How to Cite Electronic Media

Selected citations

Citing electronic documents from various sites
When citing electronic versions of printed publications, cite the usual bibliographic information. For example, to cite an Advance Data viewed on the NCHS home page, use the suggested citation on the last page.

National Center for Health Statistics home page
Place of publication or publisher, title, the full HTTP address, and the date of access.

Example:
National Center for Health Statistics. Home page. http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww/mission.htm. December 1994.

Public-use data file
Place of publication or publisher, title, the full FTP address, and the date of access.

Example:
National Center for Health Statistics. National Ambulatory Medical Survey, 1994. Public-use data file and documentation. ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/. 1996.

Entire database
Place of publication or publisher, title, the full HTTP address, and the date of access.

Example:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Wonder. http://wonder.cdc.gov/. April 1995.

To cite documents from various electronic locations, use the following formats.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites
To cite files available for downloading via FTP, give the author's name (if known), the full title of the paper, and the address of the FTP site along with the full path to follow to find the paper and the date of access.

Example:
Bruckman A. Approaches to managing deviant behavior in virtual communities. ftp.media.mit.edu. pub/asb/papers/deviance-chi94. Dec 4, 1994.

World Wide Web (WWW) sites
To cite files available for viewing/downloading via the World Wide Web, give the author's name (if known), the full title of the work, the title of the complete work if applicable, the full HTTP address, and the date of visit.

Example:
Burka LP. A hypertext history of multiuser dimensions. MUD history. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/lpb/mud-history.html. Dec 5, 1994.

Telnet sites (Sites and files available via the telnet protocol)
List the author's name (if known), the title of the work (if shown), the title of the full work if applicable, and the complete telnet address, along with directions to access the publication, along with the date of visit.

Example:
Gomes L. Xerox's on-line neighborhood: A great place to visit. Mercury News. May 3,1992. telnet lambda.parc.xerox.com 8888, @go #50827, press 13. Dec 5, 1994.

Synchronous communications (MOOs, MUDs, IRC, etc.)
Give the name of the speaker(s) and type of communication (i.e., personal interview), the address if applicable and the date in parentheses.

Example:
Pine_Guest. Personal interview. telnet world.sensemedia.net 1234. Dec 12, 1994.

GOPHER sites (Information available via gopher search protocols)
For information found using gopher search protocols, list the author's name, the title of the paper, any print publication information, and the gopher search path followed to access the information, including the date that the file was accessed.

Example:
Quittner J. Far out: Welcome to their world built of MUD. Published in Newsday, Nov 7, 1993. gopher/University of Koeln/About MUDs, MOOs and MUSEs in education/selected papers/newsday. Dec 5, 1994.

E-mail, listserv, and newslist citations
Give the author's name (if known), the subject line from the posting, and the address of the listserv or newslist, along with the date. For personal e-mail listings, the address may be omitted.

Example:
Bruckman A. MOOSE crossing proposal. mediamoo@media.mit.edu. Dec 20, 1994.

Seabrook RHC. Community and progress. cybermind@jefferson.village.virginia.edu. Jan 22, 1994.

Thomson B. Virtual reality. Personal e-mail. Jan 25, 1995.

This page last reviewed January 11, 2007