What Are In-Text Citations for Web Pages?

In-text citations are an alternative to using footnotes to cite references in a research paper. They consist of a short, parenthetical citation, usually providing the name of the author, sometimes the year of the work, and the page number of the reference. It is more challenging, however, to cite online references in in-text citations, because they don't have page numbers and frequently the authorship is unclear. A standard way of handling these references has been established, however.
  1. Basic Principals of In-Text Citations

    • In-text citations are often preferred because they give the reader more information about what source is being cited without having to constantly refer to footnotes or end notes.The basic concept behind an in-text citation is to provide enough information so that the reader can find the reference by author in the end notes. Therefore, the citation merely needs to be specific enough so that it can be easily matched to the full reference. For instance, if your paper cites only one article from an author named Adams, an in-text citation might be as simple as "(Adams, 126.)"

    Developing In-Text Citations for Internet Sources

    • The question to ask when creating an in-text citation for a Web page, then, is how much information you need to give to distinguish it from other similar references. If there are no page numbers in the Internet source, none need be given. For instance, if the citation is to an article by John Jones that appears in an online medical journal, the citation may only be "(Jones.)" If the source has no author, list the publisher of the website. For instance, a citation from the American Film Institute website might be simply "(AFI.)"

    Multiple Citations for the Same Internet Source

    • In some instances, you may need to distinguish between multiple articles within the same web site. In this case you need to provide the minimum additional information to distinguish the source. For instance, two citations to the AFI website might be "(AFI, "Ben Hur")" and "(AFI, "Charlton Heston.")"

    Full Reference

    • In-text citations rely on properly cited and alphabetized end notes, so the reader is left in no doubt which in-text citation links to which end note. End notes should start with the author's last and first name (when known); the title of the article in quotes; the name of the website, the publisher of the website, and the date published (when known). Some style guides require the word "Web" before the publication date; some require the full URL of the cited page.

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