Cite a Website

Take note of the URL, the author of the page, the name of the website, the title of the article, the publication date, and the date when you retrieved the information. Choose a citation style: MLA, APA, or Chicago style. If using MLA, use the format: "Last name, first name (or name of the website, if no author available). "Title of article." Title of webpage/associated publication or college., year published. Web. Date of access (day month year)." Don't include the URL unless you've been specifically instructed to do so. Use hanging indention. Include the information in a Works Cited page.

Steps

Sample Citation Templates

Doc:MLA Citation Template,Chicago Manual of Style Citation Template

Preparing to Make Citations

  1. Create a citation page in your research journal. Set aside several pages just for citations. It's easier if you keep all the information in one place. If you want, you can number the citations as you go and then refer to that citation in your notes by the number. Just be sure you don't lose the citation page.
  2. Gather information. When citing a website, gather as much information as possible about the webpage:
    • Copy the URL, which is the website address that is in the box at the top of the browser.
    • Find the author of the page, which may be at the top under the title or down at the bottom. Sometimes the author's name is on the "About" page.
    • Write down the website's name, which is usually in the banner at the top of the page.
    • Copy down the title of the article, if applicable. It should be listed at the top of the page.
    • Find the publication date. It should be at the top or bottom of the page, but it's not always listed.
    • Note the date on which you retrieved the information.
  3. Make sure you know which citation system to use. Your assignment or school should specify which citation system you'll be using. If you don't know, MLA is a safe bet for humanities, while APA is most often used in the sciences and Chicago in religion.

Citing a Website in MLA Format

  1. Know the format. For MLA style, you'll embed a reference to your citation in the text, then include a works cited page at the end of your essay.
  2. Cite the website in the text. Directly after the sentence in which you reference the information from the website, put in a reference to your works cited page.[1]
    • Do not put a period at the end of the sentence (yet).[1]
    • Put your reference in parentheses. Start the parentheses one space away from your last word.[1]
    • If you know the author of the website, cite the author's last name. Usually MLA citations include the author and page number; however, because most websites don't have page numbers, you can simply use the author's last name.[1]
    • If you don't know the author's last name, use the title of the piece, placing it in quotations. If the title is long, you can use what's called a partial title. For example, shorten "Yiddish Theater in 19th-Century Prague" to simply "Yiddish Theater."[1]
    • Close the parentheses. The close parenthesis should come directly after the last letter of the author's name or after the last quotation mark.[1]
    • Put a period at the end of the sentence. The period ending the sentence should come directly after the parentheses without a space.[1]
  3. Include the website on your works cited page. Use the following format with the first line not indented but the subsequent lines indented.[2]
    • Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. "Website Name." Version number (if applicable). Publisher or organization, date of publication (year). Publication medium (Web). Date you accessed the material (day month year).
    • Note that MLA no longer requires the inclusion of URLs in works cited page citations because URLs aren't necessarily static. If your instructor requires one, place it directly after the date of access: Date of access. http://www.piesforeveryone.com.
    • The citation looks like the following when complete: Smith, Jess. Pies for Everyone. The Baking Company, 2005. Web. 25 July 2007. http://www.piesforeveryone.com.
    • If you are citing one page on the website, place the page title in quotation marks before the website name: Smith, Jess. "Cherry Pie for Beginners." Pies for Everyone. The Baking Company, 2005. Web. 25 July 2007. http://www.piesforeveryone.com.
    • Leave the author off if one isn't listed. Use "n.p." in the publisher's place if you can't find one and "n.d" in place of the date.[2]
  4. Alphabetize your citations. Use the first word in each citation to alphabetize them on the works cited page.

Citing a Website in APA Format

  1. Know the format. For citations in APA style, you'll embed a reference to your citation in the text, then include a reference list at the end of your essay.
  2. Cite the website in the text. Directly after the sentence in which you reference the information from the website, add a in-text citation.
    • Use an open parenthesis after the last word.[3]
    • APA style uses the author and date. If you know the author of the text and the date it was published, put the last name of the author, a comma, and the date (year) of publication inside the parentheses.[3]
    • If you don't know the author, put the title of the work in quotations, a comma, and the date (year) of the publication inside the parentheses.[3]
    • Close the parentheses. Place the close parenthesis directly after the date.[3]
    • Put a period at the end of the sentence right after the close parenthesis.
    • You can also include the citation near the beginning of the sentence. If you use the author's last name at the beginning, you can include just the date after it in parenthesis, such as in the following instance: "Smith (2005) notes that cherry pies are delicious."[3]
  3. Include the website on your reference list. Format the citation in hanging indention, where the first line is not indented but every line after it is indented. Use the following format for whole websites.
    • Author's Last Name, Author's First Initials. (Publication Date). Document Title. Retrieved from URL[4]
    • The citation looks like this one: Smith, J. (2005). Cherry Pie for Beginners. Retrieved from http://www.piesforeveryone.com

Citing a Website using the Chicago Manual of Style

  1. Use footnotes. The Chicago Manual of Style mandates the use of footnotes when citing sources in the text. You'll have an entry for your source on the footnote and another entry in the bibliography.[5]
    • To insert a footnote, click at the end of the sentence where you are making a citation. The footnote number will come directly after the period. Under "References" in Microsoft Word, click "Insert Footnote." It will create a footnote number behind the sentence and a corresponding footnote at the bottom of the page.
  2. Follow the footnote format for a website. Cite your website in a footnote as follows:
    • 1. Author's First Name Author's Last Name, "The Webpage Title," the publisher, organization, or website name, publication date or access date, URL or DOI.[6]
    • It should look something like this citation: 1. Jess Smith, "Cherry Pie for Beginners," Pies for Everyone, 2005, www.piesforeveryone.com.
    • The DOI is the digital object identifier. It is a unique number assigned to online articles, so people can find them, much like an ISBN number. However, it's usually only assigned to academic articles. You can search for an article's DOI on Crossref.org.[7]
    • If you don't know the publication date, add "accessed" in front of the year in the footnote and "Accessed" in front of the year in the final citation.[6]
    • If the author is unknown, begin with the first piece of information in the citation you have.[6]
  3. Cite the website in your bibliography. Complete the entry in the bibliography for the website. It is essentially the same information as the main entry, but you change some of the commas to periods and reverse the author's name.
    • Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. "Title of Webpage." Lastname, Firstname. “Title of Web Page.” the publisher, organization, or website name. publication date or access date. URL or DOI.
    • For example, it looks like the following citation: Smith, Jess. "Cherry Pie for Beginners." 'Pies for Everyone.' 2005. www.piesforeveryone.com.
  4. Alphabetize the reference list. Use the first word in each citation to put the list in alphabetical order.

Tips

  • Though this article only covers basic citations, if you're using an online academic database, you should note the database and the DOI number for the article in your citation notes for later.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/03/
  4. ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
  5. ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/05/
  7. ↑ http://search.crossref.org/
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