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Author - websites frequently do not cite an individual person as an author; when it seems appropriate, use the organization as the author instead.
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. For more help dating websites, see this APA Style blog post: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/01/the-generic-reference-when.html
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 a title when the document stands alone (books, reports, etc.) but not when it is part of a greater whole (chapters, articles, etc.).
If you are generally referring to an entire website, meaning that you did not extract specific information from it, you can probably skip the formal citation and simply mention the website in the text of your paper.
Format - use this only for web resources that are not regular websites and need a little extra explanation, e.g. blogs, videos, data sets, etc.
URL - Include the full URL (pointing to the specific site you consulted) or the site’s homepage URL, whichever you think is more stable and/or informative.
*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.
If the blog does not attribute its posts to individual authors, use the name of the blog as the author instead.
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).
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Notes:
Artist, A.A. (Year). Title of image/artwork [Description of format]. Retrieved from URL
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Carpenter, R. (ca. 1857-1860). Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston [Digital image]. Retrieved from http://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/cn69mw38z
and
The APA Style Blog has more about online videos.
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See also p. 211 of the APA manual.
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Williams, J., & Nieuwsma, J. (2016). Screening for depression in adults. In J. A. Melin (Ed.), UpToDate. Retrieved February 1, 2017, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/screening-for-depression-in-adults
*Note: look for the link to View Full Document to find a "last modified" date to use for the date in the citation.
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Basic format
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*Note: use the complete date from the last updated date.
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If you need to cite a PowerPoint presentation from your class but it isn’t anywhere online, treat the presentation like a personal communication with the professor as the author. If, however, the slides are posted online, follow the format for websites.
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Fang, M.E. (n.d.). Finding evidence to support physical therapy clinical practice: DPT [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://www.library.ucsf.edu/sites/all/files/ucsf_assets/eb_dpt.ppt
Please note that use of lecture slides is often discouraged in assignments because they are not a primary source.
When citing an e-book, whether on a Kindle or a different e-reader, including the version in your citation, as well as the URL from where you downloaded the book, or the doi if available.
Author, A.A. (Year). Book title: Book subtitle. [Version]. doi or Retrieved from URL
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