APA Style

Websites

Often, in web sources, one or more of your important citation information is missing. Sometimes this is a warning sign that this source is not very high-quality -- look closely for other signs of credible websites. But sometimes it is still all right to use. 

Here are some tips for how to cite websites when information is missing. 

Also, note that if you are referring to an entire website in general, and not a specific page on that website, you generally do not have to include it in your References list; it is sufficient simply to indicate in the text which website you mean. For example, "President Obama often used Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/barackobama) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/barackobama) to keep citizens up to speed on his initiatives."

Key Elements

1. Author
2. Year of last update
3. Web page title (italicized)
4. ONLY if likely to change: Retrieval date
5. URL of web page (no period at the end)

Web Page (7.11)

Standard Format

Normally, do NOT include the retrieval date. The only exception is for content that is easily or frequently changed (e.g., unarchived social media posts, blogs, wikis)

Corporate or Government Author, and No Date

Often, a webpage has a corporate, organization, or government agency as an author. 

No Author or No Date (7.11, 7.01.9)

Remember that APA encourages researchers to use the name of a corporate author, a governmental organization, an office, a department, etc. as the author (see directly above).

However, if no author can be found, begin the citation with the title of the Web page. 

If no date can be found, use n.d. 

Note that sometimes the page title itself will be italicized -- here, it is not, because the title of the parent organization, the newspaper The Globe and Mail, is italicized instead, but sometimes you will simply have: 

Page title. (date). Retrieved from http://........ 

Other missing information? View this page from APA, How to write an APA Style reference when information is missing. 

Blog (7.11.76)

If no author's name, use the screen name. Use the year, month, and day for the date of publication.