When you are citing a website for the first time, you might be thinking about where to start. Well, the guidance is here to answer all of your questions and it needs to take out all of the guesswork of citation of the website.
A citation is a reference that is used in the book, article, or research paper to give sources of the information. The citation may help your readers to clear all the guidelines about the source of the information that we use in the reference list in the text. Citation is usually written at the end of the text. This helps the writers to avoid plagiarism when usually writing a long text. In the first place, it will be easy for readers to know from where the writer collects his content information and if they want so they can also visit the sources of information to learn more about the topic.
Usually, the writers used style of citing a website will always depend on the referencing style of the text that you are using. However, it only requires the following information while citing a website like an author(s) name (s) [in the last name, first name format], ‘title of the source/web page’, the title of a website, publisher or website name, date published [in Day, Month, Year format] and finally, the website URL.
In the first place, when you do research about the topic and locate sources, make sure that you checked all the documents material in detail, author name, title, publisher, place of publication, date, and pages numbers of all the sources used. If you can add the URL of any website you used; depending on the sources, you might need it for reference.
APA style is no longer required for a database. It is the name of the most references; MLA style is a part of your citation which is still required. In case, you need to recover it at a later date.
All the academic fields require students and all researchers to document their sources. Citing is part of any essay writing, assignment, and research project. This part is also used to give both researchers and the author whose work informed your work,
APA website citations usually include the author, the publication date, the title of the page or article, the website name, and the URL. …
Websites with no date.
| Format | Last name, Initials. (n.d.). Page title. Site Name. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL |
| In-text citation | (University of Amsterdam, n.d.) |
The table below can help you to know how to write the most important components of the website citation, ignoring the citation styles chosen. This table also suggests which points are compulsory for a full website and which are not. Plus, includes an example for each point. You will also find comments that will explain the different components in detail.
The author’s name is necessary to add to the website article. But in case you can’t find the information about the author of the website contents you are citing. So you should put the name of the website or domain operator. If there is no information regarding domain operator also, then one thing you can do is use “n.a.”, which means “no author”.
| Website citation component | Mandatory | Examples | Comments |
| Author of the website/article | Yes | – Eckhoff, Luis G. – Harvard Library |
If the author is not named (Note that the information on the the website might not be reliable! Reconsider citing from this website) put in the operator’s name (or domain), or “n.a.” (no author) |
| Title of the website/the website article | Yes | Citation and Research Management Tools at Harvard |
If there is no headline, use the title of the website |
| Domain (operator) | Yes | Website of Harvard University |
– Use the term “Website” or “online” to clarify what kind of source you are citing – Corresponds to editors/title of an edited volume (use italics if necessary) – Include the domain in case it is a large internet portal |
| Date of publication | Yes, if available | – 2016 – December 2016 – 15 March 2014 |
– Important date; it is also part of the short reference in the text – If there is no date, use the date of your last access in the short reference |
| The web address, URL | Yes | https://guides.library. harvard.edu/cite/guides. |
– Shortening the URL is not permissible – Using hyphens for line segmentation can be confusing (since the hyphen is not part of the actual URL), so you should use a space after a slash and set it to left alignment |
| DOI (Digital Object Identifier) |
Yes, if available | DOI: 10.5539/ ijel.v3n3p14 | Can be used instead of/in addition to the URL |
| Date of last access | Yes | – Retrieved March 5, 2001, from the World Wide Web – Last accessed 12th Apr 2019 |
– Put in the exact date (day, year) in case the website is frequently updated – take the screenshot of the website article |
Keep this in your mind while citing a website. When you are collecting information about the topic and the author you have to take a screenshot of that because in some cases from where you collect the information it will be no more there or it can disappear at any moment. So the moment you use the information from any source just don’t forget to take a screenshot or whatever. Then posted into the appendix of your text. Which is also a part of a reference list.
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