Finding Information for Citations
Websites and pages present challenges when creating citations. One benefit to correctly citing these sources is that it can also help you determine the quality of the source. The harder it is to find citation information, the more likely that it is not a reputable source.
A good place to look for information about a website and/or author is on an About or Information page. You can often learn about the credentials of authors and publishers, as well as affiliations and/or sponsors that might indicate bias and/or purpose.
- Author: Sometimes, the author's name will be displayed prominently at the beginning or end of the page you are reading. Other times, a website is all from one person. However, it can often be quite difficult to locate the author of a web page or article on a website. If it is not on the page, you will have to go looking for it, if it even exists. Sometimes you can find information about the author on an About or Information page. Sometimes the author will be an organization. If you cannot find an author, your citation will begin with the title.
- Title of article: this would be the title of a page, article, post, etc. Sometimes you have to look at the tab in your browser to find a title.
- Title of Website: This is likely the name of the web site. As an example (that you likely would not want to use), Wikipedia would be the name of the website, while the individual entry would be the title.
- Version or Edition: Often, this will not be applicable. One example would be the Tennessee Code Annotated online from LexisNexis The edition currently available is 2018.
- Date of Publication or Last Update: If the date is not indicated directly with the page or article, you may be able to find a copyright statement at the bottom of the page, or possibly on an About or Information page. If none can be found, you will use n.d. for no date.
- Date of Access: This is the date that you got your information from the site.
- Internet Address: Web addresses should not be underlined in your document. Many programs automatically hyperlink addresses and add the color and underline. You will want to fix the formatting or remove the hyperlink.
