Some sources, such as websites, may not have the full information to create a citation. APA has guidelines for dealing with missing components of a citation, both in-text and reference entry.
Be careful! Just because you found something on the web, it doesn’t mean you are citing a website.
Look at the material closely – is it a journal article? A newspaper article? An encyclopedia? An eBook? Use the format that best describes the item.
Author
It can sometimes be difficult to find out who the author of a website is. Remember that an author can be a corporation or group, not only a specific person. Author information can sometimes be found under an "About" section on a website.
If there is no known author, start the citation with the title of the website instead.
Date
The best date to use for a website is the date that the content was last updated. Otherwise look for a copyright or original publication date. Unfortunately this information may not be provided or may be hard to find. Often date information is put on the bottom of the pages of a website.
If you do not know the complete date, put as much information as you can find. For example you may have a year but no month or day.
If there is no date provided, put the letters (n.d.) in round brackets where you'd normally put the date.
Retrieval Date
If the content of a website is likely to change over time (e.g. Wikis), you must provide the date you last visited the website.
Long URLs
If a URL is too long to fit onto one line, try to break it at a slash (/).
Reference page citation:
Static information
Refers to content that will not be updated/deleted/moved on the Website
| Corporation/Group/Organization's Name. (Year website was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of work. Website Name (if different from Author). https://xxxxxxx |
Center for Addiction and Mental Health. (2020). Trauma. https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-illness-and-addiction-index/trauma
Non-static information
Refers to website content that is designed to change over time
| Corporation/Group/Organization's Name. (Year website was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of work. Website Name (if different from Author) . Retrieved Month Day, Year site was last viewed (if content is likely to change over time), from https://xxxxxxx |
World Health Organization. (2020). World health statistics 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2020, from https://www.who.int/data/gho/whs-2020-visual-summary
Notes: Since the Author is also the name of the website, the "Website Name" was not required; As the information changes annually, the "Retrieval date" is required for this entry.
In-Text:
Paraphrase: (World Health Organization, 2020)
Quote: (World Health Organization, 2020, para. 16)
Rules:
For In-Text citations, if there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from. In the above example there is only one paragraph under the specific heading, so no paragraph number is needed.
To learn how to use Corporation Abbreviations/Short forms, check out the In-Text Citations for Corporate Authors
Reference page citation:
| Corporation/Group/Organization's Name. (Year report was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of report: Subtitle if given (Pub. No. Publication Number if given). Website Name if different from author. http://www.xxxxxx |
College of Nurses of Ontario. (2009). Practice standard: Ethics (Pub. No. 41034). http://www.cno.org/docs/prac/41034_Ethics.pdf
In-Text:
Paraphrase: (College of Nurses of Ontario, 2009)
Quote: (College of Nurses of Ontario, 2009, p. 4)
Rules:
For the Reference page citation, because there is a publication number it is included in the citation after the title. If there was a chapter or section number, it would be included in the same place as the publication number as (Chapter xx) or (Section xx).
For In-Text citations, if there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from.
To learn how to use Corporation Abbreviations/Short forms, check out the In-Text Citations for Corporate Authors
Reference page citation:
| Name of Government Department, Agency or Committee. (Year of Publication, Month Day). Title of document: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher if different from author. http://www.xxxxxxx |
Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services. (2010, April 27). Your preschool child's speech and language development. http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/topics/earlychildhood/ speechlanguage/brochure_preschool.aspx
In-Text:
Paraphrase: (Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2010)
Quote: (Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2010, By Age Five section, para. 4)
Rules:
For In-Text citations, if there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from. In the above example there is only one paragraph under the specific heading, so no paragraph number is needed.
Reference page citation:
|
Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year website was updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any). Website Name. http://www.xxxxxxx |
Kmec, J. (2012, March 13). Where's the boss? And what counts as "work"? The Society Pages. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/03/13/whers-the-boss-and-what-counts-as-work/
In-Text:
Paraphrase: (Kmec, 2012)
Quote: (Kmec, 2012, para. 1)
Reference page citation:
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Author's Last Name, First initial. Second Initial if Given (or Username if real name not provided). (Year blog post was published, Month Day). Title of blog post. Title of Blog. http://www.xxxxx |
Klymkowsky, M. (2018, September 15). Can we talk scientifically about free will? Sci-Ed. https://blogs.plos.org/scied/2018/15/can-we-talk-scientifically-about-free-will/
In-Text:
Paraphrase: (Klymkowsky, 2018)
Quote: (Klymkowsky, 2018, para. 2)
Rules:
For the Reference page citation, i the blog author's real name is not provided, use their username instead.
For In-Text citations, if there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from. If the blog post has no page numbers, paragraph numbers or section headings so this information is left out of the in-text citation.
Caution! Wikipedia may not be considered an acceptable source for a college or university assignment. Be sure to evaluate the content carefully and check your assignment.
Reference page citation:
|
Title of entry. (Year article was edited, Month Day). In Wikipedia. https://xxxxx |
Veterinary medicine. (2019, December 22). In Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterinary_medicine
In-Text:
Paraphrase: ("Veterinary Medicine," 2019)
Quote: ("Veterinary Medicine," 2019, Paraveterniary Workers section, para. 1)
Rules:
For In-Text citations, if a dictionary or encyclopedia entry has no author, the in-text citation should include the title of the entry. The title of the entry should be in quotation marks, with each word starting with a capital letter.
When there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from.
*** If no author or creator is provided, start the citation with the title/name of the item you are citing instead. Follow the title/name of the item with the date of publication, and the continue with other citation details.
Reference page citation:
| Title of webpage: Subtitle if provided. (Year). Name of Website. http://www.xxxxxx |
Timeline: Environmental movement. (n.d.). The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/timeline/environment.
In-Text:
Paraphrase: (Timeline: Environmental, n.d.)
Quote: (Timeline: Environmental, n.d., Canadian National Parks Act section)
Rules:
In-text quote citations: You may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph to identify where your quote came from. In this example, there is only one paragraph under this specific heading, so no paragraph number is required.
Reference page citation:
| Anonymous. (Year). Title of webpage. Website Name. http://www.xxxxxxx |
Anonymous. (2019). Cannabis and beer: Is Ontario open for business? Toronto Star. http:///www.torontostar.ca/cannabis_beer_Ontario_open_for_business
In-Text:
Paraphrase: (Anonymous, 2019)
Quote: (Anonymous, 2019, para. 3)
Rules:
If and only if an item is signed as being created by Anonymous, use "Anonymous" where you'd normally put the author's name.
For In-Text citations, when you have no author, use a shortened version of the title where you'd normally put the author's name.
If you're citing something which is part of a bigger work, like an article from a magazine, newspaper, journal, encyclopedia, or chapter/short story from a book, put the shortened title in quotation marks in your in-text citation: ("A few words", 2014)
If you're citing an entire work, like a book, website, video, etc., italicize the shortened title in your in-text citation: (A few words, 2014)
Remember: an author/creator may be an organization or corporation, for example Health Canada. If you don't have a person's name as the author, but do have the name of an organization or corporation, put that organization/corporation's name as the author.
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