There are varying rules for citing information found on the web. Often websites don’t list authors or dates, and the reference must be adapted accordingly.
Some basic rules of thumb to follow for each of these elements on a website:
Author - websites frequently do not cite an individual person as an author; when it seems appropriate, use the organization as the author instead. If there is an individual author, then the name of the organization goes after the title of the web page and is not italicized.
Publication Date - when available, use the most specific date you can find, including year, month, and day if possible. Do not use the website’s copyright date as the publication date. If you cannot find an alternative to the site’s copyright date, use (n.d.) in place of a date.
Title - use the title of the specific page from which you gathered the information; if it is not obvious on the page itself, you can sometimes find it in the title bar at the very top of your browser. Italicize the document title.
Site Name - If the page has named authors, insert the site name (usually the name of the organization responsible for publishing the page) after the title of the page. It should be in plain text with all major words capitalized. If the page does not have named authors, and you used the organization name as the author, leave this out.
If you are generally referring to an entire website, meaning that you did not extract specific information from it, you can skip the formal citation and simply mention the website in the text of your paper.
URL - Include the full URL (pointing to the specific site you consulted)
*Please note, these rules do not apply to journals found on the web. If you find a journal article online, follow the rules for electronic journal articles.
Author, A. A., & Second, B. B. (Year, Month Day). Web page title. Site Name. URL
Example
Berlinger, J., & McKeehan, B. (2020, May 28). Coronavirus pandemic: Updates from around the world. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-05-28-20-intl/index.html.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, March 24). Diabetes symptoms. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/symptoms.html
Format
Author, A. A., & Second, B. B. (Year, Month Day). Web page title. Site Name. [Format]. URL
Note:
Use [Format] if someone may have trouble finding the source without knowing what they are looking for. Bracketed format examples include:
Blog posts are treated more like online magazine articles rather than websites. When citing a blog post, the title of the article is in plain text with the first letter of the first word capitalized (and the first letter of the first word after a colon), and the blog name is in italics and title case. This formatting is different from citing websites, in which the title is italicized and the website name is not.
Example
Manocha, R. (2018, April 2). How negative, repetitive thoughts relate to procrastination. Beyond the Mind. https://www.beyondthemind.com/how-negative-repetitive-thoughts-relate-to-procrastination/
The format for citing news articles is for online versions of newspapers and magazines, rather than articles posted only on a news website (e.g., CNN).
Example
Hall, S. (2020, February 1). Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was great for bacteria. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/science/asteroid-dinosaurs-crater-bacteria.html
Example
Psychology. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 4, 2020, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology
Artist, A. A. (Year). Title of image/artwork [Description of format]. Source name. URL
Example
Carpenter, R. (ca. 1857-1860). Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston [Digital image]. Digital Commonwealth. http://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/cn69mw38z
Author, A. A. (year, month day). Title of video [Video].Source name. URL
Examples
NEJM Group. (2012, May 2). Getting better: 200 years of medicine [Video]. NEJMvideo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxx14RCxblg
and
Kendall, M. (2013, June). Demo: A needle-free vaccine patch that’s safer and way cheaper [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/mark_kendall_demo_a_needle_free_vaccine_patch_that_s_safer_and_way_cheaper
(from, American Psychological Association. (2020, February). YouTube video references. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/youtube-references)
Organization Name. (Year). Title of document (Document Number or Identifier). Publisher Name. URL
Examples
World Health Organization, Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. (1997). WHOQOL: Measuring quality of life (Document No. WHO/MSA/MNH/PSF/97.4). www.who.int/mental_health/media/68.pdf
and
McAlearney, A. S., & Pham, P. (2008). Executive leadership development in the U.S. health systems: Exploring the evidence. American College of Health Executives. https://www.ache.org/pubs/research/McAlearney_HMRA_Report.pdf
Author, A. (Year, Month Day). Title of presentation [Presentation slides]. Site name where hosted. URL
Example
Gay, D. (2006, January 10). Evidence based practice [Presentation slides]. SlideServe. https://www.slideserve.com/denis/evidence-based-practice
Pota, T., & Sindelar, T. (2021, August). Improve student engagement with social annotation tools [Presentation slides]. MGH Institute of Health Professions D2L. https://mghinstitute.desire2learn.com/
When citing an e-book, do not specify the format, platform, or device (i.e. do not write "Kindle" or "ebook"). Include the publisher name and DOI or URL (if available).
Author, A. A. (Year). Book title: Book subtitle. Publisher name. URL
Author, A. A. (Year). Book title: Book subtitle (E. E. Editor, Ed.). Publisher name. URL
Author, A. A. (Year). Book title: Book subtitle [Audiobook]. Publisher name. URL
Editor, E. E. (Year). Book title: Book subtitle. Publisher name. URL
Examples
Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. Amazon.
Brill, P. (2004). The winner’s way. Adobe Digital Editions. https://doi.org/10.1036/007142363X
McNamara, S. (2000). Stress in young people: What’s new and what can we do? Google Books.
Example
Basic Format
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. UpToDate. Retrieved date from website URL
Example
Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., & Carrillo, J. E. (2021). The patient's culture and effective communication. UpToDate. Retrieved February 17, 2023 from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/the-patients-culture-and-effective-communication
If you're using ChatGPT or other Generative AI tools to help with your research, the APA Style Guide recommends including that information in your Method section; while if you're working on another type of paper, introduce how you used it in the introduction paragraph. Since it's difficult to recreate a chat, it's also recommended to include both the prompt and relevant generated text, ideally in an appendix.
Looking for help with AI? We're working on a student guide for generative AI usage, but the Faculty Generative AI Guide has a list of tools that you may find useful in the meantime.
Author of the model, A. (Year of the version used). Name of the model used (Version number - OpenAI uses the date to track versions, while other tools may use numbers) [Large language model]. Publisher name (if not the same as the author name). URL.
Example
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
McAdoo, T. (2024). How to cite ChatGPT. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt
