How to Cite Electronic Documents

The following information is from http://www.masu.nodak.edu/divisions/hss/meartz/biblio.html. It seems to be a well-researched source for how to cite materials found on a web site.

Would you like to link to a single NET Bible verse from your site?

Use this format: /cgi-bin/netbible.pl?book=joh&chapter=3&verse=16

We use three character abbreviations for the book names. It's the first three characters (gen, 1ki, 3jo, etc). The exceptions are Judges (jdg), Philippians (php) and Philemon (phm).

The citation of Internet sources is new, and not all style sheets have fully accommodated the growing need to cite these types of materials. Remember that the goal of this process is to give the creators of material credit for their work (at the same time identifying that the work does belong to someone else) and to allow the reader of your material to find the referenced materials. Internet-sourced items run into trouble on the last item. The identification their location can be difficult, and some addresses can be very long.

The style sheets that have identified methods to cite work on the Internet seem to follow their traditional systems, with the exception of the addition of wording to mark the item as from the Internet, and changes to the place and publisher notations.

American Psychological Association (APA)

The APA (1994, 218) suggests that World Wide Web citations follow this form:

Name of

Periodical

A real example would be as follows:

The Island Sun

Available: http://www.vcsu.nodak.edu/masu/geogpol.html

Of additional note is that since E-mail and USENET newsgroups are not permanent forms, the APA suggests that you follow the personal communication format for them (1994, 174). They are not to be included in the reference list in APA style, thus if I were giving a reference for this concept and had received it in an E-mail letter, I would end my sentence with its citation (P. Meartz, personal communication, October 17, 1995), but no mention would be made in the reference list at the end of the document.

The MLA

The MLA (Gibaldi 1995, 151-167) suggests that World Wide Web citations follow this form:

Title

of the Database or Web Page

The Island Sun

Do note that the MLA has numerous variations identified for Online and other sources. The nature of the Web Page--is it an electronic magazine, a personal page, etc--makes a difference. Consult the manual for full information.

Chicago and Other Simple Citations by Example

The following sample shows several types of citations and uses the Turabian/Chicago style format with a reference list at the end. [Do note that, as far as we are aware, Turabian/Chicago does not have a clear Internet form at this time, and the form shown is speculation based on their general format.] The items used include books, encyclopedias, magazines, and scholarly journals. Many other types are possible. [See the style manuals for those.]

Meartz (1987) found bankruptcies to be a serious threat to North Dakota's future. Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the exploration of the interior highlands continues without the mention of concern for the problems in North Dakota (George 1989, 526). But it is being said in certain places that, "timber was being carried away at high speed" (Orwell 1976, 95). Some places have found the issue silly (Encyclopedia Zots, 1992), while others have devoted pages to it (Carmarto 1991). The theft of lumber has even generated its own home page on the web (Luther 1995)

At the end of the document you would find the following:

List of References [or Bibliography, or Selected Bibliography]

New Pages Web Site

Bibliography

Publication Manual

Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

New York: Modern Language Association.

A Manual for Writers