How to Cite a Website

Research papers, as all of us know, are extensive and consequently a lot of hard work is put in by the researcher. The researcher, however, has a lot of references and citations he needs to give credit to and acknowledge. Rather, the study and the document cannot be replete and powerful without these citations. Hence, it is essential to mention or give allusions to those studies in that particular area. In case you are working on a research paper or a document and are pondering over the correct way to cite a website, you have hit the right place!

How to Refer a Website

In a Research Paper

MLA Style

• MLA is citation style mostly used for arts and humanities. APA style, coming from American Psychological Association is also widely used in social sciences.
• We begin with the MLA style. Now write the name of the author of the title. Do that all the way in the left margin. Write the last name of the author first and then the first name. There should be a period after the name.
• Next to the author's name, write the title of the web page. Underline it, make it into italics or put it in quotations.
• You can also write the title of the website in the next line, exactly below the name of the author. Period is necessary here as well.
• After you mention the website title, put the date of publishing of that title. Make sure you place a period after it.
• Immediately after the date of publishing of that title, mention the name of the publisher. This is not the same as title author, hence you need to keep that in mind and again give a period after the publisher's name.
• The date you visited that website should be given right after the name of the publisher.
• Finally, give the url after the date you visited the website.

APA Style

• Begin with the name of the author. Again, write the last name first and then the first name.
• Year of the publication comes next in the parenthesis, besides the author's name. Place a period after this.
• Follow that up by putting the title of the article next to the year. This should be plain, without any formatting and should have a period after as before.
• The name of the website should be given immediately after the article in italics with a period after that.
• Following the name of the web page, give the date (mm/dd/yy) when you visited the website. End with writing the url, after the date.

These 2 styles are based on the name of the author. What if there is no author? Let's see.

With No Author

• Give the name of the organization which is accountable and responsible for the web page. If required use an acronym.
• After the name of the organization, give the year in which the work was published and put a comma to follow.
• Give the title of the page where you got the information, in quotation, and write online after that.
• Conclude with the web address which contains the respective information. Start with 'available at' and give the concerned web address.

Citing a website wasn't that tough, rrite? I am sure now the next time you write a research paper or a bibliography, you know now how to do the same.