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Citing Sources

Citing Electronic Resources Using APA Style

This guide will help you cite electronic sources in your research paper using the APA (American Psychological Association) format. If you have any questions about the research process and/or citing sources, please don't hesitate to ask a librarian for assistance. You can reach a Reference Librarian at 641-4173 or by email at unhm.library@unh.edu. If you are in the Library, ask for assistance at the Reference Desk. The UNHM librarians are here to help you with your research and to answer any questions that you may have regarding our resources and how to use them.

Introduction

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association sets the standard for the format of scholarly publications. APA style (as it is known) is used by researchers and graduate students, particularly in the social sciences. Citations using APA style allow readers to locate the materials used in your research. Therefore, your citations should be as accurate and complete as possible.

UNH librarians have developed an online library research tutorial — InfoBoost—comprised of six modules to introduce you to the basics of information literacy and to assist in navigating the UNH libraries. Each module takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. For an interactive introduction to citing sources and plagiarism, try InfoBoost Module 6: Citing Sources. Also, the web site Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper (via Duke University) provides examples of how to cite various types of sources using the most common style manuals (APA, Chicago, MLA, and Turabian).

For examples of how to cite various print sources such as monographs and journals, refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (BF76.7 .P83 2001) or http://www.apastyle.org/ .

For examples of how to cite various electronic resources using APA style , refer to the guide below.

NOTE: Citations for electronic resources should at least contain the following information: document title or description, a date (date of retrieval and/or publication), and a URL (web address). However, the more information you can provide to your readers, the better. When typing a very long URL that needs to be wrapped down to the next line in your text, be sure to break after a slash or before a period. Otherwise, your word processing program might insert a hyphen at the break, and the URL will then be incorrect in your citation.

Below are some formats of various entries for electronic sources. The format of the printed text (i.e. in italics, regular print, set off by brackets) indicates how that part of the entry should look in the citation. Be sure to pay close attention to the placement of punctuation such as periods and commas. The examples in this research guide will demonstrate how to punctuate citations correctly according to APA rules.

Periodicals

Internet articles based on a print source

When citing a journal article that is the exact same as its print version, there are two variations on how to cite it. If you’ve seen the article in both print and electronic formats, use the citation format you would use for a print source. If you’ve only seen the electronic version of the journal, then cite it as you would the print source, but type [Electronic Version] after the article title.

Wolfe, A. (2000). Have Americans lost their virtue? Theme and variation on Michael Schudson's
The Good Citizen [Electronic Version]. Communication Review, 4(1), 105-120.

If the electronic version you viewed is somehow different than the print version (e.g. page numbers are not indicated, it has been edited down somehow, or contains additional information), then include the retrieval date and URL.

Wolfe, A. (2000). Have Americans lost their virtue? Theme and variation on Michael Schudson's
The Good Citizen [Electronic Version]. Communication Review, 4(1), 105-120.
Retrieved April 7, 2003, from URL

(NOTE: The URL is not set off by any brackets and there is no punctuation after the URL.)

Article in an Internet-only journal

Occasionally, a journal is published only online and is not available in print. When this is the case, the citation should include the author’s name, date of online publication (day, month and year), article title, journal name (in italics), volume number (in italics), article #, retrieval date, and URL.

Smith, J.D. (2003, January 16). Article title. Journal Name, volume # , Article #. Retrieved
February 16, 2003, from URL

Article in an Internet-only journal, retrieved via FTP (file transfer protocol)

Citations for articles retrieved via FTP should include the author, year of publication, article title, journal name (in italics), volume number (in italics), and URL (using “ftp://” instead of “http://”).

Hollingsworth, T.S. (1997). Article title. Journal name, volume #. Retrieved from URL

Article in an Internet-only newsletter

Citations for articles in an Internet-only newsletter should contain the following information: author, date (year and month), article title, journal name (in italics), volume (in italics), issue, and URL. Sometimes, a volume and issue number will not be provided. In that case, use just the name of the journal.

Hurgen, M.A. (1999, September). Article title. Journal name, volume #. Retrieved from URL

Nonperiodical Documents on the Internet

Document on a web site


When citing a document on a web site, include the name of the organization or person who authored the web site, the date of online publication (if available), the title [in italics], retrieval date (month, day, year), and URL. If the document is spread over multiple pages with multiple URLs, link to the homepage of the web site.

St. Andrew’s Society of Richmond. (2002, May 21). What is a St. Andrew’s Society? Retrieved
April 9, 2002, from http://www.standrewssociety.org/whatis.asp

(NOTE: Use n.d. to indicate when no publication date is available on a web site. Also, when a document on the Internet is made up of several pages and each page has a different URL, provide the URL for the home or entry page of the document.)

Section or chapter of a document on a web site

Derry Public Library. (2003, March 13). The History of the Derry Public Library. In About the Library.
Retrieved May 5, 2004, from http://www.derry.lib.nh.us/about.html#history

Document from a university or department web site

Chklovski, T. (2003). Using analogy to acquire commonsense knowledge from human contributors.
Retrieved April 9, 2003, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Artificial Intelligence Lab
Web site: ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/2003/AITR-2003-002.pdf

Technical and research reports

Report from a university available on private organization web site

Occasionally, a report from a university will appear on the web site of a private organization. For example, a web site focused on nutrition may provide a report published by Tufts University about eating disorders. In such a case, the organization hosting the web site needs to be indicated, though “Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition” would still be considered the author.

Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition. (2004, February). Title. Retrieved date, from the
Nitle of Organization Web site: URL

United States government report retrieved from government agency web site

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). National compensation survey: Compensation cost trends.
Retrieved April 9, 2003, from http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/home.htm

Report from a private organization available on organization web site

Cato Institute, (2003, March/April). Cato policy report . Retrieved April 16, 2003,
from http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v25n2/cpr-25n2.pdf

Abstract of a technical report retrieved from a university web site

Citations for abstracts of a technical report are very similar to other citations, except the retrieval statement begins with “abstract retrieved…”, and you should include the project name and report number, if applicable.

Author. (1999). Title. (University of New Hampshire Space Science Research Project Report No.XXX).
Abstract retrieved date, from URL

Abstract of a symposium paper retrieved from a university web site

In a citation for a symposium paper retrieved off of a university web site, be sure to include the name and date of the symposium.

Dillingham, M. (1999, September 2). Title . Paper presented at the 1999 Symposium on XYZ. Abstract
retrieved date, from URL

Paper presented at a virtual conference

Citations are similar to most other APA style citations, but should include the name of the Virtual Conference. Note that you do not have to cite a geographic location when citing a virtual conference, since they take place completely online.

Author. (Date). Title. Paper presented at the XYZ virtual conference. Retrieved date, from URL

Electronic communications

Email

According to the 5th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, email should be considered personal correspondence and should only be cited within the text and not in a reference list. Page 214 of the manual defines personal communications and gives examples of how to cite them within the text.

Benson, T.M. (personal communication, March 28, 2002)

Message posted to a newsgroup, discussion group, electronic mailing list, or online forum

Generally, messages posted to newsgroups, online forums, discussion groups, and electronic mailings lists are not used in scholarly publications. However, if you do use such a message, be sure to include the following things in your citation: author (use the author's screen name if his or her full name is not available), the exact date of posting (year, month, day), and the subject line of the message. Also, include the term “Message posted to” before the URL. http:// should be replaced with news://, when appropriate, for messages posted to a newsgroup.

Newsgroup:

Stark, Melissa (2001, January 13). The feminist manifesta [Msg 7]. Message posted to URL

Online forum or discussion group:

Carey, M. (1999, October 31). Liberal bias in the media [Msg 1]. Message posted to URL

Electronic mailing list (be sure to give the name of the mailing list and the address of the archived version of the message):

MacLeod, Sean (2002, July 7). Space-time continuum? [Msg 2]. Message posted to Physics Phun
mailing list, archived at URL

Materials retrieved from an aggregated database

Several types of materials may be retrieved from several different types of aggregated databases. When citing such sources, you should cite them as you normally would, but indicate the date of retrieval and the name of the database. When citing an abstract, be sure to make note of it when giving the retrieval date.

Electronic copy of a journal article (3-5 authors) retrieved from database

Oppenheimer, L.D., Joaquin, M.L., Monteserat, R.M., & Sorenson, I.L. (1998). Article title.
Journal Title, volume #, page numbers. Retrieved July 25, 2000, from Biological
Abstracts database. (Note: for this type of entry you do not need to provide a URL.)

Daily newspaper article, electronic version available by search

Manchester, M.R. (2003, January 1). The mills of Manchester. Union Leader. Retrieved
April 2, 2003 from URL

Electronic copy of an abstract obtained from a database

Author. (date). Title of article. Journal title, volume #, page numbers. Abstract retrieved
date, from Name of database. (Note: for this type of entry you do not need to provide a URL.)

U.S. government report accessed through GPO Access database

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (2000, August 23). Final Report
of the Independent Counsel In Re: Bruce Edward Babbitt. Retrieved April 2, 2003 from
Independent Counsel Reports via GPO Access: http://icreport.access.gpo.gov/babbitt.html


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