With the internet breakthroughs every now and then are loads of information that cannot be readily accessed through periodical databases leading to the need of proper website citation. Citing website comes in various styles and the most concrete and widely used is the APA website citation format.
The APA website citation style is a guide on how to cite freely accessible web pages which, generally, cannot be accessed through periodical databases. This style guide is based from the American Psychological Association Public Manual. The guide has formats ranging from citing websites in a reference list to citing websites in texts.
Basically, the APA website citation, especially in citation of web pages in reference list, has four elements. These are 1. Author 2. Web page Title 3. Publication Date and 4. URL or the Uniform Resource Locator. These elements play roles in successful web page citing using the APA Website Citation format.
Author
The website author can usually be found at either the bottom or the top of the web page. You can easily identify them as they go with phrases like Compiled by, Maintained by, Authored by, etc. There are times that no author is available, so you might just begin citing with the web page title.
Web Page Title
Hence the name is the title of the website. But one must note that when you cite an article in a pool of articles of a specific site, the web page title on your citation should be the title of the article plus the name of the website. Note that the title of the page or the document should be italicized in your citation.
Publication Date
Commonly, the publication date is found at the bottom of the page. It is always good to use the date in which the page or the document was last updated. If available, copyright dates would make a very ideal publication date. One may also include the month plus the day if they can be found on the page. In situations that no publication date is available the sign n.d, for no date, can be put in the citation.
URL
Since it is a website citation, it is very essential to put the URL in your citing. The URL can be found in the address bar at the top of your browser. Transcribe the URL on your citation but be very careful. The best way to get it is to copy-paste the URL.
Here is a basic citation example using the APA website citation format:
DeCarlo, M. (2012, July 17). Panda Cloud Antivirus 2.0 brings faster, smarter detection. TechSpot. Retrieved July 24, 2012, from http:// www. techspot.com/news/49411-panda-cloud-antivirus-20-brings-faster-smarter-detection.html
Here is a citation example format when there is no author or no date:
Dinosaur. ( n.d. ). Costume Ideas. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from http:// www. costumzee.com/shop/dinosaur
In citing web pages in texts, the author’s name, publication date (usually the year of publication) and page number (if available say on PDF files) should be cited. In case when there are many authors, citation of multiple authors is necessary. On the other hand, when there is the lack of author, one can cite the first few words of the web page title.
The basic format for citation of website in texts is (Jones, 2010, 5)
In the case of citation of multiple authors here is the sample format:
(Jones, Ashton and Mcvoy, 2010, 5)
The need for proper citation is easier with the proper format. Using the APA website citation style, can surely help you improve and organize your references and text citing.
