CITING INTERNET SOURCES

	
A Couple of Ways to Cite Internet Sources

How do you cite URL's in a bibliography?

These is a biomedical paper reference on the topic: 

Patrias K. National Library of Medicine recommended formats for bibliographic 
citation. NIH, Bethesda MD. 1991.  Patrias seems to be the preferred guide. 
She gives the following generic format: 

Author(s). Title of Article. Title of Serial/Monograph [type of medium] date of 
publication; volume number(issue number): pagination. Availability statement. 
[Date of accession if needed].

Some parts of the generic format aren't always applicable to all electronic 
publications, of course. 

Examples

Usenet posting 
     Stoddard M. Re: How do you cite URL's in a bibliography? (not in FAQ). comp.
	nfosystems.www.users [Usenet
     newsgroup] 16 March 1995. No archive known. [Accessed 17 March 1995]. 
Web page 
     Stoddard M. AHSL Educational Services -- draft. [web page] Feb 1995;
     http://amber.medlib.arizona.edu/homepage.html. [Accessed 16 Mar 1995]. 

Note that RFC 1738 has specified a format for citing Internet Resource Locators, 
which may be incorporated into the above recommendations, substituting for Vol(Is): Pg. 

Berners-Lee, T. Uniform Resource Locators (URL). [web page] 1994 Dec; 
. [Accessed 16 Mar 1995].   
Jeff Becklehimer, August 26, 1994



Citation style for internet sources:

A question which comes up frequently is how to cite internet sources in an academic paper. 
The usual authorities are still entirely silent on this subject, so I propose the 
following (first published in `MLA citation style for internet documents?', article 
 of: USENET newsgroup alt.usage.english (12 May 1995)). 

Sample citations 

     [1] Eli, Lehrer . `MLA citation style for internet documents?' Article
     <3ou9vl$p91@news.wwa.com>, in: USENET newsgroup alt.usage.english (12 May 1995). 

     [2] Hardcastle, Martin. Martin's poetry page. Internet WWW page, at URL:
      (version current at 22 May 1995). 

     [3] MacGregor, Steve. TTT-hejmpag`o de Stefano MacGregor. Internet WWW page, at URL:
      (version current at 12 May 1995). 
 
    [4] Israel, Mark. The alt.usage.english FAQ File. Internet resource available by 
	anonymous FTP, at URL:  (last updated 12 Mar 1995). 

These make most of the necessary points. HTML files are flagged as WWW pages [2,3] 
whether available by HTTP or FTP.
As documents are liable to change, you should always specify a modification date 
of the version used [4] or, if none is available, an access date [2,3]. News articles [1] 
should include the unique message ID and the submission date (not the date it happened to 
appear in your news spool, for instance). Web pages are referred to by the top-level heading 
[2], or if there isn't one, by the title [3]. 
Note that RFC 1738 suggests that cited URLs should include the prefix `URL:' in the 
angle brackets, for example 
      
but the prefix seems `ugly and unnecessary', to quote Michael Quinion. In the same 
article, he makes other points which readers of this page might find helpful. 	Mark Wainwright


Some links that discuss citing internet sources include:
How to Cite the Internet
Citing Internet Resources
wshaw@SIUE.EDU
	
URL:  http://www.siue.edu/~wshaw/citeURL.html

Last Updated: 11th November 1998