How to cite a website – Important Components & Examples

How to cite a website

Definition: citing a website

Online Sources: internet sources are quotes, pictures, recordings, etc. taken from websites on the World Wide Web (cf. Franck & Stary 2009: 191). Besides this, articles from websites also count as online sources. When you cite a website, it is crucial to include these components:

Author Surname, Name. Date of publication. Title of the article. Domain. URL. Date of last access.

An overview on how to cite a website

If you want to cite a website, you have to provide a full citation in your reference list. This example shows how to cite a website using the APA citation style:

AuthorDate/year of publicationTitle of the article Domain Date of last access & URL
Mohr, Bianca.(2019, Apr 5).How to cite a book: Guide & APA Book Citation Examples.BachelorPrint.https://www.bachelorprint.com/how-to-cite-a-book/. Last accessed 23th Apr 2019.

In your bachelor´s or master’s theses, as well as other pieces of academic writing, you must ensure to only cite websites with academic content! Not all articles and websites on the web are suitable for academic texts.

Properly referencing a website

Author name & article title: If you are citing a website, it is mandatory to name the author and the title of the cited article.

URL & DOI number: Moreover, the URL is part of the citation and the DOI number can also be included.

Date of last access & date of publication: The date of last access is another compulsory element when citing a website. For example: Retrieved March 5, 2019. If you can find information on the publication date of the website article you want to cite, you should include this. Sometimes you might not be able to find a publication date. In that case, you can use the date that you last accessed the website in the short references (cf. Samac, Prenner, & Schwetz 2009: 95 ff., Szuchman 2005: 106).

Important components of website citation

The table below gives an overview of the most important components of website citations, irrespective of the citation style chosen. The table also indicates which elements are mandatory for a full website and which are not, as well as including examples for each element. You will also find comments that explain the different components in more detail.

It is necessary to name the author of the website article. However, you may not always find information about the author of the website contents you are citing. In such cases, you should put in the name of the website or domain operator. If there is no information regarding the operator either, you can use “n.a.”, which means “no author”.

Website citation componentMandatoryExamplesComments
Author of the website/articleYes- Eckhoff, Luis G.
- Harvard Library
If the author is not named (Note that the information on the
website might not be reliable! Reconsider citing from this website)
put in the operator’s name (or domain), or “n.a.” (no author)
Title of the website/the website articleYesCitation and Research
Management Tools at
Harvard
If there is no headline, use the title of the website
Domain (operator)YesWebsite of Harvard
University
- Use the term “Website” or “online” to clarify what kind
of source you are citing
- Corresponds to editors/title of an edited volume (use italics if
necessary)
- Include the domain in case it is a large internet portal
Date of publicationYes, if available- 2016
- December 2016
- 15 March 2014
- Important date; it is also part of the short reference in the text
- If there is no date, use the date of your last access in the short
reference
Web address, URLYeshttps://guides.library.
harvard.edu/cite/guides.
- Shortening the URL is not permissible
- Using hyphens for line segmentation can be confusing (since the hyphen
is not part of the actual URL), so you should use a space after a
slash and set it to left alignment
DOI (Digital Object
Identifier)
Yes, if availableDOI: 10.5539/ ijel.v3n3p14Can be used instead of/in addition to the URL
Date of last accessYes- Retrieved March 5, 2001 from
the World Wide Web
- Last accessed 12th Apr 2019
- Put in exact date (day, year) in case the website
is frequently updated
- Keep a screenshot of the website article

Recommended: How to cite a book

Examples of how to cite a website

Below you will find examples on how to cite a website using two of the most common citation systems – APA citation and Harvard referencing.

Example: Citing websites using APA style

Ghosh, P. (2019, April 10). First ever black hole image released. BBC News. Last accessed 21th Apr 2019: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47873592.

Rudlin, D. (2019, April 11). Why are we so bad at planning cities? The Guardian. Last accessed 12th Apr 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/apr/11/why-are-we-so-bad-at-planning-cities.

Citing a website: Short references in the text

(Ghosh, 2019)

(Rudlin, 2019)

Citing a website using Harvard Style

Although the term “Harvard Style” is frequently used, it does not refer to a manual of style such as “The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association” (short: APA) or “The Chicago Manual of Style”, which you can use for reference when checking how to cite a website in that particular style.

The term Harvard referencing is “another name for the author/date citation system, whereby the author and date is placed in parentheses, e.g. (Robbins 1987) to refer readers to the full bibliographic citations” (cf. Harvard Library 2018, Chernin 1988). Consequently, you can cite a website using APA citation style, which is an author/date system.

Please note: All citation styles draw on the same kind of information. What differs is punctuation and the order in which the elements are presented.

How to cite a website: Basic rules

Online sources and websites are increasingly used as your studies become more focused, e.g. in a cultural discourse. Therefore, it is crucial to know how to cite a website when you are using it as source for your thesis.

Rule #1:

If you are citing a website, it has to be included in the reference list. This is not always easy, as in many cases internet sources do not have page numbers and cannot be assigned to an author or to their year of publication. If you are citing material from an institution´s website, e.g. a ministry, this institution is cited as the author (cf. Kruse 2010: 118).

Rule #2:

What you have to bear in mind when citing a website is differentiatinge between “real” online sources and those that might also exist in print. Many academic journals for example are published online only; however, such journal articles are not regarded as website sources, as they could theoretically exist as print, too. Moreover, there is an issue number and the individual articles can be downloaded in PDF format. Only if the online version differs from the print version is advisable to include the URL and the date of last access (cf. Samac, Prenner & Schwetz 2009: 100).

Rule #3:

You also have to be careful with using online sources as reference. They can function as a primary source but less as a secondary source.

Please bear in mind: Since websites are transient sources of information which can also disappear/can be deleted as quickly as they popped up, it is vital to mark this in the reference list. You can do so by listing the publication date of the website, or if possible, the date of the most recent update. Moreover, you should include the date when you last accessed the website (cf. Samac, Prenner, & Schwetz 2009: 101).

It is recommended to make a copy of the website or take a screenshot (or even a printout, which can go into the appendix of the text) of the website you intend to cite. By doing so, you can ensure that you have cited the website correctly. This also means that your citation is accurate based on your last access of the website.

How to cite a website author info

Example from the website British Council: An article called “Can we learn a second language like we learned our first?” including information about the author and the date of publication.

Recommended: APA Citation

how to cite a website trust

Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page: This is where you will find the site´s copyright and legal information, which also helps you evaluate whether the website is a reliable source or not (terms of use, name of the operator, regular updates, etc.). If there is no author, this is where you can find the name of the operator.

In a nutshell

  • Citing a website entails an entry in the reference list; it must be treated just as any other type of source.
  • Citing websites as secondary source should be the exception rather than the rule; it is recommended that you mainly quote sources in print.
  • When citing a website, it is mandatory to include the date when you last accessed the website, because contents on websites can easily be changed or deleted.
  • Make sure the information provided by the website you are citing is reliable, and only cite quotable websites in your bachelor’s or master’s thesis.
  • The main components of website citations are: Author, title, domain, URL, date of last access, and date of publication.
  • If there is no author, you can include the operator of the website and the name of the domain instead.

References

Chernin. 1988. The “Harvard System”: a mystery dispelled. British Medical Journal 297: 1062–1063.

Franck, Norbert & Joachim Stary. 2009Die Technik des wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens. 15th Ed. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh.

Harvard Library. Oct 24, 2018. “Citation and Research Management Tools at Harvard – Harvard Style”, in Harvard Library. https://guides.library.harvard.edu/cite/guides. Last accessed 23th Apr 2019.

Karmasin, Matthias & Rainer Ribing. 2014. Die Gestaltung wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten. 8th ed. Wien: Facultas.

Kruse, Otto. 2010Lesen und Schreiben – Der richtige Umgang mit Texten im Studium. Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft.

Samac, Klaus, Monika Prenner & Herbert Schwetz. 2009Die Bachelorarbeit an Universität und Fachhochschule. Wien: Facultas.

Szuchman, Leonore T. 2005. Writing with Style – APA Style Made Easy. 3rd edition. Canada: Thomson Wadsworth.

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