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From the OWL resource APA Formatting and Style Guide

This resource was written by David Neyhart and Erin Karper. Additional material by Kristen Seas.
Last full revision by Jodi Wagner and Kristen Seas.
Last edited by Allen Brizee on April 9th 2008 at 10:25AM

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Reference List: Electronic Sources

Article From an Online Periodical

Online articles follow the same guidelines for printed articles. Include all information the online host makes available, including an issue number in parentheses.

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number(issue number if available). Retrieved month day, year, from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/

Bernstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 149. Retrieved May 2, 2006, from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving

Online Scholarly Journal Article

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number. Retrieved month day, year, from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/

Kenneth, I. A. (2000). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 8.Retrieved February 20, 2001, from http://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html

If the article appears as a printed version as well, the URL is not required. Use "Electronic version" in brackets after the article's title.

Whitmeyer, J.M. (2000). Power through appointment [Electronic version]. Social Science Research, 29, 535-555.

Article From a Database

When referencing material obtained from an online database (such as a database in the library), provide appropriate print citation information (formatted just like a "normal" print citation would be for that type of work). Then add information that gives the date of retrieval and the proper name of the database. This will allow people to retrieve the print version if they do not have access to the database from which you retrieved the article. You can also include the item number or accession number in parentheses at the end, but the APA manual says that this is not required. (For more about citing articles retrieved from electronic databases, see page 278 of the Publication Manual.)

Smyth, A. M., Parker, A. L., & Pease, D. L. (2002). A study of enjoyment of peas. Journal of Abnormal Eating, 8(3). Retrieved February 20, 2003, from PsycARTICLES database.

Nonperiodical Web Document, Web Page, or Report

List as much of the following information as possible (you sometimes have to hunt around to find the information; don't be lazy. If there is a page like http://www.somesite.com/somepage.htm, and somepage.htm doesn't have the information you're looking for, move up the URL to http://www.somesite.com/):

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Retrieved month day, year, from http://Web address

NOTE: When an Internet document is more than one Web page, provide a URL that links to the home page or entry page for the document. Also, if there isn't a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.

Chapter or Section of a Web document

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. In Title of book or larger document (chapter or section number). Retrieved month day, year, from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/.

Engelshcall, R. S. (1997). Module mod_rewrite: URL Rewriting Engine. In Apache HTTP Server Version 1.3 Documentation (Apache modules.) Retrieved March 10, 2006, from http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html

NOTE: Use a chapter or section identifier and provide a URL that links directly to the chapter section, not the home page of the Web site.

E-mail

E-mails are not included in the list of references, though you parenthetically cite them in your main text: (E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).

Online Forum or Discussion Board Posting

Message posted to an online newsgroup, forum, or discussion group. Include the title of the message, and the URL of the newsgroup or discussion board.

Frook, B. D. (1999, July 23). New inventions in the cyberworld of toylandia [Msg 25]. Message posted to http://groups.earthlink.com/forum/messages/00025.html

NOTE: If only the screen name is available for the author, then use the screen name; however, if the author provides a real name, use their real name instead. Be sure to provide the exact date of the posting. Follow the date with the subject line, the thread of the message (not in italics). Provide any identifiers in brackets after the title, as in other types of references.

Computer Software

Ludwig, T. (2002). PsychInquiry [computer software]. New York: Worth.

For more help with citing electronic sources, please use these links:

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