The basic information given, however, remains the same, and it is still wise to include the date of visitation as well as the date of publication or last revision in the citation.
A Usenet News Article
Steinbeck, John. "Characters in Grapes of Wrath," Discussion. Online.
Available e-mail: USENET Newsgroup
humanities.let.authors.john-steinbeck. 1 December 1995
(5 December 1995)
A Discussion List Article
Rebholz, Ronald. "Tracing Shakespeare's Influence on William Faulkner."
American Literature Discussion List. Online. Available e-mail:
LISTSERV@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU 15 October 1996 (26 October 1996)
An Article from an Electronic Serial
Rauch, Angelica. "Saving Philosophy in Cultural Studies: The Case of
Mother Wit" Postmodern Culture 7.1 (1996): 35 pars. Online.
Available: http://jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU/pmc/issue996/
rauch.996.html (20 November 1996)
News Article, No Author Cited
"Trouble in Toyland," CNN Interactive 27 November 1996: 8 pars.
Online. Available: http://www.cnn.com/US/9611/27/dangerous.toys/
index.html (27 November 1996)
A Document from a Text Archive via File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Maria or the Wrongs of Woman. Online.
Available: ftp://eng.hss.cmu.edu/english.server/18th-Century/
Wollstonecraft-Maria (21 November 1996)
World Wide Web Sites
A Nonprofit Organization
National Audubon Society. "A Walk in the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary,"
1995. Online. Available: http://www.audubon.org/audubon/cork.html
(17 October 1996)
A Graphic Image from an Online Archive
Vermeer, Jan. "The Milkmaid," WebMuseum. Online Reproduction of
Painting in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Available: http://
sunsite.unc.edu/wm/paint/auth/vermeer/vermeer.milkmaid.jpg
(5 December 1996)
