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CITING ONLINE SOURCES
The Columbia Guide to Online Style
REF PN 171 .F56 W35 1998
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/basic.html
The Columbia Guide to Online Style by Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor (Columbia
University Press, 1998) is a general style manual for citing online sources. One of its
most useful features is that all examples are given in two citation formats, which the
authors call Humanities Style and Scientific Style, based on MLA and APA respectively.
We have one copy of the Guide in Reference. The web site noted above provides a brief
outline and gives examples.
1. The World Wide Web. How to cite a generally accessible web page as opposed to
subscription databases such as the ones found on our Information Resources page.
a. Humanities Style format:
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Document or File." Title of
Complete Work or Site. Version or File Number. Date of Document.
Protocol and address (date of access).
[Note that not all of these elements will be known for every document found on the web.]
Example:
Jacobson, Trudi, and Laura Cohen. "Evaluating Internet Resources." Search the
Internet. 1996. http://library.albany.edu/internet/evaluate.html (6 Mar.
2002).
b. Scientific Style format:
Author's Last Name, Initial(s). (Document date). Title of document. Title of
complete work (Version or file number[s]). Protocol and address (date of
access).
Example:
Jacobson, T., & Cohen, L. (1996). Evaluating internet resources. Search the
internet. http://library.albany.edu/internet/evaluate.html (6 Mar. 2002).
2. Subscription Database. A citation issue that is not directly addressed by most style
manuals has to do with a convenient way to cite material found on subscription databases
provided by the researcher's campus library web page, in our case, those provided on the
library's Information Resources page (e.g., EBSCOhost's Academic Search Elite, Lexis-
Nexis Academic Universe, FirstSearch databases, etc.).
However, the Guide does offer some helpful ideas in section 2.14, "Online Reference
Sources." The following formats are adapted from the suggestions in that section.
a. Humanities Style format:
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Complete Work Print
publication information with date. Online Service. Protocol and address
and/or any paths or directories (date accessed).
Examples:
Schroeder, Ken. "Internet 'Research'." Education Digest Apr. 2001: 71, 2p.
EBSCOhost: Academic Search Elite. Reeves Library / Information
Resources (6 Mar. 2002).
Herring, Susan Davis. "Faculty Acceptance of the World Wide Web for Student
Research." College & Research Libraries 62 (2001): 251-8. OCLC First-
Search: WilsonSelectPlus Full Text. Reeves Library / Information
Resources (6 Mar. 2002).
b. Scientific Style format:
Author's Last Name, Initial(s). (Date). Title of article. Title of complete work,
Print publication information. Online service. Protocol and address and/or
any paths or directories (date accessed).
Examples:
Schroeder, K. (2001, April). Internet 'Research'. Education Digest, 66, 71, 2p.
EBSCOhost: Academic Search Elite. Reeves Library / Information
Resources (6 Mar. 2002).
Herring, S. D. (2001). Faculty acceptance of the world wide web for student
research. College & Research Libraries, 62, 251-258. OCLC FirstSearch:
WilsonSelectPlus Full Text. Reeves Library / Information Resources (6
Mar. 2002).
The key here is using the formats' suggestion that "any paths or directories" can be
substituted for the giving the URL's "protocol and address," treating the library's
database web page as a "directory."
The advantage of this way of citing material found on our subscription databases is that
the writer does not have to bother with the URL for databases that are customarily
accessed simply by clicking on the link from our Information Resources page. Of course,
the citation is less globally transparent, since a hypothetical reader outside the
Westminster community would not automatically know what "Information Resources"
means.
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