|
I can't cite this page properly because it hasn't got an author
Consider whether you should be using the source at all, then read
8. No Author in this citation guide.
Surely the web address is enough? Why do we have to do all this referencing
when you could just click on a link and go straight to the document?
Several reasons:
- Web addresses change. By giving full information, the original document
may be retrievable by examining other fields in the reference.
- You have to attribute opinions, writings, research etc. to
their rightful authors to avoid plagiarism.
- Determination to find out exactly who said what when and where can
uncover all sorts of unexpected connections.
Why do we have to put 'City of Publication' and 'Publisher' in a web
reference? Other citation guides don't require this.
Fair comment - some do, some don't. Perhaps in a few years' time, this
will be dropped. However, the rationale is:
- By including the 'City' and 'Publisher' fields, the citation style
is transferable across a number of different electronic media, such
as CD-Roms, Computer Programs etc. It saves having to have a dozen different
styles for each one, where you have to keep saying 'unless the item
is an x, in which case, include field z in the reference'. By having
a blueprint for all electronic references, you simply include the information
you have. This does mean that some references have more information
in them than other guides require.
- By including these fields, attribution is clearer, particularly when
organizations are involved. Take http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/,
for example. Most Londoners know that this the online version of the
Evening Standard. However, with a citation system which includes the
city and publisher as well as the web address, you find that the proper
attribution is London: Associated New Media Limited, which in turn is
part of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard and Metro Media
Group.
- If an article goes missing from the Internet, you have another means
of locating it. Yes, the old fashioned telephone and postal service
still have a role to play.
I need your help with citing this webpage. What do I put as the author?
Do I put the name of the organization or 'Anon'. I want to get it right
- what's the correct way?
There is not always a correct way, but rather principles which should
be applied. In cases of ambiguity, you must be the judge, using the information
and guidelines both here and elsewhere on citation and referencing, and
on attribution and plagiarism generally. Often, creating the reference
in a few different forms (as in the 8. No Author page
example of the Bigamy Two-Step) is the best way of making a decision
- the implications of each version are clearer. Please do this first before
asking me or any other tutor.
If you have a particularly thorny example, such as the Fisher-Stitt
article, for example, please send them in. It's the difficult examples
which raise the important questions.
Internet referencing is so difficult. Can you help me with my bibliography?
a) With the Internet, It's not referencing which is difficult, it's usually
attribution. Always question the reliability of a source which is difficult
to attribute to anyone.
b) These pages are my response to a number of questions which students
have asked about Internet referencing. Please do not even think of asking
me for help unless you have first read all these pages!
c) I'm human, I make mistakes. Please tell
me if you have found inaccuracies or irrational advice here, and I'll
try and put it right.
The pages I have printed off have no page numbers on. How do I give
a page reference for an internet document?
You don't. Even if your document is 100 pages long, you don't give a page
number, because internet documents are one, long, scrollable page. There
is only one circumstance under which an Internet page has numbers, and
that is where a previously printed document is put online, with the original
page numbers typed in to show the original pagination. Julie
van Camp's dissertation on the copyright of choreographic works is
an example of this method - note how the /p.64 is inserted in the middle
of the text to show where the original page break was:
If a writer could /p. 64 copyright a newly coined word
or a musician copyright a new atonal scale or chord, the dialogue and
the means for creativity in these arts would be severely restricted,
to the detriment of the society.
http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/copyrigh.html
However, even in this case, you wouldn't need to cite the page number,
because the actual document you are looking at does not have page numbers.
So how will anyone be able to find my reference, without a page number
They'll go to the web page on the internet, and press <Ctrl + F>
('find') and type in a couple of words from your reference.
But the pages I printed out clearly say "Page 6 of 72"
Maybe, but it's your computer that put those numbers on, not the author.
Webpages are not paginated. If you were to print out part of the document,
your printer would start numbering the pages from '1' wherever you started
printing. Depending on the the font size you select in Internet Explorer,
you might have more or fewer pages.
|