Citing electronic sources

Author: Kathy Bell
Published on: April 6, 1999

By the time you reach the last line of your paper, you're probably glad it's all over...well, sort of. There's still one last bit to tack onto the end, and that's the bibliography, sometimes called a reference list or works cited list. Bibliographies are important because they give credit to the authors of the works we have paraphrased or copied from. In a sense, giving a citation or listing a source in a bibliography is a way of saying "thank you" to someone who's an expert in the field (or at least a helpful source of knowledge!). Bibliographies are also useful to readers who can look up the references for their own research purposes, or who want to judge the validity of your research by examining the authors used or dates of publication.

Many students find bibliographies tedious, though, because the information has to be organised in a particular way, commas and colons included. As well, different instructors may require different styles of bibliographies, and it can be hard to remember one from the other. It can make a great impression, however, if you get all the picky details correct. A properly laid out bibliography looks professional and serious, and can make your paper stand out among all the others in the class.

The word "biblio-graphy" suggests that "books" are the only thing you have used. Nowadays, more and more research is being done using online or other electronic sources, and only recently have style sheets been standardised for such information sources. In today's column you will find a list of links to sites with helpful examples and models of various types of electronic citations.

If you don't know which style to choose, it's best to ask your instructor. If it doesn't matter, then choose the one you feel comfortable with, and stick with it. Keep the same style throughout your document. It's helpful to choose the style before you start to write so that you can remember to note down the necessary details while you're doing your research. There's nothing more frustrating than getting home from the library and realising that you forgot to jot down the author's first name or part of the URL when your bibliography would be incomplete without it.

Some online sources for citing electronic sources:

http://www.psychwww.com/resource/apacrib.htm APA style resources; more links about APA style than you can imagine, including electronic sources.

http://www.rhet.agri.umn.edu/Rhetoric/Student/Graduate/MStewart/ECD/cmain.htm Examples of Chicago style for electronic resources, including bibliography and in-text citations.

http://www.beadsland.com/weapas/ Web Extension to APA style; goes further than standard APA by going into the use of e-mail addresses and nicknames, and how to deal with sites that are maintained or updated regularly.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.htm A dizzyingly comprehensive guide to electronic citations, particularly for the humanities; from Columbia University. This one even mentions how to cite video games.

http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~africa/citation.htm The author of this page starts with a long analysis of electronic citations, briefly covers listerv messages, web sites, FTP and Gopher, and e-mail.

http://law.anu.edu.au/nglrw/lr3.htm A citation guide for legal documents.

http://www.lib.memphis.edu/gpo/citeweb.htm A guide to citing government publications, including online, print and microform sources (US examples given).

© Kathy Bell 1999