Citation Guides

General rules

• When locating the date of the webpage, only use a date that clearly refers to the specific page or article you used. For example, "last updated". Do not use dates from headers or footers. So:
  • Okay to use: "last updated"
  • Not okay to use: "copyright", "last reviewed"
  • If no date is given, use: (n.d.).
• Retrieval date is used only when a source is regularly updated but not archived.
• Shortened URL may be used as long as you check it to make sure it goes to the correct location.
• A URL within a reference may be left all on one line, or may be left to break across two lines.

Webpage with an author and a date

Author (Year, Month Day). Page or article title. Website Title. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL

Anderson, G. L. (2018, September). Safe medications. Arthritis Online. Retrieved December 12, 2019, from http://www.arthritisonline.com/safe-to-use

• In the next example, the page is not likely to be updated, so no "Retrieved" date is given.

Phillips, L. V. (2018, February 5). Mental illness: A common bond. National Alliance on Mental Health. https://www.nami.org/

Webpage with a group author

• Group or corporate author name is given first, just as with an individual author.
• If author name and site name are the same, omit the website title.
• "Retrieved" date is given because this page is likely to be updated, and previous versions not archived.

American Heart Association. (n.d.). Common high blood pressure myths. Retrieved September15, 2019, from https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/the-facts-about-high-blood-pressure/common-high-blood-pressure-myths

Webpage with no author

• In this example, there is no author and no date.
• This page is not likely to be updated, so "Retrieved" date is not given.

Page or article title. (Year, Month Day). Website Title. URL

Home for the holidays. (n.d.). http://www.homeholidays.com/1234.html

Examples

• In the next example, individual author names are given, so the usual rules about authors and dates apply.
• Title capitalization and italics are given as when citing a webpage.
• Extra information like the report number is given after the title, but is not in italics.

Berchick, E. R., Barnett, J. C. & Upton, R. D. (2019). Health insurance coverage in the United States: 2018 (Report No. P60-267). U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-267.html

• In the next example, the author is given in the publication as a sub-department under a major government department. Follow the wording that is given in the resource when deciding who is the author and what is the title of the website.

National Cancer Institute. (2015). What is cancer? U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/what-is-cancer