Make sure to include the date of retrieval if you think the information is bound to change.
Basic Format:
Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year, Month day). Title of website: Subtitle. Website owner/publisher. URL
Website, Organization as Author:
Organization name. (Year, Month day). Title of website: Subtitle. URL
Website, No Author:
When you cannot find an author for the webpage that you are using, start the citation with the title of specific page.
Page title: Subtitle. (Year, Month day). Title of Website: Subtitle. URL
Blog Post:
Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. OR Author screen name {as it appears on the blog}. (Year, Month Day {of post}). Title of specific post [Web log post].Retrieved from URL of specific post
Websites are cited in-text same as many other resources, in the author-date format.
(Author Last Name, date) -parenthetical
Author Last Name (date) ... -narrative
For websites with no author, use the Title-date format.
(Title, date) -parenthetical
"Title" (date) -narrative
Use quotation marks around titles of websites.
Types of reliable websites:
Many reliable resources published by the government, educational institutions or organizations do not have a specific author. In this case, the organization that published the resource becomes the author.
Government website:
URL ends in .gov
Website information is overseen by the government
Official communication of a government organization
Name of Organization. (Date). Title of specific page. Sponsoring Organization (if applicable). URL or DOI
Example:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, September 22). Lung cancer screening guidelines and recommendations. U.S. Department of Health. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/pdf/lung-cancer-screening-recommendations-508.pdf
Educational website:
URL ends in .edu
Website information is overseen by an educational institution
Non-biased academic information
Name of Educational Institution. (Date). Title of specific page. URL
Example:
State College of Florida. (2020). Institutional research. https://www.scf.edu/Administration/ InstitutionalResearch/default.asp
Organizational website:
URL ends in .org
Website information is provided by an organization (non-governmental)
Information contained must be evaluated for bias toward organization’s mission
Name of Organization. (Date). Title of specific page. URL
Example:
United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF). (2019, November). Global framework on transferable skills. https://www.unicef.org/media/64751/file/Global-framework-on-transferable-skills-2019.pdf
Many reliable resources published by the government, educational institutions or organizations do not have a specific author. In this case, the organization that published the resource becomes the author.
(Organization, date). -parenthetical
Organization (date) -narrative
Example:
For organization names that can be abbreviated, all in-text citations following the first are shortened to the abbreviation only, followed by the year. For example:
First in-text citation: (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020).
All subsequent in-text citations: (CDC, 2020).