ONLINE!

We surveyed style guides currently available in various academic and professional fields and found a wide range of practices for citing electronic sources.

A style manual's publication date often indicates whether the manual is a good source of advice on citing Internet sources. Style manuals published before the id-1990s (e.g., the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual, 1984) make no mention of online sources. Manuals published in the late 1990s (e.g., The ACS Style Guide, published by the American Chemical Society in 1997) acknowledge the proliferation of Internet sources, and some provide basic formats and a few models. Many academic and scientific organizations and publications refer writers to other style guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style (see Chapter 7) or Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (see Chapter 8). Others publish online instructions for manuscript preparation, as, for example, does the Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering. In 1998, Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor's The Columbia Guide to Online Style (published by Columbia University Press) introduced "an interdisciplinary template that can be applied to a variety of already established style guides such as APA, Chicago, and MLA" (1).

In short, information about citing and documenting Internet sources is available, but it varies widely in quality, comprehensiveness, and currency. This appendix gives tips for locating such information. Recognizing that at times you may need to develop your own citation style for a particular situation, we include at the end of the appendix a list of the basic information you should include when citing an Internet source.

If you need to document sources in a style other than MLA, APA, Chicago, or CBE, begin by doing the following:

Ask your instructor or editor what style, if any, you are required to use for writing in your discipline.
Locate the Web site of the organization whose style you intend to use, and look for any guidelines for citation and manuscript preparation.

Following is a list of style manuals, arranged by discipline. A few include advice for documenting Internet sources; others refer readers to their Web sites, or to other sources, for such advice; still others don't mention the topic at all. Consider these sources a starting point. (You may also find leads to style-related information at some of the Web sites listed in Internet Sources).

Biology
Council of Biology Editors. Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 6th ed. Cambridge UP, 1994. <http://www.councilscienceeditors.org>

Chemistry
Dodd, Janet S., ed. The ACS Style Guide: A Manual for Authors and Editors. 2nd ed. Washington: Amer. Chemical Soc., 1997. <http://pubs.acs.org>

Engineering
American Society of Civil Engineers. "ASCE On-Line Authors' Guide." <http://www.pubs.asce.org/authors/index.html>

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Information for IEEE Transactions and Journal Authors. New York: IEEE, 1989.

English
Givaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 5th Ed. New York: Mod. Lang. Assoc., 1999. <http://www.mla.org>

Geology
Bates, Robert L., Rex Buchanan, and Marla Adkins-Heljeson, eds. Geowriting: A Guide to Writing, Editing, and Printing in Earth Science. 5th ed. Alexandria: Amer. Geological Inst., 1995.

Government
Gapner, Diane L., and Diane H. Smith. The Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources: A Manual for Writers and Librarians. Rev. ed. Bethesda: Congressional Information Service, 1993.

History
The Chicago Manual of Style. 14th ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993. <http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq.html >

Humanities—General
See English; History.

Journalism
Goldstein, Norm. Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual. Reading: Addison, 2000.

Law
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Comp. editors of Columbia Law Review et al. 16th ed. Cambridge: Harvard Law Review, 1996.

Good, C. Edward. Citing and Typing the Law: A Guide to Legal Citation and Style. 4th ed. Charlottesville: Legal Education, 1997.

Linguistics
Linguistic Society of America. "LSA Style Sheet." Published annually in the December issue of the LSA Bulletin.

Mathematics
O'Sean, Arlene, and Antoinette Schleyer. Mathematics into Type. Rev. ed. Providence: Amer. Mathematical Soc., 1999. <http://www.ams.org>

Medicine
Iverson, Cheryl, et al. American Medical Association Manual of Style. 9th ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1997.

Music
Holoman, D. Kern, ed. Writing about Music: A Style Sheet from the Editors of Nineteenth-Century Music. Berkeley: U of California P, 1988.

Wingell, Richard J. Writing about Music: An Introductory Guide. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1996.

See also History.

Physical Sciences—General
See Biology.

Physics
American Institute of Physics. AIP Style Manual. 4th ed. New York: AIP, 1997. (This is an updated printing of an edition originally published in 1990.) <http://www.aip.org>

Political Science
Lane, Michael K. Style Manual for Political Science. Rev. ed. Washington: Amer. Political Science Assn., 1993. <http://www.apsanet.org>

Scott, Gregory M., and Stephen M. Garrison. Political Science Student Writer's Manual. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1995.

Psychology
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 4th ed. Washington: APA, 1994. <http://www.apa.org>

Sciences—General
American National Standards Institute. American National Standard for the Preparation of Scientific Papers for Written or Oral Presentation. New York: ANSI, 1979.

See also Biology.

Social Sciences—General
See Psychology.

Social Work
National Association of Social Workers. search the NASW Web site <http://www.naswdc.org> for writing advice and style guidelines.

If no guidelines for documenting online sources are available for your discipline, look for advice at one or more of the following Web sites:

In general, a citation of an Internet source should include at least the following information (the arrangement of which may differ from style to style):

Name of author or sponsoring organization
Date of electronic publication or last update notice, if available
Full title of document
Description of context (e.g., title of journal, newspaper, or listserv), if relevant
URL or other Internet address
Date of access

If you intend to submit work to a specific journal, check the publication's stylistic requirements, which are typically included either in each issue or in the first issue of each volume.

When using a citation style that has yet to provide numerous models of Internet source citations, keep in mind the needs of your readers. No matter what their discipline, readers will appreciate a citation practice that is as simple and consistent as possible and includes adequate information about each source.