Citing Web Sources

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Research papers and scholarly writing are identified in part by the use of documentation or the identification of sources used in support of the findings presented. These sources are identified in the text by the use of parenthetical citations, brief identifiers in parentheses, that can be found as a full reference at the end of the document in a literatured cited or bibliography section.

The style of documentation to use is usually identified by the instructor. The Modern Language Association (MLA) style is commonly used for papers related to literature and language. The American Psychological Association (APA) style is used in psychology and the social sciences. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is generally used in the humanities. Additional subject-specific styles also exist and some instructors prefer certain styles.

These three styles include examples for citing databases and Web pages. For additional assistance with citing electronic resources, try these sites:

http://infodome.sdsu.edu/research/guides/cite.shtml
http://library.uvi.edu/cites.htm

Documentation is simplified by the judicious use of electronic research. By adding documentation to an electronic working bibliography throughout the research process, the final literature cited can simply be an edited version of this file.