Referencing a WWW source

easybib.com will format your references for you in MLA style, for free. It also compiles your reference list!

See also Juniata College's Online Citation Guide
The ACS Style Manual doesn't give guidelines for web references. I believe the following example is in the spirit of ACS Style Manual, for the website http://www2.netdoor.com/~jgh/. Notice that no author is listed, nor is there a sponsoring company.
"The Louisiana Native Guards," http://www2.netdoor.com/~jgh/ (accessed Sept. 28, 2004)

Here's another, with no author but a sponsoring organization:

Center for Science in the Public Interest, "Caffeine Content of Foods and Drugs," http://www.cspinet.org/new/cafchart.htm (accessed Sept. 28, 2004)

Websites with (an) author(s) have the author(s) listed per ACS format (surname, initials; surname, initials; surname, initials.) For example, this blog entry (dated websites must have the date given!!):

Bierma, N. "Marilynne Robinson: Why Writing is Like Praying," Sept. 27, 2004, http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/features/weblog/040927.html (accessed Sept. 28, 2004)

If the website is a reproduction of a published source and the bibliographic data are given, you should reference the published source rather than the website. For example, http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1205/p16s01-almp.html should be referenced as

Farah, S. "Women Rock the Casbah," The Christian Science Monitor, December 5, 2003.

Notice that no web address or access date are given, because there is a hard-copy original source. However, you may give the URL after the print reference; you should then give an access date:

Farah, S. "Women Rock the Casbah," The Christian Science Monitor, December 5, 2003. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1205/p16s01-almp.html (accessed Sept. 28, 2004)

Bluffton University Science Department

Bluffton University Home Page


This page maintained by Dan Berger.