A Guideline to Electronic References

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A Guideline to Electronic references

APA Referencing Style

Electronic Media and URLs

From the 5th Edition of the Publication Manual (© 2001)
Note: Some elements of the 5th edition's style guidelines for electronic resources differ from previously published guidelines.

Sources on the Internet.

The Internet is a worldwide network of interconnected computers. Although there are a number of methods for navigating and sharing information across the Internet, by far the most popular and familiar is the graphical interface of the World Wide Web. The vast majority of Internet sources cited in APA journals is those that are accessed via the Web.

The variety of material available on the Web, and the variety of ways in which it is structured and presented, can present challenges for creating usable and useful references. Regardless of format, however, authors using and citing Internet sources should observe the following two guidelines:

1. Direct readers as closely as possible to the information being cited; whenever possible, reference specific documents rather than home or menu pages.
2. Provide addresses that work.

Documents available via the Internet include articles from periodicals (e.g., newspaper, newsletter, or journal); they may stand on their own (e.g., research paper, government report, online book or brochure); or they may have a quintessentially Web-based format (e.g., Web page, newsgroup).

At a minimum, a reference of an Internet source should provide a document title or description, a date (either the date of publication or update or the date of retrieval), and an address (in Internet terms, a uniform resource locator, or URL). Whenever possible, identify the authors of a document as well.

The URL is the most critical element: If it doesn't work, readers won't be able to find the cited material, and the credibility of your paper or argument will suffer. The most common reason URLs fail is that they are transcribed or typed incorrectly; the second most common reason is that the document they point to has been moved or deleted.

The components of a URL are as follows:

The protocol indicates what method a Web browser (or other type of Internet software) should use to exchange data with the file server on which the desired document resides. The protocols recognized by most browsers are hypertext transfer protocol (http), hypertext transfer protocol secure (https), and file transfer protocol (ftp); other Internet protocols include telnet and gopher. In a URL, all of the protocols listed in this paragraph should be followed by a colon and two forward slashes (e.g., http ://).

The host name identifies the server on which the files reside. On the Web, it is often the address for an organization's home page (e.g., is the address for APA's home page). Although most host names start with "www," not all do (for example, is the home page for APA's electronic journals, and is the entry page to the members-only portion of the APA site). The host name is not case sensitive; for consistency and ease of reading, always type it in lowercase letters.

The rest of the address indicates the directory path leading to the desired document. This part of the URL is case sensitive; faithfully reproduce uppercase and lowercase letters and all punctuation. It is important to provide the directory path, and not just the host name, because home pages and menu pages typically consist mainly of links, only one of which may be to the document or information you want the readers to find. If there are hundreds of links (or even just 10 to 20), readers may give up in frustration before they have located the material you are citing.

If you are using a word-processing program, the easiest way to transcribe a URL correctly is to copy it directly from the address window in your browser and paste it into your paper (make sure the automatic hyphenation feature of your word processor is turned off). Do not insert a hyphen if you need to break a URL across lines; instead, break the URL after a slash or before a period.

Test the URLs in your references regularly when you first draft a paper, when you submit it for peer review, when you're preparing the final version for publication, and when you're reviewing the proofs. If the document you are citing has moved, update the URL so that it points to the correct location. If the document is no longer available, you may want to substitute another source (e.g., if you originally cited a draft and a formally published version now exists) or drop it from the paper altogether.

Electronic Media and URLs
Electronic Media Spelling Guide
General Forms for Electronic References
Reference Examples for Electronic Source Materials
Citations in Text of Electronic Material

Electronic Media Spelling Guide
As indicated in the 5th edition of the Publication Manual, dictionaries is not the best guide to spelling in the electronic world.

This is an extremely fast moving environment and common usage develops quickly, leaving print resources easily bypassed.

The APA Style site will attempt to be more responsive. Below is a list of common terms and their current (as of 2001) preferred spelling.

• database
• DOI
• e-journal
• e-mail
• FTP
• Internet
• LISTSERV* (tm) -- the generic term is electronic mailing list
• online
• PDF
• SGML
• URL
• Web

*LISTSERV is a trademarked, proprietary term; unless you know that is what is being used, you should use "electronic mailing list" rather than the, admittedly, more commonly used "list server."

General Form for Electronic References

From the 5th Edition of the Publication Manual (© 2001)
Note: Some elements of the 5th edition's style guidelines for electronic resources differ from previously published guidelines.

Electronic sources include aggregated databases, online journals, Web sites or Web pages, newsgroups, Web- or e-mail-based discussion groups, and Web- or e-mail-based newsletters.

Online periodical:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author,C. C. (2000).
Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx, xxxxxx.
Retrieved month day, year, from source.

Online document:

Author, A. A. (2000). Title of work.
Retrieved month day, year, from source.

Reference Examples for Electronic Source Materials

Note: This material is extracted from the 5th edition of APA's Publication Manual (© 2001).

Internet articles based on a print source
Article in an Internet-only journal
Article in an Internet-only newsletter
Stand-alone document, no author identified, no date
Document available on university program or department Web site
Electronic copy of a journal article, three to five authors, retrieved from database

Periodicals

71. Internet articles based on a print source

At present, the majority of the articles retrieved from online publications in psychology and the behavioral sciences are exact duplicates of those in their print versions and are unlikely to have additional analyses and data attached. This is likely to change in the future. In the meantime, the same basic primary journal reference (see Examples 15) can be used, but if you have viewed the article only in its electronic form, you should add in brackets after the article title "Electronic version" as in the following fictitious example:

VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements
/ In the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates [Electronic version]. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123.

If you are referencing an online article that you have reason to believe has been changed (e.g., the format differs from the print version or page numbers are not indicated) or that includes additional data or commentaries, you will need to add the date you retrieved the document and the URL.

VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements
/ In the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-123. Retrieved October 13, 2001, from

72. Article in an Internet-only journal

Fredrickson, B. L. (2000, March 7). Cultivating positive emotions to
/ Optimize health and well-being. Prevention & Treatment, 3, Article 0001a. Retrieved November 20, 2000, from

74. Article in an Internet-only newsletter

Glueckauf, R. L., Whitton, J., Baxter, J., Kain, J., Vogelgesang, S.,
/ Hudson, M., et al. (1998, July). Videocounseling for families of rural teens with epilepsy -- Project update. Telehealth News, 2(2). Retrieved from

• Use the complete publication date given on the article.
• Note that there are no page numbers.
• In an Internet periodical, volume and issue numbers often are not relevant. If they are not used, the name of the periodical is all that can be provided in the reference.
• Whenever possible, the URL should link directly to the article.
• Break a URL that goes to another line after a slash or before a period. Do not insert (or allow your word-processing program to insert) a hyphen at the break.

No periodical documents on the Internet

77. Stand-alone document, no author identified, no date

GVU's 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from
/

• If the author of a document is not identified, begin the reference with the title of the document.

78. Document available on university program or department Web site

Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F., Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and
/ Education: New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures. Retrieved August 24, 2000, from ColumbiaUniversity, Institute for Learning Technologies Web site:

• If a document is contained within a large and complex Web site (such as that for a university or a government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department before giving the URL for the document itself. Precede the URL with a colon.

Other Electronic Sources

88. Electronic copy of a journal article, three to five authors, retrieved from database

Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White,
/ L. A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved October 23, 2000, from PsycARTICLES database.

• When referencing material obtained by searching an aggregated database, follow the format appropriate to the work retrieved and add a retrieval statement that gives the date of retrieval and the proper name of the database.

Citations in Text of Electronic Material

The following is excerpted from the 5th edition of the Publication Manual (© 2001). Some elements of the fifth edition's style guidelines for electronic resources differ from previously published guidelines.

To cite a specific part of a source, indicate the page, chapter, figure, table, or equation at the appropriate point in text. Always give page numbers for quotations (see section 3.34). Note that the words page and chapter are abbreviated in such text citations:

(Cheek & Buss, 1981, p. 332)
(Shimamura, 1989, chap. 3)

For electronic sources that do not provide page numbers, use the paragraph number, if available, proceeded by the paragraph symbol or the abbreviation para. If neither paragraph nor page numbers are visible, cite the heading and the number of the paragraph following it to direct the reader to the location of the material (see section 3.39).

(Myers, 2000, ¶ 5)
(Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para. 1)

Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide

Scientific Style

Book

(One author)

Bibliography:

Blinks worth, Roger. 1987. Converging on the evanescent.

San Francisco: Threshold Publications.

In-Text:

(Blinksworth 1987, 23)

Book

(Two to three authors)

Bibliography:

Collins, Geoffery, and Matthew D. Wortmaster, Eds.

1953. The collected works of G. Farthington

Penny loss. Boston: C.F. Pennyloss.

In-Text:

(Collins and Wortmaster 1953, 127)

Book

(More than three authors)

Bibliography:

Sanders, G.S., T.R. Brice, V.L. DeSantis, and

C.C. Ryder. 1989. Prediction and

prevention of famine.Los Angeles:

Timothy Peters.

In-Text

(Sanders et al. 1989, 113)

Book

(Corporate or organization author)

Bibliography:

OhioStateUniversity. College of Administrative Science.

Center for Human Resourse Research. 1977. The

national longitudinal surveys handbook. rev.

ed. Columbus.

In-Text:

(Ohio State 1977, 147)

Journal Article

Bibliography:

Banks, Willian, 1958. Secret meeting in Boise.

Midwestern Political Review 6:26-31.

In-Text:

(Banks 1958, 28)

Electronic Databases

Bibliography:

Belle de jour. 1990. In Magill's Survey

of the Cinema [database online]. Pasadena,

Calif.: Salem Press. ca..1989-[cited 1 January 1990].

Accession no. 50053. P. 2. of 4. Available from

DIALOG Information Services, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.

In-Text

(Belle de jour 1990

Bibliography:

Moore, Rich 1990. "Compaq Computer: COMPAQ Joins

the Fortune 500 Faster Than Any Company in

History." In Businesswire [database online].

San Francisco: Business Wire. 1986-[updated

9 April 1986: cited 10 March 1990]. Accession

no. 000782: NO=BW420. 5 screens. Available

from DIALOG Information Services, Inc., Palo Alto,

Calif.

In-Text

(Moore 1990)

Internet Resources

World Wide Web Site

suggested format

Bibliography:

Jewett, Sarah Orne. 1997. The country of

the pointed firs [online]. New York:

ColumbiaUniversity, Academic Information

Systems, Bartleby Library, 1996 [cited 16

October 1997]. Available from World Wide Web:

(

In-Text

(Jewett 1997)

Other Electronic or Internet Resources

(net.TUTOR Quick Guide)

To view other electronic or Internet citations, see:

The OSU Libraries' net.TUTOR Quick Guide: Citing Net Sources

CBE Citation Guide

Book

Bibliography: Voet D, Voet JG. 1990. Biochemistry. New York: J Wiley. 1223 p.

In-Text:

(Voet and Voet 1990)

Book Chapter

(or other part with different author)

Bibliography: Kuret JA, Murad F. 1990. Adenohypophyseal hormones and related substances. In: Gilman AG, Rall TW, NiesAS, Taylor P, editors. The pharmacological basis of therapeutics. 8th ed. New York: Pergamon. p 1334-60.

In-Text:

(Kuret and Murad 1990)

Journal Article

Bibliography: Johnson DL, Lynch WE Jr. 1992. Panfish use of and angler success at evergreen tree, brush, and stake-bed structures. N Am J Fish Manage 12(1):222-9

In-Text:

(Johnson and Lynch 1992)

Dissertations and Theses

Bibliography: Dettmers JM. 1995. Assessing the trophic cascade in reservoirs: the role of an introduced predator [dissertation]. Columbus (OH): OhioStateUniversity. 188 p.

In-Text:

(Dettmers 1995)

Conference Paper

Bibliography: Meyer B, Hermanns K. 1985. Formaldehyde release from pressed wood products. In: Turoski V. editor. Formaldehyde: analytical chemistry and toxicology. Proceedings of the symposium at the 187th meeting of the American Chemical Society; 1984 Apr 8-13; St. Louis, MO.Washington: American Chemical Society. p 101-6.

In-Text:

(Meyer and Hermanns 1985)

Conference Abstract

Bibliography: Mendez MF, Manon-Epaillat R, Lanska DJ, Burstine TH. 1989. Epilepsy and suicide attempts [abstract]. In: AmericanAcademy of Neurology 41st annual meeting program; 1989 Apr 13-19; Chicago. Cleveland (OH): Edgell Communications. p 295. Abtract nr PP369.

In-Text:

(Mendez and others 1989)

Technical Report

Bibliography: Cowardin LM, Carter V, Golet FC, LaRoe ET. 1979 Dec. Classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States. Washington: Fish and Wildlife Service. Report nr FWS/OBS/-79/31. 103 p.

In-Text:

(Cowardin and others 1979)

Electronic Journals

Bibliography: Slater PJB, Jones AE. Timing of songs and distance call learning in zebra finches. Anim Behav [serial online] 1995; 49(2):123-248. Available from: OhioLINKElectronicJournalCenter via the Internet (

In-Text:

(Slater and Jones 1995)

Bibliography:

Wolf BB, Green DR. Suicidal tendencies: apoptopic cell death by caspase family proteinases. J Biol Chem [serial online] 1999; 274 (29): 20049-52. Available from: Journal of Biological Chemistry Website via the Internet (

In-Text:

(Wolf and Green 1999)

Electronic Databases and Internet Resources

Note:The CBE Manual does not provide examples of citation for most electronic formats (listservs, the World Wide Web, databases). For citation examples in these formats, see:

The OSU Libraries' net.TUTOR Quick Guide: Citing Net Sources

Modern Language Association (MLA)Citation Guide

Book

(one author)

Bibliography:

Johnson, Charles Richard. Middle Passage. New York:

Atheneum, 1990.

In-Text:

(Johnson 176)

Book

(two to three authors)

Bibliography:

Leakey, Mary D. and Louis S. B. Leakey. Some String Figures from

North East Angola. Lisboa: Museu do Dundo, 1949.

In Text:

(Leakey and Leakey 12)

For more authors, use:

(Leakey et al.)

Anthology

Bibliography:

McNally, John, ed. Humor Me: An Anthology of Humor

by Writers of Color. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2002.

In-Text:

(McNally xv)

Work in an Anthology

Bibliography:

James, Henry. “The Friends of the Friends.” The Norton

Book of Ghost Stories. Ed. Brad Leithauser. New

York: Norton, 1994. 40-60.

In-Text:

(James 47)

Encyclopedia Article

Work Cited:

“Magna Carta.” The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed.

1998.

In-Text:

(“Magna Carta”)

Journal Article

Bibliography:

Myerson, Joel. “A Calendar of Transcendental Club Meetings.”

American Literature 44 (1972): 197-207.

In-Text:

(Myerson 199)

Magazine Article

Bibliography:

Cook, Mariana. “Cousin Kay.” Victoria. Nov.

2001: 27-28.

In-Text:

(Cook 28)

Newspaper Article

Bibliography:

Johnston, David Cay. “Got Game? Got Old Game?” New

York Times 11 July 2003, late ed., F1+.

In-Text:

(Johnston F3)

Review

Bibliography:

Barth, Melissa E. Rev. of The Summons, by John Grisham.

Magill Book Reviews 1 Nov. 2002: 221.

In-Text:

(Barth)

Work of Art (photograph of)

Bibliography

Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique. Apotheosis of Homer. Musee

du Louvre, Paris. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages.

10th ed. By Helen Gardner. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace,

1996. Plate 22.

In-Text:

(Ingres)

Television Program

Bibliography:

“Popularity of Fur on Rise Again.” Narr. Virginia Cha.

Sunday Today. NBC. WNBC, New York. 9 Feb.

2003.

In-Text:

(“Popularity of Fur”)

Sound Recording (CD)

Bibliography:

Copland, Aaron. Long Time Ago: American Songs. Saint

Paul Chamber Orch. Cond. Hugh Wolff. Teldec,

1994.

In-Text:

(Copland)

WWW Home Page

Bibliography:

The Edith Wharton Society. Ed. Donna Campbell.

5 Aug. 2003. Gonzaga U. 14 Aug. 2003

<

In-Text:

(Edith)

Document from a WWW Site

Bibliography:

Oates, Joyce Carol. “The Magnanimity of WutheringHeights.”

Critical Inquiry 9 (1982): 435-449. Celestial Timepiece:

A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page. Ed. Randy Souther.

2003. U of San Francisco. 14 Aug. 2003

<

In-Text:

(Oates)

Item from a Library Database

Bibliography:

Clark, Zsuzsanna. “From Saturday-Night Poetry to Big Brother.”

New Statesman 21 July 2003: 32. Academic Search Premier.

EBSCOHost. OhioState U Libs., Columbus. 14 Aug. 2003.

In-Text:

(Clark)

E-Mail Communication

Bibliography:

Grisham, John. E-mail to the author. 14 July 2002.

In-Text:

(Grisham)

Other World-Wide Web Resources

To view other electronic or Internet citations, see:

MLA Style - Frequently Asked Questions
(

Citing Net Sources - net.TUTOR Quick Guide

Individual work MLA Style:

Hercules, Greece's Greatest Hero. Ed. Gregory Crane. Mar. 2000.

Perseus Project, Classics Department, TuftsUniversity.