How to reference the web

To reference the web, you should include the following information when it is available: author of the information (a person, group or organisation), date (usually found at the bottom of a web page), title (and indicate it is a web page), URL (web address), and the date you access ed the web page. The access date is important since web information is often updated, revised or even ceases to exist. For example:

Germov, J. and Williams, L. (1999) How to Study [web page] http://www.howtostudy.org, date accessed: 1 January 2005.

In some cases, there are two dates given on a web page: the date the web page was established and the last date it was ‘modified’, ‘updated’ or ‘revised’. Use the most recent date for your reference.

How to reference articles from electronic journals

Articles from electronic journals can be referenced in the following way:

Germov, J. (1999) ‘Food therapy: The medicalisation of genetically modified food’, Genetic Research Online [ejournal], Vol. 4, No. 3, http://hpq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/9/4/467, date accessed: 25 April 2004.

How to reference downloaded documents

Some organisations make their publications available via the web as documents which can be viewed or printed with the help of a viewing program such as Acrobat Reader, or downloaded as a word processor file. Such documents generally identify the author, date and publisher, and should be referenced in the usual format for any printed source, with the addition of the URL and the date you accessed the information in your reference list entry.