Internet Referencing

For the sake of clarity, let's number all the elements in the reference from the Times Online:

1 Webster, B. 2 (2001)3 London charge is capital for some 4 The Times. 5 [online] 6 London: 7 Times Newspapers Limited, 8 23/07/01 9 [last accessed 10/11/01]. 10 Available at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001251857,00.html

Elements 1 (Author), 2 (Year), 3 (Title), 4 (Host publication), 6 (City of Publication), and 7 (Publisher) are all familiar to us from standard references. All we need to do is understand four new ones.

5 Type of medium Why 'type of medium'? Two reasons.

1. This referencing style is based on a generic style for referencing electronic sources - emails, CD-ROMs, online databases, internet newsgroups etc. If The Times article was on a CD-ROM of the newspaper, rather than on the internet, this would read [CD-ROM], not [Online].
2. In common with many other newspapers, The Times has an online edition, and a print edition. The contents are not always the same.

Format: [type of medium]

8 Date of publication/last update/revision. This is the date on which the document was published, or last updated/revised. If both are given, put the revised date in brackets: 14/02/93 (last updated 15/09/01). This information is often (sadly) missing from pages, but:

1. The inclusion of a publication date/revision date is often a sign of a reliable source
2. As organisations and individuals understand the need for accountability on the Internet, so they see the value of including it.

Format: Day/Month/Year, or Day/Month/Year (Last revised/updated Day/Month/Year)

9 Last accessed date. Also referred to as the 'citation date', this is the date on which YOU viewed the page (i.e. the day which you cited it). Yes, it is important. Until November 6th, my own 'useful links page' had a link to the Centre for Performance Research (Aberdeen). On the 6th November 2001, the CPR wrote to me saying that the 'aber' in their address (aber.ac.uk) stood for Aberystwyth, not Aberdeen. I duly updated the page, which now says CPR (Aberystwyth). Let's say you write an essay on the reliability of internet sources, and say "Jonathan Still's site is a good example of an unreliable source - he thinks the CPR is in Aberdeen". You write the essay at the end of October, with a reference to my site. On November 10th, you submit it to your tutor, and can't remember when you last accessed the site, so you make it up, writing November 8th as the date of last access.

On the one hand, your information is now demonstrably inaccurate. On the other hand, if you had checked before you put the citation date, you would have noticed that the site had changed, which would change the nature of your argument. You might now argue that the Internet can be a very efficient means of updating wrong information, compared to print media which only get revised every year or so, if ever.

Format [Last accessed: Day/Month/Year]

10 Address (URL) The Internet address, or Uniform Resource Locator) of the document. I'll say it again - of the document. It is not enough to simply give the main website address. The most reliable way to get this into your bibliography is to copy and paste the URL from the address bar of your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer). Many web addresses are complicated series of numbers, commas, upper and lower case, slashes and misspellings. The chances that you'll make a mistake are very high. Copying and pasting ensures that you won't get it wrong.

Format: Available at: address

While you've been reading this, you've probably been thinking "That's all very well, you've taken something which is easy to reference. My problem is, I haven't got half of this information." I know, I know. Boy, do I know! We'll now look at some Problems of Internet Referencing