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Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the American Psychological Association

Citing Specific Documents on a Web Site

Web documents share many of the same elements found in a print document (e.g.,authors, titles, dates). Therefore, the citation for a Web document often follows a format similar to that for print, with some information omitted and some added. Here are some examples of how to cite documents posted on APA's own Web site.

An article from the journal American Psychologist:

Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A., & Schwartz, A. A. (1995). A history of facilitated communication: Science, pseudoscience, and antiscience: Science working group on facilitated communication. American Psychologist, 50, 750–765. Retrieved January 25, 1996, from the World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/journals/jacobson.html

An article from the APA Monitor (article in a magazine, no author identified):

From 'character' to 'personality': The lack of a generally accepted, unifying theory hasn't curbed research into the study of personality. (1999, December). APA Monitor, 30(11). Retrieved August 22, 2000, from the World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec99/ss9.html

All references begin with the same information that would be provided for a printed source (or as much of that information as is available). If no publication date is available for a document, use "n.d." (stands for "no date") in its place. The Web information is then placed in a retrieval statement at the end of the reference. It is important to give the date of retrieval because documents on the Web may change in content, move, or be removed from a site altogether.

The basic retrieval statement for CD-ROM databases is as follows:

Retrieved from [source] database ([name of database], CD-ROM, [release date], [item no.--if applicable])

The basic retrieval statement for on-line databases is:

Retrieved [month day, year,] from [source] on-line database ([name of database], [item no.--if applicable])

The basic retrieval statement for databases accessed via the Web is:

Retrieved [month day, year,] from [source] database ([name of database], [item no.--if applicable]) on the World Wide Web: [URL]

Examples:

Bowles, M. D. (1998). The organization man goes to college: AT&T's experiment in humanistic education, 1953-1960. The Historian, 61, 15+. Retrieved January 27, 1999, from DIALOG on-line database (#88, IAC Business A.R.T.S., Item 04993186)

Floyd, K. (1997). Communicating affection in dyadic relationships: an assessment of behavior and expectancies. Communication Quarterly, 45 68+13. Retrieved November 7, 2000 from Expanded Academic ASAP on-line database.