APA Style - How to Document Information

Westfield State University Ely Library
APA Style - How to Document Information
This guide is based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. For
more details and examples, consult the APA publication manual (REF BF76.7 P83 2010).
Reference List | Parenthetical Citations
CITING WEB PAGES IN A REFERENCE LIST
NOTE: This is a guide on how to cite freely accessible web pages that are not accessed through
periodical databases. If you need to create citations for articles from library databases, see the
webpage APA Style - Citing Library Database Articles in APA Style.
Elements
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Author: Usually found at the top or bottom of the web page. Look for: Author,
Compiler/Compiled by, Maintainer/Maintained by. If author is not available, begin your citation
with the web page title.
Publication Date: Usually found at the end of the document. Use the last update if available.
Use the copyright date if available. If the month and day are given, include them. If a
publication date is not available, use n.d. (no date).
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Web Page Title: Give the title of the web page here. If you are citing a specific article within
a larger web site, give the title of the article and the name of the larger web site.
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URL: "Uniform Resource Locator" is the web address of your document. It is found at the top
right corner of your printout or in the "Location" bar on your web browser. Take care in
transcribing the URL. Copying and pasting is recommended. Whenever possible, the URL
should take the reader directly to the document you are citing. If this is not possible, the URL
should take the reader as close to the document as possible.
Basic Format
Author, A. A. (Date of publication). Title of Page/Document. Retrieved from URL
Note: The title of the page/document is italicized.
Note: n.d. indicates that no publication date is available.
Web page without an author
GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/users_surveys
/survey-1997-10/
Web page authored by an organization
Greater New Milford (Ct) Area Healthy Community 2000, Task Force on Teen and Adolescent Issues.
(n.d.). Who has time for a family meal? You do! Retrieved from http://www.familymealtime.org
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CITING WEB PAGES IN TEXT
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Citation includes author's name, year of publication, then page numbers if available.
If your source lacks an author, cite the first one or two words of the title.
If no date is given, place "n.d." after the author’s name.
note on page numbers: Web documents often don't have page numbers. When a web page
lacks numbering, omit page numbers from your parenthetical references. Do not use page
numbers generated on a print-out of the web document. PDF files found on the web will have
page numbers however that can be used in a citation.
Basic Format
(Author, year, page number if applicable)
Author's name and date are cited, and no page number is available
While we think of emotion as linked to action, "the changes sparked by contentment are more
cognitive than physical" (Fredrickson, 2000).
Author is organization, n.d is used for no date, and no page number is available
Adolescents who participate in regular family meals are better equipped to meet the challenges of
growing up in today's society (Greater New Milford Area Health Community Task Force on Teen and
Adolescent Issues, n.d.).
Four authors, the date is known. The web document is a PDF file, so page numbers can be
cited
As a mature and committed professional, the teacher works within "the specific segment of the
curricular pie for which he is responsible" (Chou, McClintock, Moretti, Nix, 1993, p. 2).
No author, date unknown, no page number is available
Older statistics show this trend by gender ("GVU's 8th," n.d.).
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References
American Psychological Association (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association
(6th ed). Washington, DC: Author.
For more information and examples, please consult the APA manual, available in Ely Library’s
reference collection (REF BF76.7 P83 2010).
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Page maintained by Oliver Zeff
Last updated January 19, 2010
http://lib.westfield.ma.edu/webapa.htm