LibAnswers: Referencing

Web page references should contain the following elements:

Author (year) Title of web page. Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

For example: 

Verlet, J.R.R. (2021) Dynamics of anion formation. Available at: http://www.verlet.net/edc.html (Accessed: 14 May 2021).

The nature of web resources means that author names are often not available. You will therefore need to decide who is responsible for producing the web page and use them as the author; often this will be an organisation rather than a personal name. You should be able to find this information by following “about us” or “contact us” links.  For example:

National Health Service (2021) Coronavirus (COVID-19). Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ (Accessed: 17 May 2021).

If there is no author or organisation you can use the title of the web page.  For example:

Palladio's Italian villas (2005) Available at: http://www.boglewood.com/palladio/ (Accessed: 23 August 2018).

Dates are not always available for web pages. If this is the case use (no date) so that the reader knows you have omitted this element.  For example:

Flixel (no date) Magical tools for visual storytelling. Available at: https://flixel.com/company/ (Accessed: 1 June 2021).

If there is no title, use a truncated web address. (You should however consider whether this resource is suitable for academic work if there is no author or title available).

http://www.unknownprovenance.com (2018) (Accessed: 14 May 2021).

The principles for citing online resources are the same as for other formats; use the author and date of publication in the text, then follow the convention as detailed for the type of source in the reference list.

Find further details about citing web pages on Cite Them Right (log-in required).