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When doing research, you must cite your sources to give them credit, avoid plagiarism, and allow the reader to continue the research process by retrieving and using pertinent sources. Citing print resources require author, title, publication place, publisher, and date. ONLINE & ELECTRONIC RESOURCES require the additional information of the online/electronic service being used, the online database, date of information, date of access, and URL.
You could be retrieving Newsweek Magazine (source) via EBSCO Host (vendor/database), with a date of November 1, 1999, but you're retrieving it July 4, 2007. All these variants must be recorded so that the reader can replicate your search while you provide proper recognition.
Pagination is considered irrelevant when citing electronic sources because everything is "one page" online, regardless of length. You're scrolling through the information, so page numbers---required in an established format of page breaks---are not the same.
Increasingly, information is not free, as vendors provide information for a fee. Databases change so you need to include the date you accessed the information. It may not be there tomorrow.
Additionally, you can electronically manipulate information, which means that when, how, and where you access information is as important as the information itself.
Pay attention to Internet sources and look for an author, the date of the information and when the web page was updated, and professional affiliation (if any) of the author.
Internet addresses are enclosed at their beginning and end, as shown, and completed with a period.
For more specific information, refer to the MLA and APA format tip sheets.
Tip Sheet #30 (July 2007)
Prepared by the Library Team, Pueblo Community College, 900 W. Orman Avenue, Pueblo, CO 81004
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