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CEMS APA 7th edition Referencing Style Guide: Webpages and Websites

Websites and Web pages

When citing a website only without referring to a specific document, it is enough to give the address (e.g. http://www.unisa.ac.za). In this case, no reference entry is needed.

If specific content from a website is referenced, the same author-date style should be used to reference the website. Sometimes the author can also be a group or agency. If the author is unknown, you can use the title of the website. If no specific date for the content is displayed, one can look at the last date that the website was updated. The date is not necessarily the copyright date of the website. If the date is not known at all, replace the date with n.d. (e.g. American Nurses Association (n.d.) revealed that …).

Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F., & Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and education: New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures. http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/papers/newwine1.html

If a document is contained within a large and complex Web site (such as that for a university or a government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department before giving the URL for the document itself. Precede the URL with a colon.

Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e

Roberts, N. (2020, June 10). Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, qualifies to run for elected office. BET News. https://www.bet.com/news/national/2020/06/10/trayvon-martin-mother-sybrina-fulton-qualifies-for-office-florid.html

Toner, K. (2020, September 24). When Covid-19 hit, he turned his newspaper route into a lifeline for senior citizens. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/us/coronavirus-newspaper-deliveryman-groceries-senior-citizens-cnnheroes-trnd/index.html

National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). Anxiety disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

  • For a page on a government website without individual authors, use the specific agency responsible for the webpage as the author.
  • The names of parent agencies not present in the author element appear in the source element (in the example, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health). This creates concise in-text citations and complete reference list entries.
  • Provide as specific a date as possible for the webpage.
  • Some online works note when the work was last updated. If this date is clearly attributable to the specific content you are citing rather than the overall website, use the updated date in the reference.
  • Do not include a date of last review in a reference because content that has been reviewed has not necessarily been changed. If a date of last review is noted on a work, ignore it for the purposes of the reference.
  • Italicize the title of the webpage.
  • End the reference with the URL.

World Health Organization. (2018, May 24). The top 10 causes of death. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

  • For a page from an organization’s website without individual authors, use the name of the organization as the author.
  • Provide as specific a date as possible for the webpage.
  • Some online works note when the work was last updated. If this date is clearly attributable to the specific content you are citing rather than the overall website, use the updated date in the reference.
  • Do not include a date of last review in a reference because content that has been reviewed has not necessarily been changed. If a date of last review is noted on a work, ignore it for the purposes of the reference.
  • Italicize the title of the webpage.
  • Because the author of the webpage and the site name are the same, omit the site name from the source element to avoid repetition.
  • End the reference with the URL.

Horovitz, B. (2021, October 19). Are you ready to move your aging parent into your home? AARP. https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/home-care/info-2021/caregiving-questions.html

Schaeffer, K. (2021, October 1). What we know about online learning and the homework gap amid the pandemic. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/10/01/what-we-know-about-online-learning-and-the-homework-gap-amid-the-pandemic/

  • When individual author(s) are credited on the webpage, list them as the author in the reference.
  • Provide as specific a date as possible for the webpage.
  • Some online works note when the work was last updated. If this date is clearly attributable to the specific content you are citing rather than the overall website, use the updated date in the reference.
  • Do not include a date of last review in a reference because content that has been reviewed has not necessarily been changed. If a date of last review is noted on a work, ignore it for the purposes of the reference.
  • Italicize the title of the webpage.
  • Provide the site name in the source element of the reference.
  • End the reference with the URL.

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). U.S. and world population clock. U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved January 9, 2020, from https://www.census.gov/popclock/

  • Parenthetical citation: (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.)
  • Narrative citation: U.S. Census Bureau (n.d.)

When contents of a page are designed to change over time but are not archived, include a retrieval date in the reference.

Acknowledgement

This library guide was developed using:

https://apastyle.apa.org/

IPSHONT Tutorial letter 301/4/2017