APA: Websites & Other Web Content

See the APA Style Guide to Electronic Resources for examples of how to cite online articles, books and book chapters, meetings, websites, and more.  UAB Blazer ID and password are required to view this resource.

Think of the Internet as a fried egg.  Easy things to cite -- like journal articles, book chapters, e-books, and newspaper stories -- are in the yolk.  Things that are harder to cite -- such as YouTube videos, interviews, tweets, and lecture notes -- are in the white part.

To cite items in the white area, just remember to look for these 4 items:  author, date, title, and source.

See the examples below for citing Websites, blog posts, and more.

There are 4 important components of any citation: author, year, title, and where you found it.  To cite websites, the most important components are the author (whether an individual or institution), the date, the title of the page, and the url for the site.  

Example:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011, April 6). Calcium and bone health. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/vitamins/calcium.html

If you don't have a date replace the date with (n.d.).

There may be other online resources you cite that warrant a format description.  These are usually unusual formats or resources like blog posts, YouTube videos, or anything that's not a standard webpage. 

Example:

Reynolds, G. (2012, April 11). How exercise can prime the brain for addiction [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/how-exercise-can-prime-the-brain-for-addiction/

Example:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2016). Healthy people 2020: Nutrition and weight status. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/nutrition-and-weight-status

Example:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2016). Healthy people 2020: Diabetes. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/diabetes

For most guidelines posted through AHRQ and National Guideline Clearinghouse (guideline.gov) you will cite these documents like websites and web reports. In other words, you need the same 4 major components discussed earlier on this page: author, year, title, and location. Below is an example of a guideline found on Guideline.gov:

Example:

National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF). (2005, August). Environmental management of pediatric asthma: Guidelines for health care providers. Retrieved from http://guideline.gov/content.aspx?id=10019&search=asthma

Guidelines published in a traditional journal, whether in print or online, should be cited as journal articles.

Nightingale, F. (1853-1893). Correspondence. Florence Nightingale Letters. Reynolds-Finley Historical

        Library, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Retrieved from

      http://contentdm.mhsl.uab.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/NIGHTINGALE

Reference List Example:

Nightingale, F. (1885, December 2). [Letter to Thomas Gillham Hewlett]. Reynolds-Finley Historical  

           Library, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Retrieved from

           http://contentdm.mhsl.uab.edu/cdm/ref/collection/NIGHTINGALE/id/73

This is based on Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Rule 7.10.63 (letters from a repository), with the URL added.

In-text citation example:  

Florence Nightingale (letter to Thomas Gillham Hewlett, December 2, 1885) 

Parenthetical citation example:

(Florence Nightingale, letter to Thomas Gillham Hewlett, December 2, 1885).

This is based on section 6.20 on page 179 and the  2nd bullet point on page 213 of the APA manual.

Citing something in UpToDate is similar to citing an online reference book.  List the authors of the article first, followed by the article publication date, titile, deputy editor, and the url to the UpToDate homepage (http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html).  An example is provided below:

Example:

Haridas, A. & Tomita, T. (2013).  Hydrocephalus.  In: A. G. Hoppin (Ed.), UpToDate.  Retrieved from http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html

Here are two examples for citing online reference resources, like encyclopedias or dictionaries:

Examples:

Vorvick, L. (2011). Fleas. In The Adam medical encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001329.htm

Witehouse, P. J. (2007). Dementia. In J. Birren (Ed.) The encyclopedia of gerontology (2nd ed.). Retrieved from http://www.r2library.com

Sometimes you will use a website which allows you to select and compare data.  These might be sites from the Census, the CDC, or a site like Nursing Home Compare from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Purdue's OWL site for APA offers recommendations for citing data sets and graphic data.  We recommend you combine pieces of these two formats to cite a resource like Nursing Home Compare.  This allows you to credit the source and provide your reader with the information needed to retrieve the data you used.  

Example:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2013, June 30). [Comparison of Mount Royal Towers and Fairview Health and Rehabilitation Center]. Nursing Home Compare [Data file].  Retrieved from http://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/

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