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Citation Guides and Style Manuals

Citing sources and avoiding plagiarism in your writing

Webpages/Web Documents

URLs may be typed in plain text or as hyperlinks. However, your paper will be published or read online, use live links in References list (Publication Manual 9.35, p. 299).

Template

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of page. Website. http://xxxxx

General copyright dates are not sufficient to use as the publication date. If no creation or publication date is given, use n.d. If the author and website are the same, omit the website.

Example 1: Author, No Date

Corcodilos, N. (n.d.). Keep your salary under wraps. Ask the Headhunter. http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/hasalary.htm

(Corcodilos, n.d.) (in-text citation)

Example 2: Corporate Author

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (2010). Facing down PTSD, vet is now soaring high. http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/featureArticle_Feb.asp
 

(U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2010) (in-text citation)

Example 3: Multiple Pages from One Website

If you are using multiple pages from one website that all have the same author and date, differentiate the dates with letters. Be sure that the citations are listed alphabetically by webpage title.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014a). Be safe after a hurricane. http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/be-safe-after.asp

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014a) (in-text citation)

If both items have n.d. instead of a year, include a hyphen before the differentiating letter:

Santa Fe College. (n.d.-a). Priority admissions dates. http://www.sfcollege.edu/admissions/index.php?section=priority_dates

(Santa Fe College, n.d.-a)

Santa Fe College. (n.d.-b). SF to UF: A true story. http://www.sfcollege.edu/gators/true-story/index

(Santa Fe College, n.d.-b)

Example 4: No Author

Appeal to authority. (n.d.). Logical Fallacies. https://www.logicalfallacies.org/appeal-to-authority.html

When citing as an in-text citation, you may abbreviate the title to the first few words, in quotations, unless the title is short:

("Appeal to Authority," n.d.)

Source: Publication Manual, 10.16 (examples 111-114); Webpage on a Website References [APA Style]

Example 5: Healthy People Topic (hyperlinked)

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (n.d.). Maternal, infant, and child health. Healthy People 2020. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/maternal-infant-and-child-health/objectives

Entire Websites

If you're just mentioning the website in general, no References entry or in-text citation is needed. Simply give the URL of the website in the text.

Example:

The WKU Libraries website (https://www.wku.edu/library/) provides many resources for the students, staff, and faculty at Western Kentucky University

(no further citation needed)

Source: Publication Manual, 8.22; Whole Website References [APA Style]

 

Entry in an Online Dictionary

Template
Author, A. A. (Year). Entry name. In Title of online dictionary. Retrieved Day Month, Year, from http://xxxxx.

Most online dictionaries will not have a date; include a retrieval date in this case. Usually you don't give the Retrieved date in APA 7th.

Example
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Chapfallen. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved March 10, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chapfallen

(Merriam-Webster, n.d.)

(in-text citation)
West, S. (2007). Online bully. In Urban dictionary. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=online%20bully&defid=2639710#2639710

(West, 2007) (in-text citation)

Source: Dictionary Entry References [APA Style]

Entry in Online Encyclopedia

Template

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of entry. In A. Editor (Ed.), Title of reference work (xx ed.). Website. http://xxxxx

Example 1: Individual Author

Masolo, D. (2006). African sage philosophy. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2008 ed.). Stanford University. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/african-sage/

 

(Masolo, 2006) (in-text citation)

Example 2: Group Author

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.) Antisemitism. In Holocaust encyclopedia. Retrieved October 7, 2019, from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism

(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.) (in-text citation)

Note: If the author is the same as the website, omit the website component. If an encyclopedia is continuously updated and does not have an archived version, include the retrieval date.

Source: Publication Manual, 10.3 (examples 47-48)